Waiting for Happiness
At the threshold of a world (a language-learning sequence):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJx5dsoMGqw
Interview with director Abderrahmane Sissako, talking about Waiting for Happiness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIGzUN1p2sw
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Syndromes and a Century
[Trailer--sets the tone:]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmzYF1O9iMY&feature=related
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From Part One--the village
Monk playing guitar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POcyqNMxc0w&feature=related
The doctor and the orchid man (confessing your love) / At the night party (the dentist's musical offering):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o31ciWU8g0c&feature=related
Two women (the eclipse):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGPve4Kmqg&feature=related
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From Part Two--in the hospital (city):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yyKTE8TytA
The doctor's kiss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0cSdWvmZaY&feature=related
After the doctor's kiss--in the corridor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haDpNG2ULy8&feature=related
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[Bangkok afternoon aerobics: same urban phenomenon featured at end of film:]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOaZfgZazxw&feature=related
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3 comments:
Thank you for posting these, BTP. Two lovely films.
I especially liked the scene of the two women, and the way the eclipse footage is used.
But there's a willingness in both films to just let the camera watch people be.... seeming to be slow, but in fact, judging by the clips, the plot is moving forward.
And thank you for doing the posting and for looking, Zeph.
Yes, the two women, the eclipse... and the way the eclipse comes back in the black hole of the funnel in the hospital basement toward the end of the second part--the movie echoing and turning round upon itself...
(... also love the way the soundtrack lapses across the scenes as linking bridge--keeping us aware everything is continuum...)
"Seeming to be slow" is surely the way of it, but life all the while moving on and changing--into itself.
thanks B for posting these, although clips can only represent a film at least they give a point of reference. Appreciate the stillness that seems to feature in Syndromes and can add that it is fairly unusual for Thai movies.
Another one that you might appreciate (though far less art-house than Syndromes seems) but with a similar thoughtfulness is Mekhong Full Moon Party (Thai title: 15th day, 11th month) which is a sort of examination of traditional religious superstitions vs modern science (very Thai in the way that the story refuses to come down definitively on either side of the fence). I'll always remember that film for the phrase "Hed ni sing ti chua, chua ni sing ti hed" which is something like "Do what you believe in, believe in what you do" (but in an Issan dialect) A bit glib but it's explored quite well in the plot.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvgmDD4_VI&feature=related
[couldn't find a clip with subtitles but the monk asks the boy what he is doing and why and then when they sit down the boy asks the monk something I can't understand about religion (sorry!) and the monk replies that it's not all about the power of the intellect 'hua jai' but simply "Do what you believe in ..."
one thing I'll never understand about Thais is the way that in Bangkok (as in your clip) they will do aerobics right along side the busiest roads in town at rush hour, sucking in all those toxic fumes in their quest for fitness
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