This Friday there are no premieres but there were on Wednesday: we highlight a drama about old age, another about religion, and the 4K restoration of an absolute classic of contemporary Asian cinema.
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We talk about The father, by French novelist and playwright Florian Zeller with two performances by Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman already playing in awards season, and by Saint maud, debut in the direction of the British director Rose Glass. Also of the fortunate reunion with the Wishing to love by Wong Kar-Wai, which distributor Avalon has produced for the film’s 20th anniversary.
The father: the confusing of getting old
Florian Zeller (2020)
Florian Zeller has become, in the last fifteen years, one of the most sought-after talents in Parisian theaters and one would say in all of Europe. Not in vain is he, along with Yasmina Reza, the French playwright most played outside of his country. In fact his first film is British: The father is a film adaptation of his own homonymous work premiered in 2012.
Eight years later Zeller directs his first feature film relying on a proud theatrical setting, and on two heavyweights of British cinema. Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are father and daughter in a drama in which they both shine, especially the former in a custom-made role that already plays out in awards season and can reach the Oscars with relative ease. The film, the Audience Award at the last edition of the San Sebastian Festival, discovers its letters early to dislocate the viewer with constant changes and alterations that make him empathize with the dementia of an older man who refuses to receive care.
Saint maud: religious guilt
Rose Glass (2019)
The British director Rose Glass is 30 years old and had five short films before making the leap to feature film. An experience that has made his debut one of the most praised in British cinema of recent times: Saint maud. A drama about religion, fanaticism and guilt that flees from easy labels even though its advertising campaign has decided to try to fit it as a horror film in use in our country.
Saint maud tells the story of a fervently believing young nurse who begins work caring for a woman with terminal cancer. The first wants to save the soul of the second, even when the latter does not want to be saved from anything. And the truth is that the language of terror runs throughout the film, but what it builds is hypnotic and disturbing because of how it explores the guilt of two women confronted with their beliefs and the limitations of their bodies. An irregular but surprisingly risky debut.
Wishing to love: eterno Wong Kar-Wai
Wong Kar-Wai (2000)
Wishing to love it’s a movie about love … no kisses. Because what is being talked about is precisely its absence. Of desire, postponement and impossibility. Twenty years ago Wong Kar-Wai marked, almost without intending to, a certain feeling of postmodernity in Asian cinema. A path that explored everyday life and its hells with a pinpoint and passionate formalism in this magnificent film.
Not content with re-releasing a restored 4K version of this modern classic, distributor Avalon has also launched a must-visit space for fans of the director. We talk about · Universo Wong Kar-Wai ·, an exhibition that recreates the world of the director’s films coinciding with the aforementioned re-release. It can be seen in the Renoir Princesa cinemas in Madrid (rooms 10 and 11, that is to say, those of the passage) and the Cinemes Boliche in Barcelona. In addition, both cinemas will show, throughout the month of January, another six titles from Kar-Wai’s filmography accompanied by presentations, meetings and the screening of content and pieces in scoop. You can find out more here.
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