Tsai Ming-liang’s Tian Bian Yi Duo Yun is a sequel to his 2001 What Time Is It There? (Ni neibian jidian), the “there” being Paris, from which Shiang-chyi has returned to Taipei. On a pedestrian overpass she runs into former street vendor and boyfriend Hsiao-kang. “Do you still sell watches?” she asks. Hsiao-kang’s reply: “No.” […]
Daily Archives: October 15, 2007
The following is one of the entries from my 100 Greatest Asian Films list, which I invite you to visit on this site if you haven’t already done so. — Dennis The film called in the States Tropical Malady is divided into two parts. The first depicts the romance between two boys, Keng, an army […]
The follow-up to Dogville (2003) in what was going to be his U.S.A.—Land of Opportunity trilogy, Lars von Trier’s Manderlay marshals again minimalism and Brechtian distancing, this time for a powerful parable about the residual fallout from slavery in the United States. Indeed, this may be the most brilliant film ever made about the situation […]
Degreed in chemistry, Primo Levi was a Jewish socialist in Italy, where “racial laws” restricted Jewish freedom and prospects. Ten years after the writer’s suicide, Francesco Rosi’s English-language La tregua dramatized the 24-year-old Levi’s long, arduous journey home to Turin after being liberated from Auschwitz, where he had spent fifteen months for anti-Fascist resistance activities. […]
Dennis Grunes 