HCMC – Film Talk: “The Laughing Age”
Tue 25 Sep 2018, 6.30 pm
Charlie Chaplin Hall, Hoa Sen University
8 Nguyen Van Trang, D1, HCMC
From the organizer:
Following on from August’s conversations surrounding film archives and heritage films, British Council Vietnam’s Heritage of Future Past project traverses to another cinematic terrain for this month: humour on film – the laughing age of cinema. Marking the HCMC debut of the project’s discourse series, the event is also organised in support of FAMLAB Fund, our ongoing funding initiative that provides grant packages for projects that interact with Vietnam’s music/film heritage.
IF CINEMA COULD (ALSO) LAUGH
Vũ Ánh Dương
“The faculty of humour is one unique to human beings, perhaps much envied by other species. Beyond its physiological function, humour enters the aesthetics realm via its capability for conjuring up vivid pictures – of those who laugh and those who are laughed at, and in turn of the way the world is organised. Within the context of cinema, comedy and its many variations primarily make use of humour as a filter through which reality is controlled, and through which cinema’s inherent leaning towards popular culture is reinforced. Guided by artistic choices, humour serves to express life’s opposite extremes – as stated by Charlie Chaplin: “Comedy is the other side of the coin of tragedy.”
Vietnamese cinema is one that knows how to laugh (too), and has constantly been doing so through time: from propaganda to commercial films, ‘post-war’ to ‘critical’, from those made in nostalgia of cultural traditions to those referencing modern gameshow culture, from filmmaker Phạm Văn Khoa (perhaps the first Vietnamese comedy filmmaker) to independent cinema figure Phan Đăng Di.
This talk on humour and comedy in Vietnamese cinema surveys three main historical periods: wartimes, post-Doi Moi, and modern times – the latter of which is when comedy is seen as a major safe-bet for filmmakers looking to conquer the market.
The second part of the event is a screening of the short film “I’m a Bastard” by emerging filmmaker Hoàng Nhật, plus a conversation on the humour found therein.”
The talk will be conducted in Vietnamese
Free entry, pre-registration not required
Follow updates on event’s page
