Saturday, April 23, 2011

"FAILED ART FILM" GENRE

This is from my conversation with Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn on John Waters' lecture about "failed art film" genre:
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/john-waters/videos/filth-101-film-taste-and-philosophy/

Oh, I like the attitude of John Waters on this thing very much. I think there are many films that failed to be respected by the critics and the audience, but there are still some interesting things or weird things in them. POLA X is surely one of them. ÉCOUTE VOIR may be one of them, too. I don't know if ÉCOUTE VOIR financially failed or not when it was released, but I guess the film might have failed in a way, because Hugo Santiago didn't become famous, and Deneuve doesn't do this kind of roles again.

In my opinion, I think THE 8TH DAY (แปดวันแปลกคน) (2008, Chatchai Yodseranee, A-) is a failed art film, too. I think the film is too ambitious, and may be too pretentious, but the film still stands apart from many Thai ghost films. THE 8TH DAY "couldn't find the right tone or the right element", but it is really "odd". I don't care much about this film when it was released, but three years have passed, and it seems no directors want to make a Thai ghost film like this again, so THE 8TH DAY becomes interesting, because it is still "different" from others.

THE 8TH DAY didn't fail totally. At least it helps re-launching the career of Wasana Chalakorn.

Another failed art film may be "THEORY ON THE DINING TABLE" (2010, Prachya Lampongchat, A++++++++++), which is a part of the omnibus film BROWN SUGAR 2. The film doesn't "fail" in my point of view, though it may fail in the eyes of some critics and the general audience.

Some "tribute" films are really bad, though. If I remember it correctly, WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY (2000, Kieron J. Walsh, C+) got a big inspiration from BREATHLESS, but I don't like WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY at all. But WHEN BRENDAN MET TRUDY is a mainstream film, so I don't think it belongs to the "failed art film" genre.

2 comments:

filmvirus said...

Truffaut ก็เคยพูดกับ Hitchcock ถึงหนังเรื่อง Marnie ว่าเป็นอะไรคล้าย ๆ failed masterpiece และเชื่อว่าเรื่องนี้เป็นหนัังที่สะท้อนตัวฮิทช์ค็อคได้ดีที่สุด

Until The End of The World, The Palermo Shooting ของ Wim Wenders หรือ Zabriskie Point ของ Antonioni และ Southland Tales ของ Richard Kelly ก็คงประมาณนี้ มันดูประดักประเดิดแบบมีจินตนาการ

celinejulie said...

ชอบ UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD มากๆ ส่วน THE PALERMO SHOOTING นั้นเป็นหนังที่ไม่มีใครพูดถึงเลย พี่สนเป็นคนแรกที่พูดถึงหนังเรื่องนี้