17: Hong Sang-soo

27 March, 2016 - 20:00
Sphinx

 

Closing Night

reservation required for this screening
julie@courtisane.be

 

_______________

SELECTION 2016

A dialogue between new audiovisual works, older or rediscovered films and videos by artists and filmmakers who work in the expanded field of moving image practice.

Right Now, Wrong Then

Hong Sang-soo
,
KR
,
2015
,
DCP
,
121'

“Ham Chunsu (Jung Jaeyoung) is an art-film director who has come to Suwon for a screening of one of his movies. He meets Yoon Heejung (Kim Minhee), a fledgling artist. She’s never seen any of his films but knows he’s famous; he’d like to see her paintings and then go for sushi and soju.

Every word, every pause, every facial expression, and every movement is a negotiation between revelation and concealment: too far over the line for Chunsu and he’s suddenly a middle-aged man on the prowl who uses insights as tools of seduction; too far for Heejung and she’s suddenly acquiescing to a man who’s leaving the next day. So they walk the fine line all the way to a tough and mordantly funny end point, at which time... we begin again.

Hong Sang-soo achieves a maximum of layered nuance with a minimum of people, places, and incidents. Enriched by the naturalistic performances of the two leads, Hong’s elegant or eccentric experiments with narrative form, his characteristically subtle camerawork (with gracefully staged long takes accented by a slight pan or a sudden zoom) and unexpected bursts of humour, Right Now, Wrong Then is a delightful addition to Hong’s cinematic catalogue.” (NYFF & Giovanna Fulvi)