Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) has a thing about time in Tsai Ming-liang film
WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? (NI NA BIAN JI DIAN) (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, April 24, $12, 7:00
Series runs through April 26
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang’s What Time Is It There? is one heck of an existential hoot. When his father (Miao Tien) dies, Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), who sells watches on the street in Taipei, becomes obsessed with a series of things: a strange woman (Chen Shiang-chyi) who insists on buying Hsiao-kang’s own watch and then leaves for Paris; Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (Tsai’s “all-time favorite film”); urinating in whatever is near his bed instead of going to the bathroom; and changing clocks to Paris time. Meanwhile, his mother (Lu Yi-ching) is determined to follow ridiculous rituals to bring her husband back, and the woman in Paris (Cecilia Yip) goes through a number of bizarre events as well. There is not a single camera movement in the film (except for in the 400 Blows film clips); the scenes are shot by Benoît Delhomme in long takes, often lingering before and after any action — when there is any action. The dialogue is spare, ironic, and hysterical. If you like your movies straightforward and linear, then this is not for you, but we loved this absolute riot of a film. And yes, that person sitting on the bench in the cemetery is exactly who you think it is. One of several Tsai films in which Lee portrays a version of Hsiao-kang, What Time Is It There? is screening April 24 at 7:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s fourteen-film tribute to Tsai’s career; other upcoming films include Rebels of the Neon God, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Face (introduced by La Frances Hui), Journey to the West, and Goodbye, Dragon Inn (introduced by Nick Pinkerton).
If you’re going to make a movie with the awesome title Rebels of the Neon God, it better be a damn fine, supercool, unusual, even rebellious film. And that’s exactly what Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang’s debut feature is, a damn fine, supercool, unusual, and rebellious film about teen angst and urban alienation in a changing Taipei. Written and directed by Tsai, who went on to make such other stunners as The River, The Hole, Vive l’Amour, and What Time Is It There?, among others, Rebels of the Neon God is a slowly paced minimalist tale of interrelated characters who come together in fascinating, unexpected ways. Lee Kang-sheng, whom Tsai discovered smoking a cigarette on the street (for the television piece Kids), stars as Hsiao-kang, a teenager who has decided to cash out of cram school without telling his parents. His father (Tien Miao), a cabdriver, and his mother (Lu Yi-ching), a spiritualist who believes that her son is the reincarnation of the rebel protection deity Nezha, don’t know what to do with their extremely quiet son, who seems to have little interest in life except for going to video arcades. Meanwhile, Ah Tze (Chen Chao-jung) is living an odd life himself, stealing change from public phone booths and becoming friendly with a young woman, Ah Kuei (Wang Yu-wen), who slept with his brother, Ah Bing (Jen Chang-bin). One afternoon, Ah Tze and Ah Kuei are on a scooter when they pull alongside Hsiao-kang and his father in a cab, and after getting honked at for blocking a lane, Ah Bing smashes the father’s side-view mirror, a deed that Hsiao-kang decides is not going to go unpunished.
The related concepts of time and reality wind through Olivier Assayas’s beautifully poetic, melancholy Clouds of Sils Maria much like actual snakelike clouds slither through the twisting Maloja Pass in the Swiss Alps, as life imitates art and vice versa. Juliette Binoche stars as Maria Enders, a famous French actress who is on her way to Zurich to accept an award for her mentor, playwright Wilhelm Melchior, who eschews such mundane ceremonies. But while en route, Maria and her personal assistant, the extremely attentive and capable Valentine (Kristen Stewart), learn that Wilhelm has suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, and Maria considers turning back, especially when she later finds out that Henryk Wald (Hanns Zischler), an old nemesis, will be there to pay homage to Wilhelm as well, but she decides to go ahead after all. At a cocktail party, Maria meets with hot director Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger), who is preparing a new stage production of Wilhelm and Maria’s first big hit, The Maloja Snake, but this time Maria would play Helena, an older woman obsessed with ambitious eighteen-year-old Sigrid, the role she originally performed twenty years earlier, to great acclaim. Klaus is planning to cast Lindsay Lohan-like troublemaking star and walking tabloid headline Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) as Sigrid, which does not thrill Maria as her past and present meld together in an almost dreamlike narrative punctuated by the music of Handel and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux’s gorgeous shots of vast mountain landscapes.
After working on two previous fashion-related films, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Valentino: The Last Emperor, Frédéric Tcheng makes his solo directorial debut with Dior and I. In April 2012, fashion designer Raf Simons was named the new creative director of Christian Dior, bringing along his right-hand man, Pieter Mulier. Tcheng goes behind the scenes to follow Simons as he prepares his first-ever haute couture collection, which is due in a mere two months. Tcheng zooms in on the Belgian designer’s working methods and general anxiety as he takes over at the legendary company, developing important relationships with Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, première atelier flou Florence Chehet, première atelier tailleur Monique Bailly, the seamstresses, the models, and other employees. Simons chooses to pay homage to Dior’s past with his new collection while attempting to rid himself of the designation of “minimalist designer.” One of his most fascinating directions is attempting to incorporate the work of artist Sterling Ruby into his designs. All the while he is haunted by the ghost of company founder and New Look creator Christian Dior, who is shown by Tcheng in archival footage accompanied by a voice-over of Omar Berrada reading from Dior’s memoirs. Dior and I is a slight but affecting race against time, as one man in the present honors the past while laying the groundwork for a bright future. Dior and I opens April 10 at Film Forum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with Tcheng and Berrada appearing at Film Forum for the 7:30 show April 10 and the 5:20 show April 11; Tcheng will also be at the Walter Reade Theater for a Q&A following the 7:00 show April 11.