Later this month (see showtime info and links at bottom of this post), Anthology Film Archives will present the New York Theatrical Premiere Run of NIGHT AND DAY by gifted Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, who has established himself as world cinema’s poet of male narcissism, desire, and neurosis. For more than a decade now he has been quietly but consistently turning out a series of films that are somehow both self-effacing and bold, behavioral and formally experimental, including masterpieces such as VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS, TURNING GATE, and TALE OF CINEMA.
His most recent film to hit North American shores (the feverishly prolific Hong has already lapped us, with an even newer film – LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL – premiering at Cannes last May) finds him experimenting with a change of location. Set in Paris rather than Korea, NIGHT AND DAY adds the element of cultural confusion to his usual thematic arsenal.
After getting busted for smoking pot with some students, 40-year-old artist Seong-nam impulsively flees to Paris, leaving his wife behind, and finds himself living in a kind of limbo. Staying in a run-down hotel inhabited mostly by fellow Korean ex-pats, Seong-nam wanders aimlessly around the city, becoming ensnared by temptation in the form of both an ex-flame, and a couple of young art students. Leisurely, episodic, sharp, and deeply funny, NIGHT AND DAY finds Hong working at the height of his powers.
“Expanding and enriching his themes with layered motifs and images, filming in a straightforward style that makes the simplest pan or zoom an exclamation mark, Hong Sang-soo has never more disarmingly realized his bleak, sardonic view of male desire than in NIGHT AND DAY.” –Michael Joshua Rowin, REVERSE SHOT
“Eric Rohmer’s name has been bandied about as a point of reference, but this is actually pure Hong Sang-soo: a very amusing deconstruction of male pride, male inadequacy and the male capacity for projecting hapless fantasies onto more or less innocent women. Not a reinvention, then, but a thoroughgoing refreshment of Hong’s characteristic themes.” –Tony Rayns, THE TIMES BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
Showtimes:
Friday, October 23 through Thursday, October 29 at 6:30 & 9:15 nightly.
Additional screenings on Saturday and Sunday at 3:30.
Anthology Film Archives homepage here. Or go directly to their online calendar by clicking here.
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