I experienced a moment of epiphany when I finished watching Burnt by the Sun and hoped its theme music would continue to play, forever.
It is simply one of the best I have watched for a long while.
To my disappointment, I cannot find anything about Nadia Mikhalkov who was the soul of this most touching film.
August 31, 2009
Les vampires
I watched this 336 minutes long film over three days. This 'legendary' silent thriller by Louis Feuillade is more like a historical document that serves to remind us how conventions, technologies, and tastes have evolved and changed ever since the first of ten episodes was made in 1915.
'Popular' with its contemporary audience, I am sure even a toddler today can spot some of the cracks in the plots. It was also obvious that the technologies of the mid-1910s would not allow shooting in dim light, and therefore all the street scenes at night are identical to those of the day time, making it sometimes rather confusing (even in this rather simple plot story) to follow the sequences of events. The actors, male or female, young or old, all seem extremely athletic and were capable of climing up the walls like a monkey on a tree! In terms of performance, it was a norm for the main characters to share their points of view by looking at the camera for a few seconds and even telling us with silent lips their inner thoughts as if failing to do so would hinder the communication with the audience!
There are things though which remain unchanged despite the thriller has moved on so much with the advance of technologies. For example, pairing the protagonist with a comic sidekick is still the norm, and while the lead has to stand up to scrunity in all aspects (and therefore a bit boring), his sidekick would usually have all the fun for human being, humourous and even naughty. I am charmed by the actor who played the sidekick in this film and found him most endearing and funny.
The major impact though is how the police was represented. It was not just that events evolve around the journalist, his sidekick, and the vampires, and that all the leads of crimes resulted from the (supernatural) instinct, extreme alertness, talents, hard working and integrity of the protagonists, but even at the scenes where police was present, it was them who gave orders to police as if they were their commanding officers!! Alfred Hitchcock never trusted the police, but it was here that they were rendered entirely redundant as if they were a mere group of salaryman in uniform!
The Vampires reminds me of Irma Vep, starring Maggie Cheung and directed by Oliver Assayas. The only thing I can remember the 'remake' of 1996 was how obscure and complicated it was. I wonder if I can understand it a bit better.
'Popular' with its contemporary audience, I am sure even a toddler today can spot some of the cracks in the plots. It was also obvious that the technologies of the mid-1910s would not allow shooting in dim light, and therefore all the street scenes at night are identical to those of the day time, making it sometimes rather confusing (even in this rather simple plot story) to follow the sequences of events. The actors, male or female, young or old, all seem extremely athletic and were capable of climing up the walls like a monkey on a tree! In terms of performance, it was a norm for the main characters to share their points of view by looking at the camera for a few seconds and even telling us with silent lips their inner thoughts as if failing to do so would hinder the communication with the audience!
There are things though which remain unchanged despite the thriller has moved on so much with the advance of technologies. For example, pairing the protagonist with a comic sidekick is still the norm, and while the lead has to stand up to scrunity in all aspects (and therefore a bit boring), his sidekick would usually have all the fun for human being, humourous and even naughty. I am charmed by the actor who played the sidekick in this film and found him most endearing and funny.
The major impact though is how the police was represented. It was not just that events evolve around the journalist, his sidekick, and the vampires, and that all the leads of crimes resulted from the (supernatural) instinct, extreme alertness, talents, hard working and integrity of the protagonists, but even at the scenes where police was present, it was them who gave orders to police as if they were their commanding officers!! Alfred Hitchcock never trusted the police, but it was here that they were rendered entirely redundant as if they were a mere group of salaryman in uniform!
The Vampires reminds me of Irma Vep, starring Maggie Cheung and directed by Oliver Assayas. The only thing I can remember the 'remake' of 1996 was how obscure and complicated it was. I wonder if I can understand it a bit better.
August 27, 2009
Tell no one
Last Saturday afternoon, I spent nearly four hours in one of the viewing rooms in Esplanade to watch two French films: 8 Femmes, and, Tell No One, both are available only for in-house restricted viewing.
It became pretty 'clear' less than half way through why 8 Femmes is on restricted viewing. The culprit is not violence or nudity, but the lack of sense of morality in all characters, and I can see the censors here finding it contradicting severely with the 'shared traditional values' purportedly upheld by the Singapore society. Honestly, it is a film I would not recommend to anyone, unless, like me, they are avid for any things from the stars.
I am never into musical, and I found it horrifying in particular when the 8 femmes, old or young, take turns to spring into a sing and dance routine whenever they delve into their inner selves. The singing episodes interrupt the overall narrative, and also crash with the overall mood of the backdrop of the film - that of the murder of the only patriach figure. Although the victim was revealed at the end as a monstor, and therefore not worthy of any sympathy, it does not 'justify' the singing and dancing acts put on by all characters.
What surprises me most is how come a film of such a bad script and bad taste could attract some of the best actresses in French cinema.
***
I have been looking for Tell No One ever since I was bewitched by a Guillanme Canet in Hunting and Gathering. It is unexplicable because his earlier Love Me if You Dare never made any impression on me. Tell No One is thrilling indeed but the show is stealt by the minor character Bruno, the gangster who rescued the hero when he was on the run from police. I still prefer Hunting and Gathering for its casual charm, and the chemistry between Audrey and Canet.
It became pretty 'clear' less than half way through why 8 Femmes is on restricted viewing. The culprit is not violence or nudity, but the lack of sense of morality in all characters, and I can see the censors here finding it contradicting severely with the 'shared traditional values' purportedly upheld by the Singapore society. Honestly, it is a film I would not recommend to anyone, unless, like me, they are avid for any things from the stars.
I am never into musical, and I found it horrifying in particular when the 8 femmes, old or young, take turns to spring into a sing and dance routine whenever they delve into their inner selves. The singing episodes interrupt the overall narrative, and also crash with the overall mood of the backdrop of the film - that of the murder of the only patriach figure. Although the victim was revealed at the end as a monstor, and therefore not worthy of any sympathy, it does not 'justify' the singing and dancing acts put on by all characters.
What surprises me most is how come a film of such a bad script and bad taste could attract some of the best actresses in French cinema.
***
I have been looking for Tell No One ever since I was bewitched by a Guillanme Canet in Hunting and Gathering. It is unexplicable because his earlier Love Me if You Dare never made any impression on me. Tell No One is thrilling indeed but the show is stealt by the minor character Bruno, the gangster who rescued the hero when he was on the run from police. I still prefer Hunting and Gathering for its casual charm, and the chemistry between Audrey and Canet.
August 17, 2009
The last man that knows you
It is less than two minutes long and there is just one phrase which is repeated in chorus many a time: the last man that knows you. I was hooked by this debut album from Beyond when I first heard it back in the early 1990s, and now it still sounds as fresh as it ever was.
The album was in fact a self-financed demo album from the pop band from Hong Kong. I have never heard anything so raw yet so charming and powerful from that territory since. The energy and the drive is not uncommon in the debut albums of some of the most successful bands. The album is named Goodbye Idealism and how sad this seemed to be exactly what they had to do in their pursue for survival and success in Hong Kong pop.
The album was in fact a self-financed demo album from the pop band from Hong Kong. I have never heard anything so raw yet so charming and powerful from that territory since. The energy and the drive is not uncommon in the debut albums of some of the most successful bands. The album is named Goodbye Idealism and how sad this seemed to be exactly what they had to do in their pursue for survival and success in Hong Kong pop.
August 04, 2009
A prison diary
When I heard somebody commented a couple of years ago that it was 'very well-written', I thought 'well, naturally, you have read all of his books'. I had not followed Lord Jeffery Archer's case fully; but it was so high profile that it was unlikely for anyone to be able to miss it if you were living in the UK at that time. He seemed to have acted shamelessly and the idea that he would publish a series of books on his prison experience sounded like daylight robbing and downright disgraceful.
I am now down to its second series (of three), and I realised last night that I had been preferring to miss my films on DVDs rather than missing the chapters. Yes, I find it a problem that he has discussed many a time that the judge had not given him a fair summery and sentence, yet never a word has been uttered on his own act of perjury to lead to his public downfall. But if you can put that aside for a while, it is a very powerful document written with great simplicity, clarity, and fluency. So on one hand, I find myself trying to maintain a critical distance from the writer who had instigated his own fall, on the other, I am eager to find out what would happen to him next - surrounded by social outcasts of violent or severe crimes. I now believe that it was not just for his own sanity that he should keep and publish his diary, but also for the greater good of the inmates and the general public alike. It is his duty as a 'lord', public figure, writer, to raise the profile of those many issues that had frustrated so many on both sides of the high wall. For that, well done.
I am now down to its second series (of three), and I realised last night that I had been preferring to miss my films on DVDs rather than missing the chapters. Yes, I find it a problem that he has discussed many a time that the judge had not given him a fair summery and sentence, yet never a word has been uttered on his own act of perjury to lead to his public downfall. But if you can put that aside for a while, it is a very powerful document written with great simplicity, clarity, and fluency. So on one hand, I find myself trying to maintain a critical distance from the writer who had instigated his own fall, on the other, I am eager to find out what would happen to him next - surrounded by social outcasts of violent or severe crimes. I now believe that it was not just for his own sanity that he should keep and publish his diary, but also for the greater good of the inmates and the general public alike. It is his duty as a 'lord', public figure, writer, to raise the profile of those many issues that had frustrated so many on both sides of the high wall. For that, well done.
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