Cinema
The Days
冬春的日子
Wang Xiaoshuai · 1993
Synopsis
Xiaodong and Xiaochun, a couple of painters from an art school in Beijing, stayed on there as tutors and sell a few canvases to scrape a living. They listen to jazz and rock records in their flat, and an off-screen voice accompanies them. Their relationship comes apart without either of them speaking of it. Xiaochun secretly prepares her departure for New York; when Xiaodong learns of it, he asks no questions.
Context
It is Wang Xiaoshuai's first film, shot in black and white for less than ten thousand dollars, at weekends, the crew having jobs during the week. The two roles are played by real painters and friends of the director, Liu Xiaodong and Yu Hong. The film bureau blacklisted it: it was never shown in China. Screened at Rotterdam and Berlin, it was bought by European television channels. Jonathan Rosenbaum compared it to American independent cinema of the sixties.
Who it is for
An eighty-minute film, without colour, almost without plot; shown in France at the Festival des 3 Continents in 1993.
Prizes and reception
It received the Golden Alexander at Thessaloniki in 1995 and appeared the same year on a list of great films by British public television.
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