“Novelist and film”
Manager Hong Sang-soo
interpreters Lee Hye-young, Kim Min-hee, Ki Joo-bong
premiere 12/28/22
Punctuation ★★★★★
South Korean Hong Sang-soo shoots a large number of films, averaging two films a year. In front of the ‘novelist and his movie’ one feels like he’s finally been purged after making so many movies. In that he differs from Woody Allen, who until recently shot multiple films a year but showed signs of fatigue. On the contrary, ‘Novelist and film’ is a kind of enlightenment, as if every film in the past 50 years would achieve an absolute refinement of Sang-soo’s style, one after the other. Although it sounds a bit silly to say this, this is the absolute masterpiece of the prolific director.
The film brings together the usual gallery of characters associated with the world of cinema or literature: a novelist who wants to direct a film, an actress, a director, a film student, a poet, and the owner of a bookstore. And of course, it intensifies lots of conversations around the few bottles of alcohol that the characters extrovert. Nothing is fake or pedantic. In the beginning, when a young female novelist teaches sign language, everything flows with tremendous naturalness, marked by a sequence that is a true marvel of expression. The film reunites veteran Lee Hye-young with the director’s ordinary young actress Kim Min-hee. A cinematographic magic between the ages.