Syndromes and a Century: US DVD release
From Twitch by way of Karina at SpoutBlog I learned today that Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century is making its way to DVD in the United States on January 15, 2008.
(sound of crickets chirping)
Ok, so why am I telling you this? For starters, Syndromes was the best one hour and forty-five minutes I spent at all of last summer’s LA Film Festival. It blew my tiny little American mind. You can read as I flail around trying to explain the experience here.
I know, it’s not Pirates 3, but what are you waiting for? Go throw it in your Netflix queue. Seriously. I’ll still be here when you get back.
Also as a sidenote: if you want to stop getting invited to parties, walk around saying “Hello, my name is Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You killed my father…prepare to die” to total strangers. It’s even better out loud. Trust me.
The strange thing is that this movie has never played in its home country. It was supposed to open in Thailand on April 19th of this year, but the Thai Censorship Board demanded the removal of four scenes. Apichatpong refused to recut his film telling the Bangkok Post: “I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters. I don’t care if people are fond of them or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free. There is no reason to mutilate them in fear of the system. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”
The offending scenes involved doctors kissing and drinking liquor and a Buddhist monk playing guitar and playing with a UFO toy. The most recent information I could find was that the censors wouldn’t even return the print of the movie.
(pausing to let that sink in)
You know, I’m not one to tell people how to run their country, but that’s just impossibly lame. So now you have 2 reasons to rent/buy Syndromes and a Century: Blow your own mind and take a stand against censorship at the same time.
Just do it, then tell a friend about it. You can thank me later.
Thanks for the tip Craig. I’ve never heard of this film, look forward to looking into it.
I should tell you right now, 75% of the people who follow my advice are going to come back and ask me just why in the hell I made them watch this movie.
You’ve been warned.
…walk around saying “Hello, my name is Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You killed my father…prepare to die”
Easier done than said. The walking around part, anyway.
How ’bout I just write it on a card and flash it at people?
I saw his first film (the title of which escapes me) and have had Tropical Malady in my queue forever. I’ll add this one to the list.
“Hello, my name is Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You killed my father…prepare to die”
didn’t rimbaud/dylan say that in i’m not there ???
frankb. how about using a ringtone instead of a flashcard ??? ;)
‘it’s just a funny feeling/that been building up…’
If/when you see it Frank, I’ll be curious to hear if you get a strange David Lynch vibe off it at certain points.
I don’t want to mislead you into thinking it’s a Lynch movie, but….well maybe you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
This was my very first Apichatpong Weerasethakul film and I’ve been meaning to check out his other stuff ever since. What am I waiting for? I don’t know.
Glimmer, if Bob/Rimbaud had said that in I’m Not There, it almost wouldn’t have felt out of place. Has anyone seen that thing yet? Maybe I should try to write a real review of it. I think I need to see it again first though.
i was just joking.it would have been funny if dylan/rimbaud had said that during his *six tips* segement… ;)
didn’t dylan/rimbaud say something like bla blah blah… .look’em in the eye.and they won’t ask again ?? and yes i have forgotten exactly what it was he said. yes i’m pathetic…
and yes i saw/watched i’m not there yesterday.
and what how about this…
insert the 5,000th question about folk music/what it to dylan or the audience/society means via i’m not there
and answered with
“Hello, my name is Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You killed my father…prepare to die”
would have been a great dylan/rimbaud or a great dylan/jude answer.(you know when that reporter continued asking jude those questions.)
craig…i don’t know what it means.
maybe this is what happens when you see a 7:30 pm showing on tuesday…
but i swear the audience was mostly young hetero couples/early to mid 20’s.or ‘hot’ females that went in pairs(why was it only pairs.why not three’s etc??)
aged late 20’s/mid to late 30’s. i swear that was like 80% of the audience at the screening i went to.
also the only laughter i heard during the film came via females……
note: i’m neither female/nor part of a couple/nor ‘hot’.nor know much about dylan nor his music.
but there was a couple of guys in the audience going bald. so i guess that’s where i fit in. :)
’sitting in the darkness/sucking down a sad a sorry state’ ;)
I think most people feel more comfortable in pairs of one kind or another.
It took me a long time to get used to going to movies by myself, but now I almost prefer it. I used to always worry what the person I was with was thinking, but this way I can just enjoy it on my own.
There’s nothing better moviewise than seeing a movie with another person who shares our excitement or hate however.
As for the audience you saw it with…I’m a little surprised they skewed so young considering the subject matter.
More importantly, did you like the movie or did the lack of a traditional story bore you? What did you think of the Richard Gere parts? Wasn’t Cate amazing?
hmm to clarify the females laughed at at some funny bits. i really think they were totally into the film… :)
and i think i noticed only on example of a female that was obviously dragged there by her boyfriend.
but that was cool /she checked her cell phone *alot*.which gave me an excuse to look at her./without coming across as a pervert.
and i really need that “Hello, my name is Apichatpong Weerasethakul. You killed my father…prepare to die”
flach card…. ;)
i seriously which i could do a coffe table type book.only having photos i took of people checking their cell phone during movies. that would be so cool.
I too glimmer suffer the cruel blight of male pattern baldness. Though in my defence I am getting longer in the tooth. The full head of hair sorts can never truly know our pain, or the dark depths of our envy :-)
richard gere was really good !!!!! :)
and he stood up for the people when we put on that mask.amazing. really i’ve got to support gere.because one of the charcters said to the gere charcter.
words similiar to…
‘you don’t get out much’. i know what that means represent.
cate was good but it would have hit me harder if i know much about dyaln/or had watched lots of dyalan footage. so i acn’t say how accurate it was. but was good…
cate looked pretty skinny didn’t she ???
I would buy such a book Glimmer.
I’ve gotta say though, the Apichatpong Weerasethakul line has more impact out loud. Don’t try it in Thailand though, I suspect in his native tongue it’s no more unusual than John Smith. You still might get funny looks, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Easy for me to say because I still have mine, but I say “embrace your hair status, boys!” Own it. Show it off.
For the record, I’m fundementally opposed to fake breasts and fake hair. As a hairy, unbreasted person I’m fully aware it’s really none of my business however.
awesome i have something in common with the great sartre…. :)
and craig..the young thing… well will imdb help…
http://imdb.com/title/tt0368794/ratings
check out the votes via age.
the youth seem the most enthused. or does imdb just have a younger audience ????
I’m going to go with IMDB having a younger audience. That’s interesting though. Is Bob more relevant to ‘the kids’ than I thought he was? Or is it a matter of he’s so old he’s cool again? Or is it just a great movie that’s striking people regardless?
craig i loved the lack of trad story. i just wish things more more messyless trad structure……
i wanted more intertexualness(hmm is that i word i won’t to use??)
i also wish tood h. did someof the weird sound stuff he did in ’safe’ since he did so much getting different looks for the films various segments. why not assault us audio wise too ???
i did like the bit when dylan/jude went electric started playing in it was sooo much louder than the rest of the film. the shock factor had me mentally grabbing my ears until i adjusted a few seconds later. brilliant…
anyway the scene where claire/ledger’s dylan are talking toward the end.and claire says similiar to. no need to threaten me i won’t take your kids…
and then they have sex….someone should overdub that sex scene with the dylan/went christian bale chracter singing ……
‘pressing on’…… ;)
craig i think the youth like the films visuals/the the fragmented storytelling.and via different chracters slant…
it’s the sort of thing that couls make dylan seem hip to them.even if they never viwed him as such ?????
but i’m sure dylan has lots of younger fans too….
think od some of the recent films ‘the youth’ have put in their canon ala donnie darko/mulholland drive/memento etc…….
the ‘weird’ approach in i’m not there in it self. shpuldn’t throw them off. it may even make it endearing.
and how want another music bio thing that was going to be another walk the line/ray???
not the kids…..
i’m not there maybe makes dylan seem as radical/’weird’/cool as he may have seemed during his artistic heyday ????????
and a straight up bio thing would have failed at that completely…
Thank you for your interesting thoughts Glimmer. You’re bringing a new perspective to I’m Not There for me. You’re the first person I’ve come across who actually wished it was more ‘out there’. I’m also encouraged by your thinking about the younger audience. When I think about it your way, it actually makes sense that this kind of thing would appeal to a generation raised on YouTube and movies like Memento and Donnie Darko.
Of course, this just makes me feel a thousand years old, but that’s another story.
‘Of course, this just makes me feel a thousand years old, but that’s another story.’
as long as you have your hair craig/you’ll be ok… ;)
All my hair and no back trouble! Life is sweet!
Great thoughts about I’m Not There, glim!
:)
Craig, I agree about the impulse to see I’m Not There a second time. I know I’d want to. But I’m wonder: Wouldn’t it be interesting to write an initial draft of the review — and then go see it? After the second viewing, that first draft might have something, and it could always be changed. Just a thought.
“craig i think the youth like the films visuals/the the fragmented storytelling.and via different chracters slant…”
I agree, glimmer. And I also would add that younger people have fewer preconceived notions about how things should be. And they’re sometimes drawn to things that depart from the norm as a form of rebellion against adult social pressure.
What’s also worth mentioning is the high scores from 45+ viewers. It can’t all be because they like Dylan’s music. A film like that has to have more than good songs to get higher ratings, wouldn’t you think? My 54-year-old brother said the only good part of the movie was the music, and he gave it 3 out of 10 stars. Could it be more than a coincidence that the demographic that likes the film the least — 18- to 45-year-olds — have the least time to “smell the roses”? People that age are most often working hard to get ahead in their jobs, trying to pay bills that may include mortgages, maybe raising families, etc. Maybe their minds are going so fast that they can’t attune to the existential nature of the film. Just a half-baked late-night thought.
I think Pierre the first impression I wrote a couple weeks back is as close as I can get to a first draft. The film defeated my ability to rationalize it, does that make sense?