Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:59 AM PDT

Comedies and dramas, film noirs and apocalyptic thrillers wow audiences.

THEY came in all forms, genres, and styles. Some were lush, bright and colourful, while some were black and white. Some wowed with sharp dialogue, while others were silent, relying on music and images to tell their stories.

There were comedies and dramas, film noirs and apocalyptic thrillers, featuring a cast of superheroes, mad scientists, artists, murderers, ghosts and burger sellers.

These were the films shown during Malaysian Shorts 3, a showcase of short films by Malaysian directors, which was held in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Hosted by Kelab Seni Filem Negara, the event was a testament to the talent, imagination and passion of local filmmakers, who wowed audiences with their unique visions and stories, illustrated on celluloid.

One of the more popular films of the night was Leman, directed by Ahmad Hafiz Rashid, the winner of the Best Malaysian Student Short 2012 award.

Set in a sleepy village several decades ago, the comedy tells of the pompous, attention-hungry Leman, who finds himself in a unique position of power after he discovers he is the only one capable of reading notices written in the Rumi script.

Leman soon finds, however, that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, after his attempts to explain electric lighting take a dark yet hilarious turn!

Another interesting short was Masked, directed by Khairil M. Bahar, which was inspired by a news story where Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim urged martial arts practitioners to assist in fighting crime.

The film, a homage to blockbuster superhero films, featured moody atmospheres and slick fight choreography.

Particularly moving was the short Enough, directed by Vikneswaran, a dialogue-less film about an artist who moves to the city with big dreams, only to have them dashed by the exploitation and cruelty of others.

Unique among all the films shown that night was Langat Di Odu, directed by Bebbra Charles Mailin, which was entirely in the KadazanDusun language from Sabah.

Poignant and moving, the short told of an elderly woman, Nenek, who longed to be reunited with her daughter, Otto, who had run away to marry her lover in India.

When all the films had been screened, audience members were given the chance to vote for their favourite film to win the Audience Choice award.

Leman won third place, while second place went to Lawan, directed by Azizulhakim Salleh, a rib-tickling comedy about two pairs of rival burger stall owners, and the hilarious lengths they go to in order to attract customers.

The first place went to Donna Must Die. Stylistically shot in the style of a film noir, the film tells the story of Fred, a passive-aggressive husband who plots revenge on his hapless wife Donna after she accidentally destroys one of his prized possessions.

Directed by Ismail Jamaludin and Dragos Dulea, the film won over viewers with its combination of quirky comic book visuals, black comedy, and evocative score.

"The inspiration for Donna Must Die came from a time of my life where I was having a lot of problems, with family and so forth," said Ismail, who directed the film in Romania as his final project while studying film there.

The other films include Bonda (directed by Alhafiz Burhanuddin), Tanpa Judul (Azharr Rudin), Conscience (Nadia Khan), Kaizen (Shanjhey Kumar Perumal), Nesan Tak Terukir (Muz Amer) and the animated The Last Man (Hanif Faiq Mohd Hashim).

Writer and filmmaker Amir Muhammad, who hosted the event, said he was pleased with the films screened during Malaysian Shorts 3.

"When you make a short film, you do it for love," Amir said.

"You don't do it because you want a job, or anything like that. Sure, there are competitions, but the main motivation for making a short is always out of affection for the form, or the desire to share.

"It's great that people are still passionate enough to tell stories they want to tell through this medium," he added.

Malaysian Shorts runs approximately every three months at the Help University Auditorium in Pusat Bandar Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MalaysianShorts).

Why so serious?

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:22 AM PDT

Some movie remakes take all the fun out of the original stories.

THE recently released remake of Total Recall committed the biggest sin of all remakes – taking all the fun out of the story.

This isn't the first time a remake has committed this error, unfortunately. Take, for example, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, the 2006 remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller hit, Infernal Affairs. The original was essentially a thrilling cat-and-mouse game between gangsters and the police, with a rather bare-bones plot involving moles in both the police force and the triad. But Scorsese decided to imbue his remake with psychological "complexities" and such, so much so that it took all the fun out of the simple premise.

With the Total Recall remake, not only is Mars missing entirely from the story, all the camp and silliness are also gone. What we have instead is a serious, post-apocalyptic thriller that takes itself way too seriously.

Paul Verhoeven's original movie was a riot of often-ridiculous, humour-laden thrill moments and colours right out of a coloured pencil set. The centrepiece of its cornucopia of sometimes rubbery special effects was a spectacular but very funny head disguise that opens up in horizontal pieces. Then there were its motley band of Martian mutants, from tentacle-handed cab drivers to symbiotic talking growths.

The remake only kept the three-breasted woman, for obvious reasons.

Such remakes beg two questions: Where's the fun? And what other films, which were fun and campy, should never be touched by the grimy paws of Hollywood's remake machine? Let's examine some:

RoboCop (1987)

Another Verhoeven sci-fi actioner that unfortunately does have a remake in the works right now. This satire is all-out silly violence once Detroit cop Murphy, played by Peter Weller, is transformed into the babyfood-guzzling RoboCop. The metalhead police officer's "civic duties" include shooting a rapist in the crotch. This cross between The Six Million Dollar Man and Dirty Harry is set in the landscape of a dying industrial age, just about a decade away from the digital dawn of the new millennium. It's this setting that ties in nicely with the story of a cyborg law-enforcer struggling with both the remnants of his humanity and an evil consumerist corporation. The remake, slated for release next year, will surely benefit from digital enhancements, but it surely cannot tell the same story about industrial decay in this glittering digital age. And it will be missing Verhoeven's daring.

Flash Gordon (1980)

No one, absolutely no one, can claim that they didn't at least snigger at the goings-on in this movie. This is an all-out campy, colourful, overacted joyride that's neither real sci-fi nor space opera. It's just ... well, a flashy, cartoonish version of Flash Gordon. Even the theme song, by Queen no less, is loud, rock-opera nonsense that's catchy as hell ("Flash! ... Aaaahhh ..."). The movie's charm is that it's so bad, it's lovable fun. No remake will ever capture that. No, digital effects would just completely ruin the fun. And seriously, the public today would be merciless towards Ming the Merciless, who is obviously the product of an older age where the Other was always the bad guy.

The Evil Dead (1981)

This covers all three movies in the franchise – The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness. The first movie had the kind of independent reckless abandon that filmmakers early in their careers display before they are gobbled up by Hollywood's blockbuster machine and its mega-budgets. You can witness the same trait in Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, the kind of anything-goes attitude that piles on everything and also the kitchen sink. The Evil Dead series is scary fun because of this, and no remake or big budget can ever capture that lightning in a bottle. It's the signature stamp of a filmmaker trying, by any means necessary, to get that foot in the door. But a remake is already being shot as we speak, produced by Sam Raimi himself. Fede Alvarez, famous for his sci-fi short Panic Attack, is directing. Without Bruce Campbell and his character Ash, it doesn't seem promising.

Judge Dredd (1995)

It is coming. Soon. The remake. The original is something of a Flash Gordon for the 1990s – completely cartoonish, overacted, with a comicbook colour palette. And the moment Sylvester Stallone appears as the titular judge, uttering his opening lines "Aye yam da law! Drop your weapons ...", you know it's another so-bad-it's-fun movie. Stallone seems more like a parody of Judge Dredd. Even the Versace-designed costume cannot do much for him. Yet, this is the kind of movie you sit around on a lazy Saturday night with friends and have a good laugh at. And from the looks of the remake's trailer, it's going to be a grittier Mega City and Judge Dredd (Karl Urban with stubble) this time around, with a plot right out of Indonesian actioner The Raid. Begs the question: Why so serious?!

The Exorcist (1973)

OK, so this is not exactly a fun or campy movie. But one can't help but fear the nightmare that would be The Exorcist remake. Can you imagine, an updated Regan who would probably be an annoying Internet-obsessed teen with a cellphone practically attached to her ear? You'd wish that Pazuzu would finish her off quick and painfully. And those prosthetic make-up effects would surely be replaced with slick CGI ones. Hmm, how many pixels does it take to make realistic pea-soup vomit? The good news is, a remake is impossible because William Peter Blatty reportedly holds the rights to the story of his novel. The bad news is there are talks that a TV series might be produced featuring one of the characters in a whole new story. (Coincidentally, Swedish actor Max von Sydow appears in The Exorcist, Judge Dredd and Flash Gordon.)

China's films struggle for festival exposure

Posted: 11 Sep 2012 08:59 PM PDT

HONG KONG - The Chinese cinema industry may be the second largest in the world, but its films have been absent from major competitions at the most prestigious international festivals in the past year.

Critics say pressure on directors to create commercially successful and politically safe products means less scope for artistic ambition at a time when China's filmmakers are focusing on a booming domestic market.

The Venice Film Festival concluded last week and while the 80-year-old event has traditionally showcased Chinese cinema, there was no representative this year into the final list of 18 selected for its major competition, the Golden Lion.

It was a similar case at this year's Cannes festival, with no Chinese films being selected for the Palm D'or.

"The shame is that the past 12 months have been an exceptional period for Chinese-language cinema," said Stephen Cremin, co-founder of the influential Film Business Asia website tracking trends in Chinese cinema.

"Filmmakers are broadening the range of local genre cinema," he said, referring to an increasing number of Chinese takes on traditional horror, fantasy and gangster film templates.

"Even if many of these experiments have disappointed at the box office, they should still be recognised in a festival context. There is no international festival outside China that has stepped up as a platform," he said.

The last time a mainland Chinese film won the Golden Lion was 2006, when Jia Zhangke's "Still Life" picked up the award, while Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" in 1993 remains the only Chinese film to win the Palm D'Or.

Chen surprised many this week with his comments at the Toronto International Film Festival, in which he cited a "big cultural gap" preventing Western audiences relating to films "made in the East" and vice-versa.

But critics say his comments put him at odds with a growing trend of international cooperation on financing, production and distribution of films.

The situation in Venice this year prompted festival director Alberto Barbera to call an unprecedented press conference for mainland Chinese media.

At it, he stressed that the event remained supportive of Chinese cinema, despite the scarcity of its films screening there, something he explained as merely a "coincidence". - AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Rabu, 12 September 2012

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan