Oct–Dec 2012 Cinémathèque Quarterly
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Cinémathèque Oct–Dec Quarterly 2012 71454_nms_quarterly_COVER_OK.indd 3 10/10/12 8:32 AM “I could not sleep, I saw the lights, I kept staring at the lights till morning…” – Zubir Said, on the glimmering city of Singapore which he first saw when arriving on a cargo boat in 1928 71454_nms_quarterly_COVER_OK.indd 4 10/10/12 8:32 AM Contents 4 Editor’s Note 6 World Cinema Series 8 O Drakos / The Fiend of Athens by Nikos Koundouros 12 Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise by Marcel Carné 16 MAJULAH! The Film Music of Zubir Said 22 Perspectives Film Festival Writings on Cinema 24 Documenting Affect: Yangtze Scribbler, Jalan Jati and All the Lines Flow Out by Ho Rui An 40 Addendum: The Quiet Man Continues by Noel Vera 54 Interview Yusnor Ef 70 Word on the Ground When the Nusantara Rocked…by Bobby Dread 76 Write to Us 77 Credits 78 About Us 79 Ticketing Information 80 Getting to the Museum 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 1 10/8/12 4:28 PM 2 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 2 10/8/12 4:28 PM (1962) by Hussain Haniff Image © Cathay-Keris Films Pte Ltd Image © Cathay-Keris Dang Anom 3 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 3 10/8/12 4:28 PM Editor's Note Though this quarter features a mélange of both European and Asian films – some restored, some rediscovered – the overarching focus is on the Nusantara, an old Javanese term coined over seven hundred years ago to encapsulate what we know today as Indonesia. From the 10th to 20th of October, we’ll be celebrating the film music of cultural icon Zubir Said, the man best known in Singapore (at least, by those who don’t remember the Golden Age of Malay cinema) as the composer of Singapore’s national anthem. The programme pays kudos to Said’s classical, poetically inclined compositional style through the films for which he wrote the score. Originally from the Minangkabau highlands of Indonesia, Zubir nevertheless became a Singapore fixture. That seemingly small fact characterised the rich film and music industry of the 1940s–1960s. Nusantara – which originally defined the Indonesian islands – came to define the Malay Archipelago as a whole. Those who used it meant it to include Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and in some instances, even the Philippines. In our interview section this issue, we speak to yet another legend, Yusnor Ef, a teacher, lyricist, composer, producer and film historian who has written well over 250 songs for countless popular Malay singers. Cikgu Yusnor tells us why Singapore was the centre of the arts industry in the 1960s and how the fluid political and cultural boundaries created a collaborative artistic community. Cikgu Yusnor’s remarks on the complexity and diversity inherent in Malay music are echoed by long-time musician Bobby Dread, who writes about growing up listening to Radio 2 (a Malay radio station, now called Warna) and discovering the eclectic Malay Nusantara bands of the 1980s. In our essays section, veteran Filipino film critic Noel Vera mourns the passing of legendary Filipino filmmaker Mario O’Hara in late June this year, but avoids eulogising. Instead, he re-visits an essay he wrote a decade ago, re-works 4 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 4 10/8/12 4:28 PM his thoughts and tells us why O’Hara’s contributions as a scriptwriter, theatre director and filmmaker were integral to the nation’s filmic landscape. Writer Ho Rui An turns his attention to three films shown at this year’s Singapore Short Cuts: Yangtze Scribbler (Tan Pin Pin, 2012), All the Lines Flow Out (Charles Lim, 2011) and Jalan Jati (Lucy Davis, 2012). Reading them with a Deleuzian eye, he invites the reader to consider ‘affect’, which can be felt, but is not an emotion. For the World Cinema Series, we feature Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise (1945), that roving portrait of 19th century Paris, shot in a country occupied at the time by the Nazis. Audiences will enjoy a version that has been beautifully restored by Pathé and the Jérôme Seydoux- Pathé Foundation. The well-known classic is joined by an obscure 1956 film by Greek director Nikos Koundouros called O Drakos / The Fiend of Athens. Interest in the film spiked when writer Jonathan Franzen devoted sections of his novel Freedom to describing it through two characters who debate what the film means. Prints of O Drakos with English subtitles were, until recently, unavailable. Thankfully, audiences curious about Koundourous’ work (at one time, called the Orson Welles of Greece) can watch the film on the big screen. A positive highlight for the quarter is the Singapore Film Festival (1st–3rd October) that will take place in Delhi, India. The Cinémathèque was invited for the second time this year to put together a short programme featuring works by Singaporean filmmakers (the first was from 12–20th May, for the Sintok Film Festival in Tokyo). Organised by the Singapore High Commission in Delhi, the programme is the first of its kind in the Indian city and will feature Sandcastle by Boo Junfeng, 881 by Royston Tan, Red Dragonflies by Liao Jiekai and Singapore GaGa by Tan Pin Pin. If it is a sign of things to come, perhaps Singaporean films will start travelling to other shores outside of the film festival circuit, thereby reaching a wider audience in the long-run. Vinita Ramani Mohan Editor Cinémathèque Quarterly 5 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 5 10/8/12 4:28 PM 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 6 6 10/8/12 4:28 PM Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise (1945) by Marcel Carné Image: Collection Fondation Jéròme Seydoux-Pathé © 1945 – PATHÉ PRODUCTION World Cinema Series 13 November, 6 December / 7.30 pm Gallery Theatre, Basement $9 / $7.40 Concession Prices inclusive of SISTIC fee A programme of the National Museum Cinémathèque World Cinema Series is a monthly screening of works by the boldest and most inventive auteurs across the world, from renowned classics to neglected masterpieces. Witness the wonders, possibilities, textures as well as the revelatory moments that have contributed to the rich history of cinema. Take a leap of faith and discover the art of cinema that continues to affect and inspire us on the big screen – as it was meant to be seen – with the World Cinema Series, shown every second Tuesday of the month at the National Museum of Singapore. 7 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 7 10/8/12 4:28 PM World Cinema Series Tuesday, 13 November, 7.30 pm O Drakos / The Fiend of Athens Director Nikos Koundouros 1956 / Greece / 103 min / 35mm / Ratings TBC In Greek with English subtitles Image courtesy of Alkisti Athanasopoulou 8 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 8 10/8/12 4:28 PM World Cinema Series O Drakos, an obscure Greek film from 1956 recently re-surfaced in Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, a novel that went on to become an instant bestseller and received glowing reviews from literary critics worldwide. The film follows a timid little man, working as a clerk, alone and disillusioned on New Year’s Eve. On his way home, he realises he possesses an uncanny resemblance to a renowned serial killer whose photograph has just been published in the newspaper. The word drakos (monster or dragon) is the Greek term for serial killers or rapists. He soon finds himself running away, as everyone he knows including the police mistake him for the Monster. A gang of awestruck crooks rescues him from imminent arrest and forces him to take charge of a desperate criminal scheme they have got going. The poor man becomes enamoured of the idea and decides for once in his sad life to be a tough guy and a hero. He surrenders to his bizarre destiny: to be “The Fiend of Athens.” An immediate feature of O Drakos is the violent contrasts between light and darkness. A primordial conflict permeates the film with an atmosphere of disillusionment and a sense of foreboding. This is derived as much from the characters depicted as the cinematographer’s art. In essence, this distinctive feature is a significant characteristic of the sub-genre film noir which is founded on the principle of contrastive lighting and highly stylised visuals and narratives. A femme fatale, another primary film noir characteristic, inhabits O Drakos’ shadowy world. As a sub-genre of the crime and thriller movie, film noir had reached its maturity the year before with the release of Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955). From 1956, film noir became a recognised genre. Many films that were subsequently considered film noir masterpieces were released, including Alfred Hitchcock’s similar themed The Wrong Man, Fritz Lang’s Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and While the City Sleeps, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing. While O Drakos shares many visual and thematic preoccupations with the so-called film noir genre, director Nikos Koundouros went beyond the genre conventions in often startling ways. The all-consuming film noir aesthetic is strikingly juxtaposed with that of a cinematic realism - neo-realism, the kind perfected by the post-war Italian filmmakers. Other than the lead actors, the rest of the cast are non-professionals. O Drakos married disparate and improbable styles and while it was rejected by the critics of the day, the film was a harbinger of cinematic art in Greece. 9 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 9 10/8/12 4:28 PM World Cinema Series Image courtesy of Alkisti Athanasopoulou 10 71454_nms_text_ok.indd 10 10/8/12 4:28 PM World Cinema Series Nikos Koundouros Born in Aghios Nikolas (Crete) in 1926, Nikos Koundouros studied painting and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Athens.