BIFF Day One

So I am on the plane to Bangkok, reading the inflight magazine. It is an issue dedicated to Thai food. I think this is a good start to my trip. Usually food isn't a problem in Thailand, but it is still fun to read about.

Then I discovered something truly amazing: the Bangkok International Film Festival is about to start. Talk about excited. I have never been to a film festival, but has always dreamed of doing it. So I go the list of films coming and today was the big first day of films.

The first movie I saw was "An Andalucian Dog," by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. It was a silent piece, that is most famous for the scene where a man takes a straight razor and cuts a woman's eyeball. It is quite shocking even though the scene is nearly eighty years old! It was a very experimental film, and really I didn't understand any of it. But it was still fun to watch.

The second film was "Belle de Jour," also by Bunuel, starring Catherine Deneuve, as a young, sexually unsatisfied newlywed, who one day decides to become a prostitute. I thought: "Now here is a move that is appropriate for Thailand. I really liked this film. I never really understood the main character's motivation, or if indeed what happened really happened. It was fun watching Deneuve look young, French and beautiful. Not a bad way to spend a few hours. This film came out in 1967, the year of Sgt. Pepper, and it must of caused quite a stir in that Summer of Love. Quite a bit of sexuality, but really very tame by today's standards. The heroine comes undone at the end (ah, morality raising its head), all the work of a whily, greasy Italian, but really she should have seen it coming (did I mentioned the whily, greasy part? and his teeth!)

Finally, this evening (after lunch, a little reading and a siesta), I saw "This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated," which dealt with the ratings system in America. This film got an NC-17 rating since it showed a lot of clips that were cut out of other films (let's put it this way: there were a lot of lesbians in this film). I thought it was really funny, particularly on how it looked at the fact that Americans are a bit prudish when it comes to this issues; but don't seem to squeam as much when there is lots of killing.

So there you have it, day one. Tomorrow I have a whole lot of other ones to watch. If you look for me, I will be the guy with popcorn on his shirt.