Uncle Boonmee comes home . . .

to Thailand that is . . . not yet to Esarn but for now to SFX cinema at The Emporium to satisfy the thirst of those living in the Kingdom to have a taste of the Palme D'or, or specifically a chance to watch Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives at a movie theatre near them.

I had a chance to watch it at the premiere on Friday where two theatres simultaneously screened the movie. A little intro was made by P'Joei to the effect that, "this is the magic of the Palme d'Or that Thailand is the 3rd country in the world to have the movie screened" and "there was once a lady, called Lada, at the Ministry of Culture, she said that NOBODY wants to watch my films . . . well, the fact that tonight there are 2 packed theatres with my friends and supporters, perhaps she is wrong and I am so happy that there is SOMEBODY out there that wants to watch an Apichatpong film" . . ."please don't think too much and let yourself be hypnotised and taken on a journey".

To take us on a journey he certainly did, into a world where spirits and Monkey Ghosts are perfectly normal, where fish talk and can make love to a princess. It was surreal, beautiful and at once, totally normal that caves glisten with diamonds and spirits come to dinner . . . To over analyse and think too much about how it all relates choronogically and on what plane is the movie functioning would require a PhD thesis. What is evident though is that P'Joei does disrupt the plane in which time is assumed to function, yet,ironically, time is linear in real life as the movie runs its 2 hour course but these 2 hours are spent immersed in a world where the past, the present and the future blur, mingle and interact, creating a 4th dimension. And he was able to do this with humour, the funny moments were charming and the nostalgic ones evoked memories of my own childhood of Star Wars, old TV sitcoms and that princess in pink in a carriage that every little girl wants to be. A suspension of time and space, making us dig deep into our pool of memories and beliefs, yet is also his own personal homage to cinema. My father was perplexed and intrigued and I think it reminded him of elements of his childhood growing up in the North East. The guy on my right probably thought I was something of a drama queen as he had to listen to me gasp, cry and laugh (I am probably a rather annoying person to watch a film with) as I was totally carried away by this rather strange magical journey.

Dad, myself, Boonmee cupcakes and P'Joei

From the packed theatres where the Thai cultural pack (for lack of a better description) emerged after being spellbound there was then a reception in the foyer with green bottled beer and Uncle Boonmee shirts sold. Jelly Jan made me a dozen sticky date cupcakes that spelt perfectly UNCLE BOONMEE which Lee's assistant had to guard with her life. I then went along with Lee for a late night supper to an establishment called 55 Pochana (I was informed by former that there is a song written about this place), to the longest table ever.

long table

A rather long table on the street with a backdrop of the glistening Sukhumvit Road after the rain, with the cast and crew of Uncle Boonmee, how surreal it was to sit across from Boonsong, the Monkey Ghost as a human . . . especially now that they are real in the movie too.

Boonsong

For three days thereafter, I have dreamt of having a pet Monkey Ghost with red eyes, sitting at dinner with spirits and lastly that catfish.

Uncle Boonmee Celebrations

Our hero, Apichatpong, finally returned home, to a chocka-blocked schedule and a hero's welcome which included a visit with the PM, a celebatory dinner hosted by the ambassador of France and his ravishing wife and a big party at the Thai Film Archives hosted by the Thai Film Foundation and Jim Thompson. It was definitely an Apichatpong-a-rama of a weekend.

I actually interviewed P'Joei on Friday for the profile I am writing on him for Tatler, it was a lovely chat we had at the Kick the Machine office. He answered my questions about space and time and the suspension of it. The piece will be in Tatler next month.

On Saturday, my father and I were invited to dinner at the Residence of the French ambassador, it is beautiful, like going back intio a time long gone. I adored the speech Monsieur Le Lidec delivered.

P'Joei and the cast of Uncle Boonmee with the Palme D'or

It was a wonderful evening that made one feel very close to the Palme D'Or (eeks!) but then again it was for P'Joei and his warm, wonderful and very talented cast and crew. I touched a Palme d'Or. It is weighty, beautiful and precious,to me representing the hard work and passion that goes into filmmaking to win one of these.

P'Joei and Monsieur Le Lidec

P'Joei, his Palme d'Or and me

The next day was more celebrations and off to Nakorn Pathom we went to the nostalgic Thai Film Archives which played host to a temple party called San De Jai (= soo happy) where the tent covered food from roti to phad Thai and drinks were traditional Thai concoctions with the addition of a Grey Goose bar and their customised Tropical Malady and other worldly cocktails. The theatre was packed during the seesion with P'Joei and the very sharp, totally poignant and knowledgeable film critic/writer Kong Rithdee, so we hung outside in front of the TV watching the interview what took place in the theatre and sneaking in photo ops from the scenic set up.

There was a bald little boy that was like a magical golden child, his enery was totally other worldly.

Golden child on the red carpet with P'Joei and P'Piak cut-outs

Lynn and I

The hand printing session was very charming, the actors and actresses from Boonmee are so wonderful, Pa Jane and Sakda are two of the regulars in P'Joei's movies.

Pa Jane making her print

Sakda

The evening was time for an outdoor screening of the Uncle Boonmee trailer, some excerpts and something which I have not seen before was the music video done with Moderndog as part of the Primitive installation and the second time I saw Letters to Uncle Boonmee. It was definitely a bonus sitting with the film editor watching the clips :) .

Then the real magic started and it came with the rain, not only can they act but the entire cast of Uncle Boonmee can sing and sing really really well, lukthung and Molam - like what you see in the movies, P'Joei's movies but in real life, in the middle of nowhere to celebrate a little golden palm. It was magical.

A must surreal weekend and one which would be very fitting to a visionary whose work which was being celebrated was described as like " a strange floating dream like nothing one has seen before" - Tim Burton.

Uncle Boonmee and me

Cannot wait to see the film, especially now that the people who have made it and are in it have become so real - are real.

PALME D'OR

Congratulations to P'Joei Apichatpong Weerasethakul and his team for winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year for Uncle Boonmee Recalls his Past Lives . . .

In his own words "I would like to thank all the spirits and all the ghosts in Thailand who made it possible for me to be here " . . .

Props to Tim Burton, the president of the Jury . . .for letting this film which is described as "barely a film; more a floating world" by the Telegraph to WIN . . .

This hopefully is only the beginning and will make it more apparent that his vision, talent and achievements should not just thrive away from home.

CONGRATULATIONS . . .

PS. Thank you to Kong Rithdee, P'Lee and the team at CNN for making an exclusive interview of P'Joei at Cannes exclusively for Channel 9 and ASEAN TV possible . . .should be broadcasted tmr.

Shakespeare Must Die . . .

is the new feature film from Ing K (of Citizen Juling and My Teacher Eats Biscuits). It is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth where Ing kept the Bard's imambic pentatemeter in her Thai translation, it is a political thriller of which is as much satire of the political situation of Thailand as it is a harsh criticism of it.  It does not take much imagination to guess who is Macbeth and Lady M in the context of Thai politics but low and behold, there are twists in this adpation and layers . . .in fact the movie will function on 3 dimensions - in real life, in the theatre and on TV.  It is perhaps ironic that at present Bkk has been somewhat taken hostage and we are in a political quagmire that is complex at best, futile at worse but perhaps a necessary part of the growing pains of our nation. . .how much of the movie which is being filmed now is mimicking real life? Again, art imitating life . . but oddly at parallel times.  

If Shakespeare represents the freedom of expression and personal rights and freedoms, any leader who says that he must die is very wicked . . .Many theories, many answers but the one that is most enlightening is perhaps that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. . . thus no room for freedom, none at all.

on set

I make my screen "debut" as one of the 3 witches - I came to understand that wicked these witches were not, but actually they are catalysts for the exposure of truth, the ugly side of human nature and absolute power.  They are forces and parts of nature that inspire like muses for events to unfold and for what is meant to be to . .

Witch #1

tree of spirits

Me and the Director

potions

witches and Macbeth

My inspiration to make my little debut was that I really wanted to undestand how the whole process worked, seeing as I have of really been inspired by teh people in it and seen more films.  It was really fun, the whole crew was awesome, it really is incredibly hard work, painstaking but so fun and fulfulling in many ways - 

P'Ing with P'Manit (Director of Photography) in front of painting by Chartchai (on set)

kids on set (actors)

a little preview of the movie . . . seeing as they do not wrap up for another month and then there is the whole festival process might be a while before this is at any theatre around here and well, let's see if Shakespeare (or what he represents in reality) is murdered . . .

Not at a Theatre Near You

. . . and how you should be so wishing that "they" were. By "they" I mean good quality Thai independent films.  

I wrote an article in Thailand Tatler this month about how the greatest Thai films journey to international festivals and their creators are lauded abroad and in some cases are heroes but here in Thailand, they are not really given the time or funding that they deserve.  Times they are A-changin, a little, but definitely not enough, just because there is a film fund does not mean that things are different, especially when the Ministry of Culture are forced to defend themselves against protest for granting 100 million baht from a 200 million baht fund to one director for the 3rd sequel of his epic, very expensive film.  This has received a lot of attention and rightly so, as there is evidently something wrong when this can happen, i.e. when a Minister's discretion favours one man over many, and not because the many are not talented or able but because pre-conceived notions of what is culture or talent.  There is definitely no scope for using lack of merit in this case when these indepedent directors get funding and awards across the globe, their works meet and exceed international expectations.  It is a bit funny that they until recently and in a strange (italicised because the above scenario) way have only managed to garner support here. My little intro as to what the festivals mean and who the talents are. . . check out Thailand Tatler May 2010 - on newstands now.

A still from Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Recalls his Last Life - the cover for my Tatler feature . . . photo courtesy of Kick the Machine

Although not at a theatre near us yet but will be in competition in the Official Selection at Cannes next week is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's newest feature Uncle Boonmee Recalls his Last Life. Once again, Apichatpong, or P'Joei is up for the Palme  d'Or and thus a de facto national HERO, to me at least and I believe also to many.  It is evident that no compromises are made and if ever there is a director with integrity, it is him - it is evident in his work as well as his protest currently, together with P'Manit vs Ministry of Culture for the farce mentioned above.  It is no surprise then that he is also nominated for the Hugo Boss Art Prize this year.  

Uncle Boonmee Recalls his Last Life trailer

The trailer for his Cannes entry was just posted . . .it gives me goose bumps over and over again . . . There is something about the pace and the way the images speak to each other that in just 2:33 minutes one is at the edge of ones seat and lusting to see the film.  This clearly is the result of some genius editting.  I was not so sure what film editting was until I read Lee Chatametikool's interview that I stumbled across and have since found out that P'Lee is a long term collaborator of P'Joei's, and is the editor responsible for every important Thai film that has left this country in recent years and received funding and won prestigious awards abroad in the last few years.  Thus it is no coincidence that talent finds talent, no matter how destitute the environment in which they exist.  P'Lee's first feature is called, Past Love, but we will need to wait a little while to see it, but if his track record and his producers (P'Joei, Anocha and P'Thongdee) are anything to go by, it will be worth the wait. . . and hopefully by then things will have changed and a film like his will be a theatres near you.

A High Society Closure

February 14th is the day of love . . .or so they say . . .it says a lot about our own personal love lives that a group of people should find themselves on a movie set on Valentine's day (and Chinese New Year) where instead of Tigers and fireworks or candlelit dinner, we went to a Christmas party, for the last day of filming for Aditya Assarat's High Society.  

P'Juke and Ananda

The director, Aditya Assarat (P'Juke) said to me that he wanted me to see the inner-workings of a film set, well, thank you to p'Juke and Ananda, I spent an afternoon and a night, thoroughly entertained and fascinated.  It is the inverse of fashion and all that I know, as on film, the life (life in the movie) comes to life . . . a paradox in terms no? 

My involvement here, as was Jolanda's, Louis', James', Potsy's etc etc were that we played Ananda's friends so in actual fact, played ourselves, and he played a movie star (himself) - he was hanging with his friends, all international kids back home in Bkk for the holidays.  Well, there is a very fine line of where art imitates life and life imitates art . . . it was blurred that night and I imagine in the film, where I imagine that line went backwards and forwards like a pendulum. . . 

Hardly, reality but if it looks on celluiloid like we were having fun, chances were that we actually were having fun.

Jolanda and I

James

High Society is a movie by Aditya starring Ananda about a "dek nok" a specific type of Thai who is Thai yet not due to his years abroad exists as an outsider yet an  insider, this is explored through his instant stardom as an actor upon his return from abroad and his relationships with his foreign girlfriend who comes to visit him and later his very Thai girlfriend . . .well, how much of that is actually reality? He has the freedom to leave it all - that I can relate to rather well.  Again, it begs the question of where does real-life start.  I was on a fate forest (feng-shui reasons) clearing mission that took me to Khao Yai - I was supposed to spend the weekend away but justified an early return as a film set is not reality . .yet the Christmas party did after midnight turn into a real party and the water shots turned to vodka . . .so I did drive home in the early morning of the 15th from a parallel universe after all. 

cigarettes, beer and vodka - product placement dream

Potsy and his doppelganger doll

Ananda

MCOT (I have for the last 6 months ended my days of listless joy to consult the President of the organisation on intellectual property and special projects) will be supporting this movie, in a way in which the Thai film industry has yet to see and hopefully it will finally give a small industry with a lot of soul that has always sustained itself, the appreciation and support that it deserves.  

It is something to be proud of that our independent films go to Cannes and other festivals(our commercial ones save for a few do not), our artists are at the Guggenheim, and we are funded by foreign funds but it is a perhaps a tad bit shameful (or to be quite frank, completely and utterly embarrassing) that we do not have institutional support for this little diaspora of creatives.  This of course is a vast generalisation and I am fully aware that there are a few individuals, great individuals, who give support and patron, yet, these men are far and few between. . .just a thought.

Hey, we had fun though . . . can't wait to see the film.