1/10/07 10:32 pm
back in melb.
spent most of the 5 weeks in spore borrowing and watching DVDs, and sleeping, and watching tv, and wandering around town by myself.
went out with one friend once. other friends were mostly either overseas, or sick.
i also killed 21 flies.
ate bak chor mee, katong laksa, wan tan mee, satay, oyster omelette, satay bee hoon, indian curry, chicken rice, roti prata, mee goreng, aqnd some other stuff i can't recall.
ate at carl's jr for the first time.
god, my experiences in 5 weeks in spore are such that they can be summarised in singular events.
films borrowed/rented and comments:
1. Superman Returns (Singer): was alright, quite entertaining, though there’s nothing great in it. didn’t show enough of Superman’s more sensitive, thoughtful side.
2. United 93 (Greengrass): very, very good film.
3. The Manchurian Candidate - original 1962 version (Frankenheimer): good film, but not quite as amazing and suspenseful as it’s said to be.
4. Lolita (Kubrick): okay, but not great. felt it worked well largely because of the performances.
5. Any Given Sunday (Stone): really, really good. probably one of the best films about sports I’ve seen. certainly one of the most distinctive and powerful.
6. The Killing (Kubrick): not bad. got better as it went along, although I felt the ending was somewhat abrupt and maybe a bit dumb.
7. The Passenger (Antonioni): initially found it boring, but I’ve been finding it more and more profound and rich the more I think about it, especially upon the second viewing. very interesting philosophical and existential themes. in a way, it had to be paced and told the way it is, for the themes to be explored as such, and for the moods and situations to be captured so strongly.
8. Mee Pok Man (Khoo): better than I thought it’d be. rather artsy. a local film I wouldn’t mind recommending. haven’t really seen many local films. I had planned to rent more local films to watch, like Be With Me, Singapore Dreaming, Talking Cock, and Eating Air. but every time I went to the Esplanade library to return some DVDs, I ended up borrowing more DVDs from there, so in the end I kept watching more and more DVDs borrowed from there instead of going to the rental store, which is the place that had those local films.
9. Heart of Glass (Herzog): weird. probably the creepiest Herzog film I’ve seen, much more so than his Nosferatu the Vampyre. the best parts were the first few scenes and the last few scenes. after the novelty of the technique wore off, it got a bit tired plot-wise, and perhaps slightly repetitive. still, there’re quite a lot of strikingly creepy images throughout.
10. The Mirror (Tarkovsky): liked it more than Nostalgia and Stalker, less than Solaris. some of the scenes worked better than others. might’ve preferred it if some of the scenes had better connections among them. admittedly it’s kind of made me look at some of my surroundings with a heightened awareness.
11. Il Grido (Antonioni): probably one of the strongest Antonioni films I’ve seen. very well-told, beautifully shot, especially the exterior scenes, and more emotionally affecting than his latter films.
12. La Notte (Antonioni): not bad. but not one of Antonioni’s stronger films.
13. Diary of a Country Priest (Bresson): very engaging. quite powerful and moving. guess I’m somewhat surprised it made me sympathise so strongly with a priest. probably the best film concerning religious faith that I can remember watching.
14. I Vitelloni (Fellini): was ok, though didn’t find it outstanding.
15. Taste of Cherry (Kiarostami): there’s a real gracefulness, and arguably a certain purity, about it. which kind of stand out all the more because it’s about a man intent on committing suicide. not pretentious, not dark, not in-your-face, not artsy, yet it’s sincere and thought-provoking in very subtle ways. you don’t typically find such graceful sincerity in a work of art concerning suicide.
16. La Promesse (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne): very, very moving and engaging.
17. Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Bresson): not bad.
18. Il Bidone (Fellini): was ok.
19. Nights of Cabiria (Fellini): quite memorable, not least because of Giulietta Masina’s fantastic performance. found it more memorable than La Dolce Vita. one of the stronger and more moving Fellini films I’ve seen.
20. Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini): probably the most uneven Fellini film I’ve seen. Doesn’t have quite as much liveliness, inspiration and poetry as Fellini’s best films. Poorly paced. Let down by too many dull scenes interspersed throughout.
21. The Scar (Kieslowski): decent film, though not amazing like his later work, not surprisingly.
22. The Big Red One (Fuller): good war film. haven’t seen the restored longer version.
23. The House is Black (: not bad. worth watching, I guess, though it didn’t exactly strike me as a masterpiece.
24. Au Hasard Balthasar (Bresson): very, very good. definitely worth watching, even if it was a bit confusing at times.
25. Forbidden Games (Clement): the only parts that really moved me were the last ten minutes or so. to me all that most of the film showed before that was how annoying and ignorant little kids are. as if we need any reminders about that. I had problems sympathising with the protagonists. and it was overly sentimental. children form elaborate and morbid fantasies to shield themselves from the harshness of war. yes, ok, we get it. they should’ve just said it in one sentence and gotten that one point that they had over with. it is not a masterpiece. it’s perhaps one of the most overrated films I’ve ever seen.
26. The Steamroller and the Violin (Tarkovsky): I liked it. one of Tarkovsky’s early films, but u can already see what an able and inspired filmmaker he was.
27. The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky): probably one of the most difficult and challenging films I’ve seen. to understand and appreciate it u would probably have to watch it at least twice. upon my first viewing of it, I thought looked good and had its moments, but I just didn’t empathise with the protagonist, and thought the plot was not particularly well told. Tarkovksy might’ve said that he didn’t care about plot, but the film does have a plot to it and its exactly because this plot is so muddily told that the point about spiritual faith that Tarkovsky was apparently trying to make through the film gets lost. upon my second viewing, paying closer attention to the dialogue, I appreciated it quite a lot more. if u watch it a second time thinking carefully about the dialogue and the underlying philosophical themes in the film, u’ll find there’s a lot going on with regards to the Nietzschean concept of the eternal return as compared to the idea of waiting and hoping for salvation in the course of time. it also brought to mind Heidegger’s comparison between, on the one hand, being open to Being and, on the other hand, man’s attempt to manipulate Being, whether materially or spiritually. it was definitely much richer an experience the second time round, perhaps because this time I actually knew what was happening in the story and who the different characters were (having read through some analyses of the film online after the first viewing). that having been said, I still think the idea of the guy having to have sex with a witch to change the past and erase the outbreak of a war is a rather wonky idea. couldn’t it have been something else other than sex with a witch.
28. Burden of Dreams (Blank): probably the most unique and most distinctive “Making-of” documentary I’ve seen, if it can even be called that. Herzog is probably right when he says that it’s the only “Making-of” documentary that isn’t an embarrassment. (well he says something to that effect.) but it should’ve included the scenes of Klaus Kinski’s rages. it was quite disappointing not to see a single one of such scenes.
29. Fear of Fear (Fassbinder): I’ve only seen a handful of Fassbinder’s films, but this one has got to be the most effective and compelling one I’ve seen.
30. Funny Games (Haneke): one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen. this is not one of those trashy “psychological thrillers” or “horror thrillers” that you watch for your entertainment or amusement. if you think it is, you’re probably in for a surprise. after watching it you’ll probably never look at strangers visiting your home the same way again. makes Psycho seem as disturbing and scary as watching grass grow. its self-reflexivity is actually thought-provoking, rather than being just some smug gimmick.
31. Invincible (Herzog): decent film, but it didn’t amaze me the way Herzog’s other films usually do. Tim Roth was fantastic, though.
32. Scenes From a Marriage (Bergman): only watched the 3-hour theatrical version. didn’t have enough time to finish watching the 5-hour long 6-part original series, only saw the first part and some of the second part. the 5-hour original series seemed quite a lot better than the 3-hour version. more depth and richer characterisation. the 3-hour version had its moments, but left me somewhat disappointed at the end. the ending in particular seemed a bit rushed and not quite convincing.
33. Code Unknown (Haneke): interesting, but not as amazing and thought-provoking as Funny Games.
went to vjc. talked with a teacher about possibilities of teaching philosophy or Knowledge & Inquiry after graduation.
everyone who used to be there isn't anymore. except for the angmor teachers. and that damn PE teacher, Tan Yu Hwee or whatever his name was.
suddenly feel a bit lonely.
the summer subject has been pretty bloody disappointing. more of a Philosophy for Dummies subject. appears most of the students aren't even philo students; should've known, really.
note for philosophy teachers. if u're attempting to introduce philosophy to a newbie, teaching her Plato's socratic bloody dialogues in the most typically boring, bland, mechanical way possible, is quite probably one of the fuckin worst ways to get her interested in the subject.
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