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Michelle
Sep 26, 04 - 11:40 AM |
Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 - NYT Magazine article 9/26/04
Before I ramble on, let me say, scroll down to the bottom for the link to the NYT Magazine article about Wong Kar-Wai in today's paper (9/26/04).
I can't recall the exact details but I think at Cannes this year, Wong Kar-Wai peeved the judges off by not having 2046 available for viewing at the scheduled time.
As an avid fan, I've sought out and seen Wong Kar-Wai speak a couple times, possibly a few, I don't remember. But I know that he has a unique vision. He doesn't really care what others think. And he has deliberate messages in his movies but he doesn't feel like explaining them. And why should he? Just watch the films and let them wash over you. Then again, they aren't the most complicated stories but they are very human and I'm always struck by them.
Some directors have a lot to say in interviews, etc. and some don't. I can understand that. It gets a little tiresome explaining the symbolism of this and that. Now I'm thinking about sitting through those audience Q&A's at various film festivals. I know, I know, I don't have to stay for them. But I'm a sucker for them. Even when I don't particularly care for the movie or even the filmmaker, I find them of interest.
Anyway, I was extremely saddened by the loss of Leslie Cheung last year. I'm sure Wong Kar-Wai felt it to his core. They seemed symbiotically bonded. Days of Being Wild is 1) a great title and more significantly, 2) a great movie. Happy Together is another great (let's say interesting and perceptive) relationship movie.
Sadness and respect aside, I would recommend Chungking Express and Fallen Angels to any film-lover. I'll forewarn you that they are heavily influenced by la Nouvelle Vague a.k.a. French New Wave (Goddard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Chabrol). So they are definitely arty. I loved In the Mood for Love. Maggie Cheung just was so great in it - Tony Leung as well.
So, it was still somewhat surprising that 2046 was not in the 2004 New York Film Festival line up. The film festival and Wong Kar-Wai have something of a relationship. But I guess he didn't finish it to his satisfaction. I read that he's still editing and SHOOTING it. Ay carumba. Well, suffice it say, I have high expectations of it.
I know I'm not really making any points. And now I'm running late. (See, I don't sit here writing all the time. I have to go out and actually do the stuff I write about at some point, right? LOL.)
Okay, so here's the article I mentioned at the top:
The Director's Director
September 26, 2004
By JAIME WOLF
Wong Kar-wai makes emotionally exquisite, formally
adventurous films that other filmmakers can't help
cribbing from - even if his method borders on madness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/magazine/26KARWAI.html?ex=1097210758&ei=1&en=1b614b0daa3ecff7
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Michelle
May 2nd, 2005 - 9:55 PM |
Re: Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 - NYT Magazine article 9/26/04
Well, I saw 2046: read some impressions here.
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Michelle
Jun 4th, 2005 - 9:54 AM |
Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 in NYC on June 15, 2005
From filmlinc.com:
2046
Series: Film Comment Selects [2005]
Director: Wong Kar Wai, Release: 2004, Runtime: 129
2046 feels less like a sequel to In the Mood for Love than a second movement in a cinematic symphony — the emotional core of the earlier film is exposed, its spatial precision deepened, its sense of longing stretched to infinity. The titular number is many things at once — the year when mainland China assumes absolute control of Hong Kong; the number of the hotel room across from Tony Leung’s Mr. Chow, inhabited by a parade of women [Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Gong Li and an utterly electrifying Ziyi Zhang] he pursues and discards with impunity; and the place where disappointed lovers escape to in Chow’s erotic sci-fi novel.
With Wong Kar Wai appearing in person.
9:00PM SOLD OUT
There will be a standby line for this event.
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Michelle
Jun 15th, 2005 - 7:10 PM |
Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 at the LA Film Fest, 6/25 & 6/26/05
LA Film Fest Schedule
Here's the listing from lafilmfest.com:
2046
China, 2004, 129 min
In Cantonese, Japanese, and Mandarin with English Subtitles
Directed By: Wong Kar Wai
Writer: Wong Kar Wai
Producer: Wong Kar Wai
Executive Producer: Chan Ye-cheng
Cinematographers: Christopher Doyle, Lai Yiu Fai, Kwan Pun Leung
Editor: William Chang Suk-Ping
Music: Peer Rabin, Shigeru Umebayashi
Cast: Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Maggie Cheung, Chang Chen
For those for whom director Wong Kar Wai is the world's preeminent purveyor of modern melancholy and urban ennui, the wait for his years-in-the-making latest effort has been much too long indeed. To call 2046 a sequel does not capture its own distinctive idiosyncrasies, but in its final form, following talk of endless re-shoots and re-cutting, the film does pick up with the always-graceful Tony Leung reprising his role from In The Mood For Love a few tough, lonely years further down the line. Having bottomed out following the heartbreaking affair chronicled in the previous film, Leung's character has become something of a predatory cad, and as he struggles to write a science-fiction novel based on his own memories, he becomes involved with a series of women.
With a tricky, intricate structure that weaves the viewer in and out of fiction and reality, past and present, the film is woozy, staggering, and let's face it, just a touch confusing. A stunning cavalcade of Asia's biggest female stars—Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Faye Wong, Carina Lau, and, ever-so-briefly, Maggie Cheung—bring gauzy, sexy life to Wong's meditation on how our past writes our future.
Screening Schedule
Date Time Venue Tickets
Sat, Jun 25 9:30 pm DGA Theatre 1 $10.00
Sun, Jun 26 2:30 pm Laemmle Sunset 2 $10.00
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Michelle
Aug 3rd, 2005 - 12:26 PM |
Wong Kar-Wai on Charlie Rose on 7/27/05
I think the original broadcast was 7/26/05 but the taped version I watched is dated 7/27. So to be accurate about my experience...
I finally finished watching Wong Kar-Wai being interviewed on Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose is such a poser sometimes. Things he knows about, he really knows but things he doesn't know about he really doesn't know! Wong Kar-Wai and his work certainly fall into the latter category. But it was still cool to hear Wong Kar-Wai speak about his work. Incidentally, he prefers "2-0-4-6" to "20-46." I don't know what I was calling it. But Charlie Rose continued to call it "20-46" after being told that the preferred title was "2-0-4-6." Charlie Rose also didn't know Tony Leung's name. He called him Tony "Cheung." I just feel like that would be the same as interviewing Martin Scorcese and calling Robert DeNiro by another name. (I'm only giving Charlie Rose a hard time because he acts like a know-it-all and is a bad faker. Most anyone else, who doesn't get paid a lot to be somewhat informed about guests he or she is interviewing, I would certainly be understanding about. And I want to be clear that I have watched a fair amount of Charlie Rose in my life and will continue to watch it when people of interest appear on the show.) Anyway, I'm just glad that Wong Kar-wai seemed to be open to the discussion and shared a fair amount of information about his life, his style and his work. He talked about how Zhang Ziyi's occupation is that of a ballroom dancer in a nightclub and not a prostitute which people seem unclear about when they watch the film. He also explains that historically speaking, her speaking Mandarin was realistic. There were many immigrants from the north from China who moved to HK. Something else I didn't know about him but is very telling is that his father managed a night club (after working as a commercial sailor). There are often night clubs in his movies. He said he was too young at the time to actually go to the night clubs. But still, he must've formed ideas about them. He also talked a bit about his next project "The Lady from Shanghai" about a "dangerous woman who's in danger." He said he was doing research for it now and would start filming next year.
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Michelle
Aug 4th, 2005 - 12:26 PM |
mispelling of Martin Scorsese
I realized in my rant about Charlie Rose not knowing the facts, I mispelled Scorsese as "Scorcese." Now who's the fool? I fully accept credit for the mistake.
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