Ranking among the iconic images of international cinema is the euphoric sprint across the footbridge in Francois Truffaut’s Jules et Jim. Shot straight-on using a handheld camera that trembles in tune with their every stride, the moment captured the dynamic between Jules, Jim, and Katherine and sang the spontaneous spirit of the Nouvelle Vague. Singapore filmmaker Anthony Chen cites Truffaut … Read More
Anthony Chen’s The Breaking Ice is a hauntingly beautiful film illustrating the relationship between three young adults who navigate their personal struggles through an unexpected, briskly blooming friendship. One is held down by the trauma of losing their lifelong dream; Another held back by their lack of education and an inability to improve their everyday experience; The other successful in … Read More
Life is unpredictable; we can never truly know who will waltz into our lives next, and how they might change the trajectory of it forever. In Anthony Chen’s quiet and cold drama, The Breaking Ice, he observes three young people as they merge into each other’s lives and question childhood memories, present relationships, and the possibilities of the future. Though … Read More
The Breaking Ice, directed by Anthony Chen, demonstrates the piercing realities of getting older. Each character must face the painful reality of life. The protagonist, played by Liu Haoran, worked hard his entire life to become successful until he realized that success was meaningless to him. Nana, played by Zhou Dongyu, dreamed of being an Olympian until she was injured. … Read More
In the freezing, quiet city of Yanji, writer and director Anthony Chen creates a bleak universe for Nana, Haofeng, and Xiao – the film’s three main characters who, each facing feelings of isolation and displacement from the world, form a bond in an attempt to melt their hardened, icy exteriors. Chen’s camerawork is perceptive, feeling like a quiet observer happening … Read More
The Breaking Ice (2023) by Anthony Chen is a remarkable movie that can leave a deep impression and endless imagination for audiences. It’s hard for me to simply define it as a common romantic movie, instead, it skillfully illustrates the story of three independent, young, but also insignificant and confused individuals finding a new way out on the “border” of … Read More
At first glance, one would be tempted to call Kleber Mendonça Filho’s documentary Pictures of Ghosts the director’s love letter to his hometown Recife, Brazil’s fourth largest city and the home of the underappreciated Recife Carnaval. Midway through the film, one would be tempted to call it a love letter to cinema, but it would feel incomplete. The delicate potency … Read More
Pictures of Ghosts offers an exploration of the evolving urban landscape of Recife, Brazil, through the lens of Kleber Filho’s archival footage, personal narrative, and reflection on the transformation of his hometown. The narrative begins within the confines of Filho’s childhood apartment, where he ventured into the world of filmmaking, experimenting with various formats like VHS and Super-8. Notably, this … Read More
The archive is as much a site of invention and improvisation as of the preservation of time. In the documentary Pictures of Ghosts, Kleber Mendonça Filho undertakes an introspective archival exercise by engaging with a life-long repository of home videos, photographs, and footage from films he shot during his formative years. He structures a porous tripartite narrative reflecting his attachments … Read More
While the film has multiple “Best Documentary” wins at other film festivals this year, Pictures of Ghosts can best be described as a personal love letter that simultaneously spans numerous generations and remains timeless. Acclaimed director Kleber Mendonça Filho set out to tell the story of the Brazilian city he grew up in, Recife, by piecing together a 60+ year-old … Read More