The missing Picture review- the Movie Show Sydney Margaret: David: The Missing Picture Rated M Review by Margaret Pomeranz THE MISSING PICTURE was nominated in the Foreign Language category at the recent Academy Awards and its the first film by a Cambodian director to have gained that honour. It also won the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes last year, so it comes with a reputation. Its an intriguing and tragic premise. Rithy Panh was a thirteen year old boy when the Kmer Rouge entered his home town of Phnom Penh in 1975 when two million people were expelled from that city by Pol Pot to be re-educated in rural rice paddies. Amongst them were the bourgeois, intellectuals and capitalists. The identities of these people were obliterated, they were dressed in black, their only allowed possession was a spoon. They starved, were tortured, beaten, it was a blight on the history of the world. But out of that there are no photos of his family, no possessions to remember them by, and so as a fifty year old, he has created this film to tell his story and reclaim his family and their history through archival footage and clay models. Narrated by Randal Douc with a screenplay accredited to Christophe Bataille, obviously based on Panhs autobiography, this is a reminder of obliteration and how cinema can claim memory, history. With no other recourse than to the propaganda films of the regime that was the cause of the death of everyone close to him, Panh, through the talents of Sarith Mang who carved the figures and painted them, has, through dioramas, and the narration, brought the history of the family he lost to some sort of memory, although the picture is indeed still missing. Further comments MARGARET: David? DAVID: It is a most original film and, to begin with, I wondered whether the use of the static, clay figures would actually work but it grew on me as the film went on. Of course, its not only those clay figures but it also relies a great deal on that original footage, because the Khmer Rouge photographed the people that they were treating... MARGARET: Yes. It was the propaganda of the time. DAVID: Yes, exactly. These battered, scratched pieces of film are eloquent testimony for the terrible offences that happened. MARGARET: Yes. DAVID: So it is a very unusual approach. I guess, given the limited material, it is certainly one really interesting way of doing it. MARGARET: Cinema is movement to me and I found the use of the static figures a little bit limiting, I must say. So you only have the camera moving and the archival footage. DAVID: Yes, its a risk he takes to make it work but I think it does work. MARGARET: Yes. The story is so heartfelt and what happened was so terrible that I think its good for him to reclaim what he needed to reclaim. DAVID: And for us to be reminded of that terrible period too. MARGARET: Yes. Yes. Im giving this three and a half stars. DAVID: Im giving it four. abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s3957991.htm
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 11:11:11 +0000
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