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      Face

      2009 2h 18m Comedy Drama List
      71% 7 Reviews Tomatometer 50% 100+ Ratings Audience Score While shooting his next movie in France, a Taiwanese filmmaker (Kang-sheng Lee) learns about the death of his mother (Yi-Ching Lu). Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (7) Critics Reviews
      Devika Girish New York Times The film unfolds as a series of tableaux whose preciousness is tempered by hints of perversity: lust, incest, slapstick and, above all, the strange labor of filmmaking. Oct 20, 2022 Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader Tsai Ming-Liang pays vague tribute to Francois Truffaut throughout this slow, self-indulgent, but often shockingly beautiful art film. Feb 2, 2010 Full Review Ard Vijn ScreenAnarchy Slow, ponderous and often bewildering, it's hard to recommend "Visage" to people other than seasoned film students or Tsai Ming-Liang followers. Having said that, the film is a feast if you belong in either of those two categories. Jan 15, 2020 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Too obscure for my taste. Rated: B- Apr 8, 2013 Full Review Simon Foster sbs.com.au Impenetrable and confounding for all but the most acute cinephiles. Aug 9, 2010 Full Review Tim Brayton Antagony & Ecstasy To those of use who know and love his movies, it has a pervasive sense of the familiar... not at all revelatory or exciting. It's a fine movie, if you like this sort of thing (most people don't). Rated: 8/10 Oct 18, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member I don't know how autobiographical this film is, only that Tsai makes it as some sort of self-reflexive experiment (which doesn't actually suit him) that probes into his mind and creative process at the expense of any clear structure but has some moments of poetic beauty. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Jean-Pierre Léaud + Jeanne Moreau + Fanny Ardant + Mathieu Amalric + Nathalie Baye... in sequences of irrelevant & meaningless scenes. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Tsai Ming Liang movie but with French actors. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Face (also known as Visage for the French translation) would have significantly benefited from a Q & A session, which was cancelled because the director could not make it to Toronto. Speaking to him would have answered the two meaningful questions in the minds of audience members: âWhat just happened?â? and âDid they ever recapture that escaped stag?â? This film should not have been selected for the festival and should not have been green lit by a studio for numerous reasons. Firstly, the film wastes excellent cinematography. Close shots where characters were reflected in mirrors or windows, long fixed shots that showed a character moving down the stairs or through a hallway, and shots that showed a character questioning themselves as the world, for example a highway interchange or the traffic along le Jardin des Tuileries, carries on around them. These camera angles were visually stunning and wasted in a film that will not get significant distribution anywhere. Secondly, the director hammers the audience over the head with overt symbolism. Characters duct tape mirrors, chant rhymically in a cemetery, and share a bizarre love scene in a meat locker. The first scene depicts a failed meeting with the director and his producer in a coffee shop. They never connect, just as the film never connects with its goal to explore how one discovers their own identity. There is also an attempt to break down the fourth wall and make Face self-referential. The main character is a Taiwanese director attempting to make a film in Paris. I think that this proved to be a distraction from the main themes of the film. Lastly, the screenplay is poor. Some images are absurd, such as a kitchen sink accident reminiscent of the Welch House Flood of â(TM)99 or opera characters whose opulent costumes cannot fit in the tight spaces of the real world. I think that the point is that we are always struggling through life, trying to find ourselves. People may handle obstacles differently, perhaps by trying to hide or attempting to deny the truth, but they musts move forward regardless. In the end, humanity is driven by the passions that provide the most significant moments in life. But I really have no idea. Maybe the director simply wanted to tell the world that canned tomatoes and plastic wrap are not used nearly enough as sexual devices. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Without a doubt this is Tsai Ming-Liang's most personal film. It's an extremely challenging, fragmented film that is beautifully moving in parts, hysterical in others, and just layered with subtext. In all honesty I probably should have done a little more research on 'Salome' as I am sure there is plenty of things I am missing when viewing this endlessly fascinating and challenging film. Unlike most of his other works that seem to follow some type of narrative this film is far more abstract and fragmented. Characters are presented with barely any context, as if they are just there to react and be shown as they live and make decisions without anything really being explained. I don't know at all if this is what Tsai Ming-Liang was going for but it's almost as if he views this fractured, sporadic landscape as life itself, where each character seems is in their own little world with their own problems and situations with human interaction almost feeling like a burden. Visually the film is pretty much a masterpiece. The sets and visual design abstractly exudes mood and feelings, with some truly breath-taking visuals that really, at times, blew me away. 'Visage' is a film that provides more questions than answers and where the "plot" doesn't matter. It's all endlessly fascinating and I really appreciate these types of films but this one just didn't draw me in emotionally as much as some of his other work. The one exception may be the parts having to do with his mother's death and their relationship, which was a beautiful site to behold. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member dejen lo pongo de manera minimalista: GUAAAAAAAT DE FOOOOOOOOOOOC!!!! 2 horas! 2 horas de ru vida pedidad en lo que dura la pelicula . 2 hrs que me habia ahorrado por no fumar se fueron a la basura! bueno, no fueron 2, fueron como 38 min porque LITERAL, la vi en fastForward>> de 4x para leer el poco dialogo que tenia la movie!! CONSEJO: evitala! a menos que le quieras ver las chichis a Laetita Casta (cosa que no es novedad ya que sale asi en cualquiera de cosmopolitan o en Fama) ARTY super FARTSY!!! pelicuals como esta te hacen apreciar el cine de Peter Greenaway! Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis While shooting his next movie in France, a Taiwanese filmmaker (Kang-sheng Lee) learns about the death of his mother (Yi-Ching Lu).
      Director
      Ming-liang Tsai
      Producer
      Wouter Barendrecht
      Screenwriter
      Ming-liang Tsai
      Genre
      Comedy, Drama
      Original Language
      French (Canada)
      Runtime
      2h 18m