International Lens: Tears of the Black Tiger
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19
Where: Vanderbilt's Sarratt Cinema
One of the most infamous casualties of Miramax’s early-Aughts acquisitions binge, Wisit Sasanatieng’s delirious 2000 melodrama — a feverish, heavily stylized vision spun from 1950s Thai action movies, gory Westerns and Technicolor Hollywood at its most garish — didn’t just get chucked in a vault somewhere: It got the full Harvey Scissorhands treatment, losing its tragic ending and about a half-hour of running time … and then got chucked in the vault.
Since its brief Magnolia Pictures release in its uncut version eight years ago, this is your first (and maybe only) chance to see Sasanatieng’s kerchiefed cowboys, over-the-top splatter and sherbet-colored skies in glorious 35mm — and what’s more, free and open to the public, thanks to Vanderbilt’s International Lens series. In Thai with subtitles, it’ll be introduced by Ben Tran, Vanderbilt professor of Asian studies and English.
