Fri 12 Feb - Fri 26 Feb 2021 - Walter Mason teaches a 3-week course on The Great Hollywood Costume Designers, at WEA Sydney

The Great Hollywood Costume Designers

  

Fri 12 Feb - Fri 26 Feb 2021 

     
11am - 1pm each Friday, 3 sessions, 6 hours total
 

At WEA Sydney

Join Walter Mason, author of Destination Saigon, as we look at three of the best Hollywood Costume Designers of the Golden Years: Edith Head, Adrian and Jean Louis. 

We will look at their films, at their creations and how their looks have continued to echo down through the years.

 

There are still COVID restrictions on the number of students allowed in this face-to-face course, and we are very close to selling out, so if you think it sounds fun do book your place now! 

Co Dau Dai Chien (Angry Brides)

When we were visiting our favourite DVD shop in Cabramatta recently the owner slipped an extra disc into our bag for free. "You'll love this one," he said. "A brand new movie from Vietnam."
Which is how we discovered Co Dau Dai Chien, a sex-comedy released in 2011 that details the adventures of a rather gormless nouveau riche lothario and the clutch of women to whom he has promised his hand.

Now, don't be expecting any great delicacy of observation in this movie. In terms of sexual politics I dare say it is quite problematic. But in terms of entertainment this is a wonderful, and surprisingly sophisticated film. It represents the most fascinating meeting of cinematic traditions, combining the martial arts aesthetics of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with the sleek and sexually-charged repartee of the Rock Hudson & Doris Day movies, throwing in a generous dose of camp self-knowingness which at times put me in mind of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
It is also a remarkable evocation of contemporary Saigon, with its yuppie try-hards, its ambitious young career women, and centuries of tradition being fast jettisoned in the face of a growing prosperity. The film's hero is despicable in his treatment of women, but he is also ultimately punished for it in the most intimate and devastating way.
I absolutely loved this film, and simply couldn't stop laughing. The comedy veers from the slapstick to the cerebral, and the performances similarly slide from exquisitely subtle to over-the-top campery. But it is all such tremendous fun, and with such a complicated and even wicked moral, that the variety of experiences seem to be an intentional part of the journey.
Watch it with an open mind and tell me that the end isn't a kind of feminist triumph. Or I could have got it totally wrong.  

Hot Boy Noi Loan

Update: I have discovered that this movie is now doing the festival circuit in Europe, and its title in English is "Lost in Paradise." Keep an eye out for it!

Wow - on so many levels. Last night I went to the Megastar cinema at CT Plaza, HCMC, which is conveniently situated right near my place and shows movies late into the night - Saigon is becoming a very civilized place to live.
I went with some friends to see Vietnam's newest and most notorious gay-themed movie Hot Boy Noi Loan. The Megastar cineplex is quite glam - surprisingly so. It is much more comfortable and beautiful than any cinema in Sydney! And the film was really very, very good. Sophisticated, elegant and beautifully shot around Ho Chi Minh City, this is a truly unique Saigon story that deserves to be seen all over the world. It is also a surprise to many Vietnamese who come to see the film, realising for the first time that Ho Chi Minh City possesses a vibrant gay culture.
For me it was the performances that were really outstanding. And I'm not just talking about the beefcake, though there was plenty of that (and Linh Son, troi oi!). But I am noticing a performance culture emerging in Vietnam that is truly impressive - I think some of the best actors in the world are coming out of Vietnam, and directors and writers here are being inspired by this. Most exciting for me was the performance of 90s Vietnamese pop legend Phuong Thanh as a past-it street hooker. This woman is incredible, and totally magnetic - she always was. Her absolute lack of vanity in playing this less than glamorous role speaks to her own professionalism and love of the craft. May she be in many more movies!

Try and see Hot Boy Noi Loan any way you can - it deserves to be a cult hit.



Hot Boy Noi Loan was released in Vietnam on the 14th Oct. 2011
It is released with full English subtitles (which are actually very good). There is no DVD release yet.
The film is directed by Vu Ngoc Dang
Stars: Luong Manh Hai, Ho Vinh Khoa, Phuong Thanh, Hieu Hien, Linh Son and La Quoc Hung.

Promotional flier for Hot Boy Noi Loan given out at Saigon cinemas.

Top 5 Movies About Vietnam

When I first became passionately interested in Vietnam there was remarkably little film about Vietnam. There was, of course, a huge body of work about the war, but very little indeed about Vietnamese people and culture. There is more around these days, and, for what it's worth, here are my five favourite movies about Vietnam. It is certain to be an idiosyncratic list, and I am happy to hear about your suggestions - would love to know what you think should be on the list:

1. The Scent of Green Papaya - It had to be first, didn't it? This is still THE quintessential Vietnam movie - the first time I ever saw a genuinely Vietnamese mood conveyed on the big screen. Spare, beautiful and utterly original, I could watch this lovely film over and over again. And it was all filmed in France!

2.Heaven and Earth - I don't actually know many people who like this film, but I think it is quite the best film about the Vietnam war ever made. Oliver Stone was convinced by Le Ly Haslip to make a movie about the Vietnamese people's suffering during the war, and together they created quite an odd but still very moving film. You may have overlooked it, or dismissed it as a war film. If you love Vietnam, check it out - I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

3. Three Seasons - Not much to say about this arthouse favourite. It screened for weeks here in Sydney when it first came out, and it really is very good.

4. Cyclo - Maybe it's a cop out to give Tran Anh Hung two mentions, but this is the ultimate Saigon movie, and the lead actor Le Van Loc is just so perfectly natural - to the extent that some critics didn't quite get his performance. For anyone who knows Vietnam, his performance is spot on, and he is possessed of an understated sexuality that is quite engrossing.

5. The Lover - Oh dear, this is a sexy one, be warned. Purists might be horrified that I list this, but it is a beautiful film, and the ultimate colonial fantasy. And the doomed sexual relationship is played out perfectly - capturing the mood of Duras' novel quite cleverly.

Red River

Strange to be reviewing a Chinese film here?
Not when it's a fascinating - and exceedingly quirky - movie about illegal Vietnamese workers in a Chinese border town. I found Red River quite an insightful, though naturally melodramatic, look at the fascinating dynamics at work in these border areas.
Set in 1997, it is the story of a mentally disabled Vietnamese girl who is smuggled into China by her aunt and set to work at a massage parlour. Tao is an eternal innocent, and is protected by her aunt by being put to work as a cleaner. Nonetheless, she captures the eye of local Vietnamese crime boss Sha Ba.
The movie shies away from any commentary on the sex industry, though Tao, the innocent young Vietnamese girl, is bought and sold several times by improbably respectful men. These elisions aside, it is a fascinating commentary on the experiences of poor rural Vietnamese girls and the struggles they face. The film's setting in 1997 is exactly right, as rural poverty in Vietnam was then still quite stark, and China was only just beginning to prosper.
The film's blurb attempts to cast it as some kind of post-colonial love story, but ironically it is much more a commentary on China's neo-colonialism, and the difficult financial realities that confront women across South-East Asia.
It is silly in parts, but also frequently touching, and ultimately quite complex - and hence realistic. Well worth watching, though it is no masterpiece. And why on earth couldn't they find a Vietnamese actress to play the lead role?