Standing ovation for Singapore director at Cannes
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 11:27 am
Home-grown director Anthony Chen's first feature film, Ilo Ilo, premiered to a 15-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night.
Although there were some technical glitches, which caused the film to stop screening thrice, the 800-strong audience stayed on. They even joined in to sing a birthday song when the film stopped midway in a birthday-celebration scene.
When My Paper contacted the 29-year-old film-maker, who is in Cannes, Chen said the standing ovation was surreal.
"I was still recovering from the trauma of the technical glitches, but it soon became clear to us that the audience really loved the film. There were tears in their eyes, it spoke to them.
"Despite being set in a country foreign to them, they felt that (the film) was universal and could relate to it," he said.
Ilo Ilo, which stars veteran television actor Chen Tianwen and actress Yeo Yann Yann, is about a Singapore family and its newly-arrived Filipino maid, played by Angeli Bayani, in the midst of the 1997 Asian financial crisis......
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BN ... 24368.html
Although there were some technical glitches, which caused the film to stop screening thrice, the 800-strong audience stayed on. They even joined in to sing a birthday song when the film stopped midway in a birthday-celebration scene.
When My Paper contacted the 29-year-old film-maker, who is in Cannes, Chen said the standing ovation was surreal.
"I was still recovering from the trauma of the technical glitches, but it soon became clear to us that the audience really loved the film. There were tears in their eyes, it spoke to them.
"Despite being set in a country foreign to them, they felt that (the film) was universal and could relate to it," he said.
Ilo Ilo, which stars veteran television actor Chen Tianwen and actress Yeo Yann Yann, is about a Singapore family and its newly-arrived Filipino maid, played by Angeli Bayani, in the midst of the 1997 Asian financial crisis......
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BN ... 24368.html