Bonjour Paris festival
The Changchun theater in Taipei is hosting this French film festival until New Year’s Eve. The theme is “When love meets literature,” which sounds like 90 percent of the French film industry’s output, but why carp? Toplining is biopic Sagan starring Sylvie Testud (La Vie en Rose, Vengeance) as the turbulent French writer; the film is also opening the French-themed Taipei book festival early next year. The rest is a mixture of titles that (unfortunately) have already had theatrical releases here, including Clara and I, Eric Rohmer’s Le Rayon Vert, The Ring Finger, Little Lili from 2003 and Louis Malle’s Damage, among others.
Park Benches
If you’ve seen all these French titles already, there’s another Gallic offering unconnected to the Changchun festival. It’s got as many celebrity actors as the festival’s offerings put together, but that didn’t stop some critics from wondering what all the fuss is about. A well-to-do neighborhood is the setting for a series of tales of quirky and unsettled characters that start then finish all too quickly. Jacques Tati it ain’t — though there is some comedy.
Bombay Summer
An Indian couple living comfortably in Bombay run into an artist/drug dealer who changes their lives — and his own — and not necessarily for the better. Winner of the Best Film, Best Director (Joseph Mathew-Varghese) and Best Actress (Tannishtha Chatterjee) gongs at last month’s MIAAC Film Festival, a New York event for Indian-themed films, it’s something of a miracle that this non-musical is getting a Taiwan release, so those not enchanted at the thought of donning 3D glasses for nearly three hours watching Avatar might consider this adult-friendly trip instead.
Give Me Your Hand
Weird release of the week makes Avatar look like formula. Eurotwin brothers make their way across Europe to attend a family funeral, along the way pouting a lot, finding lust among the locals and getting into wrestling matches over long-dormant rivalries. Pretty as a picture, but narrative meandering and copulation time-outs will remind the viewer why it’s being screened at the Baixue grindhouse in Ximending. Original title: Donne-Moi la Main.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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