French Film Festival Highlights

This year, I went to 7 of what seems to be over 40 films on show during the Sydney Alliance Francaise French Film Festival. The brochure this year notes

'The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival was first launched in 1989 by the Alliance Francaise in Sydney and has since become a major annual event for all 6 capital Alliances Francaises in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide.Each year, the festival provides a unique opportunity for cinema aficionados to embark upon a thrilling voyage which showcases the best contemporary French Films. With each festival season, Australian audiences have displayed a continually deepening interest in our screening programme, which also contributes to the strengthening of cultural ties between our two countries."

It's true, every year I get to some of the screenings, and the cinema's are filling up. I'm also frequently surprised at the number of french speaking patrons that surround me in the cinema. It's truly a thoroughly enjoyable event in my year, when I trawl through the program with certain criteria, and different friends in mind, to finally come up with my selection of possible outings in the month.

This year I decided on a possible of 14 films I would like to see, and a schedule that meant I could possible see 11 - and in reality I saw 7.

1. Rosalie Blum - directed by Julien Rappeneau - Actress Noemie Lvovsky - Drama Comedy - Based on the award winning series of graphic novels by Camille Jourdy - This enchanting directorial is a warm, witty and impeccably performed drama comedy about a random encounter that has u unexpected and far reaching consequences.
2. Taj Mahal - directed by Nicolas Saada - actress Stacy Martin - Drama - Nicolas Saada's excellent film takes a sober look at the plight of a family caught up in an invasion by fundamentalist extremists'.
3. The Measure of a Man/ La Loi du Marche - directed by Stephane Brize - Actor Vincent Lindon - Drama - This film is a testament to human resilience and decency.. a moving social drama that scoped Best Actor Award at the Cannes International Film Festival 2015.
4. Dheepan - directed by Jacques Audiard - Actor Antonyhasan Jesuthasan - Drama - This immigrant drama unfolds in solidly involving, carefully observed fashion. Winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival ... blistering slice of realism... with a unique presentation of the asylum seeker experience that will move audiences profoundly.
5. Macadam Stories /Asphalte - directed by Samuel Benchertrit - Actress Isabelle Huppert - Drama - Comedy - A quirky and endearing urban dramedy
6. Blind Date/ Un Peu, Beaucoup, Aveuglement - directed by Clovis Cornillac- Actress Melanie Bernier - Comedy Romance - Unexpected and refreshing....Opposites attract not just each other, but also hilarious and surprising complications in this delightful and laugh filled movie.
7. Boomerang - directed by Francois Facrat - Actor Laurent Lafitte and Actress Melanie Laurent - Drama - A well-run thriller with a deliciously suspenseful Hitchcockian Atmosphere....

I don't think I chose any dudds this year - and I can hardly pick a favourite because they were all so different, and left me with such different experiences. Blind Date was definitely the funniest I saw, Dheepan was very moving for me personally, Boomerang did have me engaged in the mystery right up to the end, and Taj Mahal was almost too terrifying and surreal.....  





Let me know if you have any favourite french films this year..... 

Happy Easter

New Day

Freshness of Dawn

Golden colour of Hope

Stillness of Calm

Aroma of Life 

How lucky am I? 

Happy Easter

International Women's Day

 These women live in Thiruchuli, 

a small rural village in 

TamilNadu, Southern India. 

 These women welcomed me into their community 

And shared their lives with me...

I learnt so much from them

 This is Seroja

She took care of me during one of my visits

She, like many women in this village, 

Works very hard. 

 Each woman has her own life experienes

Her own dreams

And her own fears......

 These girls (below), have many dreams and hopes

And I believe the world is changing for them

They are the first generation of girls in their family to go to school

They are happy in their hostel

And the NGO works hard to make sure they are safe

These women are my sisters, my children, and my friends. I support www.odamindia.org because they support this community of women.

International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world on March 8th. (Www.unwomen.org.au)

Violence against women and girls is a serious problem, is entirely preventable and we all have a role to play to end violence at home and around the world.

The facts:

• Around the world, 1 in 3 women will experience violence in her lifetime.
• In the Pacific, as many as 2 in 3 women will experience violence in their lifetimes.
• In the highlands of Papua New Guinea, as many as 100% of women report experiencing sexual or physical violence.

Around the globe tomorrow many women, men and communities will honour women in many different ways. I plan to raise awareness to the power of education for girls. I believe that in being educated, girls will gain strength to make informed decisions about health, family, economics and safety. Thats why i support ODAM. 

Ethical consumption

So many of us have made the transition from consumption to considered living that it seems weird to come across people who dont know what ethical consumption is. I've challenged myself to start a Masters degree (my second), & I'm starting with  corporate social responsibility. This weeks lecture was about comsumption, and the lecturere asked us to talk in small groups about consumerism and global sustainability. There are alot of international students in my class, and I was surprised at some of the reactions the the question. 

We had to read articles about consumer choices and marketing. Again I was surprised these articles were dated 2010, and yet as a society we have progressed our thinking and awareness of consumer power, but in my course I'm looking at reserach nearly 10 yrs  old. To be honest i was pleasantly surprised in myself. I could teach this subject with my eyes closed!  I dont think all my subjects will be this easy, but I'm enjoying the thinking time I'm getting, and the challenge of reading things I wouldn't normally do. 

Last week I handed in my first assignment on DuPont and the teflon crisis, corporate social responsibility and moral agency. I really enjoyed learning more about the case study, the legal case, and thinking about what I would've liked DuPont to have done differently.  Im currently thinking through the idea that for a company to have moral agency they need to have an internal decision making framework that supports rational and moral thinking. I'm pondering the idea that a company can be moral if its executive and internal decision making structure has access to the right peop,e and right information. But at the same time I acknowledge there are many forces that weigh on an executives power to make ethical and moral decisions. I'm fascinated by these power plays, and wonder how an individual can influence a company's decision making from inside? And then how can consumers influence from outside? 

I strongly believe in citizen action, and that as individuals we can influence companies to make different decisions. I think its useful to know what information to gather when thinking about how to influence different companies. 

Simple living, ethical and considered consumption, power of individuals to

 Influence.... all at the front of my mind... mingling with outdated theories and economic thinking.... what comes to mind for you? 

Take 5

 Where am I?  

More accurately, where was I in 2007?

I feel like I'm on a forced break from blogging... I'm experiencing technical problems with the internet at home and I'm  being forced to do everything on my tablet. Its not easy.

So, while I'm not able to make progress with my blogging, I thought I'd remember a break i did enjoy!! Greece, Athens and Mykonos. Beautiful blue skies and oceans, white churches, history everywhere and great food and wine. Very happy memories. 

Im hoping to get back to my good self very soon. I have some interesting posts i want to do..

Japanese Literature Challenge No 9

 This is a late entry to Dolce Belezza’s Japanese Literature ChallengeNo 9 (JLC9).

The aim of JLC is to read at least one book (or movie etc) with a Japanese Author, Topic, Setting... The JLC runs over several months – I think from June – January. This year, there were more than 30 participants, some read & reviewed multitudes of books, others only one. Me – I’m reviewing three. 

 South of the Border, West of the Sun – Murakami

“growing up in the suburbs in post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father’s record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. ... Now Hijime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery....”

This book has many of the Murakami symbols that we’re familiar with – Jazz, small  families, intriguing and reappearing personal characteristics, separation from society.. But it also differs from other Murakami novels in that it’s more of a self discovery and questioning journey for the lead character. There’s an overlay of morals and ethics in his questioning. 

Personally, I found the central theme of the book – Marriage and Personal happiness – to be it’s draw card. I enjoyed the lead characters tussle with his desire for the beautiful and yet his desire for the consistent and culturally significant. I think many of don’t realise just how powerful the contradiction of marriage and personal desire can be. 

I devoured this book while I was holidaying in Vietnam last year. I note that it cost me 260 Dong (AUD $16.50) so I was keen to have it. I recall one day, someone on the bus noted what I was reading, he commented that Murakami was a world reknown author and wasn’t it good that even in other countries we can find our favourite authors. 

 The Elephant Vanishes – Murakami

A collection of short stories – New York Times said “All the stories take place in parallel worlds not so much remote from ordinary life as hidden within it’s surfaces; secret alleys that afford unexpected – and unsettling – views”. 

The back cover says ‘In every one of these stories Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal’.  I agree – these short stories are so very Murakami! I always enjoy those twists, escapes from reality (when you can see that), and alternative realms. 

I have to say, I got a bit lost with the TV People, but I quite liked the way the women and the green monster related to each other. The story about Insomnia was sort of disturbing, but so close to reality it concerned me. How many people get through parts of life with little or no deep sleep, then make decisions... The story about the brother and sister, and her fiancé – well that was just annoying! All families have someone others don’t like or who are just insipid! 

Still – for a book of short stories – I enjoyed it. I liked that I could pace myself by the stories, that I could move on from one wierd thing and start another.... I do love trying to find Murakami’s signatures – Jazz, Trains and Stations, reference to pasta or cooking, telephone calls.... 

Some Prefer Nettles -  Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

This was my challenge for JLC9 – Murakami is my main squeeze for JLC’s, so I try and get outside my comfort zone with something. I choose this because it was a study of marriage and divorce in the Japanese Culture. 

‘The marriage of Kaname and Misako is disintegrating: whilst seeking passion and fulfilment in the arms of others, they contemplate the humiliation of divorce. Misako's father believes their relationship has been damaged by the influence of a new and alien culture, and so attempts to heal the breach by educating his son-in-law in the time-honoured Japanese traditions of aesthetic and sensual pleasure. The result is an absorbing, chilling conflict between ancient and modern, young and old.’[Goodreads description]

Written in 1929, it was apparently first published as a newspaper serial, but has since been translated in many languages and published all over the world. The author, Tanizaki, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and is considered one of the leading modern Japanese authors of the early 20^th Century. According to Wikipedia, his stories were frequently narrated in a context of a search for cultural identity in which constructions of the ‘west’ and Japanese tradition are juxtaposed. 

 

What I enjoyed was that ‘holding back’ to see if the Japanese tradition would win out, but in the end, the ‘western’ ways seemed to drag both characters into the 20^th C. There was a lot of description given to the significance of the Puppet Show in Japanese Culture. This was one of the links to the past that Kaname really wanted to hold on to. The author also paid attention to small details of Japanese culture – such as the role of the wife in seeing to the beauty in the house. 

 “The bamboo summer mats, reflecting the green of the June foliage up from the floor, were cool against their stockinged feet. There was a faint smell of incense – a grass seed, they would have guessed – through the house’.

This quote captured the themes and characters of the book perfectly for me....

‘For all the excitement of her love-affair, Misako still changed the decorations in the Japanese rooms now and then, the hangings and the flowers to harmonize with the changing of the seasons.... still when Kaname thought of the day when the flowers would disappear, he knew that even this lifeless marriage, like the woodwork seen and remembered morning and evening and morning again, was something so near and familiar that it would continue to pull him even after it was gone.”  (ch 13). 

Summary 

Another  exciting JLC for me. i posted earlier about how I went to the Singapore Writers Festival and participated in some forums on Japanese Literature and Murakami. I'll try and post some memories of those discussions later this week..

Addendum: I forgot I also read Audition. This was ok in the first 2/3 of the book but it got too gross to finish. Probably why I forgot to mention it. For the original review that inspired me to look it up... go here

Focus Words for 2016

This sculpture is in a park on the southern tip of Vietnam in the city of Vung Tau (I think). For me, visiting this place was really significant. In the late 70's and early 80's many Vietnamese Refugees came to Australia by boat, most left from this port. My broader family, under the watchful eye of my grandmother, adopted a Vietnamese family and assisted them as they settled in South Australia. I learnt alot from this family about cultural differences and respect of different religions, and also about gardening. My husbands family also adopted a Vietnamese family who also had a impact on his values in life too.

I share this story by way of saying I am hopeful that I will be able to live by the values I hold close, those that I have adopted from some wiser than me, and those I've come to hold dear just because of my own journey.

This image will remind me to focus on these principles/values as I embark on 2016, a potentially busy year. Last year my words were influencial and remain meaniingful to me.