Drive My Car (2021)
(Doraibu mai kâ)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 179m
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim
Synopsis:
Two years after his wife's sudden demise, an actor-director is invited to helm a theatrical workshop on Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. There he divides his free time between a healing acquaintance with the driver the festival organisers have imposed on him, and the more problematic relationship with his leading man, who was formerly one of his wife's lovers.
Review:
With its 45 minute pre-credit prologue, a thoroughgoing dissection of the rehearsal process, and a lengthy car journey to pack in before its sign language performance of the closing moments of Uncle Vanya, Hamaguchi's film is nothing if not ambitious. Not the first to use the Chekhov play to adumbrate the personal lives of the actors (one thinks of Louis Malle), it also comes quickly upon Farhadi's The Salesman, and the parallels between life and art are perhaps too boldly underscored. Nevertheless, it is a film that generously allots an array of characters the space in which to breathe, and though it is slow it is never dull, having that Ozu-like ability to convey depth of feeling in the most subtle ways.
(Doraibu mai kâ)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 179m
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim
Synopsis:
Two years after his wife's sudden demise, an actor-director is invited to helm a theatrical workshop on Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. There he divides his free time between a healing acquaintance with the driver the festival organisers have imposed on him, and the more problematic relationship with his leading man, who was formerly one of his wife's lovers.
Review:
With its 45 minute pre-credit prologue, a thoroughgoing dissection of the rehearsal process, and a lengthy car journey to pack in before its sign language performance of the closing moments of Uncle Vanya, Hamaguchi's film is nothing if not ambitious. Not the first to use the Chekhov play to adumbrate the personal lives of the actors (one thinks of Louis Malle), it also comes quickly upon Farhadi's The Salesman, and the parallels between life and art are perhaps too boldly underscored. Nevertheless, it is a film that generously allots an array of characters the space in which to breathe, and though it is slow it is never dull, having that Ozu-like ability to convey depth of feeling in the most subtle ways.
(Doraibu mai kâ)
Country: JAP
Technical: col 179m
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Cast: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Park Yu-rim
Synopsis:
Two years after his wife's sudden demise, an actor-director is invited to helm a theatrical workshop on Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. There he divides his free time between a healing acquaintance with the driver the festival organisers have imposed on him, and the more problematic relationship with his leading man, who was formerly one of his wife's lovers.
Review:
With its 45 minute pre-credit prologue, a thoroughgoing dissection of the rehearsal process, and a lengthy car journey to pack in before its sign language performance of the closing moments of Uncle Vanya, Hamaguchi's film is nothing if not ambitious. Not the first to use the Chekhov play to adumbrate the personal lives of the actors (one thinks of Louis Malle), it also comes quickly upon Farhadi's The Salesman, and the parallels between life and art are perhaps too boldly underscored. Nevertheless, it is a film that generously allots an array of characters the space in which to breathe, and though it is slow it is never dull, having that Ozu-like ability to convey depth of feeling in the most subtle ways.