
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Makkal Osai

11th Thai Short Film & Video Festival


I went to Spoken Silence yesterday, a themed evening of films about the repressive social and cultural environment following last year's coup. There were twelve films in the programme:
Bangkok Tanks
(a transcript of a superficial Windows Live chat, accompanied by off-air coup footage from CNN; directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit)
Silence In D Minor
(filmed through a green tarpaulin which acted as a filter, ending with a CNS announcement inviting youth participation; directed by Chalida Uabumrungjit)
The Duck Empire Strike Back [sic]
(Thaksin's ousting through the metaphor of a rubber duckie; directed by Nutthorn Kangwanklai)
Letter From The Silence
(shots of a letter about a taxi driver who crashed his cab into a tank; directed by Prap Boonpan)
The Love Culprit
(a story told in voice-over followed by a melodramatic karaoke video featuring tribal dancers; directed by Sanchai Chotirosseranee)
3-0
(intercutting between a woman trying to cross the road, another woman exercising, and a boy's physiotherapy; ending with a peaceful anti-coup demonstration; directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong)
Fake World
(actors filming TV commercials, featuring the over-acting and ridiculous sound effects common to Thai TV; directed by Tanwarin Sukhapisit)
งานเฝ้าระวังความฝันของบุคคลที่น่าเชื่อว่าฝักใฝ่การทำลายศีลธรรมอันดีของประชาชน
(static shots continually going in and out of focus; directed by Manutsak Dokmai)
When The Movie Listens
(a man sitting and looking into the camera, as if waiting for someone to speak; directed by Tulapop Saenjaroen)
Man With A Video Camera
(a montage of scenes from daily life, including a pro-Thaksin rally, inspired by Dziga Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera; directed by Jakrawal Nilthamrong)
หนีนรกโพธิ์พระยา 2526
(a young girl answering unheard questions, and boys playing with toy guns; directed by Paisit Punpruksachart)
Middle-Earth
(a male couple sleeping next to each other, naked; directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul)
The Spoken Silence films were, for the most part, metaphorical rather than overtly political, though several of them included found footage of coup-related events. They were often literally silent (only Fake World featured actual dialogue), even encouraging the audience to provide the soundtrack (The Love Culprit invited us to sing along to the karaoke; When The Movie Listens was an experiment in audience participation, asking us to speak as the actor listened).
Unfortunately, as evidenced by my synopses above - and notwithstanding the Silence theme - not understanding Thai meant that there was a lot I missed out on. My central motivation for attending, however, Thunska's Middle-Earth, was as outstanding as I'd expected: a beautiful, tender, and ultimately playful film. The directors of each film took part in a Q&A session after the screenings.
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
28 Days


Friday, 10 August 2007
The Simpsons Movie

OK, so we should know better than to believe all the publicity, but the build-up The Simpsons Movie had led us to expect a comedy masterpiece on a par with the greatest Simspons TV episodes. Well, it's entertaining and funny, but not quite laugh-out-loud funny. There are a few great jokes, such as the Fox ticker and Bart's "doodle", but overall the result is average rather than awesome.
Monday, 6 August 2007
Zelig

Allen recreates 1930s film footage with impressive accuracy. His 'documentary' clips are convincingly grainy, scratched, and age-worn. The costumes and acting styles are also authentic-looking, making this one of the most successful fake documentary attempts since the March Of Time sequence in Citizen Kane. Only occasionally was real period footage utilised, for example when Zelig is inserted into the background during an Adolf Hitler speech; this technique predates Forrest Gump.
Zelig is, above all, a great comedy. The advanced college course, the disagreement with Freud, and the $600 Hebrew lessons are all classic Allen jokes.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Festival Of Classic Movies







