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The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will screen the feature debuts of nine respected directors in "Restored Treasures: Passion and Tension in Directorial Debuts" from April to December at the HKFA Cinema. Five of the films will also be shown at the UA cinemas at iSquare in Tsim Sha Tsui and Cine Moko in Mong Kok from June to November.
The selected films have been hailed across decades and include works that illuminate the intellectual, cultural and emotional dynamics between the East and the West. Fiercely uncompromising and inventive, each filmmaker tapped into the truth of life through the powerful tool of cinema. Post-screening talks will be held for the HKFA sessions with speakers Ka Ming, Matthew Cheng, Thomas Shin, Long Tin, Herman Yau, Joyce Yang, Mary Wong, Stephen Shin and Wong Ain-ling.
Stanley Kubrick's "Fear and Desire" (1953) depicts soldiers being stranded in enemy territory, where the existential depths of fear lie not in reality but at heart. Composed of visually stylish montage sequences, the film offers a neat encapsulation of Kubrick's artistic vision and the anti-war rhetoric in his later works. Also on show is his first documentary short film in colour, "The Seafarers" (1953), which was sponsored by the Seafarers International Union.
Directed and scripted by John Cassavetes, the master of 1960s American independent cinema, "Shadows" (1959) portrays degenerate youths and complex racial issues in the glamorous New York of the late 1950s. Improvised dialogue by the cast, Charles Mingus' improvised jazz and Manhattan street scenes under the blurry and shaky lens all ooze with the city's spirit at the time.
After surviving the Jewish persecution in World War II, Roman Polanski attended the Polish National Film School in the 1950s. His first feature film "Knife in the Water" (1962) is unusually silent about the war-torn scars but ramps up sexual and class tensions within the intimate spaces of a yacht. The film won the International Federation of Film Critics award at the 1962 Venice Film Festival.
Werner Herzog offered less an anti-war critique than a contemplation on the mind in his works during the 1960s. "Signs of Life" (1968) follows German soldiers who guard an outpost on an isolated island in occupied Greece, where the fiery sun and mundaneness take a toll on the soul. The film won the Silver Bear at the 18th Berlin Film Festival.
An avant-garde classic starring and directed by Dennis Hopper, "Easy Rider" (1969) plunges into wounded fury and blind rage with jumpy lensing and improvised acting that give rise to fragmented narrations mirroring a drug-induced delusion.
Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos had a dedicated concern for the diaspora. "Reconstruction" (1970) features a dreadful landscape with travellers on a rocky rain-sodden road, where a husband returning home from far away barely escapes murder by his wife and her lover.
Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Scar" (1976) depicts the cultural landscape of a Polish town with elegantly realistic cinematography that provides a discourse on public contradictions and private conscience, showing a narrative device and stylistic touches different from those in his later works.
Hugh Hudson's "Chariots of Fire" (1981) features a run for faith in the 1924 Olympics that transcends sport and nation. The box-office hit reaped four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The reference film "The Last Race" (2016) is the unofficial sequel set in a Japanese internment camp in China during World War II, which tells of the later life of the Olympic champion.
Chen Kaige, a leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese cinema, showcased his aesthetic vision and lyrical choreography in his debut "Yellow Earth" (1984). Set in a barren plateau in northern Shaanxi, the film exposes the tragic oppression against peasants and won multiple international awards, including the Silver Leopard Prize at the 38th Locarno International Film Festival.
"Knife in the Water" and "The Scar" are in Polish with English subtitles, "Signs of Life" is in German with English subtitles and "Reconstruction" is in Greek with English subtitles. "The Last Race" is in English, Mandarin, Japanese and French with Chinese and English subtitles, and "Yellow Earth" is in Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. The remaining films are in English with no subtitles.
Tickets for screenings at the HKFA priced at $55 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For credit card telephone bookings, please call 2111 5999. A package discount for full-priced tickets is available for each purchase of four or more different film screenings at the HKFA. Tickets for screenings at UA cinemas priced at $90 will be available from March 9 at the UA Cinemas Box Office and via its website (www.uacinemas.com.hk). For programme enquiries, please call 2739 2139 or 2734 2900 or visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/fp/en_US/web/fpo/programmes/2011rt3/film.html.
Ends/Thursday, March 3, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:35
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