Festival takes a sensual swim

The classic 1960s French movie “La Piscine” (“The Swimming Pool”), Singapore’s excellent 2015 feature “Fundamentally Happy”, which explores without judgement the consequences of abuse, and the eyebrow-raising “Staying Vertical” by the maker of hit gay movie “Stranger by the Lake” are just some of the delectable celluloid offerings being shown this weekend as part of the World Film Festival of Bangkok.
Showing tonight at 8 at SF World Cinema 6 at CentralWorld, “The Swimming Pool” is a dark drama starring Alain Delon as Jean-Paul, an out-of-work writer who is having an affair with Marianne (Romy Schneider), a successful journalist. As they frolic in a swimming pool in St Tropez, she receives as call from Harry (Maurice Ronet), a record producer and former lover who arrives at the villa with his nubile young daughter (Jane Birkin).
Offering a large dose of sexual tension and an ending that sees one of the men drowning, the film was remade by Luca Guadagnino as “A Bigger Splash” with Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson in the lead roles.
The movie will also screen on Monday at 6pm.
“Fundamentally Happy” directed by Tan Bee Thiam and Lei Yuan Bin, is a 2015 film that premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Banned in Malaysia, it focuses on Habiba (Adibah Noor) and Eric (Joshua Lim) who were neighbours 20 years earlier. When Eric revisits her home to find her still living there with her husband, the friendly reunion leads to the gradual revelation of a painful secret from the past. It screens tomorrow at 6pm.
“Staying Vertical”, meanwhile, caused quite a stir when it premiered last May at the Cannes Film Festival, with Vanity Fair describing it as “the most shocking movie at Cannes this year”. It tells the story of filmmaker Leo (Damien Bonnard), who is seeking inspiration for his next movie in the south of France. During a scouting excursion he is seduced by Marie (India Hair), a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess.
Nine months later she gives birth to their child. Suffering from post-natal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them. Leo finds himself alone, with a baby to care for. It screens on Sunday at 8.20pm.
There’s plenty of local fare too, with the short “500,000 Years” showing tonight at 8pm. Directed by Thai artist-filmmaker Chaisiri “Chai Siriit” Jiwarangsan, it premiered in Venice last year. It’s set against the statue of Homo Erectus in Lampang, where a mobile cinema parks to screen a horror film.
“It’s really about the death of science, the death of cinema, the death of the cinema-truck culture and the changes that will inevitably occur,” Chai told The Nation last year.
Anusorn Soisa-Ngim’s gay film “Present Perfect”, which premiered earlier this week at the festival, tells the story of two men who meet and bond while on holiday in Japan.

The festival ends on Wednesday. Tickets cost Bt120 and some films have Thai subtitles. For more information, visit www.WorldFilmBkk.com.