Have a laugh
The Memory! Fest brings comedy classics by Chaplin, Keaton, Tati and Ozu to Bangkok
CLASSIC COMEDY FILMS from around the world will be shown in the Memory! International Film Heritage Festival next week at the Alliance Francaise in Bangkok and the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom.
Under the theme of “Laughter!”, the festival will screen 11 films, among them works by the masters of the 1920s silent era – Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. French comedy kings Jacques Tati and Pierre Etaix will be represented as will Hollywood veteran Alexander Mackendrick and Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. Thailand’s pioneering auteur, Rattana Pestonji, will get some love, and regional connections are explored a “silk road comedy” from Mongolia.
First put on in Phnom Penh in 2013, the festival was created by Memory! Cinema with support from the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. Its aim is to promote and preserve the world’s film heritage, which goes hand-in-hand with the Thai Film Archive’s mission.
“Films are endangered everywhere in the world if they are not well preserved,” the organisation states. “More than 90 per cent of films around the world made before 1929 are lost forever, as well as half of all American films made before 1950.”
“This is about old films. But films of the past have been – and still are – a source of inspiration for a multitude of filmmakers, whatever their nationality,” the group’s statement continues. “The films of the past are an open window on the world for everyone whatever the latitude they live on.”
Also titled Memory! Reprise Thailand, the Bangkok-area edition offers a mix of selections from the festival’s past years in Phnom Penh.
It opens on Thursday at the Alliance Francaise with one of the earliest films ever – 1902’s “A Trip to the Moon”, the proto-science-fiction fantasy directed by French movie magician Georges Mlis. The short will be followed by “The Circus”, in which Chaplin’s beloved “tramp” stumbles into the middle of a performance under the big top and becomes the star of the show.
The British are coming with “The Ladykillers”, a 1955 black comedy by American-born Scottish director Mackendrick and the Ealing studios. Forget the remake by the Coen brothers and Tom Hanks. Here, you get a wickedly sinister Alec Guinness as the leader of a gang of thieves who pose as music students and rent rooms from an elderly landlady while they plan their next heist. British comedy talents Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom are among the cast.
From France come a pair of comedies by Etaix, his 1962 short “Happy Anniversary”, which a wife waits in vain for her husband to return home for a celebration of their wedding anniversary. The other is 1969’s feature “The Great Love”, with the director himself starring as a man who is feeling restless after 15 years of marriage. He gets a new secretary and starts daydreaming.
Another French highlight will be “Playtime” by Tati. The most-expensive French film of its day, the 1967 comedy was filmed at “Tativille”, an immense set that had an airline terminal, city streets, high rise buildings, offices and a traffic circle. Tati’s iconic trench-coat clad character of Mr Hulot takes centrestage, wordlessly commenting on the ridiculously alienating modern architecture and conveniences of the time.
An equally herculean effort was made by Keaton in his 1927 epic “The General”, which required a steam locomotive and a railroad to make. Stemming from a fact-based account of the American Civil War, it’s the story of meek southern locomotive engineer who is turned away when he volunteers for the Confederate army. But he eventually becomes a hero when his engine is stolen by northern forces, and he does whatever it takes to get it back, and to win the hand of the love of his life.
Another silent-era highlight is “Safety Last”, which features the iconic scene of Lloyd’s bespectacled hero dangling from the hands of a clock on the side of a building, 12 storeys above the busy street. It’s a scene that has been copied countless times since then, yet few folks have seen the original.
From Mongolia comes “Before Rising Up the Rank”. Produced by the historic, Soviet-influenced Kino Mongol studio, the black-and-white film is based on an old folk tale that follows the misadventures of a shaman prince and his two servants.
Lovers of Thai cinema are treated to 1965’s “Sugar is not Sweet” (“Nam Tan Mai Wan”) by Thailand’s first auteur filmmaker, Rattana Pestonji. Eye-poppingly colourful, “Sugar” reflects on Rattana’s Persian-Indian heritage with the story of rocky romance between the slacker scion of a Chinese-Thai family and Sugar (Metta Rungrattana), the orphaned daughter of an Indian business partner. Sombat Metanee stars in an early leading role as the layabout Manas, who resists his father’s wishes because he doesn’t want to marry a “roti”. He’d rather stay with his vain gold-digging Thai girlfriend (Preeya Rungrevang).
And from Japan is a masterwork by Ozu, 1959’s “Good Morning” (“Ohayo”). His second film in colour, “Good Morning” is a departure from Ozu’s more austere and refined works, with a light-hearted story of boys growing up in Tokyo in the 1950s. They constantly beg their father to buy them one of those new-fangled gadgets called televisions. But dad refuses, and he orders the boys to not bring up television ever again. In retaliation, the brats take a vow of silence, which causes all kinds of problems.
REMEMBER THIS
The Memory! International Film Heritage Festival runs from next Thursday until March 6 at the Alliance Francaise in Bangkok and the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom.
Films have Thai and English subtitles.
Admission is free. Seats can be reserved online at bit.ly/MEMORYTHAILAND or by phone at the Alliance, (02) 670 4222, or at the Archive, (02) 482 2013 ext 111.
For further details, see www.Facebook.com/MemoryFilmFestivalThailand.
February 26, 6.30pm Alliance Francaise A Trip to the Moon/The Circus
February 27, 7.30pm Alliance Francaise The Ladykillers
February 28, 1pm Thai Film Archive Happy Anniversary/The Great Love
February 28, 3pm Thai Film Archive Before Rising Up the Ranks
March 1, 1pm Thai Film Archive Playtime
March 1, 3pm Thai Film Archive The General
March 2, 7.30pm Alliance Francaise Sugar is not Sweet
March 3, 7.30pm Alliance Francaise Happy Anniversary/The Great Love
March 4, 1pm Thai Film Archive Safety Last
March 4, 3pm Thai Film Archive Sugar is not Sweet
March 5, 7.30pm Alliance Francaise Good Morning
March 6, 7.30pm Alliance Francaise Playtime
