Une histoire fleur bleue pour une première: un film privé au Laos communiste
09/06/08
Making of 1 :
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Making of 2 :
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Making of 3 + bande annonce :
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La première à Vientiane :
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Khamly_Philavong (
Noï dans le film)
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VIENTIANE (AFP) — "
Sabaidee Luang Prabang", ou "
Bonjour, Luang Prabang", raconte peut être une classique histoire d'amour, mais il n'en est pas moins exceptionnel: jamais aucun film privé n'avait encore été tourné au Laos communiste.
Dans ce pays qui est encore l'un des plus pauvres d'Asie du Sud-Est, enclavé entre la Chine, la Thaïlande, le Vietnam, le Cambodge et la Birmanie, quelques tournages ont eu lieu depuis l'arrivée des communistes au pouvoir en 1975, mais rarement des fictions et toujours sous l'égide du ministère de la Culture.
Pour réaliser leur long métrage, le Thaïlandais Sakchai Deenan et le Laotien Anousone Sirisackda ont certes dû obtenir le feu vert du gouvernement. Mais ils se targuent d'avoir monté le premier film indépendant dans un pays qui compte, en tout et pour tout deux cinémas à Vientiane, la capitale.
Le film de 90 minutes retrace la passion d'un photographe thaïlandais pour sa guide laotienne à travers tout le pays, de Paksé au sud, au site de Luang Prabang, patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco au nord, en passant par Vientiane.
"Nous cherchons à présenter la culture laotienne, nos paysages et villes magnifiques", explique Anousone Sirisackda. Dans le scénario, rien de sensible donc. "Nous voulions un scénario léger pour ne pas avoir trop de difficultés à obtenir un feu vert du gouvernement", renchérit Sakchai Deenan.
Chaque jour tout de même sur le tournage, un responsable gouvernemental venait s'assurer que la culture laotienne était dépeinte avec justesse, raconte le Thaïlandais. Et malgré tout aussi, des scènes contenant des références au communisme ont été coupées avant la présentation du film à Vientiane le 24 mai.
Il fallait aussi éviter toute allusion aux rapports difficiles qu'entretiennent encore parfois Bangkok et Vientiane en dépit de cultures très proches.
La Thaïlande servait de base arrière aux Américains pendant la guerre du Vietnam, après laquelle les communistes sont arrivés au pouvoir au Laos. Les deux pays ont encore eu des accrochages frontaliers sanglants en 1987 et 1988.
Leurs relations ont commencé à s'améliorer à la chute de l'Union soviétique et ils se rapprochent de plus en plus à mesure que le Laos s'intègre dans la région.
Mais Vientiane reste extrêmement sensible aux comparaisons avec son voisin, plus grand et bien plus riche. Et des films thaïlandais dans lesquels le Laos se sentait insulté ont même déjà provoqué des incidents diplomatiques.
Avec "Sabaidee Luang Prabang", Sakchai Deenan et Anousone Sirisackda ont donc tout cherché sauf la controverse. Le Thaïlandais veut même aller chercher le spectateur laotien en organisant "des projections en plein air".
Le film a déjà été présenté à Bangkok. Et une carrière internationale n'est pas exclue, ses auteurs entendant le proposer dans des festivals.
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Review: Sabaidee Luang Prabang
Source : http://thaifilmjournal.blogspot.com
# Directed by Sakchai Deenan and Anousone Sirisackda
# Starring Ananda Everingham and Khamly Philavong
# Released in Thailand cinemas on June 5, 2008
If Laos had cheeks, you'll want to reach out and squeeze them after seeing Sabaidee Luang Prabang, which captures the quaint, mountainous country as an adorable picture postcard.
Ananda Everingham stars as Sorn, a Bangkok-based Lao-Australian photographer, who is sent on assignment to Laos. Starting in Pakse, in Champasak Province in the south, he has a nearly disastrous first meeting with the young woman who is to become his tour guide.
Her name is Noi, and she's new to the tour-guide scene and a bit naive. And being cute as a button, with cheeks that scream to be pinched, she always has guys hitting on her. So when she's caught in a monsoon-season downpour, and the umbrella-toting Sorn happens upon her and offers to walk her home, she brusquely refuses.
Of course it's all a big misunderstanding that causes her even more embarrassment when Noi is roped in to being Sorn's solo tour guide the next day. And from then on, Noi finds she likes the guy.
Sorn, for his part, seems a bit distracted, and doesn't catch on to Noi's batting eyelashes. He's still getting used to the whole Laotian scene, and he's concentrating on taking photos that capture the heart and soul of his subjects, as his editor (cameo go-to guy Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn) back in Bangkok has ordered. And it doesn't help that a cheeky little boy with a case full of tourist trinkets keeps turning up everywhere Sorn goes, trying to pull a fast one on him.
As with any road movie, there are misadventures, but the tone throughout is light. The worst that happens to them is a missed connection for a boat ride. They debate, with Sorn arguing that she shouldn't have paid the guy up front, while Noi firmly believes that payment guarantees he'll show up (e.g. Laotians are trustworthy). Sorn and Noi then spend the night with a local family, where Sorn learns that trying to hand over money is an insult to Laotian hospitality. Even a missed connection for a bus ride is easily remedied by flying Lao Airlines. There is always a solution in Laos.
Places of interest include the Mekong rapids at Don Khone, where the French colonists built a narrow-guage railway, long since in disrepair, with the rusted remains of a steam locomotive left behind.
Sorn, who's been receiving phone calls from his Austalian mother and Laotian father, decides he wants to know more about his father's family, and makes a sidetrip to a town near the capital Vientiane. There, he's greeted as if he were his father come home, and has his wrists bound with string. And he also meets his surprising namesake, a woman named Sorn (Sorn is apparently a female name), who was his father's old flame.
Like any romance film, there's a wedding scene that changes everything, and puts Sorn, finally, on the road to the Luang Prabang of the title. The journey is over a twisting, mountainous highway.
He wakes up during the ride to ask the driver how many more curves there will be.
"Three," says the driver. "A left curve, a right curve, and a dangerous curve," he says, cackling away like cafe comic.
The movie was shot over 12 days on a shoestring budget that saw one producer mortgage his house. Ananda waived his usual fee for acting to take an executive producer credit.
This is a different movie for Ananda, who is relaxed and smiling much of time -- a marked contrast from the brooding or terror-stricken characters he plays in dramas and thrillers.
The actress, Khamly, is a pageant queen with an expressive, delicate face like porcelain. The lens loves her, and her beauty shines brighter as the picture progresses. A red blouse is the killer.
Even better are the normal Laotian people -- the ever-present boy street vendor and Noi's precocious little sister are a couple of the best characters that enliven this production.
Sabaidee Luang Prabang (Good Morning Luang Prabang) is the first film from Laos in 20 years. Hopefully it won't be another 20 years for another film to come out of this sleepy, breathtakingly gorgeous country.
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Ananda's answer to his identity crisis: Learn Tagalog, act in Filipino film
Source :
http://cinemaratty.com
Ananda talked about his first impressions of Laos and having identity crisis in a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter. He talked to Joel Gershon:
THR: Were you restricted from going to Laos growing up?
Everingham: The first time I went to Laos was about seven years ago because our family was blacklisted. It was a big deal. Seven or eight years ago, “60 Minutes” came to Thailand and wanted to do a segment on Laos. They spoke to dad and he told his story. So the first time I went there was with a TV crew, and it was not the most intimate experience. I went back a year later with mom. She got emotional, she went back to see the house she grew up in. That was tough. Just recently I went back again. I did a motorcycle trip from Vientiane to Luang Prabang. And went back to my mom’s house and it got to me. I met with my relatives, including one who was 98, who couldn’t see so well, but she went on and on and on about my mom and she said ‘Don’t forget to bring mom back to Laos.’ And I admit, I teared up.
THR: Do you feel more Thai, Lao or Australian?
Everingham: I definitely have an identity crisis. I’m not Australian; I’m not Thai at all. I sort of feel like I fit in when I go back to Laos, maybe it’s the nature of the people there. When I went to school in Australia, I didn’t feel Australian. I had issues of fitting in. And Thais treat different people differently.
And there's lots more to that interview, in which Ananda reinforces his image of being a bad boy growing up and getting kicked out of Bangkok Pattana school, and he recounts the story of his photojournalist father John Everingham scuba-diving under the Mekong to spirit his mother out of Laos, as well as America's NBC network making a 1983 TV-movie romance out of that tale, Love Is Forever, starring Michael Landon and Laura "Emmanuelle" Gemser.
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