The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, December 7-13
Days of Being Wild (1990)
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
Even more than most Wong films, Days of Being Wild is a film of languor. With its scattered characters, near-absence of narrative, and staccato rhythm (long stretches of hushed conversation punctuated by violent outbursts), the movie achingly embodies a particular state of ennui in 1960s Hong Kong, as men and women listlessly weave in and out of relationships. Wong weaves a tangled, mesmerizing web out of this mood, assisted by the astonishing focus of cinematographer Christopher Doyle on the faces of these people, an all-star cast including Maggie Cheung, Leslie Cheung, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, and an unforgettably enigmatic cameo by Tony Leung. Ryan Swen (December 10, 7:45pm, 10pm at Metrograph’s Maggie Cheung series)
