First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film Jose Arroyo & Richard Layne

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/04/04/in-conversation-with-richard-layne-on-yoko-ono-music-of-the-mind-tate-modern/
I talk to Richard Layne on ‘Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind’, currently on at Tate Modern. You might recognise Richard from our podcast, THINKING ALOUD ABOUT FILM. What you might not know is that he is a long-time fan of Yoko Ono and one of the most knowledgeable people on her work as an artist and performer. In this podcast, Richard, compares this exhibition, billed as the largest ever undertaken on the work of Yoko One, and compares it to the many others he’s attended. We talk of how he became a fan, her various types of work, the performance art, the conceptual art, her books of instructions, the connection to Fluxus. We also touch on her collaborations with some of the key figures of mid-twentieth century art (John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, John Lennon) and  how her work prefigures that of contemporary artists such as Marina Ibrahimovic. Our conversation broadly follows the flow of the exhibition itself, so I’ve included photographs from the exhibition in the blog so the listener might more clearly follow the points of conversation. Richard is very illuminating on why Yoko Ono is one of those figures that keep getting re-discovered periodically, on her extensive influence in various domains of art, from the gallery to punk, and on how she is a wonderful conduit to chance meetings with The Pet Shop Boys.

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/13/jose-arroyo-in-conversation-with-sean-burns-on-dorothy-towers-and-death/
Sean Burns is a Birmingham-born, London-based artist; the author of DEATH, part of the LOOK AGAIN series of volumes interpreting the TATE’s collection through particular themes and published to coincide with TATE BRITAIN’S recent re-hang; and the director of DOROTHY TOWERS, a film in which I appear. In the accompanying podcast, we discuss these iconic Birmingham Tower blocks that are the subject of the film; how their design and location meant that generations of queers ended up living there and continue to do so; how these buildings have a patterned history but not just one story. There are different stories, different layers of stories, spectral and layered, plural. We discuss how ‘Queer’ in England is constantly re-written as something that only happens in London and how the film is often interpreted by audiences as a reclaiming and a validation of similar histories that have probably taken place in cities all over the country. It’s a film that also brings into play modernism, brutalism, drag, fashion, and urban design that prioritises cars over people. We discuss how the film was driven by a mandate to search but not necessarily to find; and how what is evoked is a layered history but one with the feeling that comes from a place in which death, mourning and sadness are spectral but not defining elements. A film aware of the perils of representation and thus conscientiously ethical in its approach. We talk also of Burn’s recent book on death, his obsession with Francis Bacon and George Dyer, how Ireland and Irishness are developing concerns, and whether death, mourning, and longing are themes common to all this work.

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/12/thinking-aloud-about-film-out-of-the-blue-chen-kun-hou-taiwan-1983/
We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on OUT OF THE BLUE (Chen Kun-Hou, Taiwan, 1983).
A fascinating film to discuss in relation to all our previous podcasts on Taiwanese Cinema and Hou Hsiao-hsien; a film directed by Chen Kun-hou, the cinematographer on Hou Hsiao-hsien’s early films such as THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME (1982) and THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI (1983). Chen Kun-hou is also the cinematographer on HE NEVER GIVES UP (LEE HSING, 1978), and of course Hou Hsia-hsien was the co-writer on GROWING PAINS (1983) and this one. These films also share writer, Chu T’ien-wen (the screenwriter) who went on to co-write most of Hou Hsia-hsien’s films, this one based on a novel by Chu T’ien-wen’s sister, Chu T’ien-hsin. Collectively ork that evokes an outpouring of creativity but as part of a circle of collaborators. And this particular film seems a turning point from the healthy realist cinema that was and the comedies and musicals that followed to what would become known as New Taiwanese Cinema. A key film, released just after BOYS FROM FENGKUEI; A film that takes its time, the camera lingers, yet never feels long, a story gently told about young love in trouble, filial duty, ties to family, small transgressions. Aspects bring to mind BEFORE SUNRISE (Richard Linklater, 1995) Arguably, one can’t understand New Taiwanese Cinema well without having a context; and this series is a shortcut to that context, the virtue is that it’s preselected, the films that that national industry thought the best; and within THAT, OUT OF THE BLUE is arguably the key film of that transition.

In the podcast we try to mix very personal responses to ALL OF US STRANGERS with various historical contexts and speak of the film’s setting in relation to queer childhoods in that period, section 28, trauma, erasure; the film’s formal and stylistic achievements; Andrew Haigh’s career; how the film speaks to psychoanalytic pain, a generational pain, grief, AIDS. The personal grounded in historical contexts as a platform for politics. It’s all in there

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/02/01/thinking-aloud-about-film-he-never-gives-up-li-hsing-taiwan-1978/
We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on He Never Gives Up (LI Hsing, Taiwan, 1979). Li won the Golden Horse Award for Best Director for his films Beautiful Duckling (1965), Execution in Autumn (1972), and He Never Gives Up (1978) setting a record in Taiwan's film history that remains unbroken, marking the pinnacle of Li Hsing's directing career. It’s also part of a run -- Good Morning Taipei (1979) and The Story of A Small Town (1980) – of very successful films. This is our opportunity, a mixed blessing, to see a ‘Healthy Realist’ film, ‘uplifting’, and we now clearly see why the New Wave, so clearly a response to ‘Healthy Realism’ made such an impact. The film is based on a real story, published as A Raft in the Storm, that dealt with a child overcoming disability. We discuss, healthy realism, ideology, hope, disability, and the film’s trade in platitudes. Richard is the voice of reason; I despised many aspects of it.

https://notesonfilm1.com/2024/01/28/thinking-aloud-about-film-four-moods-taiwan-1970/
We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a chat on Four Moods, a portmanteau film, originally conceived as a project to raise funds for Li Han-hsiang’s ailing film company, Grand Motion Picture Company in Taiwan,

The four short films that together compose FOUR MOODS are:

First, Joy, is directed by Pai Ching-Jui, a bold beginning, shot as a silent film, with diegetic music but no dialogue

The second is King Hu’s Anger, which no doubt King Hu’s fans will rejoice at.

Sadness, the third, is directed by “godfather of Taiwanese cinema” Li Hsing, is perhaps misnamed as it’s perhaps more about self-destructive anger and vengefulness than anything else.

Happiness, the last, and our favourite, is directed by Li Han-Hsiang himself

All involve ghosts, hauntings, and desires.

A historically and culturally significant film, featuring four of the most popular and significant directors of the time. Fabulistic and allegorical, yet, the length of the podcast testifies to the limits of our understanding. The frustration of watching these films is the bounds of one’s knowledge, and we would encourage listeners who want to know more to read these excellent articles by Andrew Heskins and Hayley Scallion.

The copy kindly made available for viewing is brown and a bit murky colour-wise and does not deserve to be publicised as a restoration. The sub-titling, particularly of text within the narrative, could be improved. That said, w’re very glad to see it.