The Different Arts

The 19th Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) has entered its 2nd week. There have been some great films and the very bad ones. This is not particularly a write-up about the SIFF per se, rather, about one film in particular.

The film in question here is The Art of Flirting, director Kan Lume's maiden foray into feature filmmaking.

Click on the poster below to read Stefan's review of the film over on movieXclusive.com

The Art of Flirting

It was screened at the newly renovated National History Museum yesterday evening and the man himself was in attendance. The screening was sold out and it was no surprise why as word of mouth has been pretty promising.

The film.
In a nutshell, the film was captivating. In the mould of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, its 80 minute runtime traipsed slowly but surely. In its four chapters, I laughed at Leonard's character for his pseudo-barbaric grunts and snorts, the oh-so-cheesy lines he spouted when wooing Lynn, felt the lingering pain Lynn felt in the third chapter and ultimately, purely baffled but could somehow relate to Leonard's "I hope you understand" remark at the end. The film felt so real because it was just that. It infiltrated the tiny spaces of natural human courting and almost everyone should/would have seen various parts that have happened the same way in their lives before.

The Q&A.
Since Kan himself was in attendance and the short runtime, there was a generous amount of time for a Q&A before the next film. Sad to say, I wish it never happened. The questions about how Kan managed to make the film on a $300 budget, whether the script was ad-libbed were genuine questions but the Q&A also examplified how ridiculous some of our general film-goers can be.

Some questions that I could remember include:
"How long did it take Marilynn to practice her pseudo-American accent?"
and others that wandered along the likes of,
"Why did this character do this, why did this character do that?"
or
"What is your message one ar? Your film got message one right?"

Of course they weren't phrased that way but you get the picture.

Butthe one that really took the cake was,
"How would you interpret the (your own) film?"

Like what the hell? This question should have never been asked. It's fine if you're having a talk about the film over a cuppa with friends and all but to ask the director like that? Baffling.

Thankfully, Kan answered the question well and avoided explaining things directly. Thankfully, someone from the audience shouted at him to not answer the question too. Whew~

And me? Did I ask anything? Nah. I didn't. Most of what I wanted to know was already shared by Kan himself when Stefan and I interviewed him for movieXclusive not too long ago.
To read the article written by both Stefan and myself, click on the banner below.


The Art of Kan Lume


Eh, if you can get your hands on a copy of the film, go watch it okay?!