28 July-03 Aug

From the Cinematheque members email:

Our summer Vietnam on Film series will begin on Monday July 28 and run through Friday September 12. During this period we will have several Members Only nights with foreign films, but otherwise the series will consist of some of the best Vietnamese classic and recent features and documentaries, as well as foreign films made in or about Vietnam.

The Vietnam on Film series is open to the public, but Hanoi Cinematheque members may reserve seats as usual.

A brochure with complete schedule and film notes is available now at Hanoi Cinematheque. Members will continue to receive weekly schedules by e-mail.

SCHEDULE (July 28 - August 3)

JULY

28 Monday
19:00 WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES
21:00 THE TRAVELING CIRCUS

29 Tuesday
19:00 THE TRAVELING CIRCUS
21:00 WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES

30 Wednesday
19:00 NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE
21:00 THE DESERTED VALLEY

31 Thursday
19:00 THE GAMBLE
21:00 NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

AUGUST

1 Friday
19:00 INDOCHINE

2 Saturday
14:00 WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES
16:00 NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE
19:00 VIETNAMESE DOCUMENTARIES: Program 3
21:00 THE REBEL

2 Sunday
14:00 THE REBEL
16:00 A DREAM IN HANOI
19:00 WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES
21:00 NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

THE FILMS

WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES
1984 Directed by Dang Nhat Minh 90 minutes
English subtitles

A haunting portrait of one woman’s struggle with loss and personal sacrifice during the war, WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES is considered by many local and international critics to be the greatest Vietnamese movie ever made.

In the final days of the war, a beautiful young widow, Duyen, faces a daily struggle to take care of her young son and ailing father-in-law, all the while hiding from them the fact that her husband has recently been killed in battle. Keeping her secret burden to herself, she is befriended by the village schoolmaster, Zhang, who agrees to fabricate letters from her dead husband in order to spare her family sorrow. As their friendship deepens, Duyen and Zhang find themselves drawn closer to intimacy - a dangerous relationship if Duyen if to maintain her charade. The title of the movie refers to the month in which the Day of Forgiveness occurs; a time when it is said that departed souls may visit loved ones still living.

The film resonates beautifully with the traditional Vietnamese precepts of duty and sacrifice, combined with aesthetic influences from centuries of tradional poetry, literature and theatre.

Although this was the first post-war Vietnamese movie to be shown at foreign film festivals (winning several awards), the film has seldom been shown in Vietnam since it was produced in 1984. The movie was recently restored, with English subtitles, and we will be screening this brand new copy.

NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE
1987 Directed by Dang Nhat Minh 116 minutes
English subtitles

Powerful and poetic, NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE explores the tensions and traumas of everyday life in a rural northern Vietnamese village.

The arrival from abroad of Quyen, who fled the village as a small girl, coincides with the sexual awakening of 17-year-old Nham, through whose eyes the story unfolds.

While picturesque on the surface, the countryside that Quyen dreamed about turns out to be a landscape of poverty, passion and tragedy - though not without pockets of warmth and humor.

Somewhat controversial at the time of its release, NOSTALGIA FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE has been acclaimed by international critics as a masterpiece, due largely to the sensitive and compassionate storytelling of director Dang Nhat Minh.

THE TRAVELING CIRCUS
1988 Directed by Viet Linh 74 minutes
English subtitles

One of the most acclaimed Vietnamese films of the 1980s, THE TRAVELING CIRCUS won numerous international awards, including Grand Prix at Fribourg Third world Film Festival, Audience Award at Uppsala (Sweden) International Film Festival and First Prize at Madrid Women’s Film Festival.

With obvious influences from Bergman, DeSica and Fellini, director Viet Linh tells the bittersweet story of a small traveling circus from Hanoi stopping in an impoverished ethnic minority village in Vietnam’s central highlands. Through the eyes of a village youngster, we witness the magic of the circus, and the na�ve hope that illusion can be transformed into reality. THE TRAVELING CIRCUS is an extremely realistic, sensitive and moving film, that is rarely shown either in Vietnam or abroad.

THE GAMBLE
1993 Directed by Luu Trong Ninh 90 minutes
English subtitles

An excellent example of the social realism that emerged in Vietnamese cinema during the early doi moi (renovation) days.

This is a story of a poor girl student. Shamed for her poor fate, Mai decides to leave the city to find ways to earn money. However, life turns out to be more complicated than she bargained for. She does earn money, but in doing so she loses both her innocence and virginity.

Famed actress Thu Ha plays Mai, and Don Duong plays Chien the corrupt truckdriver who takes Mai under his wing. THE GAMBLE was written by Vietnamese poet and screenwriter, Nguyen Thi Hong Ngat and film was shot entirely on location in the mountainous regions of Northern Vietnam.

THE DESERTED VALLEY
2001 Directed by Pham Nhue Giang 90 minutes
English subtitles

This extraordinary Vietnamese feature film won The Silver Lotus (Best Film), Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Actress awards at the 2002 Vietnam Film Festival, and was selected to open the International Forum of New Cinema at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.

Shot entirely on location in a Hmuong village high in the Hoang Lien Son mountains, THE DESERTED VALLEY is an emotional tale of two schoolteachers from Hanoi who struggle to find meaning in their private and professional lives.

Directed by Ms Pham Nhue Giang, a former assistant to director Dang Nhat Minh, THE DESERTED VALLEY is a rich and entertaining movie ? and one that pushes the boundries of intimacy and sensuality in Vietnamese film.

THE DESERTED VALLEY is like a perfect symphony, with hardly a mistake anywhere. The director not only cares for the main actors, but also the extras - especially for the ethnic school children - so everybody plays their roles naturally.
With THE DESERTED VALLEY we have a proof of the potential of Vietnamese cinema, and we are confident and proud to contribute this film to world cinema.
Ngoc Ngu Long, Saigon Giai Phong

INDOCHINE
1992 Directed by Regis Wargnier 156 minutes
English subtitles

Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, 1992, INDOCHINE is an intimate epic - a tale of passion and revolution in colonial Vietnam.

The first six weeks of filming were done in Vietnam, including the opening funeral procession near Hanoi, the slave market/bridge scenes at Halong Bay, and the Vietnamese marriage ceremony at The Imperial Palace in Hue.

Catherine Deneuve stars as Eliane Devries, the seemingly repressed owner of a prosperous rubber plantation in French Indochina. When her adopted Indochinese daughter innocently falls in love with Elaine’s secret lover, the scandal threatens to destroy their entire family. Set against the violence of the bloody Communist uprising, INDOCHINE is an historically accurate, emotionally wrenching epic of love and war.

INDOCHINE sprawls and enthralls. It has the breadth and intelligence of David Lean epics. If you were to choose a film to express the agony and ambiguity of Vietnam in this century, it should be INDOCHINE
–Richard Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE

A DREAM IN HANOI
2002 Directed by Tom Weidlinger 106 minutes
English and Vietnamese with English subtitles

Four years ago, Dr Lorelle Browning - a professor at Pacific University in Portland, Oregon - brought an American theatre company to Hanoi to stage a bi-lingual, bi-cultural production of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, together with actors and a director from the National Theatre of Vietnam.

The entire project was the subject of a fascinating and entertaining full-length documentary film, produced by San Francisco filmmaker Tom Weidlinger, entitled A DREAM IN HANOI.

On paper, it seemed like an ideal arrangement: Take a theater company from Portland, Ore., send it to Hanoi in the fall of 2000 and have it collaborate with a renowned Vietnamese theater company on one of Shakespeare’s most illuminating plays, A Midsummmer Night’s Dream.

The result, as captured by documentarian Tom Weidlinger, was anything but smooth. In A Dream in Hanoi, egos clash, cultural misunderstandings are common, and last-minute obstacles from the Vietnamese government threaten to derail a performance that had started out with such high hope.

American Shakespeare scholar Lorelle Browning, who spent five years arranging the co-production, is reduced to tears by the artistic confrontations that emerge in Hanoi, but there are epiphanies, too. Walking and motorbiking around Vietnam’s capital reveals a culture that is rich in sounds, sights and smells. A Vietnamese actress goes against her country’s tradition and loves displaying more affection on stage.

Weidlinger was in the right place at the right time. Who could have predicted that then-President Clinton would send a representative to rehearsals to gauge whether he should attend opening night? The visit adds a new layer of tension to the production — a tension that never lets up until the end of A Dream in Hanoi. Narrated by F. Murray Abraham, this documentary is a treat to behold.

Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle

THE REBEL
2007 Directed by Charlie Nguyen 103 minutes
English subtitles

Reported to be the most expensive Vietnamese feature ever produced, THE REBEL is a cooperative production between Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American filmmakers and actors.

Colonial Vietnam in 1922. The long-standing French occupation of the country has inflamed anti-French sentiments, triggering guerilla forces to rise up against the foreign invaders. In response, the French employ elite units of Vietnamese agents to track down and destroy these rebels.

The story follows Cuong, an undercover agent of the French. Tired of bloodshed, Cuong helps Thuy escape French forces in order to save her rebel village. Plagued by patriotic obligations, Cuong is unsure of where his loyalty lies when he is confronted with the brutal reality of French rule and his own humanity reflected in Thuy?s eyes.

Review by Andrew James at Toronto Film Festival:

When it comes to straight up martial arts films, they generally aren’t my thing. But when a film is released touting itself as the most expensive film ever from Vietnam, it must be worth a look-see. Couple that with producer/writer/star Johny Nguyen in the lead and you’ve got a picture that is nearly irresistible.

Nguyen plays Le, a young secret service agent working with the French in their occupation of Vietnam during the 1920s. He and his partner, Sy, are responsible for the safety of various French officials. Of course he is seen as a traitor to his people by many. With this occupation, a small rebel force has grown in strength and is determined to assassinate various leaders of The French occupying government. During an assassination attempt, Le kills a young boy and begins to have second thoughts about loyalty. When the torture of a suspect goes beyond boundaries, Le chooses to help the girl escape and becomes part of the rebel faction, becoming almost immediate enemies with his ex-partner, Sy.

Of course the stand out in this movie are the fight scenes. The martial arts sequences are extremely well choreographed and some of the take down moves and high kicking action sequences are almost breathless. This should be really no surprise as Johny Nguyen is no stranger to the martial arts motion pictures. He’s fought with both Jet Li and Tony Jaa while also doing stuntwork in several major, Hollywood motion pictures such as Jarhead, Serenity and Collateral. Though his face may not be recognizable, audiences know him best as the guy in the Spiderman costume in Sam Raimi’s first two movies.

But this is far from being just another martial arts movie. With the nice cinematography and interesting, historical setting, it’s almost worthy of being called a sweeping epic. The storyline is also worthy of a standard, Hollywood production. With rebels fighting imposing odds and a tyrannical, invading nation, it’s easy to pick sides; and with the historical element added, you know that there will be a few scenes that are difficult to watch for their emotional impact and their brutality.

My major enjoyment from the film came from the tangled storyline. Besides sort of an action/adventure and historical type of film, it also employs somewhat of a mystery. There are traitors and moles within each faction and the audience is kept guessing about who they might be. In fact, I was never quite sure where Le’s loyalties lied throughout much of the picture. This is the type of film where there might be a twist coming at any moment. I very much enjoyed that aspect to the movie.

The acting and dialogue throughout is surprisingly well played. I say surprising because for basically a stuntman to come forth and put together a story like this with strong, deep characters and heve them pull off their lines without cheese or feeling forced really says something about the film maker. This is not just some muscle bound henchman in the movie industry. He shows his grits as also a smart screenwriter with acting and casting talent as well.

So The Rebel is more than worth seeing when available. Not so much as an action movie with a plot than it is a dramatic, well-acted story with amazingly choreographed fight scenes within to just give it that extra push over the top. Look for great things in the future from Nguyen as The Rebel is certainly a great foundation for him and his director brother (Charlie Nguyen) to start with.

VIETNAMESE DOCUMENTARIES: Program 3
(3 recent documentaries)

DREAMING OF BEING A WORKER
2007 Directed by Tran Phuong Thao 50 minutes
English subtitles

In the new free trade, market economy of Vietnam, thousands of young Vietnamese girls now work in foreign-owned factories for approx $2. Per day ? hardly a living wage. This brave documentary gives us an intimate look at the lives of several of these working girls.

LOOKING FOR LOVE
2007 Directed by Keith Halstead 28 minutes
English subtitles

This fascinating documentary explores the traditional Love Market of the northern highland village of Khau Vai. One weekend every year, Hmong teenagers assemble from various rural villages for a weekend of courtship. A colourful affair, with plenty of food, drink and music.
Remarkably, the rituals of courship shown here have remained intact for hundreds of years.

GREEN MEADOW
2007 Project supervised by Phan Y Ly 45 minutes
English subtitles

Bai Giua (Middle Bank) is the name given to the low-lying land in the middle of the Red River next to Hanoi. In this marginal space next to the city, twenty migrant families from different parts of the country live in floating houses on the river.

After a period of technical instruction from an experienced filmmaker, seven children from this community created a documentrary movie on the daily life of their village, using their own footage, script and narration.

HANOI CINEMATHEQUE
Hanoi’s unique ‘art-house cinema’, is a members-only film society.

Memberships are available at the box office for only 100,000VND per year.

Members receive regular emails with detailed schedules and reviews of the films.

Tickets to the films are by donation.

HANOI CINEMATHEQUE 22A Hai Ba Trung Street (at the end of the alley leading to Artist’s Hotel) RESERVATIONS: Tel: 936 2648 (14:00 - 20:00) Fax: 936 2649 Email: info2@hanoicinema.org CAFE CINEMATHEQUE from 17:00 weekdays and from 13:30 weekends.