Some filmmakers speak with great ease of the intentions of their work. Others find it tortuous, believing that the expression on the screen is their most full and true form of communication. It is not surprising that the Chinese Bi Gan author is in this last category.
Since its beginnings with Be blurred (2015), which announced it as one of the most distinctive voices of world artistic cinema, the 35 -year -old director has developed a reputation for fascinating visual innovation and narrative ambiguity. With its second second year feature, Long day of travel at night (2018), he deepened his exploration of memory, desire and cinematographic form, using a shot with a single time show in 3D which surprised the public in the world – a sequence so allusively hypnotic which tries to describe its experience, it was like trying to transmit the elaborate essence of a dream.
During the recent Cannes Film Festival, BI returned to the Croisette with ResurrectionHis most ambitious film conceptually to date. Structured around six chapters, each dedicated to one of the senses – vision, sound, taste, smell, contact and mind – the film is both a sensory odyssey and a meditation on the cinema itself. With the Jackson Yee transmogrifier and a shu qi radiant, Resurrection tells the story of a spectral entity known as Phantasm, traveling over time through various cinematographic styles, from silent film to film Noir in the recent present, towards an inevitable existential effervescence. The poignant visual metaphors of mortality and the transitional power of the cinematographic image abound.
As THRThe critic put him in Cannes in a rave: “Reflect on the past, the present and possible of the seventh art at a time when many believe that it is in his horrors, Bi Gan has designed a film of time, to jump genres, in the big screen in which he revises the films he loves and then buries them a second time – hoping, perhaps, to resist the cinema in the process.”
BI received a “special prize” by Juliette Binoche’s jury in Cannes. Janus Films then took North American rights and plans to go out Dressage In the United States, theaters later this year. The film should also strike home screens in China in the coming months. The Hollywood Reporter Recently linked to BI on Zoom to torture him with direct questions about his artistic intentions.
What were the creative origins of this project?
Inspiration came to me after finishing Long day of travel at night. I have always been interested in the notion of human destiny, and this curiosity has evolved towards the creation of the fantasy, the monster of this new film.
How does your development process take place? The ideas behind your films are so closely linked to their cinematographic expression. Do you write in pictures? Do you end up improvising a lot throughout the cinema process?
I write everywhere. I spend time in different cities, but mainly Beijing and Guangzhou. As for the way I write – yes, I write in pictures. When I found the structure of this film, I divided it into six chapters, each representing one of the senses. The six chapters extend from the beginning of the 20th century to today, and everyone reflects a cinematographic style of their time. For example, when I wrote the first chapter, I considered a silent film in my mind. The core of the film concerns a cinema monster, a fantasy, which travels in time. Each chapter is centered on a different meaning – vision, sound, taste, smell, contact and mind – and each is filmed in a style that corresponds to a cinematographic era. The second is film Noir; The third shows the transformation of the monster; The fourth tells a specific story, and the fifth concerns the end of the world. The first chapter is silent and on sight, the second concerns sound, etc. While the fantasy loses each meaning, it approaches the disappearance of the world. At first, I did not think of fantasy like a cinema monster. But as I developed the story, I realized that it should be one. His journey through different styles of films made it inevitable. It is a bit of the way it has developed.
From left to right: Jue Huang, Shu Qi, Gan Bi, Jackson Yee and Gengxi Li during the first of “resurrection” canes. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole / Getty Images)
Your use of long sockets and hypnotic camera movement has become a signature. There is a proliferation of the cinematographic technique in it, but we have to wait a while before your unique atmosphere, Tarkovsky, fully settled.
At first, I did not plan to use long catches again. But in the chapter on touch, I returned to them – it was more natural, and the filming process took place more fluid as soon as I returned. But as I said, each chapter uses a different visual style adapted to the cinematic era it reflects, there are therefore many formal styles in it.
Your cinema often resists a clear interpretation. Do you think of your films as puzzles to be resolved or more like experiences to feel?
I don’t think there is a specific interpretation for my films. This is why I find interviews so difficult. I don’t know what I can add to make the film clearer. When Be blurred Released in 2015, I used to make jokes on my films during interviews – but I realized that I was misleading people. Ten years later, I think the film should talk about itself. What I want is to give an public path – I hope those they appreciate.
All right, I will tell you certain things that I felt by looking Resurrection… The world is broken, life is short. A feeling of painful mortality, but also wonders in ephemeral sensory experience and the mystery of existence – and that these feelings that are difficult to articulate are the essence of cinema. I can understand your spell, however. It seems so much less bright when you try to put it in words.
[Laughs.] Well, it’s a great interpretation. I will be very happy if other viewers feel something similar when they look at him.
Do you have a favorite film chapter?
I love them all because they must exist in sequence – they are interconnected. In the last chapter, the actress performs a ritual for the fantasy. It is similar to a traditional funeral rite in China. This chapter concerns the Spirit, and at that time, the fantasy lost all its other senses. While I was shooting, I wondered what the fantasy would become. In the end, I realized that he had to return to his original form – as a monster.
‘Resurrection’
With the kind permission of the Cannes Film Festival
How did you get to the decision to define the closing chapter – the spirit – within a melting cinema?
The theater is built from wax. Wax is an important motif in the film. Even in the chapter of the silent film, the boards were in wax. I originally wanted the last chapter to be science fiction, but that did not seem well. I chose a simpler and purer form. This is closer to how I write poetry – intuitively. For me, the fantasy is like a burning candle, so wax looked like the right material. I didn’t want to build a logical universe. I wanted the public, especially after five chapters, only felt the last.
I was curious to know where each segment has been shot – how much was built and how much was found.
The film was shot in Chongqing. It looks like my hometown of Kaili to a certain extent, but it offers more options, looks and shooting possibilities. Many locations have been found.
This year in Cannes, there was a documentary on David Lynch, and the film contained a lot of sequences to tell him about how Philadelphia in the late 1960s and 1970s To erase And all its sensitivity – this city has broken the industrial textures decaying. Your films seem to have a similar appreciation for material richness, decomposition and collapse of modern China.
Yes, I agree. Resurrection Traps from the beginning of the 20th century to today. The chapter on Touch – the fifth – was shot in a port. I chose this location specifically because it was broken and chaotic, and the neighboring station added to the atmosphere. It was ideal for a long plug.
It’s been seven years since Long day of travel at night. Was there a reason why this follow-up took so long to materialize?
After Long day trip, I took a break. I started writing Resurrection Quite quickly, and at first it was going to be a realistic story. But it has evolved over time. My creative process hasn’t changed much, but the world has done. And it made me feel that I had to finally make this film now. I hoped that it could bring a little comfort to the public.
Offer comfort – Is this the main way you hope this film will speak to the world?
Yes. It is a simple desire. I want to offer comfort.
Shu qi in the “Resurrection”
