Singing and dancing scenes tell without dialogue the story of a film maker - the alter ego of director Tsai Ming-liang - who wants to film the myth of Salomé in the Louvre. A story about seduction.
This spectacular new film by Tsai Ming-liang seems to bring his oeuvre together in a wonderful mass of film pleasure exploding with excitement and ideas. References to the film makers Truffaut and Rivette, to Western art - Face was commissioned by the Louvre - to the Bible and Buddhism and countless references to his own films turn Face into a neon sign for the everyday and heavenly obsessions of the maker. Burst water mains and erotic desires are the symbols for worlds that cannot restrain themselves and flood into each other in total surrender. Song and dance scenes tell without dialogue the story of a Taiwanese film maker who wants to film in the Louvre the myth of the seductive Salomé, but during the chaotic production he is afflicted by the illness of his mother. In essence, a story about seduction - by the arts, by bodies, by beauty.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
I have made two installations in two different exhibitions with Tsai Ming-liang, so he regards me as an installation man. When I came across him in Cannes, where Visage had its premiere, he said this film was basically an installation. So not primarily a film, but a visual artwork. Not everyone will have looked at it that way. If your film gets screened in the large auditorium at Cannes in front of an audience of 3000, then people expect a film. A good film or a bad film, but a film.
One handicap of regarding the film as a work of art is that there are so many references to cinema in it. The film was shot in Paris, commissioned by the Louvre - a detail that does help when approaching the film as a work of art - and refers frequently to French cinema; to that of François Truffaut in particular. The actor of Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Léaud, is present as an outspoken visage. And anyone who knows the oeuvre of Tsai also recognises many elements from his own work.
Film or work of art may not be really relevant, but to give you an idea, it's good to know that it is visual and built up in fragments. Maybe more like an exhibition and an installation: a very cinematographic exhibition.
GjZ