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SINGAPORE: The actors are unrecognisable faces, the film-maker’s name is something you can’t pronounce, the language is foreign (naturally). And the film duration? Longer than your last three dates put together.
Welcome to the world of the experimental, arthouse film. Come on in, don’t be scared. Just because it’s non-Hollywood, created purely for art and art’s sake (well most of the time) and not necessarily made with the sole purpose of entertaining a mass audience, doesn’t mean that it will be an agonising cinematic experience.
Great movies are great movies. With truly significant films, language and culture are no barriers.
And with the wonderful array of choices at the 24th Singapore French Festival, which officially opened last Friday and runs till Oct 12 — including a special tribute showcase of award-winning New Wave French film director Alain Resnais’ works — quality art house films are more accessible than finding the nearest ATM.
Still afraid of “catching no ball” with such films? Read the A to Z cheat sheet carefully and you’ll be ready to make the arty folk think you’re a film connoisseur.
A is for Auteur
It’s just a fancy French word for a director who has actual talent (and almost-complete control over their film). Name drop the early elite like Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa to impress friends, family and the neighbours’ dog.
B is for Black and White
Having a film shot in black-and-white always scores many a good art-house point. Extra credit for the director who, in a moment of brilliance, alternates from black and white for the tragic bits into glorious Technicolor for the redemptive, ecstatic bits. Think Francis Ford Coppola’s "Youth Without Youth".
C is for Camp Value
Arthouse is not always about pretentious seriousness. Sometimes, it’s about filth and debauchery. With transgressive cult films like "Desperate Living", "Pink Flamingos", "Cry Baby" and "A Dirty Shame", auteur John Waters broke boundaries of acceptable film-making with his counter-culture Hollywood comedies. Drugs, transgenderism, abortion, religion — nothing is sacred in this writer-director’s vision.
D is FOR Dogme
Dogme 95 is an avant-garde film-making movement started in 1995 by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. Emphasising creativity through technical and aestheticalrestraint, the 10 rules known as “The Vow of Chastity” are there for film-makers to raise the fewest barriers between film and audience, and produce art that is unveiled and not fabricated.
E is for Europe
The continent that houses the nation (France) that created the New Wave movement and elevated film-makers such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut to god-like status also makes films that boast an important trait perfect for the quintessential arthouse flick — an amazingly comfortable level of nudity thanks to the lack of inhibitions. Hey, who’s complaining?
F is for Foreign Language
Yes to subtitles. No to “Dubbed in English” versions.
G is for Grotesque
Surreal, absurdist and grotesque — hot themes in arthouse cinema. Exploring the unthinkable and taboo as a way of reflecting society. Think "Taxidermia" (2008) and "Delicatessen" (1990).
H is for Homage
Paying tribute to a great cinema master like Ingmar Bergman and Fellini may seem a bit obvious, but one can always look beyond.
Take a leaf out of Singapore’s foremost auteur Eric Khoo’s book: “After watching My Magic, a European journalist told me that she saw what she felt was like a condensed montage of Aki Kaurismaki’s work. I really like and admire Aki Kaurismaki ("The Man without a Past") and can relate to his work.
“The more I got into his films, the more similarities started showing up in My Magic.” Khoo recently enjoyed immense success with the film in Pusan.
I is for Independent
“Indie” is the term usually used in America instead of “arthouse”.
J is for Jim Jarmusch
Jarmusch ("Coffee and Cigarettes", 2003) and the new guard of independent taboo-breaking film-makers somewhat manage to straddle indie vision and mainstream success. They include David Lynch ("Blue Velvet", 1986) and Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind", 2004).
K is for Kids
Kids are a useful feature of the starkly realistic approach, preferably subject to plenty of tasteful off-screen abuse. And, in the arthouse world, they don’t even have to be cute.
L is for long silences
The silence carries the message. It’s art.
M is for Mis-en-scene
It has been called film criticism’s grand undefined term. Important terminology to use when discussing the visual elements of the film, the manner of which it is framed and captured, as well as the influence of style.
N is for Nouvelle Vague
French for “New Wave”, it was one of the most significant film movements in the history of cinema. La Nouvelle Vague — coined by critics of a group of young directors in the late 50s and early 60s — was reminiscent of the Italian neo-realism, with film-makers experimenting with radical editing and narrative styles during the social and political upheavals then.
O is for Obscure,Off-kilter, Off-beat
It usually translates to being meaningful simply because it’s not the norm.
P is for the Philosophical Musings and Phallic Symbols
Just because, really.
Q is for Quirky
Hollywood pictures have a gazillion dollars invested and more people to answer to, thus, are designed to please the masses. Independent films are made with the charity of friends, and are watched by 30 people. The director can afford to be quirky.
R is for Rating
You know it’s never going to be PG.
S&T are for Sex and Tit-a-lation
What is an arthouse movie without sexuality? Remember, it’s not porn — it’s art.
U is for Under the radar
With an entire film budget equal to a Hollywood blockbuster’s catering service, who has time or money for marketing?
V is for Venice
The Venice Film Festival is just one of several where arthouse films get to see daylight. Thanks to a faithful following over the years, it is now absolutely de rigueur.
W is for Wong Kar wai
The director stood apart from the mainstream Hong Kong cinema with his award-winning body of work, but it was the 1994 cult hit "Chungking Express" that pushed this auteur into the stratosphere of arthouse elite.
X is for Xanadu
It wasn’t arthouse, but it was the only thing we could think of that starts with “X”.
Y is for YouTube’s Screening Room
Arthouse is now on the information highway. YouTube wants a generation weaned on laughing babies and stupid pet tricks to start watching arthouse flicks. Launched in June this year, the platform is a good resource for indie auteurs to get exposure.
Z is for Zoetrope, as in American
American Zoetrope is the studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas in 1969 which produced not only Coppola’s masterpieces and Lucas’ pre Star Wars films, but also many others by directors Godard, Kurosawa and Wim Wender. - TODAY/sh
The 24th Singapore French Film Festival is on until Oct 12. Tickets available at Sistic and Cathay Cathay Cineplexes. Programme and more details available at www.alliancefrancaise.org.sg
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