Bangkok World Film Festival

[lovejuice]

I am not much a movie-goer nowadays, so I plan to redeem myself during my first Bangkok World Film Festival.

Here is the schedule. Anyone have any recommendation?

http://www.worldfilmbkk.com/theprograms_sections.php

[baby doll]

I've just seen A Film Unfinished and Three Monkeys, which were both good, but I'd like to see A Religiosa Portugesa, Our Beloved Month of August, Curling, and Ruhr.

[lovejuice]

I've just seen A Film Unfinished and Three Monkeys, which were both good, but I'd like to see A Religiosa Portugesa, Our Beloved Month of August, Curling, and Ruhr.
Ruhr is also my most anticipated film of the festival. Thank for the recommendation. I too have been eying A Film Unfinished.

[Stay Puft]

The only one I've seen is At the End of Daybreak. Totally worth seeing if you love Kara Hui as much as I (she turns in a great performance), but otherwise nothing to prioritize (though I did sorta like the film).

[dmk]

I'd highly recommend the following to most people:

The Portuguese Nun
Our Beloved Month of August
Kosmos

[baby doll]

I'd highly recommend the following to most people:Not all?

[dmk]

Not all?
Well, no. Although- those three films are reasonably accessible as far as films I like go, so I’d say most wouldn’t have a problem getting into them, unless they’re vulgar degenerates of the worst kind or simply just have a bad case of bad taste. I wouldn’t recommend those to, for example, someone who only finds him or herself stimulated by cinema of blandness and the common, like [title of film I find offensive]. This post is partially facetious.

[lovejuice]

The Portuguese Nun is interesting and yet a bit too experimental in some parts. But it raises interesting questions, and that's what I really want from a movie at the moment.

[baby doll]

The Portuguese Nun is interesting and yet a bit too experimental in some parts. But it raises interesting questions, and that's what I really want from a movie at the moment.No such thing. Anyway, the avant-garde is just another tradition.

[lovejuice]

No such thing. Anyway, the avant-garde is just another tradition.
True, True. When I approach a movie as a query into life, universe, and everything, any element contributes to my appreciation of the film.

And yet -- I can't believe there is a day I'm going to say this -- the movie's overuse of and how it handles musical numbers put me off a bit. It's definitely intentional, but I can't fit those three numbers into the aesthetic flow of the movie.

[lovejuice]

Since my birthday is coming up, and I don't want to be left out from the match-cut family, I will do some homework by writing half-ass short reviews of the films I saw.

http://www.worldfilmbkk.com/images/film_photo/film_img_458_1.jpg

Eternity (Sivaroj Kongsakul)

I don't know if this will ever hit the western market. Word of mouth from the festivals it attends is rather lukewarm. Those of you who felt disillusioned by the naturalness of Apichartpong's long-shot in Uncle Boonmee should avoid this film. It pushes the aesthetic of Thai art house to the limit.

The movie creates quite a stir of controversy. Many claim the film lack any substance. Others are enchanted by its subtlety. I am on the line. I appreciate what the film-makers are trying to do, and they do it extremely well. The acting is superb. The scenes are breath-taking. The film's just, to me, uninteresting. It's a sort of art that doesn't allow as many questions as appreciation.

[lovejuice]

http://images.smh.com.au/2010/08/02/1729953/portugese-nun-420-360x0.jpg

The Portuguese Nun (Eugène Green)

This is the perfect movie to watch after Eternity, since it does exactly the opposite. The experimentation with fourth-wall breaking is fun and effective, but is awkward at certain points. The movie, however, raises many interesting questions. Many of those regard the nature of Christianity which mostly fly over my head.

The movie achieves the impossible by defying my law of musical: "any movie can only be improved by a song-and-dance thrown in at ransom."

Overall I enjoy it more than Eternity, but the latter has more staying power.

[lovejuice]

http://www.icaboston.org/gedownload!/Pepperminta_web-lg.jpg?item_id=16113001

Pepperminta (Pipilotti Rist)

My least favorite of the bunch. If the term, "Amelia on Crack", sounds appealing to you, this is the movie to see. As the movie is pregnant with so much possibility for irony, its straight-face attitude repels me. A bit. Though, the greatest sense of irony is perhaps how the movie doesn't have any. If that makes any sense.

[lovejuice]

Psychohydrography (Peter Bo Rappmund)

Imagine my surprise when I expected a Planet Earth-type documentary about water, rivers and dams, and what I get is more avant-garde. Semi-random flowing images of water put you into a trance-like state, which I am not sure if it's any different from "being sleepy."

I'm kidding. The film is quite effective. The director shoots a documentary about water that does give you the feel for the medium's plasticity. Still I'd prefer the movie to have some overarching form or structure to better hang those images together.

[lovejuice]

http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/sites/bfi.org.uk.llgff/files/programme_item_images/s1/ruhr_02.jpg

Ruhr (James Benning)

Now this, on the other hand, is what an experimental film should be. The 120-minute feature composes of only 7 stationary shots. Yet they are so well-put together even if you don't like certain things, it'll be hard-pressed to argue for a change.

The film is challenging - many people walked out of the screening, and two guys purposely asked for their money back. It, however, is challenging not for nothing. Ruhr raises awareness on how our existences correlate with one another and to the environment. (Many documentary film-makers, I think, will wonder why they have never thought of the third shot before.)

Moreover, it opens a new frontier into human's perception. Why do we perceive time in such and such manner? Why do certain images bore us or keep us interest? It's an experimental film to the truest essence of this word. (Benning is mathematic-trained after-all.)

[lovejuice]

http://buchinsky.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/amer.jpg?w=500&h=281

Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani)

As a fan of giallo, this is no doubt the most fun I have at the festival. Cattel and Forzani know their giallo well. Though whether it's giallo they want to make is a question. I do agree with MacGuffin. The movie is as much Rollin-inspired as Argento, which is not necessary a bad thing since it's among the god-damn sexiest films I've ever seen.

The first third is pure giallo awesomeness before it devolves (evolves?) into something else. That something else is good too, but when it gets back on giallo-track, the film loses much of its horror momentum. The conclusion is superbly ridiculous in a giallo manner.

Fun no doubt, but it's also my most disappointed. Upon hearing about the project, I kinda wish they had taken queue from Argento's Animal Trilogy rather than the Witch Trilogy.

[lovejuice]

http://www.documentary.org/images/magazine/2010/FilmUnfinished2.jpg

A Film Unfinished (Yael Hersonski)

It does credit to the curators of the Bangkok World Film Festival that a documentary about the unfinished Nazi propaganda turns out to be the most conventional and least exciting of what I've seen.

That statement doesn't imply anything about the quality of the film. It's thought-provoking as such a documentary should be. It opens your eyes to the true nature of propaganda; how it is equally important to glamorize as much as to dehumanize your victims. It shows the state of the Warsaw ghetto before the melt-down, which rarely captures film-makers' imagination while no less cruel than the Auschwitz.

The documentary is very heavy-handed though, so in a way it is as much a propaganda as the original film. Perhaps of a more humane nature.

[MacGuffin]

Amer (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani)

As a fan of giallo, this is no doubt the most fun I have at the festival. Cattel and Forzani know their giallo well. Though whether it's giallo they want to make is a question. I do agree with MacGuffin. The movie is as much Rollin-inspired as Argento, which is not necessary a bad thing since it's among the god-damn sexiest films I've ever seen.

I don't recall very many sexy moments (at least not in line with a movie that might star Brigitte Lahaie), but I'm glad you liked it. My favorite part was when the girl discovers the rotting witch with the glowing ring... or was it a necklace? Anyway, there's some pretty cool imagery here that definitely strikes me as Euro-art-sleaze-film inspired, but as I said, it's also pretty unique and visionary in how its presented.

Ruhr sounds as good as I imagine it would be.

[lovejuice]

http://fest09.sffs.org/i/stills/main/our_beloved_month_of_august.jp g

Our Beloved Month of August (Miguel Gomes)

This documentary/musical/drama is as good as its hype. Gomes appears as himself, coming to a small village with a film crew. While looking for actors and waiting for the fund, the director does a little documentary about the local colors, and halfway through this documentary, it morphs into the movie that he originally plans to shoot.

The result is wonderfully Altmanic. (Some reviewers compare it to Nashville.) I can't resist any movie that beautifully paints its location. And I can't resist any movie that features as many Euro-pops.

Yet it's flawed. Its 147 minutes are not well-justified; twenty minutes can easily be left out on the cutting room floor. The movie also tries too hard to explain its approach, and at times it appears gimmicky.

[lovejuice]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TJ4tCa5cZsY/S_gM1L_hDSI/AAAAAAAAB7M/_6dr-S-UqzI/s400/Dzi%2BCroquettes%2Bcromo%2B001 %2Br.jpg

Dzi Croquettes (Raphael Alvarez, Tatiana Issa)

This falls into the same category as A Film Unfinished, a fine movie by itself, but rather bland compared to other entries of the festival. Its subject is more interesting than the documentary, itself.

Afterward, though, there is a Q&A by the film-makers who flew directly from Brazil. That is quite awesome.

Next is my last and favorite film from the festival. It's also a documentary and also from Brazil.

[lovejuice]

http://figafilms.com/dil/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/High-Rise-Still1-1023x682.jpg

High-Rise (Gabriel Mascaro)

High-Rise belongs to that sub-genre of documentary in which, like Jesus Camp, you allow your subjects to say on camera whatever despicable things they sincerely think it's ok to. Wealth inequality is to High-Rise what fundamental Christianity is to Jesus Camp.

The subjects of High-Rise are 9 ultra-privileges of Rio de Janeiro. With the most angelic faces ever, they spit out messages about how good it is to live on the penthouses away from the street and close to God. Some of them also have their own theories why the poor are so miserable.

What strikes me is the similarity between those bourgeois of Brazil and Thailand. They both share the same catch-phrases: nature, God, education. Is this a new trend among the middle-class of developing countries? Are we so sick of shouldering the guilt of being the more privileged that we start blaming the poor for their conditions?

There is one very curious scene near the end. An interviewee, in the middle of eulogizing her perfect life, falls silent. Does she finally discover a crack in her armor of self-delusion? Or is it just a cinematic trickery done by clever editing? We'll never know. I sure think the hope of future generation lies in these answers.

[lovejuice]

for the record, since I don't think any of these is qualified as US 2010 release, everything gets yay from me except Pepperminta and Psychohydrography.