Wednesday, April 08, 2009

POLL 52: MULTI-TALENTED FEMALE ARTISTS

My poll 52 is inspired by GERSWIN FANTASY, which is a performance by Janice Martin, who is an acrobat, singer, violinist, and pianist. Watching her trying to play violin and do some acrobatic feats at the same time is a wonderful experience. But my most favorite moment of her performance is when she did some Chinese martial art (Tai chi chuan) after playing violin. I was surprised to see something like this in her performance. I don’t know why she included Tai chi chuan in her performance, but it gives me the feeling that maybe she didn’t do all these things just to be “unique” or just to be admired by the audience, but maybe she developed all these various talents because she enjoyed doing them.

After watching Janice Martin, I think about other female artists who have many skills and talents. So I make the list below:

I LIKE THESE MULTI-TALENTED FEMALE ARTISTS. WHICH ARTISTS DO YOU LIKE?

1.Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (filmmaker, writer, graphic artist, installation artist)

2.Cindy Sherman (filmmaker, photographer)
http://www.ubu.com/film/sherman_doll.html

3.Doris Doerrie (filmmaker, writer)
I haven’t read any of her books.

4.Janice Martin (acrobat, singer, violinist, pianist)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60XO5sXXFoI

5.Joni Mitchell (singer, painter)

6.Laura Mulvey (filmmaker, writer)
I haven’t seen her films, and I have read only one article of hers. But her article unintentionally makes me not feel guilty anymore of not admiring Alfred Hitchcock as much as other cinephiles. Many years ago, I once talked with my friend that I much prefer women in films by Dario Argento, Wes Craven, and Paul Verhoeven to women in Hitchcock’s films, because many women in Hitchcock’s films are so weak that I can’t identify myself with them and I feel a little bit irritated watching them. After reading Mulvey’s article which touches on the roles of men and women in Hitchcock’s films, I began to understand why I don’t like Hitchcock as much as other cinephiles.

7.Laurie Anderson (singer, performance artist, violin builder)
http://www.ubu.com/film/kitchen_anderson.html

8.Marguerite Duras (filmmaker, writer)

9.Marina Abramovic (filmmaker, performance artist)
http://www.ubu.com/film/coulibeuf.html

10.Miranda July (filmmaker, performance artist)

11.Nezaket Ekici (filmmaker, performance artist)

12.Nuntana Weerachon (filmmaker, writer)
This famous novelist directed PUMAREE SEE THONG (1988). I haven’t seen this film yet, and I can’t remember if I had read any of her novels or not. But I love MAI SIN RAI FAI SAWAT (THE FLAME OF LOVE NEVER DIES) (1994, Adul Dulyarut) and PLEARNG PAI (1990), two TV dramas adapted from her novels.

MAI SIN RAI FAI SAWAT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiOAp0gVcgI


13.Peggy Wauters (sculptress, drawing artist)

14.Pinaree Sanpitak (painter, sculptress, installation artist)

15.Rebecca Horn (filmmaker, sculptress)
http://www.ubu.com/film/horn.html

16.Sam Taylor-Wood (filmmaker, photographer)
I haven’t seen her films yet.
http://www.ubu.com/film/tw.html

17.Sudsiri Pui-ock (filmmaker, painter)
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=a-wild-sheep-chase&month=03-2009&date=11&group=3&gblog=14
http://www.sudsiripuiock.com/

18.Susan Sontag (filmmaker, writer)
I haven’t seen her films yet.

19.Tracey Moffatt (filmmaker, photographer)
http://www.ubu.com/film/moffatt.html


20.Yoko Ono (filmmaker, singer, performance artist, conceptual artist)
http://www.ubu.com/film/ono.html


--You can cast multiple votes.

--The word "filmmaker" here includes videomakers or any moving-image makers.

--I excluded actress/filmmaker (such as Nicole Garcia) and actress/singer (such as Jane Birkin and Paris Hilton) from this list, because there are so many of them. Maybe I will make a list of favorite actress/singer in the future.

--Other interesting multi-talented female artists include:

21.Carla Bruni (singer, model)

22.Carolee Schneeman (filmmaker, performance artist)
http://www.ubu.com/film/schneeman.html

23.Ing K (filmmaker, painter)

24.Jane Fonda (actress, aerobic instructor)

25.Maya Deren (filmmaker, dancer)

26.Naomi Campbell (singer, model)

27.Nattarika Thanpridanant (actress, artist)

28.Sally Potter (filmmaker, dancer)

29.Sophie Marceau (actress, writer)

30.Tabea Blumenschein (actress, costume designer)

31.Valie Export (filmmaker, performance artist)

16 comments:

celinejulie said...

My own vote is for Janice Martin, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Peggy Wauters, Susan Sontag, Yoko Ono, Tracey Moffatt, Nezaket Ekici, Marguerite Duras, Rebecca Horn, and Laurie Anderson.

Matthew Hunt said...

I wanted to vote for many, many of them (especially #22), but #9 is so important that she got my only vote. Incidentally, I think that #2 and #16 are massively over-rated.

Do I have deja vu, or did you do a similar poll before? I remember a fun discussion about proportional voting, and the poll was about female artists, right?

celinejulie said...

Good memory! Hahaha. Yes, this poll is a little bit connected with POLL 17: EXPERIMENTRESS, which includes Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Valie Export, and Carolee Schneeman in the poll, and that's why I exclude Valie and Carolee from poll 52. But I still include Araya in poll 52, because I want a few Thai female artists in my poll. :-)

filmvirus said...

CelineJulie, I guess you can say this is my favourite subject. Doris Dorrie wrote a book version of her films as well. Nevertheless, many of her stories remained in the written form. I presume she might have some difficulty getting new films produced. I am glad the one of her story appeared in Thai. I used to buy one of her book (in Eng.) at the Goethe Institute when it was discarded for 20 baht. (Note: The complete large size fully illustrated TIN DRUM and KINGS OF THE ROAD screenplays were also discared for about 50 baht each!)

Susan Sontag, Ing K. and Miranda July are fine writers. I especially enjoyed one of Miranda's. I hope I could do an anthology of some of these talented prose writers in the future.

Sophie Marceau directed a fine film about her marriage with Andrezj Zulawski. Every couple in Zulawski's films was packed in that portrait. Judith Godreche who was great in Benoit Jacquot's film stand in for Marceau. Lou Castel was perfect as athe aged Zulawski. I can't recall the title though. Something like Dans L' Amour perhaps.

Meg Tilly who was so talent in the 80's also wrote part fiction part memoir about her tortured childhood. I bought her first book in Chieng Mai and learn from her own website that she becomes a full time writer.

Vespertine said...

Wow. What a joy when i m reading all of this.

Filmvirus, Is the Miranda's July's book you mentioned - No One Belongs Here More Than You? I have this book but havent read it yet. : )

FILMSICK said...

as same as vespertine i love to read all of this!

konmongnang said...

I voted for Nuntana Veerachon although I've only read one of her novels and I've never watched her films.
The only one novel which was written by Nuntana that I've read is "Dong Dok Mei". I like the ethnic and gender issues in this novel because the lead character in Dong Dok Mei is a conservative Chinese guy who has tried to direct his 7 daughters' lives such as everyone must be the good housewives and must not marry with Thai men. However, at the end of the novel, this Chinese father can admit that one of his daughters, who can take care her father and sisters, is a lesbian. Moreover, another one of his daughters can marry with a man who has Thai nationality since his husband told her father that he is a member of non-Thai ethnic groups too because he is Mon 555.

celinejulie said...

Filmvirus, I remember those Doerrie’s books on the shelf of Goethe library. At first I intended that one day I would borrow Doerrie’s novels from the library to read them. But in the end I found that I didn’t have time to borrow and read them at all. I only finished reading ABSENCE (Peter Handke) and WOMEN IN A RIVER LANDSCAPE (Heinrich Boell) among the books I borrowed from Goethe library.

I didn’t know that Ing K, Miranda July, and Meg Tilly are writers, too. Thanks for telling me.

Sophie Marceau’s film is very interesting. I looked for its information in imdb.com, and I think that the title of the film may be SPEAK TO ME OF LOVE (2002), but the leading actor is Niels Arestrup, who looks very much like Lou Castel.

celinejulie said...

--Konmongnang, thank you very much for the information about Nuntana Weerachon and DONG DOK MEI. I know there is a TV series made from this novel, but I didn’t watch it. I just searched for it in youtube and found that Pa-oon Chantornsiri directed it. I guess Sunisa Sukboonsung played the lesbian in this TV series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhY-j0YGfeo

While I was making the poll, I tried to search for some information about Nuntana Weerachon on internet, but it seems there is no database yet for Thai writers. I wish someone created a database for Thai writers and Thai TV series, so whenever someone wants to find all the titles of the novels written by Nuntana Weerachon or by Mor Matugaree, one can go to that website. As for now, every Thai bookshop website provides only a fragment of information about the works of Thai novelists, because these websites only provide the list of the novels in their own stock. I think Nuntana Weerachon might have written more than 100 novels, but a bookshop website only provides the list of her 19-20 novels in its stock.

When I was a little child, I had no interest in Nuntana’s novels because I misunderstood that her novels are purely melodramatic. I was interested in Tamayantee’s novels at that time because her novels are full of strong, cruel and murderous heroines. I found out much later that her novels are very right-wing. The reason why I love the TV series PLEARNG PAI and MAI SIN RAI FAI SAWAT is because the heroines of these TV series are very cruel, too.

filmvirus said...

Vespertne, I wish I have that Miranda July's book of yours. I read only her two stories in some magazines. The first one confused me but the second one always make me smile every time I think about it. Her words were so cute! Have you seen that MV - TOP RANKING of the BLONDE REDHEAD? She was so gorgeous!

Ing K.'s most famous writing was "ข้างหลังโปสการ์ด" (หลานเสรีไทย). It was a collection of her travelogue pieces. She also wrote diary / article about her experiences as low budget filmmaker in "ดิฉัน" magazine. The column was called "คนทำหนังเชือกกล้วย". Paisit "Kiang" and Brian (BKK FILM)got mentioned quite often then. Someone should collect her pieces in a book form. I remember that she mentioned she had a contempt for Godard's CONTEMPT. She was invited to my D.K. Film House, Seacon Square once and there were two Farangs who got so irritated by her point of views in one of her films. They went into a long argument. I was dumbfounded.

Talking about Nanthana Veerachon. I guess I owe her something from one of her book (and film). Shamelessly, I stole some thing from her story as a basis for my film's treatment. Somehow, it later turned into a completely different thing though.

Ah, Niels Arestrup! You are right! CelineJulie, my poor memory getting worse every year. Now I barely remember what I read recently. No need to mention the title, I can hardly recall any.

Helke Sander - the filmmaker also written a novel called The Three Women K. What was the title of her film I screened twice? Redupers-Reduced Personality? Now I know who could be my best secretary.

Oh! Meg Tilly said her family was shocked by what she described in her first book. They didn't like the idea that she mentioned about her own abusive childhood.

celinejulie said...

Talking about Deeshun magazine reminds me that I like a piece of writing by Acharapan Paiboonsuwan very much. When I was a child, I read Acharapan’s writing which is about the suicide of Nuttakarn Sethaboot (ณัฐกานต์ เศรษฐบุตร). Her writing is extremely heart wrenching. But I don’t know what Pinyo Tongjeau (ภิญโญ ทองเจือ) thought about Acharapan’s writing in this case. And I’m not sure if her writing appeared in Deeshun magazine, or in Praew (แพรว), or in Preaw (เปรียว) magazine.

My memory is also getting worse every minute. A few days ago, while I was waiting for the skytrain, I read the book NEGATIVE SPACE. After I got on the train, I stopped reading the book but I still held the book in my hand. Then I realized I couldn’t remember who is the author of the book I was reading a few seconds ago. I tried to remember the name of the author by myself without looking at the cover of the book in my hand. But I couldn’t remember it. I gave up and had to look at the cover of the book to find that it is written by Manny Farber.

I didn’t know that Helke Sander is a writer, too. The film you showed is THE ALL-AROUND REDUCED PERSONALITY – REDUPERS (1978).

Reading about Meg Tilly and her family reminds me of the film HOTEL SORRENTO (1995, Richard Franklin, Australia, A). Here is the synopsis of the film from imdb.com:

“Meg, Pippa, and Hillary are sisters who grew up in Sorrento, a small seaside town in Australia. Meg, who has lived in England for 10 years has just written a criticially acclaimed novel which she claims is entirely fictional. The book causes a stir in Sorrento and in her family when it is supected that the book is not as fictional as she claims.”

Vespertine said...

Celinejulie,
About the information of Nantana Weerachon and other Thai writers, i think the best website that collects the information are the University libraries. They may not complete but surely better than the bookshop website.

I try to search about Nuntana Weerachon's novels from Chulalongkorn University and these are what i found.

เกลือจิ้มเกลือ 2522
คานทอง 2535
คืนวันพระจันทร์แรม 2546
จิตรเลขา 2521
ชั่วฟ้าดินดับ 2520
ดอกไม้กับความรัก 2534
ดั่งเมฆสลาย 2521
เดือนดวงเดียว 2521
เดือนแสงฉาย 25--
ตราบใดที่หัวใจยังเต้น 2525
ตะวันเดือด 2520
ทัณฑ์จากสวรรค์ 2531
นิราศโพนพิสัย 2519
etc.
... (there are 55 novels)


Filmvirus,
There is one story from Mirand's book that i already read. It s a 5 - pages story called "The Swim Team". It's about a woman (may be Miranda) and her past. She once was a swimming coach. She gave a swimming lessons for 3 aged people. Since her town didnt have swimming pool or a river, so she must teach them to swim on the floor. 55555555555555. Both of Them were devoted teacher and students.

This story has some chemistry like one scene in Me and You and Everyone We Know. The scene that Miranda taught elderly people to drive and they tried to save the goldfish which is in the bowl on the car in front of them.

Both the story i read and the scene i mentioned is very cute, vey funny and very heartbreaking - which is very Miranda July.

filmvirus said...

CelineJulie,
Regardless of how your brain may be malfunctioned here and there you are sill the top encyclopedia. I can rely on you more than myself. How did you come up with the plot of Hotel Sorrento? It really is kind of uncanny, so much so that it could be intentional.

I only saw one Richard Franklyn's film. The horror film Patrick that released on Thai vcd. If my memory is right probably Meg Tilly was in his PSYCHO 2. I have to go check it out. Let's do some detective work.

Oh my, Vespertine. You really nailed it when the subject of glorious Miranda comes up. That story must be ideal to accompany ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW.

Interestingly, may be nobody would agree with me on this. Somehow, I think the ending of that film might have worked better if that gallery woman perhaps was not treated as a laughing stock. Could it be that dear Miranda took revenge on some people of that kind (who runs the gallery and previously rejected her works)?

celinejulie said...

Vespertine, thank you very much for your suggestion. It seems Chulalongkorn University’s library does not appear in Google’s search result. So I have to go directly to its website at http://library.car.chula.ac.th/

And that’s great. It really has a list of about 50 novels by Nuntana Weerachon, including WIFE (เมีย) (1985), WIFE FOR RENT (เมียเช่า) (1990), LEGETIMATE WIFE (เมียแต่ง) (1989), FLYING PROSTITUTE (โสเภณีลอยฟ้า) (1988), and THE SLUTTY BOMBAX CEIBA (ร่านดอกงิ้ว) (1992). Now I know I also saw a film adapted from her work, because I saw THE SLUTTY BOMBAX CEIBA or RAAN DOG NGIEW (ร่านดอกงิ้ว) (1987, Puntape Attagaiwonwatee, B) many years ago. This Chula website also has a list of more than 100 books by Krissana Asokesin.

celinejulie said...

Filmvirus, I just checked in IMDB and Meg Tilly is really in PSYCHO II (1983, A+). I didn’t know anything about PATRICK, but I will grab it if I find it in a VCD store. It’s just because I love horror film and am curious about old Australian films.

I can’t remember the ending of ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, but I think I agree with your alternative ending. Talking about gallery owner character, it reminds me of Brooke Shields in THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN (2008, Ryuhei Kitamura, A-). I think she’s memorable in this film, though her role is not very important.

The case of Meg Tilly who wrote a memoir exposing bad things reminds me of the miniseries ELVIS AND ME (1988, Larry Peerce, B+), which is made from the book by Priscilla Presley and was broadcast on Channel 3. Since I’m not a fan of Elvis and have no knowledge about him, I don’t have any objections to the bad portrayal of Elvis in this miniseries. I remember that I was surprised when I read that some Elvis’ fans thought this miniseries was unfair and full of Priscilla’s bias against her ex-husband.

When you write something about real people or make movies about real people and show them in a bad light, you may find some problems. But though you show them in a good light, you can also find some problems, too. I have heard that TYSON (2008, James Toback) may show Mike Tyson in too much of a good light that some audience (especially feminist ones) can’t accept it. I think in the end any writers/filmmakers just have to stick to the truth when they create biographical works like this, and they must not care if other people can accept this truth or not.

Vespertine said...

i didnt remember the ending of the curater character either. Was she go dating and find out that her online date is just 8 year old kid?
If that s true, I think Miranda really took a big revenge because her character in the end got her love interest while the curater didnt.
: )