Tuesday, July 03, 2007

I OWE MY LIFE TO FILMVIRUS

Recently Celinejulie has commented in Peter Nellhaus’ blog:
http://www.coffeecoffeeandmorecoffee.com/archives/2007/06/tagged.html#more

Thank you very much, Peter, I feel very honored. I can’t stop smiling today.

I think I should also take this chance to thank someone who inspired me to keep watching films and writing about films. He is Sonthaya Subyen, the leader of the Filmvirus group. If there had been no Filmvirus group, I might not have loved cinema as much as this, I might not have created a blog, and we wouldn’t have known each other.

Filmvirus is a non-profit group which likes to show some unusual films in university auditoriums or bookshops in Bangkok. They show films for free, just because they love films. Some of the films shown are from laser discs. Some are 16mm film prints borrowed from Alliance Francaise or Goethe Institute.

During the past 10 years, Filmvirus has shown films such as LUMIERE D’ETE (1943, Jean Gremillon); RHEINGOLD (1978, Niklaus Schilling, Germany); THE CRYING WOMAN (1979, Jacques Doillon); THE HUNGER YEARS: IN A LAND OF PLENTY (1980, Jutta Brueckner, Germany); THE SWIMMER (1981, Irakli Kvirikadze, Georgia); TYPHOON CLUB (1985, Shinji Somai); ALPINE FIRE (1985, Fredi M. Murer, Switzerland); EGG (1987, Danniel Danniel, Netherlands); THE OAK (1992, Lucien Pintilie, Romania); LITTLE NOISES (1992, Jane Spencer).

I think I can say that many true cinephiles in Bangkok owe a lot to the Filmvirus group. I can even say that I owe my (cinematic) life to them.

Below is a photo from the DVD of RHEINGOLD. The photo is from http://www.amazon.com/

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