In this course-seminary, we will explore the cinematic work of Wong Kar-wai. Born in Shanghai in 1958, he emigrates with his parents to Hong Kong in 1963. He studies drawing and photography at the Polytechnic School before working for the television network HKTVB. Inspired by Hollywood and European cinema, he writes screenplays for commercial films in the 1980s. Influenced by John Woo, master of gangster films, he makes his first feature-length film As Tears Go By in 1988. His obsession with time is already evident in his second feature-length film, Nos Années Sauvages (1990). Followed by Les Cendres du Temps (1994), where he deconstructs the wu xia film genre with his principal cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Chungking Express (1994), the internationally acclaimed film, Les Anges Déchus (1995), Happy Together (1997), a queer film shot in Argentina, and the global success of In the Mood for Love (2000), which precedes slightly the peak of his work 2046 (2004). My Blueberry Nights (2007) and The Grandmaster (2013) return to fundamental elements of his filmography.
As a cinematic mind, Wong Kar-wai is known for his practice of improvisation, modifying the point of view and plot during filming. He meticulously refines his lighting compositions, using multiple angles of shot that embrace all possible distortions. He places great emphasis on post-production, during which he alters the shooting speeds, accelerating or decelerating the images. It is this true stylist of image and time that we would like to dedicate our analyses to over the course of a semester.