On this episode of Cannesversations Patrick and Eliana discuss Tsai Ming-Liang's 2009 in-competition Cannes film, Visage (臉 | Face). Commissioned by the Louvre Museum and sprinkled with the ghosts of Nouvelle Vague and Truffaut's own muses, the Taiwanese director's own muse, Lee Kang Sheng, wades through halls of grief and desire while directing a film based on the incandescent and timeless biblical Salomé.

Through long durational takes, absurd situations, and a composed acumen of transience, Tsai's cinema captivates with just one face, leaving behind a body of work that lends itself in equal parts to theatrical and institutional dissemination.

Resources/Credits:

• Bordeleau, Erik. "The Care for Opacity – On Tsai Ming-Liang’s Conservative Filmic Gesture." NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies, 1 (2012), No. 2, p. 115–131. DOI: www.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15052.
• Bordeleau, Erik. "Soulful Sedentarity: Tsai Ming-Liang at Home at the
• Museum." Studies in European Cinema, 10:2-3, 179-194, DOI: 10.1386/seci.10.2-3.179_1.
• Hughes, Darren. "Tsai Ming-liang." Senses of Cinema, May 2003, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/tsai/.
• Lim, Song Hwee. Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness. University of Hawai'i Press, 2014.
• Tsai, B. 2017. The many faces of Tsai Ming-liang: Cinephilia, the French connection, and cinema in the gallery. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 13 (2): 141–160, https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2017.13.2.7
• Villiers, Nicholas de. Cruisy, Sleepy, Melancholy. Sexual Disorientation in the Films of Tsai Ming-liang. University of Minnesota Press, 2022.
• Visage - Press Kit Cannes.

Sound:

• EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive
• Intro Interview