To Live (dir. Zhang Yimou, 1994). To Live is an ambitious film. The narrative takes place over several decades of Chinese history, from the 1940s to the Cultural Revolution. The film, like life, flits effortlessly back and forth between comedy and tragedy, and its representation of family dynamics is both honest and deeply felt. However, the film's aesthetic does not allow the viewer to experience time passing, relying on events to tell the story instead of moments and bracketing time with title cards. In essence, it is like reading an atlas instead of driving down a road--a beautiful atlas, granted. B.
Hero (dir. Zhang Yimou, 2002). Hero is visually stunning--it is rare for modern color films to make the audience aware of the fact that they are watching a color film. However, the political message of unification and conformity is problematic at best, especially considering events in recent Chinese history involving its ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Zhang's eye, once sharply critical of his government (see especially Raise the Red Lanterns), has been dulled by too many years of working in the system. He has become a safe, middle of the road filmmaker with a still noteworthy sense of composition but little else to offer. C-.
Caché (dir. Michael Haneke, 2005). Haneke's use of negative space and static, empty composition calls to mind Michelangelo Antonioni. But whereas Antonioni's best work was essentially existential, Caché is political polemics disguised as an innocuous psychological thriller. The film deals with how the French have a hidden (hence the title) history of colonization (Algeria) that haunts their subconscious (note the dream sequence), but through their everyday lives, they build a facade of innocence and ignorance. Haneke is less successful when dealing with more fundamental questions about art, media, and privacy--perhaps because these questions were less important to him than his political statement. A-.
