Tsai Ming-Liang Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Cannes in 60 Seconds: Saturday, May 23, 2009
Filed under: Awards », Cannes », Festival Reports », Cinematical Indie »
It's all over but the shouting. The last two titles in Competition for the Palme d'Or, which will be awarded on Sunday, screened on Saturday to general disinterest as industry attendees continued to flock home. But some were still happy just to be able to see a movie -- any movie -- at Cannes; Roger Ebert tells of a young man who followed the example of Ebert's granddaughter and "begged" for a ticket. He was happy and proud to get in. Ebert shares some photographs; he says: "I have no idea why they are all of beautiful women."
Key Screenings. Competition: Tsai Ming-Liang's Face (Taiwanese filmmaker makes a movie in France), Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (Tokyo fish market employee also works as a hit woman).
Awards. Some observers felt the Un Certain Regard section featured higher-quality selection than the main Competition, so it's of note that Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth won the top prize, according to indieWIRE. The Greek film received warm praise from the few reviewers who have seen it. Karina Longworth of Spout says it's the only narrative she's seen in Cannes "that really feels like it represents the work an emerging new talent." The film revolves around an odd family, in which the three 20-something children have never even left their house, while their parents "have created a complex mythology ... to keep the family together." She called it a "dark comedy," though she also noted that "its depiction of forced incest, two explicitly not-fake images of sex acts, liberation via very bloody self-harm and the on-screen disemboweling of a housecat."
Asian Films on DVD: 'Election,' 'Sleep Alone,' 'Time'
Filed under: Action », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
Writers' strike got you down? Wondering how to fill those late-night hours now that all the talk shows are on hiatus? I've got just the answer for you: Asian films on DVD! All three of these newly-released films are sure to provoke, though I'm not sure they'll prepare you for sleep as well as Jon Stewart or Craig Ferguson.Johnny To's Election brilliantly details a clash of triad titans in Hong Kong. Every two years an election is held to determine a crime gang's new boss; both Simon Yam, a suave yet savage family man, and Tony Leung Kar-Fai, a brutal and much feared lieutenant, want the job. Director To generates tension with great subtlety, and the story has several surprises up its sleeve. The DVD includes a "making of" feature and interviews with the director and stars.
Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote a beautiful review of Tsai Ming-liang's latest film, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, explaining how it fits into the director's ouevre and concluding: "The pleasure here belongs to Tsai's images, which can be both familiar and baffling, or beautiful and humorously deadpan, or realistic and supernatural. It's best to give up ideas of plot, story and characters and just explore these amazing images, one by one." The DVD includes the original theatrical trailer, which can be viewed at Moviefone.
Our friends at Moviefone also have the trailer for Kim Ki-Duk's Time, which in no way prepares you for how infuriating the film proves to be. I agree with Martha Fischer, who wrote: "The problem with Time is that every character in the film is so fundamentally repulsive it's impossible to care about any of them." Still, as I've written before, Kim's films are visually beautiful and told in an indelible narrative style, and that might be enough to justify a rental if you're curious. The DVD includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.
Fortissimo Films Picks Up 'Help Me Eros'
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Romance », Distribution », Cinematical Indie »
The world outside of Taiwan and Malaysia is going to get a chance to see Lee Kang-Sheng's second directorial effort, Help Me Eros. Fortissimo Films just nabbed the worldwide distribution rights outside of those two areas. The feature is described as "a provocative, darkly comic and sexually daring film," written by Lee and produced by long-time collaborator Tsai Ming-Liang. Fortissimo co-chairman Wouter Barendrecht says: "We have known Lee Kang-Sheng for a long time... So it is very exciting to see him blossom into his own as a world-class director with this daring, hilarious and shockingly explicit film."What makes it so provocative? According to this site, the film follows the dysfunctional lives of three people -- Nick, a drug addict who used to work in the stock market, Maria, a rape victim who now helps people on a telephone hotline and Fion, a nut seller. Basically, Nick falls for Maria while they two talk about their problems on the hotline, and pursues a relationship with the woman (who has a struggling marriage to already contend with), and Fion and Nick have a drug-laden tryst. This is only the start of the dysfunction, and I must warn that the website is pretty detailed and spoilery about what happens to the three people. A trio who also don't really need any help from Eros, considering all the lust-laden choices they make. The site does, however, offer a pretty interesting director's statement, which can give you a little insight into what in the world Lee was going for -- "a story about three people who live in a big city in pursuit of a better material life, yet their inner selves remain cold and empty." There is no word on a release date yet.
Greatest Living Filmmakers United for Secret Cannes Project
Filed under: Foreign Language », Cannes », Shorts », Quentin Tarantino »
For its 60th year anniversary, the Cannes Film Festival will premiere new films from many past winners of the Palme d'Or. It isn't known how many of these winners will have new material this year, but apparently festival president Gilles Jacob and artistic director Thierry Frémaux tried to get many of the living "Golden Palm" vets -- winners and nominees, both -- to contribute to a special project. Each participating filmmaker has directed a short film of 2-3 minutes in length that will be shown together as a feature-length film at a gala event on May 20. Variety reports that those known to be included are Ken Loach ('06: The Wind That Shakes the Barley), Gus Van Sant ('03: Elephant), Lars von Trier ('00: Dancer in the Dark), Theodoros Angelopoulos ('98: Eternity and a Day), Abbas Kiarostami ('97: Taste of Cherry), Chen Kaige ('93: Farewell My Concubine), Wim Wenders ('84: Paris, Texas) and non-winners (though often-nominated) Wong Kar-Wai, Michael Cimino, Amos Gitai, Manoel de Oliveira, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. There are 30 shorts in all, so obviously a lot of other contributors are as yet unknown. Only Pedro Almodóvar (also a non-winner, and never a nominee) is known to have declined the offer.
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