“i miss watching movies with an audience.” i never much related to that longing until i began watching these virtual nyff screenings. it’s not so much the collective or varying reactions (screams, cries, sounds) to the moving images that i miss, but rather the overall atmosphere the presence of others inherently creates. every previous nyff screening i have attended has also been a solo journey. while in the moment, i never considered those as experience to be ones amongst hundreds of others, but i still remember them. how we breathed to the same rhythms, exited away towards our separate lives, and then looked forward to the next one. my apartment doesn’t carry that particular energy, even as it creates many different ones... it’s still not the one i’m seeking.
Tsai Ming-liang’s Days begins with a title card that reads, “The film is intentionally unsubtitled.” That’s somewhat intimidating, to say the least... but it’s also surprisingly liberating. The absence of translated dialogue removes the burden of narrative context, allowing the viewer to judge the movie on the merits of its imagery alone.
And what deeper themes can we discern from said images? Well... a lot of them are quite wet: the characters soak in bathtubs, observe thunderstorms, and meticulously wash vegetables. I must, however, refrain from attempting to dissect this aquatic motif any further, as imposing my own concrete meaning upon the material would be both reductive and counterproductive. I would rather emphasize just how beautifully crafted the visuals themselves are: the aforementioned storm, for example, is glimpsed only through the reflection of swaying trees; the camera instead focuses on the face of our protagonist as he quietly watches the raindrops patter against the windowpane.
Despite its glacial pace and minimalistic (borderline nonexistent) plot, Days is ultimately a stylistic triumph. Tsai doesn’t need words to tell a coherent story; he expresses himself solely through the language of cinema.
The Venice International Film Festival will share the presentation, with the Toronto, Telluride and New York Film Festivals, of Nomadland, the third feature film by director Chloé Zhao (Songs my Brothers Taught me, The Rider), starring and produced by Academy Award winner Frances McDormand. Zhao adapted Nomadland from journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book ‘Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century’.
Nomadland has been set to world premiere on September 11 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Venice Lido. It will also have a simultaneous screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, both of which will feature virtual introductions by Zhao and McDormand.
In a show of solidarity amongst the major fall festivals, Searchlight Pictures Chairmen Nancy Utley and Steve Gilula announced today that Zhao’s third feature has also been invited to Telluride and New York. After canceling its 47th edition due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Telluride will host a special “Telluride from Los Angeles” drive-in screening in Southern California later in the evening of September 11, featuring in-person appearances by Zhao and McDormand. Additionally, the New York Film Festival has set Nomadland as the Centerpiece Selection of its 58th edition, leading into a domestic theatrical release this fall, then subsequently rolling out internationally. Searchlight coordinated the screening events in tandem with programmers to salute the spirit of collaboration of this year’s fall fests.
