I DID NOT DREAM LAST NIGHT (Taiki Sakpisit, A+)

SOME NEW THAI FILMS I SAW ON JULY 7, 2009

1.’…I did not dream last night,’ (Taiki Sakpisit, 10 min, A+)
‘…I did not dream last night,’/ไทกิ ศักดิ์พิสิษฐ์/10.00

2.9>>>11 (Charlie Janpaga + Parinya Gatesri, 36 min, A+)
9>>>11/ชาลี จันผกา / ปริญญา เกตุศรี/36.00

3.ALONES (Somchai Wachirajongkol, 4 min, A+)

Alones/สมชาย วชิระจงกล/4.00

4.112 (2009, Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa, 4 min, A+)
112/วิวัฒน์ เลิศวิวัฒน์วงศา/4.00

5.A..LONE..LOVE…(Pipat Wanlom, 10 min, A+/A)
A..Lone..love…/พิพัฒน์ หว่านล้อม/10.00

6.AUDITION (Silanon Intawiset, 13 min, A+/A)
Audition/ศิลานนท์ อินทวิเศษ/13.00

7.3000 (Tintawon Burawat, 6 min, A+/A)
3000/ทินตะวัน บุรวัตร์/6.00

8.FIRST BRA (Atitya Janprasert, 13 min. A+/A)
..ชิ้นแรก/อาทิต์ยา จันทร์ประเสริฐ/13.00

9.3 CUP (Nattaporn Wongjaksu + Jariyaporn Chaiyato + Giatnun Tangwipas, 7 min, animation, A)
3 cup/ณัฐพร วงษ์จักษุ,จาริยาพร ไชยะโท,เกียรตินันต์ ตั้งวิภาส/7.00

10.A RIPPED TEDDY FILM (Ploypun Wisetsintop, 6 min, A)
A Ripped Teddy Film/พลอยพรรณ วิเศษสินธพ/6.00

11.A CHRONICLE OF LOVE AND PAIN (2009, Kanchat Rangseekansong, 21 min, A)
A Chronicle of Love and Pain/คันฉัตร รังษีกาญจน์ส่อง/21.00

12.23.59.59 (Patipan Janto, 17 min, A)
23.59.59/ปฏิภาณ จันทร์โท/17.00

13.AT THE ROADSIDE (Gamoltorn Ekwattanakit, 14 min, A)
At the Roadside/กมลธร เอกวัฒนกิจ/14.00

14. ACCIDENTAL HOST (Supachai Puntupat, 19 min, A)
Acidental Host/ศุภชัย พันธุแพทย์/19.00

15.76795 (Krisada Tipchaimeta, 20 min, A)
76795/กฤษฎา ทิพย์ชัยเมธา/20.00

16.BELIEVE (Sittisak Gaewjaroenrungreung, 9 min, animation, A-)
Believe/สิทธิศักดิ์ แก้วเจริญรุ่งเรือง/9.00

17.BEDROOM (Nuttaphan Pintaweekiet, 8 min, A-)
Bedroom/ณัฐพันธ์ ปิ่นทวีเกียรติ/8.00

18.BLACK DIARY (Gritsana Ginggaew, 20 min, A-)
black diary/กฤษณะ กิ่งแก้ว/20.00

19.15:MINUTES (Gaton Tamwijitdech, 20 min, A-)
15:นาที/กตัณณ์ ธรรมวิจิตเดช/20.00

20.ALL ABOUT BODYSLAM (Nuttapol Polruksa, 14 min, A-/B+)
All about Bodyslam/ณัฐพล พลรักษา/14.00

21.BIKEWAY (Supakit Seksuwan, 4 min, B+)
Bikeway/ศุภกิติ์ เสกสุวรรณ/4.00

22.5 MINUTE WAR (Achira Noktase, 28 min, B+)
5 minute war/อชิร นกเทศ/28.00

23.17 SIGHTSEEING (Teerapat Rojanapremsook, 15 min, B+)
17 สัญจร/ธีรภัทร โรจนาเปรมสุข/15.00

24.A LETTER TO BANGKOK (Siwapan Muntanakit, 17 min, B+)
A Letter to Bangkok/ศิวปาญ มั่นธนะกิจ/17.00

25.4 MINUTES FOR ME TO KNOW YOUR HEART (Ormjai Busabong, 11 min, B- )
4 นาที ขอให้ฉันได้รู้หัวใจเธอ/อ้อมใจ บุษบง/11.00

WISH LIST FOR MAY 2009

WISH LIST FOR MAY 2009

A. FILM WISH LIST

1.BLOOD APPEARS (2008, Pablo Fendrik, Argentina, 95 min)

2.BORDERLINES (2008, Lyne Charlegois, Canada)

3.FILMPHOBIA (2008, Kiko Goifman, Brazil, 80 min)

4.THE KOREAN WEDDING CHEST (2009,Ulrike Ottinger,82 min)

5.MY TEHRAN FOR SALE (2009, Granaz Mouusavi, Australia/Tehran, 96 min)

6.PERFECT LIFE (2008, Emily Tang, China)

7.PINK (2009, Rudolf Thome, Germany)

8.THE ROOM IN THE MIRROR (2009, Rudi Gaul, Germany, 106 min)

9.SOAP AND WATER(2009, Susan Gluth, Germany, documentary, 85 min)

10.THEY ALL LIE (2009, Matias Pineiro, Argentina, 75 min)

11.WAS DU NICHT SIEHST (2009, Wolfgang Fischer, Germany, 91 min)

12.YURI’S DAY (2008, Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia, 137 min)

B.EXPERIMENTAL FILM/VIDEO ART WISH LIST
(from Artforum magazine)

1.THE ABANDONED SHABONO (1976, Juan Downey, Chile, 27 min)
http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/19670/6216/115592/nohra-haime-new-york/exhibition/juan-downey-meditation-drawings/press_release/

” In pursuit of the last primitive tribe of the Americas, Juan Downey’s ‘The Abandoned Shabono’ focuses on the Amazon Rain Forest. The shabono is the circular communal dwelling built by the Yanomami Indians. The artist presents the building as a metaphor for the social structure and spiritual environment of an ecologically sound culture that is threatened by advancing civilization. “

2.ABOVE ALL I’M AN ART LOVER (2009, Christian Jankowski)
http://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/2009_1_christian-jankowski/pressrelease/

” Regen Projects is pleased to present Above All I’m an Art Lover, an exhibition of work by German artist Christian Jankowski. Conceptually based, his projects blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, often involving a dialogue with a specific social environment. Defying conventional notions of media and performance, Jankowski’s past collaborators include magicians, fortunetellers and Customs guards. Exploring the position of the artist, he welcomes what is often a spontaneous or unexpected development as a result of his collaborations. Consequently, participants take on an active role in the work becoming contributors as opposed to subjects, and their association ultimately dictates the development of the work. Combining fictional situations with social interactions, Jankowski is able to create surprising and humorous intersections between popular culture, theatricality and the question of authorship. Employing the media of film and television, he is able to explore the art world and its discourse.

Jankowski’s earnest engagement of his medium enables him to recapture art’s mystery. His use of a circular mode of production presents a critique of the contemporary relationship between artist and viewer and attempts to break down the speeded-up forms of communication which have worsened our contemporary alienation. In addition, he embeds a strong sense of a human presence in his work through a transformative use of collaboration, humor, the subjective voice and the somewhat naïve manner in which he approaches technology.

(Jeff Fleming, “Christian Jankowski: The Big Wow,” in Christian Jankowski: Everything Fell Together. Des Moines, Iowa: Des Moines Art Center, 2005. p. 13) “

3.Artur Zmijewski’s videos from Poland
http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_zmijewski_artur
” Artur Zmijewski is a radical artist, realising extreme artistic concepts. In his works, in a nearly obsessive manner he thematises the human body perceived in the context of its physicality, its base biological functions. This perspective imposes questions about the relationship between the body, susceptible to illness and decay, and the sphere of human mind and spirit. What the artist finds most interesting, are cases, where heavy bodily dysfunction and severe disease foreclose any possibility of participation in social life and even destroy the mind. At the same time, he admits, those defects create a kind of otherness, seductive and much more telling than anything we consider normal. And this is Zmijewski at his most poignant. “

4.GOD (2007, Ragnar Kjartansson, 30 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xYLXvnVO8

5.Lawrence Jordan’s films
http://www.canyoncinema.com/J/Jordan.html

6.A LIFE OF ERRORS (2006, Nicholas and Sheila Pye)
http://www.angellgallery.com/exhibitions/?detail=35
” The Pyes’ oeuvre is an exploration of the magnetic attraction of opposites, and a visual depiction of the struggle to retain one’s sense of self in a close relationship with another person. Compelled beyond reason, the figures in the film wage a war with one another—grabbing tokens of the other’s person (locks of hair are slyly snipped) and setting traps. Perhaps most unsettling of all, the attacks are executed consensually. A blindfolded Nick allows Sheila to lead him around and over sharp and broken objects as the soles of his feet are cut. In a parallel, climatic scene, Sheila is guided by Nick into a circle defined by a fuse. She, masked and docile, jumps rope as he sets the ring on fire. The flames, her activity, and (metaphorically) the violent passion that hangs over the entire scenario consume all the oxygen in the small space, causing Sheila to collapse. Nick meets his own fate when he delivers Sheila’s lifeless body to her bed only to fall over a rope that she has rigged to trip him. “

7.LOUDLY, DEATH UNTIES (2007, Nicholas and Sheila Pye, 11 min)
http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/an-excerpt-from-nicholas-and-sheila-pyes-louly-death-unties/
” A banshee girl burrows her way into the back room of a couple’s home, releasing foreboding wails in this expressive and captivating experimental short. When one of the lovers begins succumbing to mysterious forces, it seems the banshee’s prophecy will be inevitably fulfill. “

8.LOVELY ANDREA (2007, Hito Steyerl, 30 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQ8_t1s8yk
http://www.sixpackfilm.com/catalogue.php?oid=1621&lang=en

“If all pictures became current, in that they pass by and in doing so, are connectable with one another, whether elegantly or obscenely, through translation or association—how would it be possible to fasten down a picture? Hito Steyerl’s light-hearted picture translations are about fastening things in an elegant-obscene way: In Tokyo she is looking for a photo series that she posed for in 1987 as a “rope bondage” model. While making inquiries with experts and authorities in the bondage arts (which are mainly marketed online nowadays), she found what she was looking for in a magazine archive. The cinematic tension is extremely high just now says the translator while Steyerl looks through photos of herself from her days as a film student. Something that fastens, but no biographical final revelation; instead, the discovered photographs fall into the slipstream of an informally networked archive of a life with bondage as conveyed by the media—in the sense that the master and slave games, as they’re called, have become entirely normal.”

9.NACH SPANDAU (2008, Claire Hooper, 53 min)
http://www.frieze.com/shows/review/claire_hooper
” Nach Spandau (2008), a new film by Claire Hooper, is a demonstration of an artist well versed in the language, techniques and motifs of cinema. While the work comes, at times, dangerously close to a staid retread of familiar precedents, Hooper manages to engage for the film’s entire 52-minutes, as she documents one of Berlin’s most architecturally attractive Metro lines: the U7. Spanning from the eponymous terminal to the city’s south-eastern fringes, the line was designed between 1971 and 1984 by engineer Rainer G. Rummier and is a mix of decorative Modernist stylings and run-down shopping kiosks. Hooper impressionistically documents each station with a series of collaged, forensically slow pans. The film isn’t narrated, the only sounds being the occasional rumble of a passing train or the crackle of a PA announcement “

10.THE PAPER WALL (2004, Nicholas and Sheila Pye)
http://videomedeja.org/en/nicholas-and-sheila-pye

” Nick and Sheila Pye primarily work with video and photography, their projects explore themes of intimacy and emotional interdependence. In their ten-minute video titled ‘The Paper Wall’, a thin division stands between two characters in separate bedrooms. The two protagonists – played by the artists – use nonverbal communication of fear and desire. They grow increasingly dependant on one another while performing a series of choreographed gestures that include basic bodily functions such as breathing and urinating. The silent characters in the Pyes’ moody, erotic video open the work to several potential narratives “

11.ROOFTOP ROUTINE (2007-2008, Christian Jankowski)
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=32246520673

12.SEX IS SENTIMENTAL (2009, Erik van Lieshout, 21 min)
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson2-6-09.asp

” Using a makeshift animation table and narrating the action as he goes, Van Lieshout combines drawings, collage, photographs, scrawled titles and live action into a cascade of funky imagery seemingly without style or technical guile. Artless and insouciant, the narrative nevertheless flows along with considerable verve and wit, propelled almost entirely by the force of the artist’s own charming personality. “

13.UNIVERSAL CITIZEN (1986, Peter Thompson, 23 min)
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7740

14.UP! (2007, Erik van Lieshout)
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/erik_van_lieshout
” For ‘UP!’ (2005) Van Lieshout underwent therapy, focusing on his relationship with his mother. His lofty goal was to learn tolerance and thus overcome personal crisis. Van Lieshout concludes that he is, like his mother, unable to listen. The problem is that he constantly needs to talk. But rather than being simply a mouthpiece for himself, the work forms the framework for a plural narrative structure: for his own actions and utterances, in direct speech to his mother and his therapist and as a commentary on the film we are watching. ‘I wanna be in control, on top, in control’, the artist notes soberly, referring to his ‘ego’, over which he clearly loses control on a regular basis “

15.WHY WE MEN LOVE TECHNOLOGY THAT MUCH (1985, Stefaan Decostere, 65 min)
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/professionals/programme/public-programme-schedule/film.aspx?ID=05fe7a5e-bea2-4dfe-83c2-8f8a6375da34
” The documentary Why We Men Love Technology That Much was made in 1985 to analyze the close relation between war and technology. The video shows how war, speed and technology organize and reorganize reality, until only filtered reality remains. The artists – Klaus vom Bruch in video and Jack Goldstein in paint and sound – propose their personal artistic versions of it.Since then, no radical change has occurred in the relation between war and technology. It has only became more intensified. Technology brings the logic and reality of war even closer into our daily lives. Nowadays we all are actively involved with media. Digitisation, virtualisation and automation are our major interactions on a massive scale with technology. They guideline the basic moves possible in the playing field here. “

16.WORD AS WILL AND REPRESENTATION (2007, Roy Arden)
http://www.royarden.com/worldas.html

17.THE WORLD OF LYGIA CLARK (1973, Eduardo Clark, 27 min)

http://www.lygiaclark.org.br/ingles3.htm

18.Yael Bertana’s videos
http://www.krytykapolityczna.pl/Zaproszenia/Mary-Koszmary-fragment-filmu/menu-id-50.html
http://kafee.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/a-jewish-state-in-germany-as-an-artwork/

C.TRIBUTE WISH LIST
Mariko Okada, a Japanese actress

1.DANCING GIRL (1951, Mikio Naruse)

2.THE WOMAN WHO TOUCHED THE LEGS (1952, Kon Ichikawa)

3.MY WONDERFUL YELLOW CAR (1953, Senkichi Taniguchi) written by Akira Kurosawa

4.HUSBAND AND WIFE (1953, Mikio Naruse)

5.THE LOVERS (1953, Kon Ichikawa)

6.FLOATING CLOUDS (1955, Mikio Naruse)

7.WOMEN IN PRISON (1956, Seiji Hiramatsu) starring Setsuko Hara and Kinuyo Tanaka

8.FLOWING (1956, Mikio Naruse)

9.SEASON OF THE WITCH (1958, Minoru Shibuya)

10.AN AFFAIR AT AKITSU (1962, Yoshishige Yoshida)

11.THIS YEAR’S LOVE (1962, Keisuke Kinoshita)

12.ESCAPE FROM HELL (1963, Kazuo Inoue)

13.RADISHES AND CARROTS (1964, Minoru Shibuya) from Yasujiro Ozu’s story

14.THE SCENT OF INCENSE (1964, Keisuke Kinoshita, 201 min) starring Nobuko Otowa and Kinuyo Tanaka

15.A STORY WRITTEN WITH WATER (1965, Yoshishige Yoshida)

16.WOMAN OF THE LAKE (1966, Yoshishige Yoshida) from the story of Yasunari Kawabata

17.TWO WIVES (1967, Yasuzo Masumura)

18.THE AFFAIR (1967, Yoshishige Yoshida)

19.FLAME AND WOMEN (1967, Yoshishige Yoshida)
20.AFFAIR IN THE SNOW (1968, Yoshishige Yoshida)

21.THE TIME OF RECKONING (1968, Tadashi Imai)

22.FAREWELL TO THE SUMMER LIGHT (1968, Yoshishige Yoshida)

23.EROS PLUS MASSACRE (1969, Yoshishige Yoshida)

24.HEROIC PURGATORY (1970, Yoshishige Yoshida)

25.CONFESSIONS AMONG ACTRESSES (1971, Yoshishige Yoshida)

26.I AM A CAT (1975, Kon Ichikawa) from the novel of Natsume Soseki

27.THE FALL OF THE AKO CASTLE (1978, Kinji Fukasaku, 159 min)

28.THE ADVENTURES OF KOSUKE KINDAICHI (1979, Nobuhiko Obayashi)

29.THE GEISHA HOUSE (1999, Kinji Fukasaku)

D.ART EXHIBITION WISH LIST

David Levinthal, a photographer
http://www.davidlevinthal.com/works.html

–HITLER MOVES EAST 1975-1977
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3555/3694833824_816bf9dfa5_o.jpg

–MODERN ROMANCE 1984-1986
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3593/3694833838_12d60b6a36_o.jpg

–THE WILD WEST 1987-1989
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2446/3694833860_e1a632ee27_o.jpg

–AMERICAN BEAUTIES 1989-1990
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2468/3694833820_9ab9e0101b_o.jpg

–MEIN KAMPF 1993-1994
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3631/3694833830_526493a34d_o.jpg

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Wish list for April 2009
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/05/wish-list-for-april-2009.html

WISH LIST FOR MARCH 2009
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/04/wish-list-for-march-2009.html

WISH LIST FOR FEB 2009
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/04/wish-list-for-feb-2009.html

WISH LIST FOR JAN 2009
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/04/wish-list-for-january-2009-full-version.html

WISH LIST FOR 2007 AND 2008
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/04/film-wish-list-in-2007-and-2008.html

FAVORITE THINGS IN MAY 2009

FAVORITE THINGS IN MAY 2009

A.FAVORITE FILMS

1. DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, Germany, A+)

2. THE HORSEMEN (2008, Jonas Akerlund, A+)
As for now, I don’t think this is a good film at all. But I have to give it A+ and rank it as my second most favorite film of May because I can’t deny the power the film has over me. After I saw this film on May 9, I gave it only A-. I don’t think the film, which is produced by Michael Bay, is exciting at all. It has almost no suspense. I don’t even like the ending. The killer hates his father because his father has never come into his room for two years. I think it is ridiculous. My friends and I would love and cherish a father like this. What we hate is the father or mother who came into our room and pry into our belongings. The ending of the film seems to support nosy parents, which is something I can’t agree with.

But during the past two months after I saw this film, I have found that there are two characters in this film whom I can’t stop thinking about, whom I really care about. They are Kristen (Zhang Ziyi) and Corey (Patrick Fugit). That doesn’t mean I agree with what they do. It just means that I just want to hug them, console them, and say to them, “I understand your pain.” There are no other characters I have seen lately which make me want to do this. Even characters in truly great films such as THE FEAST and CAPTAIN AHAB don’t make me feel like this.

I saw the Thai-censored version of this film. The rumour says that this censored version is 20 minutes shorter than the uncut version. I don’t know if I would like this film more or less if I have seen the uncut version. I hate gore. So maybe I will like this film less if I have seen the full version. Maybe if I have seen the full cruelty of Kristen and Corey, I may stop wanting to hug and console them.

After I saw THE HORSEMEN, I have three wishes:

1.Someone should make a film about Kristen (Zhang Ziyi) and treats this character as well as MONSTER (2003, Patty Jenkins, A+) treats Aileen Wuornos.

2. Someone should make a film about Corey (Patrick Fugit) and treats this character as well as MONSTER (2003, Patty Jenkins, A+) treats Aileen Wuornos.

3.Someone should make a film about the meeting in prison between Kristen and Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) from LA CEREMONIE (1995, Claude Chabrol, A+).

I also like a comment about this film in imdb very much. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892767/usercomments?start=10

” But its when the movie is over and you take a breather and you think about what you just saw….That’s when you realize this film wasn’t so much about the physical torment and pain we humans cause each other(in this movie it’s a lot!),as much as it tells us what can happen when we get mentally damaged.When we get abandoned.When we get manipulated,get misunderstood,get lost”

In a way, I think THE HORSEMEN is a perfect antidote to such films as DEPARTURES (2008, Yojiro Takita, A-), THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (2008, Remi Bezancon, A-), or FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN (2008, Dennis Lee, A-/B+), which present family problems in a way which doesn’t satisfy me.

So, I repeat it again. I don’t think THE HORSEMEN is a good film, but I love this film, because I can’t stop thinking about the pain of Kristen and Corey.

3.RULE # 1 (2008, Kelvin Tong, Hong Kong/Singapore, A+)

I think this film presents the topic of extrajudicial killings in a very interesting way. In the opening scene of this film, the viewers can’t distinguish the cop from the criminal. So the opening scene of this film tells the viewers indirectly that this film is not just a ghost story, but this film is about cops turning into criminals.

The title of this film is very intriguing, too. In the film, the rule number one in the hero’s police department states that the police must LIE to the public that there are no ghosts. So the title of this film implies that the real subject of the film is about the police’s lying to the public.

In a later scene in the film, the hero faces policemen from another department. The hero must tell them what the rule number one for general policemen is. And the rule number one for general policemen is about how policemen can use gun when confronting criminals. So the title of this film also implies that the real subject of this film is about extrajudicial killings, too.

4.WINGED CREATURES (2008, Rowan Woods, A+)

I love the characters in this film very much. They are unlikeable, but I really like them, especially the character played by Kate Beckinsale. The character played by Dakota Fanning somehow reminds me of the former US government, because this character, who may be pseudo-religious, faces a terrible event (like 9/11), but she uses this terrible event for her own gain, and order hers friend (whose brother is a war veteran/victim, so this friend character may represent the USA military) to lie about this event for her own gain. This friend character becomes mute, like some soldiers who saw the terrible things in war but don’t talk about them for the government’s sake.

5. HEARTBREAK LIBRARY (2008, Jeong-kwon Kim, A+/A)

B.FAVORITE THAI FILMS

1.BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+)
Since this film is 35 minutes long, I include this film in the Thai film category, instead of the Thai short film category, which I reserve for films not longer than 30 minutes.

2. I DON’T GIVE A DAMN (CHANG MUN CHUN MAI CARE) (1986, M.L. Bhandevanop Devakul, Thailand, A+)

3. THE LAST LOVE (1975, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A+)

4.HIS NAME IS GARN (1973, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A+)

5.I DON’T WANT TO BE THE COLONEL (1975, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A+)

6.MAE NAK PHRA KHANONG (1959, Rangsee Tasanapayak, A)
http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2009/05/photo-essay-cine-bananas-and-mae-nak.html

7.ONCE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH (1988, Manop Udomdej, A)

8.THE ACCUSATION (หย่าเพราะมีชู้) (1985, Manop Udomdej, A)

C.FAVORITE DOCUMENTARIES

1.S21, THE KHMER ROUGE KILLING MACHINE (2002, Rithy Panh, Cambodia, A+)

2.THE PINOCHET AFFAIR (2001, Patricio Guzman, Chile, A+)

3.THE SARI SOLDIERS (2008, Julie Bridgham, Nepal, A+)

4.WAR, LIVES & VIDEOTAPE (1991, Nick Danziger, Afghanistan, A+)

5.FROM ENDLESS WARS (2003, Laurent Becue-Renard, A+)

6.TOTAL DENIAL (2006, Milena Kaneva, Myanmar, A+)

7.YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW (2005, Naoi Riyo, Thailand, A+)

8.FRONTLINE: LAOS (2008, Ruhi Hamid, A+)

9.A KIND OF CHILDHOOD (2001, Tareque Masud & Catherine Masud, Bangladesh, A+)

10.PHULBARI (2006, Ronald Halder + Philip Gain, Bangladesh, A+)

D.FAVORITE THAI DOCUMENTARIES

1.UNDERSTANDING ART IS EASY (2009, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, A+)

2.HMONG NJUA BABY HEALING (2005)
This is a documentary shown in the exhibition SONG OF MEMORY at the Jim Thompson House.
http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/events/Songs_of_Memory.asp

3.UNTITLED (A THAI STUDENT ABROAD, HIS WIFE & THEIR CAT) (around 1971, Somkiat Onwimol, A+)

4.UNTITLED (SATREE WITTAYA SCHOOL’S SPORT DAY (1973, A+)

5.I AM THE DIRECTOR (2009, Nitchapoom Chaianun, A)

E.FAVORITE THAI SHORT FILMS

1. PARAPARUMPULIANPULIAN (2009, Pawara Chatchawalpreecha, A+)

2. MAHJONG (2009, Napa Sasaluck, A+)

3. GRANDMA CHA WANTS TO BE SURREAL (2009, Saowapak Suriyawongpaisarn, A+)

4. MEET (POB) (2009, Woottipun Deepunya, A+)

5. HIDE AND SEEK (SORN AB) (2009, Pongsuk Intanom, A+)

6. STAINED (2009, Manusrawee Wongpradoo, A+)

7. SOAP OPERA (NANG NAM NAO) (2009, Garutploy Thamgaew, A+)

8. ULTRAMAN (2009, Napaswon Sirisukon, A+)

10. WRONGDOER (2009, Pongpattana Puangkwamsook, A+)

F.FAVORITE ANIMATIONS

1.WHAT IS MY ART? (2009, Tossapol Tiptinagorn, A+)

2. A PRINCESS WITH LONGAN EYES (JAO YING TA LUMYAI) (2009, Chanokporn Chootikamoltham, animation, A+)

3.RETURN TO POINT (2006, Arlo Mountford, A+)
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/05/information-on-hacienda-must-be-built.html

G.FAVORITE STAGE PERFORMANCES

1.COFFEE LOVE (2009, Sakchai Kiatpunyaohpart, A+)

2.LITTLE LOVE (รักเล็กๆ) (2009, Wattanachai Treedecha, A+)

3.LOVE YOU, HUG OTHERS (รักเธอ กอดคนอื่น) (2009, Wanatsanun Sasom, A+)

4. KUN KAG NAK TAN (2009, Chaichumpol Boonmeepolakit + Sirikarn Bunjongtud, Thai stage play, A+)

5.TIME’S UP (2009, Farida Jirapun, A+)

H.FAVORITE ART WORKS/EXHIBITIONS

1.The paintings about King Tilokarach in the exhibition TO PAINT MY HOMELAND (Phongphun Ruannunchai)
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/05/theres-something-about-king-tilokarach.html

2.THE SECOND BANGKOK TRIENNALE INTERNATIONAL PRINT & DRAWING EXHIBITION

3.SHE IS READING NEWSPAPER PROJECT (2009, Tossapol Boonsinsukh, Thailand)
http://yrna.wordpress.com/%e0%b8%8a%e0%b8%b1%e0%b9%89%e0%b8%99%e0%b8%aa%e0%b8%ad%e0%b8%87/

4.The photos MODERN ARCHITECTURE by Montana Aumpijit in ON EXHIBITION at BACC

5.The painting exhibition SPIRIT OF THE CAPITAL CITY by Pattana Changkaew at Jamjuree Art Gallery
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=05-2009&date=11&group=9&gblog=179

6.The photos THE BODY CHANGERS by Boonyapong Sueyouyong in ON EXHIBITION at BACC

7.The photos UNTITLED by Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch in the exhibition EASY BANGKOK at BACC
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=merveillesxx&month=05-2009&date=11&group=9&gblog=180

8.CROCODILE (2009, Prateep Kochabua, Thai painting)
This is shown in the exhibition WILDLIFE INC at BACC.

I.FAVORITE ACTRESSES

1.Sawanee Utumma (สวนีย์ อุทุมมา) in BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+) and KUN KAG NAK TAN (2009, Chaichumpol Boonmeepolakit + Sirikarn Bunjongtud, Thai stage play, A+)

2.Donruedee Jamraschai (ดลฤดี จำรัสฉาย) in LOVE YOU, HUG OTHERS (รักเธอ กอดคนอื่น) (2009, Wanatsanan Sasom, Thai stage play, A+)

3.Nuttaya Nakawesh (ณัฐญา นาคะเวช) in LITTLE LOVE (รักเล็กๆ) (2009, Wattanachai Treedecha, Thai stage play, A+)

4.Bulle Ogier in DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, Germany, A+)

5.Isabelle Huppert in DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, Germany, A+)

6.Sasapin Siriwanich in SIGNS & GESTURES (2009, Nopphand Boonyai, A)

7.Nuttiporn Atakun (ณัฐฐิพร อะทะขันธ์) in KUN KAG NAK TAN (2009, Chaichumpol Boonmeepolakit + Sirikarn Bunjongtud, Thai stage play, A+)

8.Patravadi Sritrairut in THE LAST LOVE (1975, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A+) and ANGEL DEVI(L) (พจมาร) (2009, Pintip Sutprerdprai, Thai stage play, A+/A)

9.Sinjai Hongthai in I DON’T GIVE A DAMN (CHANG MUN CHUN MAI CARE) (1986, M.L. Bhandevanop Devakul, Thailand, A+)

10.Kate Beckinsale in WINGED CREATURES (2008, Rowan Woods, A+)

11.Dakota Fanning in WINGED CREATURES (2008, Rowan Woods, A+)

12.Nattaya Dangbu-nga in THE ACCUSATION (หย่าเพราะมีชู้) (1985, Manop Udomdej, Thailand, A)

13.Sukanya Piensri in COFFEE LOVE (2009, Sakchai Kiatpunyaohpart, Thai stage play, A+) and TIME’S UP (2009, Farida Jirapun, Thai stage play, A+)

14.Sornwanee Yodnoon (ศรวณี ยอดนุ่น) in TIME’S UP (2009, Farida Jirapun, Thai stage play, A+)

15. Arielle Dombasle in DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, Germany, A+)

J.FAVORITE ACTORS

1.Tanawate Siriwattanakul (ธนเวทย์ สิริวัฒนกุล) in COFFEE LOVE (2009, Sakchai Kiatpunyaohpart, Thai stage play, A+)

2.Sompol Chaisiriroj in GOOD INTERPRETER (2009, Sodsai Panthumkomol, Nopamat Veohong, Daraka Wongsiri, A)

3.Wattanachai Treedecha in LITTLE LOVE (รักเล็กๆ) (2009, Wattanachai Treedecha, Thai stage play, A+)

4.Sor Asanajinda in UGA FAH LEUNG (1980, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A-)

5.Patrick Fugit in THE HORSEMEN (2009, Jonas Akerlund, A+)

6.Chatchai Satayadit in THE PRINCESS OF WOLF & THE PRINCE OF NIGHT (2009, Youth Naked Masks, Thai stage play, A-)

7.Watcharapong Garnjanagrit in BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+)

8.Attapol Anantaworasakul in BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+)

9.Likit Ekmongkol in I DON’T GIVE A DAMN (CHANG MUN CHUN MAI CARE) (1986, M.L. Bhandevanop Devakul, Thailand, A+) and ONCE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH (1988, Manop Udomdej, A)

10.John Cusack in GRACE IS GONE (2007, James C. Strouse, A-)

11.Lee Dong Wook in HEARTBREAK LIBRARY (2008, Jeong-kwon Kim, A+/A)
http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-339468/kmovie-heartbreak-library/

12.Kriangkrai Fookasem in TIME’S UP (2009, Farida Jirapun, Thai stage play, A+)

13.Shawn Yue in RULE # 1 (2008, Kelvin Tong, Singapore/Hong Kong, A+)

K.FAVORITE SONGS

1.TIME TO SAY GOODBYE in BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtivSTZrezc

2.The ending song of DEUX

L.FAVORITE CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, A+)
Cinematography by Elfi Mikesch

2. BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+)

3.UGA FAH LEUNG (1980, Chatrichalerm Yukol, A-)

M.FAVORITE EDITING

1.BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, A+)

2.DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter, A+)
Film editing by Juliane Lorenz
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0520721/

3. PARAPARUMPULIANPULIAN (2009, Pawara Chatchawalpreecha, A+++++)

N.FAVORITE ART DECORATION

1.DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter)
Set decoration by Ann Chakraverty
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0149848/
Production design by Alberte Barsacq
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0058243/

2. PARAPARUMPULIANPULIAN (2009, Pawara Chatchawalpreecha, Thailand)

3. MY PRESENT (2009, Thitipun Techakitrungrueng, Thailand)

O.FAVORITE COSTUME

1. DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter)
Costume designed by Alberte Barsacq

2. SUCK ME RAW (DUDE CHAN DIB DIB) (2009, Patanun Chinjaroenchai, A+)

P.FAVORITE SOUND

DEUX (2002, Werner Schroeter)
Sound by Philippe Morel
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0603626/

Q.FAVORITE ENDING

1.MINIMART (2009, Siriporn Kongma + Panu Srichaithong, A+)

2.I DON’T GIVE A DAMN (CHANG MUN CHUN MAI CARE) (1986, M.L. Bhandevanop Devakul, Thailand, A+)

3.RULE # 1 (2008, Kelvin Tong)

R.FAVORITE INTERNET READING

IN ENGLISH
1.John Ford at Girish
http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2009/05/john-ford-in-undercurrent.html

2.UNFINISHED DIARY LAS PALMAS ‘09 by Adrian Martin
http://www.rouge.com.au/13/diary.html

3.A review on DUELLE (UNE QUARANTAINE) (1976, Jacques Rivette) by Jonathan Rosenbaum
http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=15567

In Thai
1.WAITING FOR DARKNESS, a short story by Filmsick
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20090510/entry

2.YESTERDAY I WENT TO SANAM LUANG, a poem by Somying Jai-ngam
http://theyoungpoet.exteen.com/20090512/entry

3.THREE MYSTERIOUS WOMEN, a comment on MUANG NAI MORK by Konmongnang
http://konmongnang.exteen.com/20090430/entry

4.A review on MILK by Riverdale
http://riverdale-dreams.blogspot.com/2009/05/milk.html

 

S.FAVORITE SONGS

1.CONNECTIONS (Ewan Pearson’s Slo NRG remix) – Moon Unit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiIg3C4f0fk

2.I PRAY – Alfonso de Villalonga
From the soundtrack album MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (A+)

3.GEB RUK (HIDING LOVE) – Srisalai Suchartwoot

4.GOYA’S NIGHTMARE – Jocelyn Pook
It comes from the album FLOOD (1999, A-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXZMt_UGlb0

5.THE DAY WE FELL IN LOVE – Appaloosa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97rJA-VmlPk

6.SOMETIME LATER – Alpha
From the soundtrack album MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (A+)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcjqdHzI-sM

7.ANTIBODIES – Poni Hoax
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNF0LdWkN30

8.NOW TILL 69 – The Shortwave Set
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbajDPo5JX8

9.SIGN OF THE TIMES – The Belle Stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUWIsw-pwE

10.SENZA FINE – Gino Paoli
From the soundtrack album MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (A+)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUWIsw-pwE

SELF-CREATED SUFFERING

Favorite quotes:

1.From Invisible Cinema’s blog:
http://invisiblecinema.typepad.com/invisible_cinema/2009/07/the-mindful-blogger.html

” “There’s an old, old story drawn from the sutras, in which the Buddha compared the futility of looking for the causes and conditions that give rise to certain thoughts to a soldier who’d been shot by a poisoned arrow on the battlefield. The doctor comes to remove the arrow, but the soldier says, ‘Wait, before you pull out the arrow, I need to know the name of the person who shot me, the village he came from, and the names of his parents and grandparents. I also need to know what kind of wood the arrow is made from, the nature of the material the point is made of, and the type of bird that the feathers attached to the arrow were taken from . . . ‘ on and on . . . By the time the doctor had investigated all these questions and returned with answers, the soldier would be dead. This is an example of self-created suffering, the kind of intellectual overlay that inhibits us from dealing with painful situations simply and directly.”
– Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Joyful Wisdom”

2.From Lucrecia Martel’s interview by Amy Taubin in Film Comment’s website:
http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/ja09/martel.htm

” Actually, I believe that this mechanism is constantly at work. It’s a mechanism whereby even in the most basic social interactions people tend to deny responsibility. Instead they attribute whatever happens to an entire social class or to the nature of things, so that they can ignore the suffering of others. They tend to say that’s the way things are, that’s the way history has made it, that’s the way the laws of nature have made it. That way of avoiding social responsibility makes us less interesting as human beings. Why is it that in our day and age, we have this belief that there’s nothing we can do at an individual level to change things? Why is there so much fear of taking individual responsibility for larger-scale problems? I don’t understand that. I believe that’s really the evil of our times, it’s the main problem of our times.”

Thanks to Merveillesxx for telling me about this.

3.From an article on Raya Martin by Alexis A. Tioseco in Cinema Scope’s website:
http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs39/spot_tioseco_alexis.html

” Faced with a population inundated daily with the misery of reality—from television, newspapers and neighbours, to what one sees on the streets on one’s daily commute—the challenge of a socially committed artist is to make their viewer feel, with a renewed intensity, what surrounds them. Two valid propositions for today’s filmmaker: to encourage a greater understanding of what is by examining in detail its context (as in the work of Lav Diaz) or to encourage thoughts of what can be by appealing to the imagination (as in the work Raya Martin)”

PIPPA BACCA AT BACC

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre holds an exhibition called SPRING IN WHITE until July 15. This exhibition shows many interesting things, including photos of Pippa Bacca, an Italian performance artist who was brutally killed.

I had never heard of Pippa Bacca before I went to see this exhibition. You can read the tragic news about Pippa Bacca here:

This news is written by Elisabetta Povoledo at New York Times on April 19, 2008:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/theater/19peac.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

MILAN — The two friends, both performance artists, hatched the idea about a year ago: wearing white wedding dresses, they would hitchhike from Italy to the Balkans to the Middle East to send a message of peace and “marriage between different peoples and nations.”

But the message delivered by their performance piece was mostly sad and raw. After just three weeks on the road, one of the two Italian artists, Pippa Bacca, 33, was killed by a driver who offered her a ride.

Her naked body was found on April 11 in some bushes near a Turkish village after a suspect led investigators to the site. Although an official cause of death has not been given, local Turkish authorities said Ms. Bacca had been raped and strangled.

The killing has stirred broad public anger and grief in Turkey and Italy. Still, what Ms. Bacca would have wanted, her family and friends said, was her message of peace to live on.

“She thought that in the world there were more positive than negative people, and that it was right to be trusting,” said Rosalia Pasqualino, a sister of Ms. Bacca, whose real name was Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo. “Trust is a very human factor, and she believed that to understand people, you had to get to know them.”

On Saturday the artist’s friends, relatives and supporters will honor her memory and her quixotic quest in a short procession from the Pasqualino family home here to a Roman Catholic church nearby.

A choir that Ms. Bacca founded will perform at the funeral Mass (they don’t sing very well, her sister said fondly, but they are always quite entertaining), and everyone has been asked to wear or to carry something green, the artist’s favorite color.

“The family wanted to remember her in a joyous manner,” said Silvia Moro, 37, the artist who set out with Ms. Bacca on the trip, billed as “Brides on Tour,” on March 8. She said she last saw her friend on March 19 in Istanbul, where the two split up and agreed to rejoin each other in Beirut.

The performance piece, a trip through nearly a dozen countries in the Balkans and the Middle East, many of them ravaged by war recently, was meant to underscore that “by overcoming differences and lowering the level of conflict,” individuals and cultures could come together, Ms. Moro said in a telephone interview. “Meeting people was the key.”

Ms. Bacca’s trip was cut short near the village of Gebze, about 40 miles southeast of Istanbul. An unemployed man, Murat Karatas, 38, has confessed to killing her shortly after picking her up on March 31, the authorities have said.

Accepting rides with strangers was crucial to the art performance’s success, Ms. Moro said. The artists’ statement at their Web site, bridesontour.fotoup.net, says, “Hitchhiking is choosing to have faith in other human beings, and man, like a small god, rewards those who have faith in him.”

Ms. Moro explained: “It’s a poor way of traveling, and we wanted to underscore that you can’t foster love between people if you’re holed up in business class. You can’t go to, say, Mauritius, and eat pasta. You won’t understand people until you break bread with them, because it’s in the small diversities that you find similarities.”

After reports of Ms. Bacca’s death circulated, Ms. Bacca’s family and Italian and Turkish government officials immediately emphasized that the killing had been a cruel act by a possibly deranged person and could have happened almost anywhere.

“Just read any newspaper — people get killed for playing music too loudly, and women get raped in the subway; there are fiends everywhere,” Ms. Pasqualino said. “This was not a question of Turkey or of religion.”

Stefano Canzio, the Italian consul in Istanbul, said by telephone that “the reaction was very strong” in Turkey, and not just in the news media. Turkish citizens have sent scores of condolence messages to the Italian consulate in Istanbul and to the artist’s family, he said, adding, “People were incensed that a Turkish man could carry out such a heinous crime on a young woman who was on a trip for peace.”

Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, called President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy to relay the “heartfelt grief of the Turkish population for the tragedy,” according to Mr. Napolitano’s office.

Ms. Pasqualino expressed gratitude to the Turkish authorities for solving the crime. “It only took them a few days,” she said. “We could have been left wondering all our lives what had happened to my sister.”

The police said they had tracked down Mr. Karatas after he used a cellphone that he had taken from Ms. Bacca.

Ms. Moro said she and Ms. Bacca had dreamed up the performance piece at a party last spring. Wearing different wedding dresses designed by Manuel Facchini of the fashion company Byblos, the two artists were to travel — at times together, at times separately — through northeastern Italy, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Syria, before arriving in Israel. Along the way they would stop at galleries, foundations or cultural centers to meet with local artists, craftsmen and midwives.

Ms. Moro’s performance included asking women at various stops to embroider patterns on her wedding dress. Ms. Bacca would meet with the midwives and wash their feet. “It was to honor their profession, which is to bring life into being,” Ms. Moro said.

En route they would document their experiences by taking photographs, keeping diaries and recording video.

A video on YouTube shows the “brides” getting ready for their trip at a party at the Casa Morigi, a cultural space in Milan. The two women dress to the accompaniment of an accordion player, then descend to the street, laughing excitedly, to bid their goodbyes to friends and well-wishers. Rice is thrown, and the two take off on motorcycles, the only segment of the trip with planned transportation.

“In every country, including Turkey, we hitched rides with amazing people, from students to farmers to businessmen,” Ms. Moro said. “Some offered us lunch. Others didn’t even ask why we were dressed like that; they didn’t even care.”

The two artists planned to wrap up their journey sometime in May with a performance in a public space in Tel Aviv, where they would ceremonially wash the two wedding dresses, as they periodically did on the trip. “We were going to wash away the traces of war, to cancel them,” Ms. Moro said.

The final act of “Brides on Tour” was to have been an exhibition this November at the Byblos art gallery in Verona, Italy, where the wedding dresses would be displayed with mementos and photographs from the trip.

Ms. Moro said she still hoped to take to the road to finish the performance. “Otherwise it would be a failure, and I don’t want the message to fail,” she said.

“I am not disowning the project,” she added firmly. “This tragedy only highlights how difficult peaceful relations are and how much work there is still to do.”

POLL 60: RUSH RUSH

This is about a poll in my bilingual blog at http://celinejulie.blogspot.com

 

 

My poll 60 is inspired by BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY, a non-mainstream film which moves very fast in some parts. This kind of fast pacing makes it very different from many arthouse films such as BIRTH OF THE SEANEMA (2004, Sasithorn Ariyavicha, Thailand, A+++++), of which its pace is extremely slow.

The fast-paced scenes in BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY include the scene in which Gaze is having an affair with a guy, while Nob is masturbating. The editing in this scene is so fast that I could not understand at first what is happening in the scene. Another fast-paced scene that I like very much is the scene in which Nob and Gaze walk from a lift to their room. They walk past many colorful paintings of lips which are hung on the wall. The editing in this scene is very fast and very powerful.

After I saw BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY, I want to make a list of my favorite fast-paced films. But the word “fast-paced” here is used arbitrarily. I do not use any scientific measures to judge which films move fast or slowly. I just use my feelings to judge which films move fast or slowly here. Thus, I won’t be surprised if any films which move very fast for me are considered slow films in other people’s eyes. The word “fast-paced” here does not necessarily mean the films move very fast. It may actually mean that my brain is too slow to follow the stories in these films in the first viewing.

I LOVE THESE FAST-PACED FILMS. WHICH FILMS DO YOU LIKE?

1.THE ASTHENIC SYNDROME (1990, Kira Muratova, Russia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww-_JyzNVpY

2.AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966, Robert Bresson, France)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWYzyYb-2M

I think if I fall asleep for five minutes while watching THE BOURNE SUPREMACY or CRANK, I may still be able to follow its storyline or its plot after I wake up. But if I fall asleep for five minutes while watching AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, I may have missed a lot of things.

3.BODILY FLUID IS REVOLUTIONARY (2009, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Thailand)
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2009/06/transcend-boundaries.html

4.CALM PREVAILS OVER THE COUNTRY (1976, Peter Lilienthal, West Germany)

5.IL DIVO (2008, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4GQVse8jyg

6.FEMME PUBLIQUE (1984, Andrzej Zulawski, France)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6AEVBDWE8

This film seems to move very fast for me because of its aggressive acting and the constant moving of the characters.

7.THE INSECT WOMAN (1963, Shohei Imamura, Japan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonmaVCy8j0

8.ISLAND OF FLOWERS (1989, Jorge Furtado, Brazil)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfo4Uyf5sgg

9.LOIN (2001, Andre Techine, France)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8w_T_Bi_GM

10.MALINA (1991, Werner Schroeter, Germany)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2q0HQ4ODXk

11.NINJA BUGEI-CHO (1967, Nagisa Oshima, Japan)

12.ODILON REDON OR THE EYE LIKE A STRANGE BALLOON MOUNTS TOWARD INFINITY (1995, Guy Maddin, Canada)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSZYkv4Ad2Q

13.ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939, Howard Hawks, USA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXRyZe-vsJ8

14.A ROOM FOR RENT (1959, Yuzo Kawashima, Japan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2xNkogZfb4

15.SAINT-CYR (2000, Patricia Mazuy, France)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HtkWUCfV8A

This film seems to move at normal pace, but I couldn’t follow its storyline in my first viewing. I couldn’t understand why Madame de Maintenon (Isabelle Huppert) changes her way of teaching in the middle of the film. I came to understand it in my second viewing of the film.

16.SILENCE…WE’RE ROLLING (2001, Youssef Chahine, Egypt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr9LorYIvIs

17.TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NUMBER ONE (1997, Wai Ka-fai, Hong Kong)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaW_DumAW8Y

I have to see this film twice before I can follow its complex storyline.

18.TREASURE OF THE BITCH ISLANDS (1990, F.J. Ossang, France/Portugal)
The film tells the background of the story very fast. I could not remember the names of some characters in my first viewing. I felt very confused about the characters in this film. I can distinguish the characters in this film only after my second viewing.

19.A VIRUS KNOWS NO MORALS (1986, Rosa von Praunheim, West Germany)

20.YESTERDAY (2008, Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand)
I feel this film move very fast because of its camera movement.

You can cast multiple votes.

The theme song of this poll is TAKE YOUR TIME (1990) by Mantronix featuring Wondress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY4q4viufSs

TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER IS THE WINNER

My poll 59 ended with 12 votes. Wow! Here is the result:

I LOVE THE COLOURS IN THESE FILMS/TV SERIES. WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE?

1.TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER (2000, Wisit Sasanatieng, Thailand)

It got 8 votes, or 66 %.

2.BLACK NARCISSUS (1947, Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, UK)
+JULIET OF THE SPIRITS (1965, Federico Fellini, Italy)
+SUSPIRIA (1977, Dario Argento, Italy)
+TICKET OF NO RETURN (1979, Ulrike Ottinger, West Germany)

Each of them got 3 votes, or 25 %.

6.ALPSEE (1994, Matthias Mueller, Germany)
+LE BONHEUR (1965, Agnes Varda, France)
+EDEN AND AFTER (1970, Alain Robbe-Grillet, France)
+GATE OF HELL (1953, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japan)
+I KNOW WHO KILLED ME (2007, Chris Sivertson, USA)
+PARAPARUMPULIANPULIAN (2009, Pawara Chatchawalpreecha, Thailand)+THE ROSE KING (1986, Werner Schroeter, West Germany)

Each of them got 2 votes, or 16 %.

13.BROTHER, DEAR BROTHER (1991-1992, Usamu Dezaki, TV series)
+THE DANTE QUARTET (1987, Stan Brakhage, USA)
+A FROZEN FLOWER (2008, Ha Yu, South Korea)
+I-BE AREA (2007, Ryan Trecartin, USA)
+UNE VIE (1958, Alexandre Astruc, France)

Each of them got 1 vote, or 8 %.

18.KON GIN MIA (THE MAN WHO ATE HIS WIVES) (1974, Dokdin Ganyamarn, Thailand)
+MY PRESENT (2009, Thitipun Techakitrungrueng, Thailand)
+TELL ME WHY (THE RIDDLE) (2000, Marcus Sternberg, music video of Paul Van Dyk featuring Saint Etienne)

Each of them got 0 vote.

I also like the colors in these films:

1.THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER (1989, Peter Greenaway, A+)

 

 

2.CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972, Ingmar Bergman, A+)

3.DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS (1977, George Barry, A+)
http://www.eibonvale.co.uk/strangereviews/American/deathbed.html

 

4.DOWN WITH LOVE (2003, Peyton Reed, A-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5megJgs48vI

5.THE FALL (2006, Tarsem, A-)

 

6.FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002, Todd Haynes, A+)

7.GABBEH (1996, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, A+/A)

 

8.MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006, Sofia Coppola, A)

 

9.RED DESERT (1964, Michelangelo Antonioni, A+)
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare11/red_desert.htm

 

10.THE SHOE FAIRY (2005, Yun Chan Lee, Taiwan, B+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768137/

 

11.SPEED RACER (2008, Andy Wachowski + Larry Wachowski, A+/A)

CAPTAIN AHAB (Philippe Ramos, A+++++)

FILMS I SAW IN THE FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL

(in roughly preferential order)

1.CAPTAIN AHAB (2008, Philippe Ramos, A+)

2.SERAPHINE (2008, Martin Provost, A+)
http://ferdyonfilms.com/2009/06/seraphine-2008.php

3.VERSAILLES (2008, Pierre Schoeller, A+)

4.ALL ABOUT ACTRESSES (2009, Maiwenn, A+)

5.THOSE WHO REMAIN (2007, Anne Le Ny, A+)

6.PUBLIC ENEMY PART ONE (2008, Jean-Francois Richet, A+)

7.ON THE ROPES (2007, Magaly Richard-Serrano, A+/A)

8.I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG (2008, Philippe Claudel, A+/A)

9.MODERN LOVE (2008, Stephane Kazandjian, A)

10.THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (2008, Remi Bezancon, A-)

11.PUBLIC ENEMY PART TWO (2008, Jean-Francois Richet, A-)

12.LARGO WINCH (2008, Jerome Salle, B-)

LAV DIAZ RETROSPECTIVE IN BANGKOK AND PHUKET

DEATH IN THE LAND OF MELANCHOLIA: LAV DIAZ RETROSPECTIVE IN THAILAND

Duangkamol Filmhouse (Filmvirus), in coordination with the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi’s Bangkok CODE, Bioscope magazine, Conference of Birds Gallery, and BO(OK)HEMIAN, invites you to see special species of films by Lav Diaz, a Filipino director who is the trailblazer of new independent filmmaking in the Philippines.

Lav Diaz is well-known as a director who never conforms to the studio system. He made most of his films by himself. He breaks the normal time boundary of film experience by making longer-than-average films, or films which are 5-10 hours long. Diaz’s films unhurriedly tell the stories of ordinary people in the Philippines, and have been made to record, argue about, and make a firm political stand on his own country for the past two decades. His films have become the inspiration for the new generation of Filipino directors who have become the focus of international film festivals around the world.

Duangkamol Filmhouse invites all of you to see these epic films of ordinary people in venues around Bangkok and in Phuket, and participate in the discussions with Lav Diaz and Alexis Tioseco, a Filipino film critic.

Friday, July 31, 2009 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
16.00 hrs HEREMIAS BOOK II (rough cut) (2 hours)
18.00 hrs Discussion on the films of Lav Diaz and contemporary Filipino films with Lav Diaz, Alexis Tioseco, and Adadol Ingawanij

Saturday, August 1, 2009 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
12.00 hrs MELANCHOLIA (7 hours 30 minutes) (winner of Horizons Award at the 2008 Venice Film Festival)

Sunday, August 2, 2009 at Bangkok CODE
12.00 hrs DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (9 hours)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Campus Tour at Bangkok University

Saturday, August 8, 2009 at Conference of Birds Gallery
12.00 hrs EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (11 hours)

Sunday, August 9, 2009 at Conference of Birds Gallery
12.00 hrs HEREMIAS BOOK 1 (9 hours)

Saturday, August 29, 2009 at BO(OK)HEMIAN, Phuket
12.00 hrs MELANCHOLIA (7 hours 30 minutes) (winner of Horizons Award at the 2008 Venice Film Festival)

Sunday, August 30, 2009 at BO(OK)HEMIAN, Phuket
12.00 hrs DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCANTOS (9 hours)

Saturday, September 5, 2009 at BO(OK)HEMIAN, Phuket
12.00 hrs EVOLUTION OF A FILIPINO FAMILY (11 hours)

Sunday, September 6, 2009 at BO(OK)HEMIAN, Phuket
12.00 hrs HEREMIAS BOOK 1 (9 hours)

For more information, contact:
filmsick@gmail.com

Addresses and phone numbers:

The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
839, Rama I Road, Wangmai, Patumwan District, Bangkok, 10330
Tel: 02-214-6630-1

Bangkok CODE
231/2, South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, Sathorn District, Bangkok 10120
Tel: 02-673-9434-5

Conference of Birds Gallery
131/18, Thanon Pan, Silom, Bangrak District, Bangkok, 10500
Tel: 02-492-1152

BO(OK)HEMIAN, Phuket
61, Thalang Road, Muang District, Phuket, 83000
Tel: 07-625-8254

NOTE: The information above is translated from Thai to English by me. Please tell me if there is anything that should be corrected. I’m not sure if I have used the right English words or not.

For more information on Lav Diaz, please read:
http://unspokencinema.blogspot.com/2009/06/links-lav-diaz.html

PLAYING THE VICTIM (KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV, A+++++)

FILMS SEEN IN THE WORLD COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL

In roughly preferential order

1.PLAYING THE VICTIM (2006, Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia, A+)

2.CERTIFIABLY JONATHAN (2008, Jim Pasternak, USA, A+)

3.BLIND PIG WHO WANTS TO FLY (2008, Edwin, Indonesia, A+)

Wise Kwai wrote about this film here
http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-comedy-film-festival-capsule.html

4.CHEESE HEAD (2006, Ariel Winograd, Argentina, A+)

5.STEALTH (2008, Lionel Baier, France, A+)

6.EAGLE VS SHARK (2008, Taika Waititi, New Zealand, A+)

7.KINNUNEN (2007, Andri Luup, Estonia, A+)

8.DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND (2006, Nicole Ballivian, USA/Palestine, A+)

9.WELCOME TO THE STICKS (2008, Dany Boon, France, A+)

10.KIDNAPPING, CAUCASIAN STYLE (1967, Leonid Gaidai, Soviet, A)

11.OPERATION Y AND OTHER SHURIK’S ADVENTURES (1965, Leonid Gaidai, Soviet, A)

12.FRIDAY 12 (2009, Vladimir Zaikin, Russia, B+)

13.LOVE MATTERS (2009, Jack Neo + Gilbert Chan, Singapore, B+)

14.SKILLS LIKE THIS (2008, Monty Miranda, Canada, B-)