Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings: 06/25/19

A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2015)

Cast: Chen Yongzhong, Guo Yue, Liu Linyan, Luo Feiyang, Xie Lixun, Yang Zhuohua, Yu Shixue, Zhao Daqing. Screenplay: Bi Gan. Cinematography: Wang Tianxing. Production design: Zhu Yun. Film editing: Qin Yanan. Music: Lim Giong.

The centerpiece of Kaili Blues is an astonishing long take -- a very long take lasting 41 minutes -- that follows the young motorcycle-riding doctor who is the protagonist of the film along his journey. It's not just a tour de force sequence but one integral to the poetic essence of the work. In his first feature, Bi Gan reveals himself as a poet -- he recites some of his verse in the film -- who is playing with time and memory, dream and waking reality in challenging and enigmatic ways.