Marie
Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 143
Location: North Carolina, USA
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 Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:28 am Post subject: Why Lust, Caution may have won the Golden Lion |
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| Quote: | Chris Vognar cvognar@dallasnews.com
TORONTO – The idea of neatly summing up an event as unwieldy as the Toronto International Film Festival – 349 features from spots spanning the globe – is rather absurd. But in the course of one week and about 30 films consumed (if not entirely digested), certain trains of thought tend to chug into focus. Here's one worth celebrating: The state of movie acting has rarely been better.
You'll be hearing a lot of these names in the coming months; Toronto is, after all, the ridiculously early start of the Oscar hype season, a feeding frenzy that we'll be feeding along with movie pundits everywhere. But put the trinket talk aside for the moment and take time to consider some of the performances you have to look forward to on their own merits...
Silence is also golden in Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's erotic World War II spy thriller that took home the top prize at Venice. Tang Wei's resistance agent and Tony Leung's collaborationist have a tense relationship, largely because the former has been assigned to assassinate the latter. They communicate through some of the most intense and wrenching sex scenes the screen has ever seen. Don't expect titters in the theater; this is powerful stuff that speaks directly to the characters' high-stakes passion and inevitable tragedy. Comparisons to Last Tango in Paris and In the Realm of the Senses are not unwarranted.
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Wow, comparison to In the Realm of the Senses and Last Tango in Paris! That means that what Ang Lee did with the sex scenes was really groundbreaking and new. I think that might explain why this film won the Golden Lion. I remember the uproar back in the 70s when both Last Tango and In the Realm of the Senses were released. Many theaters would not play them because they were considered "pornography", yet today they are considered pictures that represent major turning points in the treatment of sexuality on screen. This is very august company for Lust, Caution to keep. A penetrating treatment of human sexuality has been missing for far too long from film. How interesting that it was a shy Taiwanese director with a stable family life who was brave enough to journey deep inside of this topic, even when the trip proved almost too much for him to bear. The report of Ang Lee breaking down on set and Tony having to comfort him is amazing. This sort of thing just doesn't happen in Asia (nor, I bet, in Hollywood). That just goes to show how powerful and frightening the experience was for Ang Lee, and how courageous he is as an artist. His family is also to be commended for supporting him in this work, and of course I cannot say enough about Tony and Wei for being brave enough to go wherever Ang Lee asked them to go as actors. I am sure they had more than a few moments during shooting when they wondered if they could really do what the director was asking them to do. To be fearless, even in the face of doubt, that is a very powerful thing.
Marie |
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