Pushing against the boundaries of conventional storytelling (Hollywood and otherwise), with overwhelmingly impressive visual style, prodigious director Bi Gan’s Resurrection represents an invigorating exploration of the endless possibilities of cinema as a unique medium.
Grade: A- (**** out of *****)
In his third feature, the Chinese auteur, who’s only 35, depicts a whole century in the history of international (including Chinese) cinema.
Resurrection is a cinephile’s delight, a vast, virtuosic fantasy, replete with spectral textures, reworking vintage noir motifs from such influential directors as Tarkovsky, Hou Hsaio-hsien, and, of course, Hitchcock.
in the feature (59 minutes), Long Day’s Journey into Night (2018), which Bi Gan’s exploratory interest in new forms and technology was manifest in his first two features, Kaili Blues (2016) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2019), in which he pulled off dazzling showmanship (like a magician), with tracking shots that were elaborately choreographed. The 2019 work (only 59 minute long) consisted of an unbroken take shot in 3D.
In the seven years since that film, Bi has made the exquisite miniature “A Short Story” (2022), which was commissioned by no other than a feline products company.
A wildly ambitious, spellbinding project, Resurrection expands the scale of his vision, resulting in a kaleidoscopic, reflexive sprawling epic, which some critics and viewers (not me) may find not only too long, but also too opaque in its narrative.
The new work is a deeply mysterious film whose enigma begins with the title (which can be interpreted in various ways) to the very last frame.
Its spectacular visual effects, may leave some audiences agnostic – and I myself wasn’t sure about the silent-movie type effects.
Starring a shape-shifting Jackson Yee and Shu Qi, it leads on an odyssey through a century’s worth of film history. Along the way, it riffs on “Blade Runner” and “Holy Motors”; it pays homage to the Lumière brothers, Murnau, and Méliès; and burrows deep into the genres that hold the keys to cinema’s enduring popularity and its capacity for renewal.
Bi’s changes of visual styles and narrative techniques are replete with nods to other films and filmmakers; it helps to know the source of his references, which mght limit the movie’s appeal to newcomers.
While the visuals are endlessly inventive, none of the vignettes have clear plots or recognizable characters.
The film’s longest take, which appears near the end, is a breathlessly conceived and astonishingly pulled-off sequence.
Coneptually, the coolest, most mysterious feature in Cannes Fest Offcial Competition this year, Resurrection operates on a dream logic, leaving interpretation up to the individual viewer.
What is beyond doubt, even for those who did not like it much (or walked out during the screening) is that Resurrection if work of real artistry and pure cinema.
