PIFF stars promote global cinema, passion
Published on | Source
BUSAN — The 15th Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival (PIFF) became the meeting ground for some of the world's top actors over the weekend, each striving to keep the global movie community alive through their films.
World beauty Aishwarya Rai, American legend Willem Dafoe and Chinese superstar Tang Wei spoke of shooting challenges, working with passionate directors and communicating beyond language barriers to a global audience.
Mani Ratnam-directed "Raavan" and "Raavanan" — the former shot in Tamil, the director's mother tongue, the other in the national language Hindi — proved a memorable challenge to the former Miss World.
"This has been by far the most challenging experience of my career", Rai said at a press conference, speaking of the harrowing shooting schedule of the two simultaneously filmed features, of which she stars in both.
The Indian film, based on the romance that blossoms between a policeman's wife and her captor seeking revenge, is said to be one of India's first distributed globally.
"I think what's special about Indian cinema is that it still remains Indian cinema and is not totally 'Hollywood-ized"', Ratnam said. "The subject of 'Raavan' is something which runs across the length of India... we're just trying to interpret it to a current-day India situation".
The jocular Abhishek Bachchan, son of the famed Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and who co-starred opposite wife Rai in the Hindi version, said it was more than distribution.
"Considering that one out of every six people in the world is Indian, I think we're pretty global as it is", Bachchan laughed. "We think Indian cinema is truly is an experience the world can enjoy... it's about making a huge global community of movie goers".
For Willem Dafoe, a passion for the creative outlet is how he chooses his projects. His latest work in "A Woman", by his wife Italian filmmaker Giada Colagrande, follows the tale of a novelist widower who falls in love anew, though the woman is driven to extremes in the process.
"I think she's got a really unique vision and it's quite classical, it's quite rigorous, it's quite personal", he told reporters. "I am very much attracted to strong directors, passionate directors, people who are on fire to express their cinema. I'm less interested in exercises of style".
Colagrande, whose latest work takes inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock and film noir, said she uses light contrast to portray female duality, tracing the lines of paranoia and madness.
"I'm embracing more and more simplicity, even as a spectator", the director said. "I respond more to what's essential, minimal and intense. Intensity is really what I look for most, and I realize that as more goes on in cinema for me, then the less powerful it is, the less it engages me".
Chinese actress Tang Wei ("Lust, Caution") and co-star heartthrob Hyun Bin in the re-make of the Korean 1966 classic "Late Autumn", understand the importance of simplicity in communication. The film, contemporized in a modern Seattle setting, sees the two Asian actors communicate in English, working in an unfamiliar tongue to portraying two outcasts struggling in an American society.
"What was very different for me in this film, compared to my previous work, was that our eyes, mouth, hands and feet were all speaking", Tang said. "We had to use all of our bodies to communicate".
Hyun experienced the same challenge, and the two sought to find new means of conveyance.
"Because my language and culture is different from that of Tan Wei's, we weren't able to communicate in the same way, as I would with other actresses", Hyun said. "But what we tried to do is work harder to express what we were feeling with our eyes and gestures".
"'Late Autumn' is a classic in Korea and is very well known, so I was afraid I would be unable to show the depth of this film", Tang said. "But I think we did it well... even now, when I think about the character I played, it still touches my heart and I feel the emotion arise within me.
World beauty Aishwarya Rai, American legend Willem Dafoe and Chinese superstar Tang Wei spoke of shooting challenges, working with passionate directors and communicating beyond language barriers to a global audience.
Mani Ratnam-directed "Raavan" and "Raavanan" — the former shot in Tamil, the director's mother tongue, the other in the national language Hindi — proved a memorable challenge to the former Miss World.
"This has been by far the most challenging experience of my career", Rai said at a press conference, speaking of the harrowing shooting schedule of the two simultaneously filmed features, of which she stars in both.
The Indian film, based on the romance that blossoms between a policeman's wife and her captor seeking revenge, is said to be one of India's first distributed globally.
"I think what's special about Indian cinema is that it still remains Indian cinema and is not totally 'Hollywood-ized"', Ratnam said. "The subject of 'Raavan' is something which runs across the length of India... we're just trying to interpret it to a current-day India situation".
The jocular Abhishek Bachchan, son of the famed Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and who co-starred opposite wife Rai in the Hindi version, said it was more than distribution.
"Considering that one out of every six people in the world is Indian, I think we're pretty global as it is", Bachchan laughed. "We think Indian cinema is truly is an experience the world can enjoy... it's about making a huge global community of movie goers".
For Willem Dafoe, a passion for the creative outlet is how he chooses his projects. His latest work in "A Woman", by his wife Italian filmmaker Giada Colagrande, follows the tale of a novelist widower who falls in love anew, though the woman is driven to extremes in the process.
"I think she's got a really unique vision and it's quite classical, it's quite rigorous, it's quite personal", he told reporters. "I am very much attracted to strong directors, passionate directors, people who are on fire to express their cinema. I'm less interested in exercises of style".
Colagrande, whose latest work takes inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock and film noir, said she uses light contrast to portray female duality, tracing the lines of paranoia and madness.
"I'm embracing more and more simplicity, even as a spectator", the director said. "I respond more to what's essential, minimal and intense. Intensity is really what I look for most, and I realize that as more goes on in cinema for me, then the less powerful it is, the less it engages me".
Chinese actress Tang Wei ("Lust, Caution") and co-star heartthrob Hyun Bin in the re-make of the Korean 1966 classic "Late Autumn", understand the importance of simplicity in communication. The film, contemporized in a modern Seattle setting, sees the two Asian actors communicate in English, working in an unfamiliar tongue to portraying two outcasts struggling in an American society.
"What was very different for me in this film, compared to my previous work, was that our eyes, mouth, hands and feet were all speaking", Tang said. "We had to use all of our bodies to communicate".
Hyun experienced the same challenge, and the two sought to find new means of conveyance.
"Because my language and culture is different from that of Tan Wei's, we weren't able to communicate in the same way, as I would with other actresses", Hyun said. "But what we tried to do is work harder to express what we were feeling with our eyes and gestures".
"'Late Autumn' is a classic in Korea and is very well known, so I was afraid I would be unable to show the depth of this film", Tang said. "But I think we did it well... even now, when I think about the character I played, it still touches my heart and I feel the emotion arise within me.
Advertisement