Check out the first trailer for Bhutan: Journey with Robert Thurman, a spiritual adventure film and multimedia experience through the land that measures progress in GNH (Gross National Happiness).

According to “Is That a Lama Behind the Camera,” Anupama Chopra’s great article in the New York Times on Bhutan’s budding film industry, last year a record 24 films were produced in the tiny Himalayan kingdom, population 700,000; in 2003 the total was only six. Even though there were only ten films produced in the country in 2005, delightful movie posters announced screenings in the theaters or public halls of every town I traveled through. The article describes a trend towards song-and-dance fantasy, but the movies that caught my eye had taglines that sounded far more realistic: “Muensel — True love comes… and goes,” “Ratho Namgay — bungling along a lifetime achievement of failure,” and “Kikhor — the drama of life begins at home, within the family.” It’s clear that while the dialogue is in Dzongkha and the costumes are traditionally Bhutanese, the themes are universal.

• I highly recommend Kyentse Norbu’s wonderful movie, “Travellers & Magicians .”
• Keep your eyes open for “Journey with Robert Thurman in Bhutan” coming soon. (You can enjoy a taste now at the Bob Thurman Podcast – the latest post, Part II of his George Lucas interview is fascinating.)
• Interesting related journal article (where I found numbers for 2005): “Roar of the Thunder Dragon: The Bhutanese Audio-visual Industry and the Shaping and Representation of Contemporary Culture” by Tshewang Dendup in the Journal of Bhutan Studies, Volume 14, Summer 2006.

We enter the film through an apparent crime scene into the world of on old man looking back on his life with regret and a desire for revenge. Thomas (Toto) believes he was switched in a nursery fire with Alfred, the boy next door. As a result, he sees Alfred as living the life he was meant to have, and we get to see both his reality and the fantasy life he imagines was his birthright.

His biography unfolds as we travel back and forth between different periods of his life, played by 3 different actors. Thomas’s jealousy and sense of being a victim shape choices that create cascades of loss and keep him from enjoying his life and the love that surrounds him. Even though his trajectory seems semitragic, van Dormael takes us on a joyful and humorous ride through imagination, memory and absurdity to a surprisingly happy ending (that includes a plastic bag scene much more beautiful than the one it must have inspired in American Beauty).

After the film, Terry came back out for questions and answers. When asked if he ever wanted to be someone else. “No,” he replied, “I guess I’m rather content being miserable being me.”

He said his visual style had been most influenced by “watching the radio” as he grew up. He was left to his own imagination to flesh out the stories until TV arrived home at age 12.

He also joked he was threatening legal action against George Bush and Dick Cheney for the unauthorized remake of Brazil — we’re living it!

assorted related:

Ikiru makes an interesting contrast and complement to Toto Le Heros on the “get busy living” theme.

The new Bob Thurman Podcast from his talk in Thimphu, Bhutan on “Buddhism, Gross National Happiness and the Current Global Crisis,” (Don’t you just love the scope?) resonates with themes that emerge in Toto le Heros and Terry’s talk like “what is the nature of reality,” “how to be happy” and “time, eh… not so linear,” and offers a useful realization.

Not so into the inevitability of your current body aging and dying? Aubrey de Grey explains how he’s approaching the issue as an “engineering problem” in the latest TedTalks. Alas, solving that “problem” creates a whole host of new issues that portend a rather dystopian universe, but then we are granted more time to figure that all out.

Terry Gilliam obtains the rights to Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens for a groat. (Yay! Looking forward to this movie…)

I was catching up on Gretchen Craft Rubin’s wonderful Happiness Project and noting August was all about memento mori (“remember you must die”), when my brother walked in and asked if I wanted to see a great movie, Ikiru (“To Live”), about a man who learns he is dying of stomach cancer and realizes he hasn’t really lived yet at all. I found myself completely engrossed (closed my laptop!) in Kurosawa’s beautiful, timeless, moving film and repeating scenes so I could enjoy them again.

One scene that touched me was Toyo explaining to Kanji the happiness she derived from making toys that other people would enjoy. I couldn’t help but think of Chumby! I know it won’t make me as happy as I think it will, and I’ve come to appreciate the desire itself without requiring its fulfillment. Nonetheless, I want a Chumby to wake up, play with and make fun mods for… now!

Bonus: Meditate on your death with Bob Thurman in the beautiful temple of the tigress lair, Taktsang Monastery in Paro, Bhutan.

Ikiru, Directed by Akira Kurosawa on Amazon, IMDB, Wikipedia, Criterion Collection, Time’s all-time 100 movies.

Aside from love letters, money and presents, nothing received in the mail thrills me more than type catalogs.** Flopping on my bed with the latest offerings from Emigre and T-26 triggers a flight of fancy, imagining what publication, idea or product could embody the essence of each typeface.

* I’m also fond of a skinema, a dermatologist’s blog that tracks skin conditions and the meanings we ascribe to them in films.
** Until recently. It seems garden plant and seed catalogs have started inspiring the same full sensory fantasies i used to feel only for type. Sorry type.

• nyc: Sarah Sze‘s truly amazing universe at Marianne Boesky Gallery through July 1.
• nyc: Dominic McGill’s graphic exploration of ideas profligating in the universe from the triangulation point of November 22, 1963 (day that JFK, Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis all died) at Derek Eller Gallery through May 25.
• nyc: Sophia Petrides’ quiet video meditation “I Am Protected By Your Fear” at Larissa Goldstson Gallery through July 1.
• web: Karma Phuntsok and Gonkar Gyatso
  at Mechak Center for Contemporary Art

Movie:

• Miyazaki’s magnificent Howl’s Moving Castle

Irresistible summer pop:

• Anniemal by Annie

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