This week I’m seeing The Lovers on the Bridge at IFC! I’m going to the Tuesday 7:05pm showing. The movie is about two hours long and should get out around 9:20. My membership has a +1 discount so the first person to say they want to join gets a discounted ticket :)

This film is in French with English subtitles.

Normally I try to write my own summary but the IFC writers really did a bang-up job with this one. Although it pains me to do so, I will paste their description here:

“Leos Carax’s delirious saga of l’amour fou burns with an intoxicating stylistic freedom as it traces the highs and lows of the passionate relationship that develops between a homeless artist (Juliette Binoche) who is losing her sight and a troubled, alcoholic street performer (Denis Lavant) living on Paris’s famed Pont-Neuf bridge. Capturing their romantic abandon with a giddy expressionist energy—especially in a wild dance sequence set against an explosion of fireworks— this whirlwind love story is an exhilarating journey through a relationship that confirmed Carax’s status as one of the leading lights of the post–New Wave French cinema.”

I’m sold.

The last film I saw as part of this newsletter was A Brighter Summer Day. In case you do not recall, that was the four hour film that I definitely knew the length of before I bought tickets.

It was excellent.

Without giving any spoilers that you wouldn’t see in a film summary, the film closely follows the lives of several children and their families in 1960’s Taiwan during the events surrounding the first juvenile homicide under the new government. Many of the characters had previously fled Shanghai. There are lots of deep underlying currents that I know very little about and it was really cool getting a sense for some of the atmosphere of the period.

A wonderful side effect of the length and intimacy was that, by the end, I really felt connected with all the characters. I had taken the time to be with them through such an intense period that as (vague spoilers) certain events unfolded I felt like I had enough context to feel the heartbreak that I am sure the director intended. Although I will never understand fully, I felt that I’d been allowed a glimpse into a powerful moment in a place with a history very different from my own, and the director had taken the time to help me understand as best they could. In that way, the film was a true gift.