Guess What?

Guess What?

Actress Christine Hakim has a secret to tell about her role in
the Japanese film Nemuru Otoko (The Sleeping Man), which was
featured in the Jakarta International Film Festival.

The night after director Kohei Oguri gave her the script, she
could not sleep because she was unable to make head or tail of
its meaning.

"It was a long night because I was haunted by the thought that
I had to make up my mind in the morning if I could play a
character in the film," she said in a media briefing on Friday.

Christine was dying to star in the film, especially because
she knew Oguri well. But how could she possibly accept the offer
for a role if she had no idea about the script?

"In the morning, I spent two hours in the toilet reading the
script again and again and eventually I began to understand it,"
said Christine, who plays Tia, a mute southern Japanese woman.

Christine described the film, which Oguri created after 10
years of contemplation, as a surrealist work that needed a strong
imagination to comprehend. The film won the Grand Prix award at
the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

Christine learned an invaluable acting lesson: acting without
speech is more difficult than acting with the more showy crying
or laughing. And, as it turned out, the toilet was a good place
to plumb the intricacies of philosophy. (msa)