SOME RELATED TOPICS ON URBAN LANDSCAPES (PART 2)

Some related topics on urban landscapes (part 2):

(part 1 is here:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2008/04/images-of-films-about-urban-landscapes.html )

4.MY UGLY URBAN LIFE

These are ugly landscapes viewed from the balcony of my apartment:

This is a view inside my apartment:

–I think I may escape to a beach in early May. So I may not have access to internet during that time.

5.WOLFGANG BELLWINKEL, A GREAT GERMAN PHOTOGRAPHER
http://www.wolfgang-bellwinkel.de/

These are photos by Wolfgang Bellwinkel in the series BEYOND PARADISE (1999-2001):

This photo by Wolfgang Bellwinkel reminds me of the poster of the film EN CONSTRUCCION (2001, Jose Luis Guerin)

 

“TURKEY HAS JUST DISCOVERED A GREAT FILMMAKER” AND HE IS SEMIH KAPLANOGLU

 I just knew from Unspoken Cinema’s blog that LE MONDE published a review on EGG (2007, Semih Kaplanoglu, A+), written by Jean-Luc Douin.

http://unspokencinema.blogspot.com/2008/04/yumurta-dans-le-monde.html

You can read the review in French here: http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2008/04/22/yumurta-apres-la-mort-de-la-mere-parcours-elegiaque-vers-la-serenite_1036984_3476.html

Since I can’t read French, I used Altavista and Google Translate to translate the review into English. Here is the result:

“I lya first plan of an old woman walking in a fog of campaigning, background sound of barking dogs, bird song. She leaves the field, definitely. And this is now Yusuf, in Istanbul bookseller, poet. This information distilled over pictures apparently innocuous, but which contain a hidden meaning: Yusuf’s car in a long tunnel that leads to light, Yusuf sat near a body covered with a shroud, Yusuf before a tomb and as his shadow followed by a small boy, Yusuf lying in a forest and awakened by a cloud of birds.

Beautiful presentation, the lyricism discreet and psychoanalytic visions of what comes to live the hero, his mother’s death, his funeral in the village of Yusuf, a parade of emotions, sensations of chaos, who returned to his early childhood, back in time, mixing life and dreams.

Yusuf has repeatedly returned as soon as possible. But there is something that holds them, or rather someone who helps accomplished and to honour the wishes of the deceased, someone who reconciles with his memories and it opens the doors of the future . A young cousin, Ayla, dedicated to the mother in her last moments, the guarantor of tradition and the spiritual survival of the dead, humble servant girl pure and desirable.

A STRANGE COMA

Humility, as in an Ozu film or Satyajit Ray, Yumurta égrène small gestures harmless and isolated objects that have symbolic value. A flower planted in a pot a day of burial, a bowl of milk, a toothbrush, a pillar of wood shaped crucifix, a well invaded herbs, this egg, which gives the film its title, and were threatening the appearance, a sign of the link with the mother belatedly taken.

For the atheist Yusuf will save time to feel and externalize its grief. It will qu’Ayla insists he perform the rite promised by his mother before he died: sacrifice a ram in the mountains. It will take this strange coma in the courtyard of a notary and the irrational echo of a funeral prayer, the smell of an onion, a nightmare, encounters with ghosts of the past, the exorcism of a disappointment in love, and the discovery, over the hours and days, qu’Ayla is the messenger of its quiet serenity.

The neck of Ayla burning leaves, a color knitting, a power outage, a song of the rooster: Semih Kaplanoglu is constantly égrener symptoms, to speak unconscious by the conduct of everyday gestures, Departure constantly delayed Yusuf, the taciturn. The film consists of detailed frameworks, plans rigorous, a slow and harmonious, to spy on what is admirable in a man or a woman: dignity, loyalty, the greatness of soul, the eyes, patience, doubt and torment as well.

The old amnesiac who saw Yusuf and Ayla Overall, takes for newlyweds, is not mistaken for a lot. There is something that will illuminate this couple, for ever, when the hen has laid eggs. Semih Kaplanoglu mastered his elegiac style, clear and poetic, dark and bright. In the shadow of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey has just discovered a great filmmaker.”

EIGHTEENTH POLL: URBAN LANDSCAPES

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

My eighteenth poll is inspired by a very interesting article – CINEMATIC LITERATURE, LITERARY CINEMA, AND THE ASSEMBLY OF CITIES: BANGKOK INSCRIBED, written by Noah Viernes. The article also talks about some films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You can read this article from the link below:
http://www.pannalawka.org/paper/thaistudies/full%20paper%202%20PDF/noahviernes.pdf

The article above inspires me to think about urban landscapes in many films. So I think I should make a list of my favorite films which present interesting houses, buildings, alleys or urban landscapes.

I LIKE THE PRESENTATION OF HOUSES, BUILDINGS, ALLEYS, OR URBAN LANDSCAPES IN THESE FILMS. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.ANAT(T)A (2006, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Koichi Shimizu, Thailand)

2.BANGKOK AT 21.42 HRS (2001, Thanes Maneejak, Thailand)

I googled Thanes Maneejak’s Thai name and found that he directed some music videos. But I don’t know the names of his music videos. The information on the internet also says that he was meant to directed THE GIG (2006), but I don’t know why the person who ended up directed THE GIG (2006, A/A-) is Tharatorn Siriphunvaraporn.

3.BANGKOK: CITY OF ANGELS (2007, Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa, Thailand)
You can watch the film here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbpfFT6qA0Q

4.THE BEST OF TIMES (2002, Chang Tso-chi, Taiwan)

5.THE BET COLLECTOR (2006, Jeffrey Jeturian, Philippines)

6.ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958, Louis Malle, France)
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews21/elevator_to_the_gallows_dvd_review.htm

7.FRONTIER (2003, Jun Miyazaki, Japan)

8.GHOSTTRANSMISSIONS (2005, Building Transmission, Thailand)

You can read about this video installation here:
http://www.bangkokrecorder.com/magazine/bangkok-life/ghost-storeys-abandoned-buildings-483.html

This video installation is mentioned in an article on Bangkok written by Patrick Barta:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=2990280

9.ISABELLA (2006, Pang Ho-cheung, Hong Kong)

10.MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (2007, Jennifer Baichwal, Canada/China)
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

11.LA NOTTE (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy)
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews8/lanotte.htm

12.OBRAS (2004, Hendrick Dusollier, France)
You can watch this animation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbYEwfAxj4

13.LE PONT DU NORD (1981, Jacques Rivette, France)

14.RETRIBUTION (2006, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2006/Sakebi/

15.ROUGH NIGHT (2001, Samart Imkham, Thailand)

16.SHADOWS (1959, John Cassavetes, USA)
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare5/shadows.htm

17.SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY (2005, Sydney Pollack, USA)

18.SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT (2003, Daniel Eisenberg, USA)

19.VACANCY (1998, Matthias Mueller, Germany/Brazil)

20.WONDERLAND (1999, Michael Winterbottom, UK)
http://www.trailerfan.com/movie/wonderland-1999/pictures

You can cast multiple votes.

——————————————————-

Some related topics on urban landscapes (PART 1):

1.Highly recommended blog about beautiful architecture:
http://archidose.blogspot.com/

2.Heinz Emigholz, who directed SCHINDLER’S HOUSES (2007), is interviewed by Maya in his blog:
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2008/04/pfa-heinz-emigholzarchitecture-as.html
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2008/04/complicated-spaces-evening-class.html
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2008/04/complicated-spaces-evening-class_18.html

I knew about this interview from Girish Shambu’s blog:
http://www.girishshambu.com/blog/2008/04/film-of-month-club.html

3.Talking about Bangkok reminds me that I once wrote in Thai in 2006 about an imaginary film called BANGKOK I LOVE YOU. I wrote about it in the old Bioscope webboard after we saw PARIS I LOVE YOU (2006, A) in a film festival. I wrote about this idea before Robert Altman passed away. Some Thai cinephiles also shared their ideas about this imaginary film project in the discussion on the webboard. Unfortunately, the Bioscope webboard has deleted all the old information. So what I’m still keeping here in my blog is only my idea about this imaginary project. I should have kept other cinephiles’ ideas, too.

I think I should translate what I wrote about this project into English, just for fun.

My original post in Thai is here:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2006/11/bangkok-i-love-you.html

The omnibus film BANGKOK I LOVE YOU should consist of these areas of Bangkok. The name of the director who should make a film about each area in Bangkok is given here:

1.WONG WIAN YAI—BELA TARR

2.PIN KLAO—KIM KI-DUK

3.PHRA ARTHIT ROAD—JUN ICHIKAWA

4.SANAM LUANG—ULRIKE OTTINGER

5.DEMOCRACY MONUMENT—PETER WATKINS

6.VIMANMEK PALACE—ALEXANDER SOKUROV

http://www.vimanmek.com/

7.SAO CHING CHA—DAVID LYNCH

8.SARANROM PALACE—BRUNO DUMONT

9.GOLDEN MOUNTAIN—ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY

10.MEMORIAL BRIDGE—DARIO ARGENTO

11.BOBAE—ERIC KHOO

12.YAOWARAJ—GUY MADDIN

13.SEE PHRAYA—OTAR IOSSELIANI

14.KLONG TOEI—KHAVN DE LA CRUZ

15.LUMPINI PARK—ERIC ROHMER

16.SATHORN—FRANCOIS OZON

17.SILOM—CLAIRE DENIS

18.PATPONG—CATHERINE BREILLAT

19.SAM YAAN—GASPAR NOE

20.SIAM SQUARE—GREGG ARAKI

21.LUNG SUAN—JOAO PEDRO RODRIGUES

22.WATERGATE–PEDRO ALMODAVAR

23.DIN DAENG FLAT—SHARUNAS BARTAS

24.HUA MARK—ABEL FERRARA

25.RAM INDRA—DAREZHAN OMIRBAEV

26.PHLOEN CHIT—JACQUES RIVETTE

27.SUKHUMVIT—MICHAEL HANEKE

28.THONGLOR—CLAUDE CHABROL

29.VICTORY MONUMENT—ROBERT ALTMAN

30.SAPAN KWAI—TAKASHI MIIKE

31.JATUJAK—ILYA KHRZHANOVSKY

32.LAD PRAO—KIYOSHI KUROSAWA

MOST FAVORITE MONOLOGUE OF ALL TIME

My seventeenth poll ended with the biggest surprise since I began polling. The winner is LOCOMOTION IN WATER (2005, Hanna Shell), which is a film I had never heard of before I started going to Conference of Birds Gallery in February. I like a surprise like this. Who could have guessed LOCOMOTION IN WATER will win? This kind of surprise makes polling much more exciting.

My seventeenth poll ended with 12 votes. Thank you very much for everyone who participated in it. Here is the result:

I LOVE THESE EXPERIMENTAL FILMS BY FEMALE FILMMAKERS VERY MUCH. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.LOCOMOTION IN WATER (2005, Hanna Shell)
It got 5 votes or 41%.

2.BIRTH OF THE SEANEMA (2004, Sasithorn Ariyavicha, Thailand)
It got 3 votes or 25%.

3.ATOMIK PARK (2003, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, France)
+BERLIN – EXERCISES IN NINE PARTS: DREAMING UNDER WATER OF THINGS AFAR (1975, Rebecca Horn, Germany)
+SOMETHING HAPPENED (2007, Keren Cytter)

Each of them got 2 votes or 16 %.

6.FUSES (1965, Carolee Schneemann, USA)
+I’M NOT THE GIRL WHO MISSES MUCH (1986, Pipilotti Rist)
+SEEING SPACE AND HEARING SPACE (1974, Valie Export)

Each of them got 1 vote or 8 %.

9.BETWEEN (1989, Claudia Schillinger, Germany)
+BY TOMORROW (2008, Tuksina Pipitkul, Thailand)
+FUN RIEM (2006, Luddawan Subpeng, Thailand)
+THE INSANE (2006, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Thailand)
+LINEAGE OF THE DIVINE (2002, Monika Tichasek, Australia)
+THE LITTLE GIRL (1997, Nicole Greenwood, Pantipa Tanchookiat, Thailand)
+LIVING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE (2003, Corinna Schnitt, Gemany)
+NEWS FROM HOME (1977, Chantal Akerman)
+PHANTOM LOVE (2007, Nina Menkes, USA)
+PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR BEING AN ARTIST – ENJOY YOURSELF IN EVERY CONDITION, PART 2 (2000, Chang Jia, South Korea)
+RED SAGA (2004, Gabriela Krista Dalena, Philippines)
+RISE SON (2006, Visra Vichit-vadakan, Thailand)

Each of them got 0 vote.

——————————————-

– You can read about THE INSANE from:
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/araya_rasdjarmrearnsook/

Talking about THE INSANE (2006, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Thailand), I just found that you can buy a book about Araya’s recent video works from this website (if you can read Thai):
http://www.matichonbook.com/index.php?mnuid=5&selmnu=490306141046

This book, ART AND WORDS, is in both English and Thai. It also includes 11 monologues from THE INSANE. I love one of the monologues very much. It sure is one of my most favorite monologues of all time.

I copied the following monologue from the book ART AND WORDS by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. Listening to or reading this monologue make me think that the insane woman who spoke this monologue could have been as famous as J.K. Rowling if she was not insane. I like her power of imagination very much.

“…Then I went to stay at home. I went to help my father and mother at work, raising chickens, ducks, swans, and geese. We also had dogs, cats, a hybrid parrot, doves, we raised them all. Parrots and grackles also. A peahen came to live with us as well. It displayed its feathers and brooded four eggs. And then there was also a giraffe. The village zoo came to our house (laughs). We also raised an owl and a pygmy owlet; they all came to live with us. There were so many of them; a cat who had four kittens and the peahen had a shed full of little pea fowls. We also had pigs, a boar and a swine. They also had a shed full of piglets. And then there were the elephants, the cows, buffalos, tigers, and lions, different snakes, a rattlesnake, they all came to stay at our house. From America they came. The demon took care of them. I dreamed of having a mammoth coming to stay at our house as well, a male and female. They come from America, mammoths. They gave birth to little baby-mammoths also at our house. My father and mother asked me if I was afraid of mammoths. I said no, I’m not afraid. There were many kinds of elephants that came to stay at our hose. There was a white elephant as well. In the story Kasateriya, white elephants are used in battle. There were many elephants, a total of twenty-eight elephants, in the battle with Burma, which Thailand won. Burma set fire to Ayuthaya, Sukhothai and Thonburi. They belonged to King Bureingnong who took King Dam’s sister as his Queen. King Naresuan, he is the brother of King Naresuan (laughs), and then (laughs), there is the Phayaym crow and the river crow. They also came to our house (laughs). There were so many of them (laughs). The river crow likes diving. The Phayayom crow is the prince of devils, the prince of death. He also came to live at our house. When this crow calls out in front of somebody’s hose, someone in that house will die. The Phayayom crow (laughs). The river crow, he is good, the river crow. He brings good luck and good fortune. A female parrot also came to stay with us. Then there were mice, cats, they all came to stay. Elephants came, cows, buffalos, lions, tigers, bears. All our money was spent taking care of them. A very big animal, that mammoth. The mammoth with fur like silk, the male mammoth, went wild. The mammoth with the long hair went in heat and soon became a mother-mammoth. It gave birth at our house to many little baby-mammoths….”

“…A whole bunch of geckos came to stay at our house. They had lots of baby-geckos. Geckos, tigers, and bears as well. There were Siberian water-ducks we took care of at our house. We fed them bananas. We cleaned the pool and raised ducks, swans and geese. We also had fish, pearl-oysters as well, cockles also (laughs). Repugnant animals we raised as well; leeches, they were in the pool. They stuck to my leg and my mother asked me if I was afraid. I said no. I pulled them off my leg. Crocodiles came also. They were at the pool. They let me watch them mate. Elephants came to stay as well. I put fruit on two trays for them. There were apples, sugar-cane, bananas, oranges, green rose-apples, red rose-apples, mangosteen, and water-melon and pineapple. The elephants liked that, you know. They stayed at the pool. They let me watch them mate (laughs). Kootsie insects came to stay with us as well (laughs loudly while talking). We also had kootsie insects. Very fussy they were. And butterflies (laughs). Noychoo-ee chickens (laughs). If I wanted eggs I just ran outside. I had a sheep. Shrimps came, crabs, oysters, they all came to stay. There were crocodiles and alligators that came to stay with us. Kraitong came to stay as well. There was a guinea pig. Playchumphon and his wife came and stayed with us. They came but the giant Bangmut crocodile, I stepped on it….”

–Apart from the monologue in THE INSANE, another of my most favorite monologues of all time is the monologue near the end of the film THE ANDECHS FEELING (1974, Herbert Achternbusch, West Germany, A+).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071140/

 

LOUIS MALLE

This is my comment in Bioscope webboard:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.1080

–LOUIS MALLE’S FILMS IN MY PREFERENTIAL ORDER
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001501/

1.ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958, A++++++++++)

2.LE FEU FOLLET (1963, A++++++++++)

3.MURMUR OF THE HEART (1971, A+++++)

4.VIVA MARIA! (1965, A+++++)

5.VANYA ON 42ND STREET (1994, A+)

6.PRETTY BABY (1978, A+)

7.LES AMANTS (1958, A+)

8.MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981, A+)
I don’t understand anything the characters say, but I love the concept of this film very much.

9.ZAZIE DANS LE METRO (1960, A+)

10.CALCUTTA (1969, A)

11.DAMAGE (1992, A-)

12.THE THIEF (1967, B)

 

PLASTIK — INFANT PRESENTS SIMON BAKER

This is my comment in Bioscope Webboard:
http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=71.1050

FAVORITE SONGS

1.PLASTIK – Infant Presents Simon Baker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecN_96aG3g0

2.SUDOKU KID – Ito & Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWJQD1fFhXQ

3.LOWER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Original Munich Version) – ZTT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsSYase1hJI

4.GHETTO OBSESSION 2006 – Surkin
http://www.myspace.com/surkin

5.WATERMARK – Our Broken Garden
http://www.myspace.com/ourbrokengarden

TRAN T. KIM-TRANG’S FILMS AT CONFERENCE OF BIRDS GALLERY

The information below comes from CONFERENCE OF BIRDS GALLERY:

TRAN T. KIM-TRANG: THE COMPLETE BLINDNESS SERIES1992 – 2006, 8 Videos
Opening Party: Saturday 26 April 7pm

Dates: 26/4/08 – 15/5/08
CONFERENCE OF BIRDS

131/18 Thanon Pun
Silom, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500

conference@conferenceofbirds.com

http://www.conferenceofbirds.com/

Phone: 0849281152

GALLERY HOURS: EVERY DAY 12PM – 8PM
“A rare video artist who is equally comfortable talking about Freud
and the Khmer Rouge.” Steve Anderson, The Independent

Fourteen years after beginning The Blindness Series, Tran T. Kim-Trang
completedEpilogue: The Palpable Invisibility of Life (2006, 14 min.)
– inspired by the exhibitionMemoirs of the Blind, curated by Jacques
Derrida for the Louvre Museum. Vastly different in style, the eight
videos of the series investigate blindness and its metaphors. In
addition to the Los Angeles premiere of Epilogue, the screening
tonight includesamaurosis (2002, 28 min.), a portrait of blind
guitarist Nguyen Duc Dat; alexia (2000, 10 min.), about “word
blindness”; ekleipsis (1998, 22 min.), which explores hysterical
blindness among Cambodian women refugees; ocularis (1997, 21 min.), a
piece on surveillance technology; kore (1994, 17 min.), an examination
of the relationship between vision and sexuality; operculum (1993, 14
min.), which focuses on cosmetic eyelid surgery; and aletheia (1992,
16 min.), the introduction to the series.

Detailed program

1.Epilogue: The Palpable Invisibility of Life (DV; 14 min.; 2006)

–When Derrida died in 2004, Epilogue shifted focus from his work on mourning
to ruminate on 1) the visible and invisible traces one leaves behind:
a font made from Derrida’s infamous handwriting, my mother’s dying
words, etc.; 2) the cycle of life and death: my son’s birth on the
same day, date, and time as my mother’s death six years prior; and 3)
imaging technologies that allowed me to see my unborn son, leading to
fantasies about what technologies it would take to “image” my
incorporeal mother, and discovering that ancient medicine brings me
closer to my dead mother.

2.amaurosis (DV; 28 min; 2002)

–A portrait of Nguyen Duc Dat, a blind guitarist who is a “triple outcast”: disabled, Amerasian, and an orphan. Dat went from a life on the streets of Saigon selling lottery
tickets to winning guitar championships in the state of California,
where he now resides. The video unfolds in layers of conversation with
Dat about his experiences as a new immigrant and young adult inAmerica.

3.alexia (DV; 10 min; 2000)

–Word-blindness (alexia) is a condition that afflicts people who have suffered a stroke, causing them to lose the visual recognition of individual letters but perceive the entire word,
or vice versa. Metaphors are here discussed in their function to reveal and obscure perception. Divided into five short sections, the tape draws a pattern with several motifs–the finger (pointing as one of the earliest forms of language), the moon (contrasting Buddhist and Wittgensteinian philosophies about metaphors and the visible)—to ruminate on language and blindness. Giambattista Vico’s theory on the origin of language is also addressed.

4.ekleipsis (Betacam; 22 min; 1998 )

–An experimental documentary about Cambodian women in Long Beach, California, known as the largest group of hysterically blind people in the world. Hysterical blindness is a
psychological condition where one is not able to see despite the absence of physical problems. ekleipsis traces two histories: the Cambodian Civil War and hysteria, to speak about pathology and agency. To transcend what has been described as the ‘eye-searing’ horrors of war, these women cried themselves into blindness.

5.ocularis (Betacam; 21 min; 1997)

–Through a 1-800 (toll free) phone number publicized nationally, recorded messages of fears and fantasies about video surveillance were collected from callers: If you were
caught on videotape, what would be the worst thing you could be caught
doing? If you could watch someone, what would you want to see? This
experimental video highlights several narratives to raise issues of
surveillance: the construction of our society’s desire to watch
surveillance materials and its insatiable voyeurism, as well as what
it would mean to have an alter-electronic ego or to be biologically
tagged without the recourse to ‘pass’ for survival’s sake.

6.kore (Betacam; 17 min; 1994)

–This project investigates theconjunction of sexuality with
1) the eye as purveyor of desire;
2) the sexual fear and fantasy of blindness and the blindfold;
And 3) women and AIDS.

Can the blindfold embody a touch-based pleasure associated
with female sexuality, in contrast with a vision-based pleasure
assigned to male sexuality? Could the choice to not-see facilitate
ecstasy for the subject? How does fear and fantasy contrast with the
reality of vision loss in advance stages of AIDS?

7.operculum (3/4″; 14 min; 1993)

–This experimental documentaryjuxtaposes footage from visits with seven cosmetic surgeons
specializing in blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) within the Beverly
Hills/West Hollywood area with text describing a 1950s lobotomy
procedure to treat psychological patients. This juxtaposition comments
on cosmetic surgery as a ‘desperate cure’. Cosmetic surgery of the
eyelids on Asian women is regarded as a self-effacing fantasy of
attaining the standard of beauty, a standard which demands conformity
to the norm of being average. The artist poses as a potential patient.

8.aletheia (3/4″; 16min.; 1992)

–An introduction to the series, that provides an index of topics on different aspects of physical blindness and its metaphors. Multiple modes of discourse are employed:
journalistic, anecdotal, fictive, and theoretical to bring out various
perspectives on the issues addressed. aletheia experiments with
non-linear structure to spur associative viewing amongst the seemingly
disparate ideas; this structure is also a formal reflection of our
perceptual process.

Artist’s notes

In 1991, I conceived of The Blindness Series as an eight-tape project
to investigate physical blindness and its metaphors. Three reasons
motivated me: 1) a personal fear of vision loss; 2) blindness has been
a historical concern for many visual artists; and 3) I wanted to
explore the perceptual to conceptual process, which informs all that
we do.

The Blindness Series has in many ways galvanized my working methods
and thinking about experimental media. As the tapes are stylistically
different from each other, I weave in multiple layers of text, image,
and sound. I want to re-present the way we are awash in information
coming from various sources: journalism, fiction, our dreams, etc.
Working experimentally has enabled me to incorporate multiple
practices and realize new approaches, it also mirrors the way my mind
works. I aim to create formally progressive artworks that foster
progressive ideas and social change. Because video is such a potent
and accessible medium, it demands a responsibility that I find lacking
in mainstream corporate media. Part of this responsibility is the
commitment to accurately portray the underrepresented. I do believe
that video can be a tool for social change, foremost by the power of
representation to affect and influence people’s beliefs and thinking.
I strive for continual experimentation in trying to find ways to
represent and understand both my subjects and the medium itself.

Tran T. Kim-Trang

About the filmmaker

Tran T. Kim-Trang was born in Viet Nam and emigrated to the U.S. in
1975. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts
and has been producing experimental videos since the early 1990s. Her
work has been exhibited internationally. In 1999 Tran presented her
Blindness Series in a solo screening at the Museum of Modern Art. In
2000, two of her videos were included in the Biennial exhibition at
the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Blindness Series was
featured at the 46th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. Tran has been
nominated for a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts and was named a 2001
Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Fellow. The fellowship has enabled
her to develop an experimental narrative feature titled Call Me Sugar,
based on the life of her mother.

Tran also collaborates with Karl Mihail on a project known as Gene
Genies Worldwide(c)? (genegenies.com). Their conceptual and public
artworks on genetic engineering have exhibited at the Ars Electronica
Festival in Austria, Exit Art, the Tang Museum at Skidmore College and
in many other venues in the US.

Tran is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Scripps College.

 

WILL NOT CRY IN PUBLIC

The information below comes from the website of ART CENTER CHULA:
http://www.car.chula.ac.th/art/current/index.html

17th April – 17th May 2008

Will Not Cry in Public

A media art exhibition by
+ Olan Netrangsi
+ Pathompon Tesprateep
+ Sathit Sattarasart

With a guess writer
+ N. Paksnavin

Will Not Cry in Public is a media based art exhibition by yield, a group of young artists from Bangkok. “yield” consists of Olan Netrangsi, Pathompon Tesprateep, Sathit Sattarasart, graduated from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Applied Art. Born in the 1970s and shared their interest in independent film, alternative music and culture, yield actively involved with a group of young independent film and video makers based in Bangkok. This exhibition focuses on public and private issue, control/yield, and fiction/reality. This young generation artists expressed their individual concern on different level and dimension of social structure and media propaganda.

Olan Netrangsi’s works consisted of interactive video and 2 channel screens TV addressing the power of media propaganda in daily basis on how it effect our lives and how much can we resist them? It raised the questions to us whether we have to be the victim of media, in order to blend in with the society. Is it too power and able to brainwash us to automatically following their marketing strategy?

Working as music maker, artist and video maker, Pathompon Tesprateep’s meditated works depict his selective point of view to the society. In the exhibition, he present a series of downloaded cover version of Billy Joel’s song, ‘Just the Way you are’ performed by different people around the world from youtube, the biggest video community among virtual society. He integrates his video, “there is no center of the universe”, which is inspired by Caspar David Friedrich, a German landscape artist, portraying the abandonment of all faiths.

Interested in fiction and reality, the new video work of Sathit Sattarasart, “This conversation can serve no purpose anymore“, is a quote of HAL 9000, a super computer in Stanley Kubrick’s film, “2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of spoon-feeding audiences with direct visual images, he twisted the way of watching moving-pictures by activating the audiences’ imagination based on character’s conversation. Along with the video, his photograph and text-based painting correspond to various dimensions of spaces in the movie, reality and imagination.

Plus an experimental literature of N. Paksnavin which is called ‘No god No cry – Mocumenta’, consists of a short story and deals with the subject of surrendering humanity to the nature. And it also raises the question of the origin of all the literatures in cyberspace.

Office Hour: 9 – 7 pm.
Everyday except Sunday and Public holiday.
Access: 7th Floor, Main Library, Chulalongkorn University
For further information pls. contact 089 7662027

 

THINGS EXPERIENCED IN JAN 2008

THINGS EXPERIENCED IN JANUARY 2008

A.FILMS

1.CORN IN PARLIAMENT: LE GENIE HELVETIQUE (2003, Jean-Stephane Bron, Switzerland, A+)

2.HEART (1955, Kon Ichikawa, A+)

3.SATANTANGO (1993, Bela Tarr, A+)

4.TURTLES ARE SURPRISINGLY FAST SWIMMERS (2005, Miki Satoshi, Japan, A+)

5.REGULAR LOVERS (2004, Philippe Garrel, A+)

6.MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929, Dziga Vertov, A+)

7.THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS (1976, Valerio Zurlini, Italy, A+)

8.LE GRAND CHEF (2007, Jeon Yun-su, South Korea, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135972/

9.MURDER OF THE INUGAMI CLAN (2006, Kon Ichikawa, A+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0794297/

10.5 PAYAK SAO (1967, Rungsee Tasanapayak, Thailand, A+)
Many thanks to Filmsick who gave me this vcd.

11.FROZEN DAYS (2005, Danny Lerner, Israel, A+)

12.BEZHIN MEADOW (1937, Sergei Eisenstein, A+)

13.CLOVERFIELD (2008, Matt Reeves, A+)

14.REPAST (1951, Mikio Naruse, A+)

15.MOTHER (1963, Kaneto Shindo, A+/A)
I like this film a lot, except the emotional manipulation at the end.

16.MARTIAN CHILD (2007, Menno Meyjes, A+/A)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415965/

17.RETRIBUTION (2006, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, A+/A)
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20071122/retribution-kiyoshi-kurosawa-2006
http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com/archives/2008/04/retribution.html#more

18.CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1972, Bob Clark, A+/A)
Many thanks to Filmsick who gave me this vcd.

19.EASTERN PROMISES (2007, David Cronenberg, A+/A)

20.EARTH (1930, Alexander Dovzhenko, A)

21.A GEISHA (GION FESTIVAL MUSIC) (1953, Kenji Mizoguchi, A)

22.LOVE & DANCE (2006, Eitan Anner, Israel, A)

23.THE DITCH (1954, Kaneto Shindo, A)

24.THE GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA (1959, Nobuo Nakagawa, A)
http://dechito.blogspot.com/2008/01/ghost-story-of-yotsuya.html

25.FOUR MINUTES (2006, Chris Kraus, Germany, A/A-)

26.SAW IV (2007, Darren Lynn Bousman, A/A-)

27.A ROOM FOR RENT (1959, Yuzo Kawashima, A-)

28.TRUTH OR DARE (2005, Arne Nolting, Jan Martin Scharf, Germany, A-)

29.WE SHALL OVERCOME SOMEDAY (2004, Izutsu Kazuyuki, Japan, A-)

30.ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007, Julie Taymor, A-)

31.SIYAMA (2008, Preecha Songsakul, A-/B+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1194673/

32.YERN PAE LAE (2007, Poj Arnon, A-/B+)

33.THE FLOCK (2007, Andrew Lau, A-/B+)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473356/

34.MR. MARGORIUM’S WONDERFUL EMPORIUM (2007, Zach Helm, A-/B+)

35.FIRST FLIGHT (2008, Tanit Jitnukul, A-/B+)

36.HITMAN 47 (2007, Xavier Gens, B)
I wonder if this hitman is a virgin or not.

37.MR. WOODCOCK (2007, Craig Gillespie, B-)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419984/
I think the film is fine, but I really hate the ending of this film.

B.ART EXHIBITION

1.PAUSE & PLAY (2007, Thanaraj Vangsiripaisal, Koichi Shimizu, A+/A)
http://www.bkmagazine.com/feature/thanaraj-vangsiripaisal

2.UAB SANASEN 72 YEARS – A RETROSPECTIVE ART EXHIBITION

3.PROJECT OF ARTWORK EXHIBITION “KING BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ: THE GREAT ACHIEVER”

4.MARR’S TERRITORY (2007, Maethawee Chiraphong)

C.TV PROGRAMS AT ALLIANCE FRANCAISE

1.SUIVEZ L’ARTISTE (A+)

1.1 PORTE-BOUTEILLES (1914-1964) by Marcel Duchamp, chosen by Pierre Berge

1.2 ROGER AND HIS SON (1936) by Balthus, chosen by Pierre Arditi

1.3 CHEVAUCHEE AU SOLEIL COUCHANT (1936) by Georges Roualt, chosen by Daniel Picouly

1.4 ANTHROPOMETRIE DE L’EPOQUE BLEUE (ANT 82) (1960) by Yves Klein, chosen by Agnes Varda

1.5 COMPRESSION ”RICARD” (1962) by Cesar, chosen by Jean Nouvel

1.6 LE METAFISYX (1950) by Jean Dubuffet, chosen by Alain Corneau

2.D’ART D’ART (A+)

2.1 MONOCHROME IKB 3 (1960) by Yves Klein

2.2 LA DANSE AU MOULIN ROUGE (1890) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

2.3 ETUDES DE CIEL by Eugene Delacroix

2.4 LA FONTAINE by Marcel Duchamp

2.5 LE BAIN TURC (1862-1863) by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres

2.6 LA DAUPHINE (1959) by Cesar

2.7 LA CLOSERIE FALBALA by Jean Dubuffet (1971-1973)

3.PALETTES—EPISODE: THE FOUR SEASONS (1660-1664) by Nicolas Poussin (1991, Alain Jaubert, A+)

D. STAGE PERFORMANCES

1.PAST IS SIMULATION – THE LADIES OF THE SEA VS. NORA, AND OTHER STORIES OF THE SOCIETY (directed by Monica Emilie Herstad, performed by Herstay, Norway, A+)

2.7 GRACES (directed by Hari Krishnan, performed by Anita Ratnam, India, A+)
You can watch a clip of Anita Ratnam here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SvzMikK3Y4

3.PUSH UP (directed by Damkerng Thitapiyasak, from the play by Roland Schimmelpfennig, A+)

4.PRASAD TAEK (directed by Panpassa Thoobthien, A+)
http://dechito.blogspot.com/2008/01/prasadtaek.html

5.OSMOSIS (directed by Jerry Snell, performed by Rajanikara Kaewdee, A+)

6.SUNFLOWER (directed by Noppan Boonyai, A)

——————————–

–Things experienced by Filmsick in Jan 2008
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20080203/experience-in-jan-2008

–Things experienced by Black Forests in Jan 2008 + His list of desirable actors
http://blackforests.blogspot.com/2008/02/fast-forward-january-2008.html

 

SUPAKSON CHAIMONGKOL

This is my comment in Peter Nellhaus’ blog:
http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com/archives/2008/04/coffee_break_38.html#comments

I like Supakson Chaimongkol and think she is one of the most unfortunate actresses, because she often plays in a bad movie that is not worthy of her talent. So I felt very glad to see her in HANDLE ME WITH CARE early this year. She really has the chance to shine in this film.

Supakson’s films in my preferential order:

1.HANDLE ME WITH CARE (2008, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, A+)

2.KHON HEW HUA (2007, Ping Lumpraploeng, A/A-)

3.JEE (ANDAMAN GIRL) (2005, Tanit Jitnukul, B)
I like the structure of this film. It starts with one genre and seems to end with another genre.

4.KUN PAN (2002, Tanit Jitnukul, B-)

5.NAM PRIK LHONG RUA (2006, Worapoj Pothineth, B-/C+)

6.ART OF THE DEVIL (2004, Tanit Jitnukul, C+)

7.CHAI LAI (DANGEROUS FLOWERS) (2006, Poj Arnon, F)