Page 592 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

World C nema | 1

Directors of notable films sometimes draw on the talents and spontaneity of
the actors they work with to move the story forward, and hone the dialogue. Full
of passion, fantasy and an ironic twist, Speaking Parts (1989) is directed by Atom
Egoyan, who first created memorable characters as a playwright. Egoyan and the
film’s driving force, actress Arsinée Khanjian who plays Lisa, are both members
of the Armenian diaspora who met during the thriving Toronto theater scene of
the 1980s. They reveal a collaboration that results in a rare conceptual film about
the nature of human desire and its interaction with the power of the image,
a process fraught with certain dangers.
Some of the best examples of world cinema demonstrate a sensibility that
foregrounds the profoundly social nature of the human condition. Stories that
explore the longings of the human heart and the passions that bind one to an-
other are tied to places and their histories, demonstrating that what it means
to be human is not shaped in a void. As characters move through history, they
are caught within declining empires, economic dislocations, repressive govern-
ments, class conflict, dangerous urban environments, or the beauty, mystery,
and danger of the natural world.

hong kong
It was not surprising when the transfer of Hong Kong to mainland China be-
came the setting for a film. The troubling, unfulfilled desire depicted in Chinese
Box (1997), a film by director Wayne Wang, stars Maggie Cheung and Jeremy
Irons, and expresses the ambivalence the director felt toward the changeover.
Best known for his films about San Francisco’s Chinatown, Wang returned to
his former homeland to give narrative and visual treatment to the historic mo-
ment. Wang and his films illustrate the movement of directors across national
borders, often resulting in works of keen cultural observations and hybrid
forms.
In the 1980s and 1990s the Hong Kong film movement flourished. J. Hober-
man of The Village Voice noted that at its height, colonial Hong Kong incubated
a “sensationally florid” film culture. One of its most exciting directors, Wong
Kar Wai, made Fallen Angels (1995) and Chungking Express (1994), films that
feature the street antics of ex-cons and create memorable portraits of honky-
tonk Hong Kong. When Wong Kar Wai directed his romantic mystery In the
Mood for Love (2000), the production took an unexpected turn when his long-
time cameraman could not work on the film. Having to frame his own shots
in the absence of his cinematographer, Wai took his own work to another level
style and filmic content.

worLD wars
A classic genre, the war film has been made around the world by different
directors, about past wars remembered, with interpretations that invariably in-
fluence the present. They sometimes tell unexpected narratives about humanity
and the quest for peace.