Pordenone Diary - Day 2

 

 

Pordenone Diary - Day 2

If I have learned anything about virtual Pordenone vs. actual Pordenone in two days, it is the realization that I'm going to have to seriously up my blogging game when I am actually in Italy. Yesterday's posting took quite a bit of time to work through and get posted. This was only two programs and I'm sitting here at home in my jammies with an entire weekend day to set down my thoughts. Italy is going to be so much more immersive, intense and there is no chance for a repeat viewing to refresh my foggy memory.

 

Today also appeared to have a glitch on my iPad, or for some reason I'm locked out of taking screengrabs. So, unless things change for me going forward, all image credits will be courtesy Le Giornate del Cinema Muto and the credits captioned for each image.

Credit: Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

 

The first program for today was the entirely wonderful THE BRILLIANT BIOGRAPH: EARLIEST MOVING IMAGES OF EUROPE (1897-1902) presented by EYE and the BFI. The American Mutoscope Company shot these shot travelogues, documentary scenes in the earliest days of cinema between 1897-1902. This alone would be enough, the miracle of their survival. The true miracle is that they were filmed in an unknown (to me) gauge of film 68mm and almost virtually unplayable. Some of the films were screened, but, in reductions to 35mm film stock. Seen today for only the second time at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto this is a highlight for me that will be difficult to top. About 46 of the surviving 200 films in this format were presented.

Credit: Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

  

I am not going to list all the films, you can read about them here. What I will talk about are some personal highlights for me. The fire was The Irish Mail (1898) which showed a train speeding across the frame. The detail was terrific and I can only imagine and hope we will get to see these films again on a big screen. I make no secret I love trains, trollies, cable cars, trams and all sorts of public transportation. We got treated to lots with these films.

With so much to see, one of my most favorite vignettes was to see W.K.-L. Dickson himself feeding pigeons in St. Mark's Square, Venice. I do not know if the little girl was his daughter and she was charming as she walked toward the camera and then out of frame. Dickson and his wife continuing to feed the birds and looking chic in their summer whites.

Another film I loved was seeing the audience leaving the Biograph show in Amsterdam, the crowds departing and mingling with the throngs moving along the side walk. I only regret I was not paying as much attention to the placards and posters at the Biograph.

The hand-colored film of Conway Castle in North Wales was wonderful to see. It was only one of two films shown that were hand colored. The other was the lovely Les Parisiannes from 1897 which closed the program.

Musical accompaniment was by Daan van den Hurk and it was lovely, evocative with each film. That he created so many lovely bits for this lengthy program is really impressive. It’s my first (AFAIK) exposure to his compositions and I look forward to more.

This is really a program that screams to be seen on a real big theater screen, and I reiterate I hope we get the chance.

Ruan Lungyu and Junli Zheng,
China Film Archive, Beijing

The main feature for today was GUOFENG/NATIONAL CUSTOMS (1935) which was the final film of the legendary actress Ruan Lingyu whose tragic and early death (by suicide) was mentioned in an introductory card for the film.

The film is set at a school in a rural village run by a strict principal, Jie Zhang (Cho Cho Lim) who has two daughters. Chen Zuo (Junli Zheng) proposes to the elder sister Lan Zhang (Ruan Lingyu) who is prepared to accept him until she learns her younger sister (Li Lili) loves him, too. Lan sacrifices her heart and rejects Jie, who then marries her younger sister. Both Lan and sister Tao go to Shanghai to pursue higher education. Lan as the elder, is studious and serious, much to the chagrin of her younger sister and many of their fellow students. Tao embraces the life of a more sophisticated modern girl and is attracted to the western influenced (bad) Boyang Xu (Peng Luo who has some of the charisma of Rudolph Valentino in his western garb).

Tao and Boyang fully embrace the life of excess and pleasure. Lan cracks under the pressure of trying to reign in her sister and maintain her studies for final examinations and is hospitalized. Meanwhile both Tao and Boyang return to the village and take charge of the school while her moth travels to Shanghai to help nurse Lan back to health. Tao and Boyang flout all previous rules at the school and influence the young charges in the decadent joys of fashion, makeup, music and dance. Tao asks Chen for a divorce, which is scandalous.

Lan, in the meantime while recovering embraces the New Life Movement which denies self for the greater good. She wants to embrace the higher life of a teacher. Both Boyang and Tao having gone off in the wrong direction come back to let the village and her family know they’ve changed and are going off to repent their previous life and become teachers in a rural school. Chen who still carries a torch for Lan, proposes again and she urges him to wait before discussing marriage in favor of the true calling. 

 

Musical accompaniment was by Gabriel Thibaudeau underscored the shifting drama beautifully. Bravo!

This was one of the least tragic of Ruan Lingyu’s films, at least she does not die tragically in this film. She is also off screen for a good bit of the action. The film is an odd mixture of straight melodrama in the beginning and then changes to the social issues of the day and the changing politics in China as a whole. It was entertaining on the whole and certainly very interesting to see. Still, viewing this is tinged with the sadness of the sad demise of Ruan Lingyu at the young age of 24. Her last words “ren yan ke wei” (translated as human gossips are indeed fearful). In the age of cyber-bullying and intolerance, one can well imagine the pressures the plagued this fragile creature.

Since the featured film was from China, dinner was in a similar vein.

 

Looking forward to Day 3 tomorrow!