SCREENING
In the Mood for Love
Ongoing
Introduced by journalist and film critic Eric Hynes
Dir. Wong Kar-wai. 2000, 98 mins. 35mm. With Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan. With Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town (1948) and Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) amongst its inspirations, In the Mood for Love evokes the Golden Age of Shanghai romantic melodrama while transcending it in its luscious and exacting formal design. Unfolding in languorous dream-time—despite all the clocks on the screen, the film’s chronology is sometimes traceable only by Maggie Cheung’s dazzling assortment of cheongsam—to the unforgettable score by Shigeru Umebayashi, In the Mood chronicles the intense friendship and sublimated desires between two mutually cuckolded neighbors in its tale of passion tragically thwarted. Winner of the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes for its elegant mise-en-scene—the Wong-Chris Doyle-William Chang trifecta assisted by long-time Hou Hsiao-hsien cinematographer Le Ping Bin—In the Mood for Love is one of cinema’s greatest odes to longing and desire.
Tickets for Friday evening screenings: $12 ($9 for senior citizens and students / free for Museum members) and includes admission to the Museum’s galleries, which are open until 8:00 p.m.
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