Printable View
I think we're quite lucky in the UK, I've caught most of his shorts on the cable channel filmfour which is pretty much the best for foreign and independent films. They do have a website with a large collection of downloadable short films but I have no idea if that icludes any of Kiarostami's - filmfour.com
Cheers Trev.
Easier said than done, then. I don't even have cable though I wish I got Canal 5 the FRench one, arsaib has seen good stuff there.
THINKFilm has acquired the N. American rights to Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. The In-Competition film is said to be the most "commercial" film the Canadian master has ever directed; we'll see. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and Alison Lohman. It will get a limited release starting on Oct. 7th.
THINKFilm will also distribute James Marsh's The King. The film is scheduled to be released at the beginning of 2006. The King was part of this year's Un Certain Regard.
Good to know about. The King looks really different and interesting, another offbeat choice by Garcia Bernal.
Quote:
Originally posted by arsaib4
"Meanwhile, I went to my first screening at the Directors Fortnight, one of the two unofficial programs here. Despite the near-lack of air conditioning, the ringing cell phones and the two biddies in front of me who pawed through their plastic bags throughout the screening (I kicked one of their chairs a couple of times, but apparently not hard enough), I fell for the Fortnight's opening film, "Be With Me." It's from a Singaporean, Eric Khoo, and interweaves the true story of a deaf-mute woman with tales of thwarted love. I didn't have any idea what was going on for the first half hour, but was in tears by the end, which is fairly rare (big surprise)."
NY Times.
Be With Me (2005) (Singapore)
Director: Eric Khoo
Cast: Theresa Chan, Chiew Sung Ching, Seet Keng Yew, Lynn Poh, Samantha Tan, Ezann Lee
The film opened the 37ème Sélection Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (i.e., 37th Selection Directors' Fortnight) at Cannes Film Festival 2005.
The official website is here ...
http://www.zhaowei.com/bewithme.html
The trailer is here ...
http://www.shaw.com.sg/upload/bewithme/bewithme.mov
The film, inspired by the story of Theresa Chan, a blind-and-deaf woman, is a tapestry of 3 stories ...
-- "Meant To Be" features the love and loneliness of a shopkeeper (in my humble opinion, the best of the 3)
-- "Finding Love" relates the one sided love of a fat and under-achieving man
-- "So In Love" depicts the love between two teenage girls ...
What really binds the stories together is not its tangentially related characters, but its underlying theme. In a way, all 3 stories depict the quest for love, and the feeling of despair ... but the horrible feelings seem rather insignificant as to what "real" sorrow is ... and even if one feels that all is lost, the film seems to suggest that all is not the end ... there is hope in life ... and there is redemption ... and destiny/fate is so unpredictable ...
On its own, 2 of the 3 stories might be kind of "familiar" and "nothing new" ... but strung together with the common theme and message, the film had a different flavor (talking about flavor ... there are quite a number of scenes on food and eating ... how Singaporean ... ha ha ha ...)
A few thought provoking lines include ...
"I cannot see and hear the beautiful things in life ... BUT, I also do not see and hear the ugly things ..."
"'Love disappears only when you do not understand what it means ..."
My suggestion on the technicality of subtitles
-- the subtitles (in white) should be bordered with black. against the occasional bright background, some subtitles are quite difficult to read ...
-- the good thing is, the film does subtitle for those who are not familiar with SMS abbrievations ...
Conclusion:
Although I recommend the film, I am not sure if I would credit the film more to its partially "real" story than to the craft of film making ... Also, one may have to stay till the end of the film before really appreciating why the film deserves a watch ...
;)
To all those who intend to watch the film, you have to appreciate a film with few dialogues, and be patient with much "reading" (from the typewriter, computer, SMS, letters, and subtitles).
PS: It will screen at the Toronto Film Festival too.
Sounds interesting. The problem is that there are only 2 screenings scheduled for this film in Toronto and they are at 9 and 9:30 am respectively. And since I'll be coming back to Buffalo at night, it'll be difficult to leave from here next morning at around 7:00 am to make them, but I'll try (Toronto is a little more than 100 miles away).
Johann's review is here ...
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...7&pagenumber=3
here is my reviewQuote:
Originally posted by hengcs
Director: Johnnie To
-- Election (English title)
-- Hei She Hui (Chinese title) (loosely translated to "Gangs/Triads" )
(edited)
Regardless of any award, I will watch the movie when it is released ...
;)
http://p219.ezboard.com/fforeignfilm...icID=210.topic
Be With Me is showing in Paris. I saw it here last week. I would not agree with johann's saying that is is a bad movie. In fact it is very well done technically. I can sympathize with his discomfort over the deaf and blind lady's speaking voice, which is grating as well as strange. Maybe we should have a thread for this movie. I will post a review of it eventually. I have notes.
Quick summary of my thoughts on it:
Very effective technically, in the Asian art-film tradition of long still takes, reserved viewpoint, slow, methodical editing, clarity.... but no particular beauty of image, perhaps too much reliance on extreme closeup. Somewhat conventional, but effective, organization into four (at least, not three) stories that eventually intersect. A weakness is that the subsidiary stories seem somehow tacked on in relation to the documentary of the deaf and blind lady. Ingenious, but artificial, and not ultimately completely convincing. The use of subtitles to give the thoughts of the lady, with no sound, was one of the most ingenious technical devices, quite original. And in French they were quite legible. Lovely, in fact.
A final, perhaps damning, weakness is a certain saccharine quality, an air of Pollyanish desperation. It struck me as a kind of love song to clinical depression. i did not buy the viewpoint at all. But very well done, very assured in its use of its material, and certainly not without memorable moments. If Singapore filmmakers have been below the radar, this is a sign that they shouldn't be.