Jia Zhang-ke’s CRY ME A RIVER is part of exciting MoMA ContemporAsian showing of four short films by extraordinary directors
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
September 10-16
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days,
same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
MoMA’s ongoing ContemporAsian series offers a special treat September 10-16, screening short recent works by four of the world’s most intriguing filmmakers: China’s Jia Zhang-ke (THE WORLD, STILL LIFE), South Korea’s Hong Sang-soo (TALE OF CINEMA, LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL), Taiwan-by-way-of-Malaysia’s Tsai Ming-liang (REBELS OF THE NEON GOD, THE HOLE), and Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul (TROPICAL MALADY, SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY). In Jia’s CRY ME A RIVER (2008), four friends rehash old times as they meet to celebrate a teacher’s birthday, poignantly looking at where their dreams got derailed; it’s a bittersweet tale that pays tribute to Fei Mu’s 1948 film SPRING IN A SMALL TOWN. Tsai’s MADAM BUTTERFLY (2008) reimagines the famous Puccini opera at a bus stop, Hong’s LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS (2009) brings together a writer and an old flame, and Weerasethakul’s A LETTER TO UNCLE BOONMEE (2009) is a forerunner to the Palme d’Or winner UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES.