Visage (2009)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Ming-liang Tsai

Writer:

Ming-liang Tsai (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 October 2009 (Taiwan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Hsiao-Kang, a Taiwanese film director, travels to the Louvre in Paris, France, to shoot a film that explores the Salomé myth. |

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Fanny Ardant	...	La productrice et la reine Hérodias
Laetitia Casta	...	La star et Salomé
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Antoine et le roi Hérode
Kang-sheng Lee	...	Hsiao-Kang - Le réalisateur
Yi-Ching Lu	...	La mère
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mathieu Amalric	...	L'homme du fourré
Nathalie Baye
Samuel Ganes	...	Le garçon du buisson
Olivier Martinaud	...	The young father
Jeanne Moreau
François Rimbau	...	Régisseur

Also Known As:

Face (International: English title)
Lian (Taiwan)
Salomé (France) (working title)

Runtime:

France:138 min

Country:

France | Taiwan | Belgium | Netherlands

Language:

French | Taiwanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

JBA Production

A lovely film on chance, symmetry and loneliness

Apparently Tsai's newest film broke the walkout records at the film festivals while it was far more accessible than the slowest of his films I've seen (Vive L'Amour). I think the problem is the walkers picked the wrong entry to the director's oeuvre. Tsai is one of the few auteurs that going through their filmography by chronological order is an absolute must. There are various elements that slowly change as we go through his films with time. His use of time, space, his signature actor Kang-Sheng Lee , parallel words, off-screen action, sickness, isolation, musical numbers, cockroaches (yes, cockroaches), fishes,most notable signature. Kang virtually aged before our eyes. He is always playing someone named Hsiao Kang that might or might not be the same person in different films or different characters in the same film. His roles vary from a lonely teenager in the director's debut to a watch salesman, a porn star, a homeless man and now in his tenth collaboration with Tsai; he is a film director in his early 40s. A unique and resplendent collaboration featuring two complementing perspectives that led to the ultimate levels of acting immenseness in his films. Visage is an orgy of Tsai's trademarks and as distorting it may seem; it's a reflection of life. It is a visual poem in the same league with other amazing films of the director.

The film opens with an static shot in a coffee shop in Pairs. Tsai's first trademark: the action is happening off screen. Some minutes later; as usual, we'll see Tsai's opening something-going-wrong moment. Hsiao Kang floods his mom's entire apartment in a failed attempt to fix a faucet. This long sequence filmed with amazing camera-work and stunning beauty is an amazing way to open an amazing movie. It at least looked pretty nice on big screen. The end result is breathtaking. It's really hard to describe it but this scene as any liquid outburst in any Tsai film is extremely sexual. Expect a strange sequence right afterward that I won't describe, musical numbers in snow, a magical forest, ghosts, Jean Moreau singing a song from Jules and Jim, Jean Pierre Leud as an actor in a film within a film, one of the most beautiful sequence involving birds in any film I've seen, the visual analysis of change and continuity concepts at its best, awesomely choreographed falling of fake snow on fire and some other sequences that might be fantasy or a shot in different time or some things in that parallel world. Links between shots do not adhere to an obvious narrative logic. You'll probably have no idea of what the hell you've watched till the movie is finished and a good part of the plot (?) doesn't take place in scenes that are shown to us; it takes place between them. This image/plot conflict makes a perfect accompaniment to the battle of intellect versus sensuality here and amplifies the already extreme effect of our uncertainty about characters. But who cares? The pleasure here belongs to images and they are as beautiful and mesmerizing as anything you will see this year. It's best to give up ideas of plot, story and characters and just explore these amazing images and let them wash over you, one by one. Visage is a feast for the eye. You don't watch ''Visage'' so much as dwell in it. I keep thinking about this movie constantly am almost sure that I'll like it even better with a rewatch. In retrospect, I call this film the best movie I've seen from 2009.