For the past two months, I have been saying my
mantras before going to bed. Take the time to chase away negative thoughts,
invite them out and replace by positive ones. I’m amazed at all the energy we
put to keep the pain body. Why not reverse the process?
So I say out loud happy things I visualize for
myself. I call for them. There is no ‘if’ and ‘would like to’, not even ‘want
to’. I may no know how or when these good things will come, but I bring in the
confidence that they will.
And it works.
Just when I was in the middle of the Làng Tôi
frenzy, I received an e-mail from a dancer friend in Saigon. He had given my
contact to a girl who is about to supervise a big project in Vietnam. They
needed a composer and he had been singing high praises about my work. Linh, a
young woman who was born in France but settled in Vietnam a few years ago to
work there wrote to me and explained what the project was about: a theatre was
to open next year in Hôi An, and they commissioned her to put on a one hour
long show that would involve dance music and circus. Wasn’t it a coincidence?
My friend Loc, who choreographed Lâng Tôi was the first choice but he had to
decline due to a huge amount of work, including touring Lâng Tôi… A shame, for
I would have loved to work with him.
Linh and I met one sunny afternoon. We agreed
on most of everything. Now remains the how’s and when’s. I have to make an
estimate of the total cost as far as the music is concerned.
They need the music before the end of
September. Auditions and rehearsals shall be held in November. That’s a perfect
timing for me. That also means that I will have to go to Vietnam very soon in
order to compose and record the music.
Vietnam in August? When it’s scorching hot and
humid? I’m so excited.
I enjoy being in Paris but the energy here
drags me down.
[…]
A film festival is currently being held in
Paris. I got the pass and went to the cinema nearly every day. Not always
masterpieces I have seen. Among the good surprises: $E11.0U7! (Sell Out), a bittersweet musical comedy by first time director Malaysian Yeo
Joon Han. He was selling the soundtrack of film after the screening so I took
the opportunity to exchange a few lines and get his contact as I was buying a
copy of the soundtrack. I was surprised to learn that he was formerly a lawyer before turning to
cinema. It was only when he was studying law in London that he was introduced
to different works than the usual American blockbusters and realized his
love for this art.
I wrote to him and was surprised to receive a
reply a day later. I don’t know where all this is going to lead to, but I have
this little wish that we may collaborate on a film project together.
Many other Asian films were presented during
this festival: Antique a fast moving Korean gay comedy based on the
manga by Fumi Yoshinaga populated
by handsome actors. Antique won’t change the face of cinema, but it’s
this kind of undemanding feel good film that cheers you up on a rainy day.
The others I saw were more on a wacky side: Quickie
Express, Better than Sex, Temptation Island and The Sperm
– the latter being a hilarious blending of rock, sex comedy, nonsensical
slapstick and science- fiction.
After I stormed out of my parents’ place two
days ago in state of sheer distraught, I ended up in a movie theatre to watch
the most peculiar film: Honor de Cavallería, a Spanish film by Albert
Serra. I had no idea what I was about to see. I didn’t care; I needed a change
of mind.
A ‘road movie’ involving Don Quichotte and his
companion Sancho, this was a two hour long filmic stream of consciousness, as
we watch them wander aimlessly, converse with one another rather sparingly in
the middle of sumptuous landscape. All narrative was discarded. The actors
weren’t even convincing. They just looked like actors in costumes rehearsing a
play in and arid wilderness. I was in a state of sleepiness most of the time, maybe out of
shock after my familial drama and felt like I was on a high. The slowness and
apparent lack of any narrative added to that feeling. Here and there, a few
lines would pop out of this fogginess: ‘We are knights. And we, knights have to
try our best and never give up’ says Don Quichotte at some point. I suddenly
woke up from my state of semi consciousness.
‘That’s true’ I thought. ‘In spite of all the
tough times, the dramas and differences with people, I have to do my best and
never give up.’
Isn’t it funny how one has to be at one
particular place to hear that one particular line…
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