Film
Golden Slumbers
Golden Slumbers (Le sommeil d'or) is a feature documentary by Davy Chou about the lost Cambodian cinema of 1960 to 1975.[1][2] Nearly 400 films were made in Phnom Penh in those years, and only about 30 survive.[2]
Synopsis
Icarus Films puts the output of the industry from the early 1960s to 1975 at more than 400 features.[3] Under the Khmer Rouge, most of the films were burned or left to decay, and many studios and cinemas were destroyed.[2] Filmmakers, actors and screenwriters who could not leave the country were killed.[3] Most of the people who had worked in the film industry died in the genocide.[2]
Chou rebuilds the memory of that cinema from what remains: soundtracks, advertisements, posters, lobby cards and songs posted online.[3][2] He talks with surviving artists, including the directors Ly Bun Yim, Ly You Sreang and Yvon Hem and the actress Dy Saveth.[3] The film visits old Phnom Penh movie palaces that have become karaoke bars, restaurants and squats, and it follows young Cambodian filmmakers as they reenact scenes from the golden age.[3][4] With so few images left, memory and imagination stand in for the lost archive.[5]
Production and credits
Davy Chou wrote the screenplay. Thomas Favel was the cinematographer and Laurent Leveneur the editor.[2] Jérôme Harré created the soundtrack, Vincent Villa handled the sound, and Tith Kanitha designed the production.[2] Jacky Goldberg, Rithy Panh and Chhel Chamrong produced the film.[2] Vycky Films, Bophana Production and Araucania Films were the production companies.[1][6] The film is in Khmer and French.[2]
Release and reception
IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and the NFB Collection date the film to 2011; Icarus Films gives a 2011 copyright and a 2012 release.[1][7][6][3] The film was selected for the Forum des Jungen Films in Berlin.[2] It opened in France on September 19, 2012.[1] Istanbul Modern showed it in its Documentary Is Power! series, April 4 to 14, 2013.[4] On June 22, 2017, it screened at the Reframing the Archive conference and screening program, followed by a question-and-answer session with Chou.[8] In 2026 it was part of the CinemAsia program at the Eye Filmmuseum.[5] The NFB Collection holds it as an acquisition.[6]
The film has received two awards and one nomination.[1] Rotten Tomatoes lists a Tomatometer score of 100 percent from seven reviews.[7] Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times wrote that it reaches something profound about a nation's dream life. Sam Weisberg of The Village Voice wrote that it lets the audience imagine its own version of Phnom Penh's golden age.[7] Glenn Dunks of The Film Experience wrote about its treatment of the erasure of Cambodia's filmed history.[7] Variety called it deeply moving, and Screen Daily called it instructive and poignant.[3]
Watch
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 IMDb, Golden Slumbers (2011)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 Trigon-Film, Le sommeil d'or: Golden Slumbers
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Icarus Films, Golden Slumbers
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Istanbul Modern, Golden Slumbers
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Eye Filmmuseum, Golden Slumbers
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 NFB Collection, Golden Slumbers
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Rotten Tomatoes, Golden Slumbers
- ↑ University of the Arts London, Reframing the Archive (2017)