I created a double feature for myself on Monday. Film at Lincoln Center is running a Wong Kar Wai retrospective, and if you read my Mamiyaroid early-days piece on Wong Kar Wai Light, you know he has a particular pull on me. This time I chose two new-to-me films, Fallen Angels and a short, The Hand. I enjoyed Fallen Angels because I was tickled to be seeing a FILM in a THEATER, but the story was weak and it was shot in his earlier frenetic style, mixed in with Hong Kong shoot ‘em ups, which I find less appealing. If you wanted to give it a pithy description you could say it’s about an Emo Hit Man. Definitely minor Wong Kar Wai.
The Hand, while visually impeccable, seemed to be a bridge film between In the Mood for Love and 2046, but more explicitly erotic. Filmed in 2004, the same year as 2046, The Hand took the plight of Bai Ling, the lovelorn prostitute in 2046 and gave it to Miss Hua, played by the actress Gong Li. I do find it rewarding seeing an artist tease an idea, even if it’s not completely successful. In a way, Miss Hua’s tragedy was closer to the surface than Bai Ling’s, perhaps because Gong Li strikes me as a more nuanced actress, but by that turn, I didn’t feel the same allegiance toward her lovelorn tailor as I did for Tony Leung’s Chow Mo-Wan, perhaps because the actor who played the tailor didn’t look like he was capable of tenderness. There’s something cool and calculating to Chang Chen’s face, whereas Tony Leung conveys warmth with his dimples. Maybe it was the mustache. Anyway, judge for yourself.
I’m easing back into society and toward that end I am carrying my Fuji XPro2 wherever I go because if something happens, I don’t want to miss it (but I don’t necessarily want to spend a ton of money on film processing).
Yesterday, when I returned to the theater to watch The Hand, I saw a man leaning into the ticket booth to talk to the ticket taker. This was a lively conversation about film and the way the man leaned toward the plexi-glass separating the two, as if he wanted to break that barrier, I could tell he was easing back into society, as well. The Hand is only 56 minutes but even then this man leaped up in the middle, and then returned. At the end he sighed and said, “Well, GEE, that was sad.”
Here are this week’s street portraits. Lincoln Center Plaza has been draped in AstroTurf and where it was was once a hard concrete plaza, there is now ersatz soft grass and people lounged as if it was real, because right now, why not, isn’t this the New New York?
These seats aren’t comfortable for long and I think that’s the point, just the way the novelty is the point. You experience it for a moment and then it gets rolled up and carted away and Lincoln Center Plaza returns to its austere self.
Until next time…
Adalena
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-Adalena Kavanagh