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| Sunday, 22 September 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Through the eyes of children Young students of Latifa's School of Art will present an exhibition of their work 'Through the eyes of children' at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on September 28 and 29, from 10 am to 8 pm.
The proceeds from the sale of the paintings will be donated to the Khan
Memorial Children's Ward of the National Hospital. Sound of Sri Lanka in Tokyo
In June this year the exhibition was held at the Taj Samudra to mark 50
years of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Japan. The exhibition
in Tokyo will be in connection with the Sri Lankan Festival that will be
held at the Tokyo Hilton. "On my own initiative I will be travelling
to Japan for the exhibition to show more Japanese visitors what a
beautiful island Sri Lanka is, and I hope my photographs can say more than
words. At my last exhibition Minister of Tourism Gamini Lokuge was the
chief guest and the Ambassador for Japan Seiichiro Otsuka was the guest of
honour. Sumitra Peries a female idol by Padma Edirisinghe The Boralugoda Gunewardenas shot into fame as radical politicians, a rare breed in colonial Lanka. Hence no one would have foreseen that from this revolutionary and rugged political tribe of Sabaragamuwa would spring a dame who would blaze trails of glory in an entirely different world - i.e. the glittering world of films that continue to enthrall thousands of viewers.
In conversation with Sumitra Peries nee Gunewardena I asked her the background for the unusual breakaway. I must here mention that despite her having held an ambassador's post and despite having bagged hundreds of national and international awards for her cinematic creations I found her to be completely unassuming, simple, and very talkative. "My mother's death was the turning point in my life" she said. She had just left Visakha after her SSC and joined Aquinas College to do her London ALs when it happened. Unable to bear the tragedy her elder brother Gamini who was her guide and mentor too simply disappeared. Gods only knew where he was. Finally he was traced to Naples in Italy! "Immediately I withdrew all my savings including my insurance money and joined him In Naples". He was living in a yacht with a friend who was a painter and his wife and Sumitra soon was accommodated by them. Together up and down they sailed covering the sea border countries of Europe and sometimes making excursions into the interior. The scenes they saw were so varied and tantalizing that they began to make documentary films. But aiya was getting worried about the nangi still in her 20s. She should work towards a definite goal, he advised sensitive to the artistic talents she owned. Soon giving up the most adventurous phase of her life she got enlisted in the School of Drama in Idech, Paris. There she met Lester James Peries who had come over to screen Rekhava. Was it love at first sight, I asked. Oh, no, "she said," but he turned into her guide and on his advice joined the London School of Film Technique where she obtained the Diploma in cinema. Coming back she worked as Asst. director of Sandeshaya and editor of Gam Peraliya that were instant hits. By this time Lester and Sumitra were married. They formed the Cine Lanka Ltd. and there emerged films as Golu Hadawatha, Ran salu, Akkara paha and God king. In 1970 she was awarded a one and half year scholarship to gain practice in the Conservatoir of Cinema in Paris. Back home again she was to direct the very popular films "Gehenu lamai", Ganga addara, Yahalu yeheli, Maya, Sagara jalaya, Loku duwa, Duwata mawa misak'. In 1995 she was posted as ambassador to France where too she did much to promote the Sinhala cinema in the West. Almost all her films have won national awards and among her International awards are the Carthage Film Festival award, London Film Festival award, Tokyo award for Sagara Jalaya and Lake House Rana Thisara award.Secret of her success? She says, I keep myself always busy and alert and committed to my chosen field. Her husband, she says, continues to be the main prop. She admitted (on my provocation) that her family background and
affluence did help her somewhat in her rise to fame (a family death
usually submerges members in poor families into worse despair) and had a
great deal of admiration for Susanthika for overcoming the inherent
obstacles that underprivileged families are subject to. Sumitra Peries own
brilliance, of course, she never crowed about. Kalagaraya - specially for the youth Veteran film maker and play producer G.D.L. Perera is back at home after thirty years abroad. Now living in Karalliyadda - ten miles off Kandy, he has started his drama and film school 'Kalagaraya' in a picturesque spot bordering the Victoria reservoir. His aim, he says, is to offer voluntarily the local youth the opportunity to enter the world of art.
GDL as he is popularly known has over tenstage plays and six movies to his credit. Sakkarawattan (1962), Mehev Lokeka (1963), Thotupola (1964) won awards at stage drama festivals, while his films Sama and Dahasaksithuwili represented Sri Lanka at International Film Festivals. 'Ratagiya Attho' the first teledrama to be filmed in England was also a GDL production.GDL is no newcomer in training youngsters. Many a talented actor and technician now performing in the world of theatre, television and the cinema have their roots in Kalapela - a cultural training institute he started in 1956. The late Dhamma Jagoda, Denawaka Hamine, Nilanthi Munasinghe, Douglas Ranasinghe, Gnananga Guanwardana are just a few in the acting field and reputed cinema and telefilm makers - I.N. Hewawasam, Parakrama Niriella, Bermin Lyle Fernando, P.U.D. Perera are others who started off via training courses conducted by Kalapela. With about 15 hopefuls from around his village he has started an acting
course at the Kalagaraya and their first ever practical exercise - a
playlet based on Serivanija Jathakaya called Surasura was staged at the
school's mini theatre recently for the video cameras. The world outside at art Gallery by Lakmal Welabada
`The world outside', is an illusionary depiction of the reality of the world which reveals the nonexistence or the instability in human life. Thanushka Wijayapala, a prospective architect is the young artist who gives life to this unique acrylic abstracts on canvas which will be on display at the National Art Gallery from September 27 to 30. All 15 paintings including an abstract masterpiece of seven feet portray the psychological distress and frustration a human being experiences because of his avarice, lust and greediness. "In Buddhism this is referred to as - `Thanha' (stinginess) and `Aasha' (lust and greed). The human being gets lost in `Samsara Chakra' (the circle of non-ending re-birth), and faces the ceaseless suffering because of his inability to control his so called feelings. In my paintings I try to kindle the people to realize that though we collect and grab things greedily nothing exists forever. This is the basic teaching (known as `Anithya') in the Buddha Dhamma," explained the young artist. `The world outside' is the third exhibition of Thanushka. She had held two solo exhibitions earlier - `Abstract visions through reality' and `Silence'... Having studied art under many skilful teachers here as well as abroad, Thanushka has won many awards for her excellent performance on canvas since her childhood. "Unlike in my earlier exhibitions, this time I used bright raw colours like red, yellow and orange in my paintings since I believe such tones can be used to feature the mental trauma of people," added Thanushka. When asked why she concentrated so deep over this topic, Thanushka said that she preferred living in reality than in fantasy. "Since I study architecture I get the opportunity to be in the field a lot. When we go out to sketch buildings, we meet people of different walks of life. While studying the arcs and the corridors and the balconies I tend to observe the life patterns of the people in and around them. When I combine my thoughts with the reality or the truth I am able to express myself with greater creativity", said Thanushka. The work of the renowned French artist Vincent Van Gogh has also influenced her art. "I study architecture as my main profession; but my interests vary from art, psychology, sociology to Buddhism. I read a lot, and it helps me to broaden my vision in every aspect," expressed Thanushka. `The world outside' is an experience with a difference. Darkness, light and the shadows in-between : Reflections on German Expressionist films by Tissa Abeysekara It may seem ridiculously far-fetched to quote some lines from a short story of Truman Capote when writing about German Expressionist film. But as I reflect on some essential quality which is common to the superb crop of German films that sprouted within the short space of time between 1919 - the year of Caligari - and 1924, when with two outstanding films - Fritz lang's Die Nibelungen, and Murnau's The last laugh, this phase reached its climax and then petered out, a passage from a story by the controversial American writer came to mind. 'By now it was almost nightfall, a firefly hour, blue as milkglass; and birds like arrows swooped together and swept into the folds of trees. Before storms, leaves and flowers appear to burn with a private colour, and Miss Bobbit, got up in a little white skirt like a powder puff and with strips of gold-glittering tinsel ribboning her hair seemed set against the darkening all around, to contain this illuminated quality.' This brief moment, as brief as the twilight it tries to capture, from the story Children on Their Birthdays, could be a scene from any of those German films of the period mentioned above. It captures perfectly a tone and a particular visual ambience I have come to associate with films of that period referred to, above. That 'illuminated quality' is an impression I have retained in my memory after seeing almost the whole list of those films over five days once-upon-a-time at the Museum of Modern Art Film Archives, in New York. I had seen Murnau's Nosferatu and The Last Laugh, much earlier as well as the same filmaker's Hollywood debut Sunrise, which had created within me a taste for the chiaroscuro in film. The shadows of German Expressionism, though I hadn't fully grasped the aesthetics nor the thematic strands inherent in them by then, would have most certainly haunted me when I was making my second feature film, Mahagedara in the early eighties. Hence I closeted myself at the NMA Film Archives at the first given opportunity to 'study' the films. I have returned to some of them whenever I had the opportunity, and they continue to remain my favourites. I have in my own way tried to go beyond the cosmetics of the chiaroscuro lighting, the surrealist decor, the optical virtuosity of the camera angles, and of course the baroque narrative techniques and dramaturgy, to seek the socio-political meanings of this period in German cinema. There was nothing, in the German cinema of pre WW1, which predicted this sudden flowering, says Eric Rhode, in his History of the Cinema (a point refuted by Siegfried Kracauer in his marvellous survey of German Expressionist Film - From Caligari to Hitler). The rationalist view is that German film in its post WW1 years reflected the deep gloom and depression of the nation's collective mind consequent to the collapse of the Bismarckian dream of Empire and the humiliation of the Versailles Agreement after the war. The fear of Bolshevism in the middle class and the sense of defeat among the proletariat after the failure of the Revolution in 1918 were brought into sharper relief by the weak Weimar Republic built upon the insecure foundations of an ill conceived constitution bristling with legal contradictions. Germany was at political crossroads, having to make a difficult decision, between civil chaogers and political dictatorship. The twilight was not between darkness and light, but between dark and more dark. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which began the phase of Expressionism in German film reflected, in the words of Siegfried Kracauer, the basic theme - the soul being faced with the unavoidable alternative of tyranny or chaos...' However, there has always been that feeling, persistent among film historians, and cineastes that German expressionist film reflected some quality deeper than the passing landscape of contemporary history, a character more enduring in, and endemic to the German psyche. The epigram to Lotte H. Eisner's book, The Haunted Screen, is a quote from leopold Ziegler and state quite explicitly; 'German man is the supreme example of demoniac man. Demoniac indeed seems the abyss which cannot be filled, the yearing which cannot be assuaged, the thirst which cannot be slaked' Lotte Eisner herself maintains quite firmly, that German Expressionism was more the surfacing of a latent Teutonic taste for mysticism and magic caused by the catharsis of war, than something new and contemporary. 'Mysticism and magic, the dark forces to which Germans have always been more than willing to commit themselves, had flourished in the face of death on the battlefields. The hecatombs of young men fallen in the flower of their youth seemed to nourish the grim nostalgia of the survivors. And the ghosts which had haunted the German Romantics revived, like the shades of hades after draughts of blood.' The allusion is most certainly to what is considered now, as the greatest film of this phase, Murnau's, Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror. Bram Stoker's blood-sucking demon emerging from an 'undead' twilight of a Transylvanian forest has never been portrayed nor presented with such chilling poetic intensity. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, trained as an art historian and who throughout his life nursed a guilt for homosexual tendencies, was born in Westphalia, a land which still retains a haunting medieval quality. He recreated the mystique and the pastoral contours of his heimat in films which were mostly staged on location. In this respect Murnau departed from the practice of most of his contemporaries who needed studio sets to create the visual distortions and the contorted perspectives of their films. Working closely with his highly gifted cameraman, Fritz Arno Wagner, Murnau obtained for Nosferatu some of the most haunting images in cinema, and almost all of them on the outdoors. Using negative strips to create a maze of ghostly while trees against a black sky - now common technical currency in film, but innovative then - or transforming a coach moving through the Carpathian woods into a phantom vehicle through process photography, Murnau exploited the optical capacities of film to its maximum. In the sequences of the ship carrying the bubonic plague, ploughing through the dark waters silently in the night, Nina, leading the vampire - Nosferatu - into her room and the shaft of sunlight falling to dissolve the terror forever - love conquering evil - one could see the genesis of the Hitchcockian genre. It was always good critical fun to hunt for Murnau's genetic strains in the American film-noire as well as in the works of both the British Hitchcock and the Central-European Polandski. Bela Balazs, a film critic of Hungarian origin reacting to Nosferatu, in 1924, wrote, that it was as if 'a chilly draft from doomsday passed through the scenes'. Murnau was to continue his magic through Faust, right up to his work in Hollywood, especially Sunrise, his first film under the restrictive studio-system. But there is a work in between, made in Germany, which strikes a different chord. The Last Laugh, is closer to chekov than it is to Thomas Mann or Goethe. In The Last laugh we are out of the twilight. In the fluid camera work complementing the gentle finely observed performance of Emil Jannings, and the dramaturgy of are removed from the baroque or the Romantic, Murnau is as far away from the Carpathian woods as he could be. For me this film is the beginning of the movement away from the Eisensteinian gospel of montage. Along with Murnau, the other great creative artist of German Expressionist film is Fritz Lang. In his films the action moves within the human soul and we are once again privy to the innermost twitching of the subconscious. Here is the eternal theme of the dark struggles within, a theme that flows from Aeschylus and Shakespeare to Dante and Kafka. Metropolitan, is a Greek drama set against the backdrop of the class struggle of Industrial Europe. The German Cultural Institute of Colombo and its Director, Manfred Broenner deserves the gratitude of all those who love film, for the opportunity to see the key works of this moment of magic in the evolution of the moving image. |
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The students Adilah Ismail, Anjula Mahendran, Chatumali Fernando,
Mariyam Cader, Melanie and Melissa Stephen, Nadira Jayasuriya, Nandika
Fonseka, Nimani Lanerolle, Sabrina Esufally and Sidath Munasinghe are busy
putting the finishing touches to their exhibits.
Nana Kashimoto, a Japanese photographer who has been living in Sri
Lanka for the past 25 years will be holding her photographic exhibition
'Sound of Sri Lanka sight of Japan' at the Tokyo Hilton from September 27
to October 3.
