ZouZou

[Eric]

Liquid moon reflection

♫♪ ♪♫ Toccata Al Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach

As a syncretic merging between Taoist and Confucianism philosophies, Buddhism and Christianity [lux perpetua luceat eis],
yin (receptive) and yang (active), death and life force, reality and dream, ...


                  Laetitia Casta in the moon diamond riviere by Markus Klinko & Indrani, Diamond.com 2000

... Spirit shines as moon, while Energy flows as water in a Tai Chi ideal state.

This reflection is inspired by the article Dance review; the syncretism of Tai Chi and Bach
by Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times on November 20, 2003 about the Lin Hwai-min's Moon Water ballet and
by the Tsai Ming-liang's following extract of the interview, translated in French by JBA Production on April 2009,
that I have translated myself from French to English.

Pay attention that the film director Tsai Ming-liang talks about Laetitia Casta and Jean-Pierre Léaud by their first names:

[jerocca]

http://app.atmovies.com.tw/movie/movie.cfm?action=filmdata&film_id=fftw11262420



With latest pics of Fanny Ardant in Taipei while filiming "Visages"

[Eric]

The un-birthday present

Alice: "what is an un-birthday present?"
Humpty Dumpty: "A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course."
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

As May 11th is the only day of the year where I cannot wish a very merry un-birthday to Laetitia,
I searched what un-birthday I could celebrate.

[Eric]

The true eternity

♫♪ ♪♫ Gymnopedie by Eric Satie

Do you know why the little children cry?

Because they believe that they have lost their mother even during a few seconds.
When they do not see her, they never know if they see her again. They do not want to sleep alone.

Jarle
Phillip Dixon, French ELLE on May 6, 1996

If hidden behind a curtain they catch sight of their mother through the more or less transparent veil of the curtain,
they adore playing hide-and-go-seek because they are learning that their mother did not disappear forever
even she is not visually in front of them. Then one wants to believe during years that our mother would never die.

The day before his 20 years, Lewis Carroll learnt that his mother was gone.
No need to be logician to associate the death of his mother at each of his birthday until the end of his own life.
Hence the concept of un-birthday and the notion of birthday present often in his tales.

Like Tsai Ming-liang, Lewis Carroll created a Wonderland accessible by a hole, a door between reality and dream.
Moreover the tale has been initially named Alice's Adventures under ground before Alice in Wonderland.
In 1864 Jule Verne published A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Lewis Carroll began the Alice's adventures by a terrible fall in a well from the rabbit-hole to the center of the earth,
and beyond surely to be closer to the MOTHER nature.

He was inspired by the physical experience of Gravity Train through the earth, like in a dream.
Using only the force of gravity one comes back as a pendulum to the initial point of departure in the reality.



Do you imagine in Why holes in the Tsai's movies such a tunnel from the Louvre in Paris to the Huashan Culture Park in Taipei?
One of firemen of the Louvre has the keys of the story. He is the one who has the same first name than Jean-Pierre Léaud.

The link with the 400 blows is that Antoine Doinel invented a terrible lie about his mother who did not love him a lot.
To justify his absence from the school, he said with conviction to his severe teacher that his mother died.

After the Truffaut's movie, ARTE broadcast New Wave seen from elsewhere by Luc Lagier
with the double picture side-by-side of:



- Lee Kang-sheng as Hsiao Kang, whom the father is gone, is watching on the TV Antoine Doinel in the 400 blows,
- Jean-Pierre Léaud meeting Chen Shiang-Chyi on a bench of the Père Lachaise cemetery
from the Tsai-Ming-liang's movie Et là-bas quelle Heure est-il ? [What time is it there?] (2001).

Antoine Doinel old as King Herod recently told to Serge Toubiana from the French Cinémathèque:
"Tu te rends compte,                    [You realize,]
cinquante ans après Les 400 Coups,    [fifty years after The 400 Blows,]
je reviens à Cannes                     [I come back to Cannes,]
avec un film en compétition officielle !"  [with a film in official competition!]

[Eric]

New face of the movie poster



The layout [mise en page] of the movie poster has been fully changed for the French version of Visage at the singular.
The "V" of Visage better highlights the kiss.
I strongly prefer this new movie poster because now it begins by the names of the actresses
instead of the producer companies.

Firstly there is the white logo of the Festival de Cannes Official Selection in Competition.

Please let me read the first line from right to left: Casta Laetitia on the same line than Ardant Fanny.
Now one better associates Salomé with Lee Kang-sheng the film director in the movie within the movie,
and Fanny Ardant the producer with Jean-Pierre Léaud the king Herod.

The font is more readable than in the previous English version of Face
even if the dot on the letters i has been removed from the first names
except the strange ï on the last name of Tsaï Ming-liang.

Although the entire crew of the film is listed in the footnote of the poster,
the overall readability of the poster has been improved with regard to the previous version
because there is no text on the Salomé's neck.

Master Calligrapher Dong Yangzi

There is a subtle change of the poster thanks to the new calligraphy by Dong Yangzi
a.k.a. Grace Tong Yang-tse [ 董陽孜 ]. She is born in Shanghai a decade after Truffaut.



For Westerners, I added the original ideogram of Face and its variations before her two last calligraphies in yellow.
Take in consideration the conception of space, the rhythm,
and the gesture like Laetitia by Phillip Dixon in the previous post.



On July 13, 2003 Epoch Times published an article about a Grace Tong Yang-tse's exhibition
in the Cloud Gate Dance Theater [ 雲門舞集 ] who created Moon Water:

[Eric]

Open house of the Louvre

[Eric]

A story of love by Tsai Ming-liang

[jerocca]

oh my GOD


What's on the first page ( with that big face / pose )...which I mean the poster lol


Shock me a bit

jajaja

....................

John who

Dear JOHN lol ( jajaja)

well about the shoudlers things
we'll see



in the end of Cannes or what ever coming up with screen ( VISAGE)

ur Latitia
my Fanny

[jerocca]

O-lala


Where's director Tsai?

He'll flight to Cannes on May 18th
even though he just came back from Paris to Taiwan on May 11th.

He needed "Chinese traditional food" only available in Taiwan
just in case for the "long staying" to be ready to cook for the crew.

Source: The Liberty Times on May 16, 2009


How nice


A man can cook ^^
can film
can write


Love him

did you see the trailer yet?


I almost cried ( ....)

[Eric]

Worldwide premiere of Visage

[Eric]

Sea of Cold on Dark Moon

[duan]

The third point...

On May 11, 2009 Daily News Sina wrote:

`Working days and nights in Paris to finish the film Visage,
back to Taiwan [on May 10th] though with a tired face,
Tsai actively talked about the just finished post-production:

"During the film editing, the senior editor said that usually it is the editor who controls the rhythm of the film,
however for Visage, the film does it itself."

Visage casts Jean-Pierre Leaud, Fanny Ardant, Laetitia Casta, Kang-sheng Lee, Yi-Ching Lu and others.
With gorgeous costume, music, and beautiful scenes, Tsai said with pride:

"The film does not say everything directly, but requires the audience to understand implications in the film.
I used a large-scale installation art, as well as the best visual effects since I work in the cinema."

During the press conference, a short extract of the film has been screened,
and a glimpse of nude scene again became the focus of the press.

Tsai Ming-liang said: 「不論是露兩點還是 三 點，希望這次大家不要再去在意情欲 」


Victoria's Secret

While everybody could associate 三 with the number "3",
what about the Chinese expression: `two or three points'?


Dominique Issermann, Sports Illustrated 1999

In fact, the expression `three points' came from what people call bikini as "three-point-style" swimwear,
so either two- or three-points just means part of body:

Two-points refers to nipples, ...

Jarle

... while three-points refers to nipples and ...



In her ... "face" resides the mystery of the Bermuda triangle
where sailors have lost their head listening to the song of sirens.

So the Tsai's sentence means:

`No matter an actor/actress exposes two or three points in the movie (that is to say the extent of nudity in the film),
I hope that at this time we will no longer concern about the eroticism.'

Tsai quoted the exhibition of Louvre collection in Taiwan as example:

"Some artworks from Louvre collections contain nudity, however students can still view them.
As my film has been chosen by the Louvre, why could students not watch the nude scene in the film?"'

On May 12, 2009 the Liberty Times reported a Tsai's similar answer:

"The film Visage does not only contain nudity, we should also hang it up (as other paintings in the Louvre).
If artworks from the Louvre were exhibited in the National Museums of Taiwan,
teachers could totally appreciate nudes in paintings with students;
as this film has been chosen by the Louvre, why do we only discuss on this point, and rate it as restricted?"

BIG thanks to Eric for help, advice and encouragement!

[Eric]

Instant iced gift in the eyes of a kid

(4:56s)



In the France 2 TV news of 20h David Pujadas on May 21, 2009 invited the film director and actress Fanny Ardant.
The TV reportage is illustrated by short extracts of her movies on a music by Eric Satie.


Fanny Ardant's photocall at the Festival de Cannes on May 21, 2009

The Festival de Cannes will pay tribute to her on Friday May 22, 2009.
France 2 brocasted a very short extract of Visage by Tsai Ming-liang with Fanny Ardant and Jean-Pierre Leaud.



The film director of the 2nd New Wave of Taiwanese Cinema Tsai Ming-liang says that
when he watched the Francois Truffaut's movie The woman next door, he felt in love with Fanny Ardant,
he filled with wonder: `She is a very beautiful woman, of a beauty that one cannot express.'

[jerocca]

yes yes

what a surprise ^^

Fanny n Laetitia in the same film

of course director Tsai


good job




I felt " Fanny herself " on the actress of " ashes and blood"

what do you think??



Is Laetitia back to France yet?


chuik chuik

[Eric]

To bee or not to bear, honey

Sina

It is too funny:             Ondine who flies!