Tuesday, February 03, 2009

POLL 46: MUSICAL FILMS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

POLL 46: MUSICAL FILMS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

My poll 46 is inspired by ONE NIGHT ONE LIFE, a German opera film which I just saw last month and love. I don't understand the words sung in this film at all, though it has English subtitles. But the inability to understand the words or the lyrics is not an obstacle at all to enjoy this weird film. This film also confirms to me that I seem to particularly like German (and West German) musical/opera films, which include MOSES AND AARON, THE DEATH OF MARIA MALIBRAN (1972, Werner Schroeter), LINE 1 (1988, Reinhard Hauff), and PARSIFAL (1982, Hans-Juergen Syberberg).

I haven't seen a lot of classic musical films. Musical films seem to be a film genre which I'm not really interested in. I haven't seen even SINGING IN THE RAIN or any films by Busby Berkeley. I think I'm not ready to make a poll about favorite musicals yet.

But apart from German musicals, I think I also like many current musical films, such as JEANNE AND THE PERFECT GUY, and THE ADVENTURES OF IRON PUSSY. So I think for now I should make a poll about some musical films from different countries, because they may be different from each other and it may be fun to compare them.

Some films in the list below may not be real musical films. Some of them are opera films. Some of them only have some musical-like moments. I just include them all together.


THESE MUSICAL FILMS ARE MADE FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. WHICH ONES DO YOU LIKE?

1.AI TUI (ไอ้ทุย) (1971, Dokdin Gunyamarn, Thailand)
2.AMY (1997, Nadia Tass, Australia)
3.CHUNHYANG (2000, Im Kwon-taek, South Korea)
4.DANCER IN THE DARK (2000, Lars von Trier, Denmark)
5.DIXIELAND DAIMYO (1986, Kihachi Okamoto, Japan)
6.KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY (1959, Li Han Hsiang, Hong Kong)
7.THE LAST COMMUNIST (2006, Amir Muhammad, Malaysia)
8.THE LINE, THE CROSS & THE CURVE (1994, Kate Bush, UK)
9.LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986, Frank Oz, USA)
10.MOSES AND AARON (1975, Daniele Huillet + Jean-Marie Straub, West Germany)
11.ONE NIGHT ONE LIFE (1999, Oliver Hermann, Germany)
12.RED PSALM (1972, Miklos Jancso, Hungary)
13.SAATHIYA (2002, Shaad Ali, India)
14.THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (2003, Guy Maddin, Canada)
15.SILENCE, WE'RE ROLLING (2001,Youssef Chahine, Egypt)
16.U-CARMEN E-KHAYELITSHA (2005, Mark Dornford-May, South Africa)
17.UP DOWN FRAGILE (1995, Jacques Rivette, France)
18.THE WAYWARD CLOUD (2005, Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan)
19.WINDOW SHOPPING (1986, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France)
20.YES NURSE! NO NURSE! (2002, Pieter Kramer, Netherlands)

You can cast multiple votes.

--I haven't seen OPERA JAWA.

9 comments:

celinejulie said...

My vote is for AI TUI, DIXIELAND DAIMYO, THE LINE THE CROSS & THE CURVE, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, MOSES AND AARON, ONE NIGHT ONE LIFE, RED PSALM, THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, and UP DOWN FRAGILE.

Anonymous said...

1 vote for saddest music
and other 1 i cast for rocky horror picture show.

Wise Kwai said...

I was amazed at how many of these I've seen. I voted for AI TUI - is it on VCD? - DIXIELAND DAIMYO, THE LAST COMMUNIST (hilarious!) and THE WAYWARD CLOUD.

I'd still like to see THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD.

celinejulie said...

Dhan, I love THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW very much, especially the scene which is repeated 3 times without any reasons. I'm glad you like it, too.


Wise Kwai, I'm not sure if AI TUI is on VCD or not. I watched it when it was shown at TK Park a few years ago. I'm glad you saw DIXIELAND DAIMYO. It's a very strange film, and I wish it is more available. I think THE LAST COMMUNIST is a very innovative film.

Anonymous said...

i vote for Amy, Dancer in the Dark (I'm BJORK's fan), The Wayward Cloud and U Carmen.

it's amazing that u made me remembered Amy. I watched it on cable tv very long time ago, when i was a student. Rachel Griffith is still in Australia and the girl who play the daughter is so great. i think she's famous from Coca-Cola or Pepsi advertising.

Anonymous said...

Oops, how can i missed One Night, One Life!

Anonymous said...

Vote for DANCER IN THE DARK, THE WAYWARD CLOUD

I still remember I have seen DANCER IN THE DARK at Lido when I'm just 16. And I made me shock! Bcos I have never watched a film like that before. (I buy a ticket bcos of Bjork).

Anyway, it was a good exp to c it in the theatre. ^^

celinejulie said...

--Vespertine, I'm very glad you saw AMY (A-). It may not be a "great" film, but if I have to choose something from Australia, I much prefer AMY to MOULIN ROUGE (B- ).

--Merveillesxx, the reaction you had to DANCER IN THE DARK reminds me of the reaction I had to LINE 1 (1988, Reinhard Hauff) when I saw it at Goethe Institute around 1995. I had never thought that a musical film could be depressing until I saw LINE 1. There's a scene in LINE 1 in which a girl sang about her suffering. That scene nearly made me cry.

Frank Partisan said...

West Side Story, The King and I, Rent, and The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

I have a post up about Pakistan. Someone from Spain who reads my blog's family is going to Thailand. She wants to know if it is safe, after what happened at the airport. OK to answer at my blog.