#Vive l'Amour

[gael-garcia]

Vive l'amour (1994), dir. Tsai Ming-liang

[pierppasolini]

TSAI MING-LIANG

Vive L’Amour (1994) The River (1997) What Time Is It There? (2001) I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (2006) Days (2020)

[teethburied]

Vive L'Amour '愛情萬歲' (1994) dir. Tsai Ming-Liang

commission me for a gifset to help a palestinian child get medical care!

[cinematicjourney]

Vive L'Amour (1994) | dir. Tsai Ming-liang

[beingharsh]

Vive L'Amour (1994), dir. Tsai Ming-Liang / The Wayward Cloud (2005), dir. Tsai Ming-liang

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

top ten first watches of 2023?

I assume you mean films, right? Anyway, top 10 in no particular order.

Crash was a long time coming, but it took a podcast I used to listen to weekly to finally get to this Cronenberg classic. Bodily modifications? Violent eroticism? Body as a machine? Death & eroticism? It has it all and much more.

For those of you in your 20s and 30s (or even older) who feel alienated in the urban landscape, surrounded by crowds whilst feeling lonely and yearning for any type of human connection, this film is for you.

It's no secret that Brian de Palma wanted to be Hitchcock since he was a baby (I assume, but it sure does look so). You can see it in so many movies of his and Body Double is a perfect example. It even has the misogyny down to a T. But it's also really good and I'm a fan of voyeurism in cinema (from a critical position mostly). This is like Rear Window and Vertigo mashed together, but with 80s hair.

Now this was probably the highlight for me this year. Editor by day, sex worker by night, Kathleen Turner is a force in this film, alongside Anthony Perkins, the perverted priest. But if that is not enough to do the trick, the cinematography and that anal sex scene might do the trick 😉

Who knew Joan Crawford had such a big issue with wire hangers? Not me, but I sure found out in that crazy scene that has one of the most memorable meltdowns in cinema. Every shot of Faye Dunaway screams "I want that Oscar, god damn it!"

Fedora is the late 70s version of Sunset Boulevard and it has the same director. Not as good as that classic, but my god, the clothes! I'd watch it again just for the clothes, particularly that white suit Fedora is wearing in the garden of her villa when she receives that honorary Oscar.

I don't think there's any Paul Schrader film that I didn't like. It wouldn't make sense to call him underrated, but he's better than others from that 1970s gang (cough *de Palma* cough). In Hardcore, a father finds out his daughter went to Los Angeles and started acting in porn. He gets the confirmation when he actually sees her in one film in some shady movie theater. It's a weird and very uncomfortable scene and by comparison, not much, knowing how it will unfold later.

Of course Madonna is always in control of her image and what she allows to be seen or how she comes across. But that doesn't mean there's nothing genuine there, on the contrary. And the camera captures that. The backstage, the everyday conversations, the relationship with the dancers. Real people with real emotions and the more darker parts are allowed to slip in through the cracks. On top of that, it has footage from her tour in 90-91, a reminder of how Madonna is one of the best performers out there, making me wish there'd be a time machine so I can see her live during that time.

For anyone who is a fan of Sex and The City, how about a late 1930s version? Fast pace dialogue, outfits to die for and a cast made almost entirely of women.

The second Cronenberg on the 2023 list. I watched M. Butterfly after seeing Madame Butterfly at the opera. The film is slightly different and it deals with some of my favorite themes in fiction and media lately: gender identities, criticism of colonialism, orientalist fantasies that obscure realities and so much more.

[thewomanwithmissingfingers]

[m--bloop]

Vive L'amour (1994) dir. Tsai Ming-liang

[elpuppies]

after all these years

[mtonino]

Vive L'Amour (1994) Tsai Ming-liang

[diariopagao]

Vive L'Amour Tsai Ming-Liang

[gael-garcia]

Lee Kang-sheng, Vive l'amour (1994, Tsai Ming-liang)

[pierppasolini]

Vive L’Amour (1994) // dir. Tsai Ming-liang

[productiondesign]

My favorite scene in Vive L’Amour (1994) • Tsai Ming-liang

[kaydrencriesss]

open secrets...

等 終於到夜深

wait, i wait until the night falls

才能收集上次你留在飯店那紙巾

so i can collect the tissue you left at the hotel

夜更深 不敢送贈的吻

the night falls deeper, with a kiss i do not dare to give you

全憑我手中的偷拍照 營造著你那體溫

making your warmth visible with the picture i steathily caught of you

我 如果想一世人 和你過

and if i want to be together with you for my life

平時就要企後幾吋

i can only keep a distance

去幻想 別要摸

and only imagine myself touching you, never actually doing so

若有 一天公開 明目張膽的愛

and if there's one day i'll break this news to you

我怕會讓你 太意外

i'm afraid that'll make you too surprised

我的愛 只願 縮到最小 彷彿不存在

my love only wants to become as small as possible, as if it doesn't exist

就算 我最愛你 情願好好遮蓋

and even if i love you most, i'll hide it properly

化作了密碼 不公開

i'll make it into a password no one else knows

我一向 都慣自言自語 沒別人愛

and i always talk to myself, staying out of another's love

難道你發覺我志在 就會肯滿足這期待

will you ever fulfill my expectations just because you see my willpower in loving you?

如若我也有權愛 同樣我也有權不必被愛

if i have the right to love, i have the right to be unloved

揀 偏僻角落坐

i choose a quiet corner and take my seat

完全袒露就怕我 全部被你看情楚

all i fear is that you would see me clearly

待你好 只不過是幫我

to treat you well, is just to help myself

成為我愛演的一個我 其實未算太坎坷

become the "self" whom i like to act as, so it's not that hard

暗裡進行更自在

i'm more free if i love you in the dark

不相戀 誰會受害

no harm if the romance is not mutual

但願盡情地種

just let me keep sowing this seed

誰說花 需要開

who says this flower needs to bloom?

若我 一天公開 明目張膽的愛

and if there's one day i'll break this news to you

我怕會讓你 太意外

i'm afraid that'll make you too surprised

我的愛 只願 縮到最小 彷彿不存在

my love only wants to become as small as possible, as if it doesn't exist

就算 我最愛你 情願好好遮蓋

and even if i love you most, i'll hide it properly

我怕揭露了 不精彩

i'll hate it if it gets boring if i reveal it

拆穿了 總盼望誰在意 蜜月難再

and if i do open it up, i'll keep seeing if anyone pays mind and ruins our love

如若你發覺有我在

and if you do ever realise i've been here

就結束暗戀的時代

feel free to end my "crushing on you" era

無謂去博你憐愛

but there's no meaning in deliberately asking for your love

明白叫你太煩的 不是愛

i know what annoys you is not love

如若我也有權愛

if i have the right to love

同樣我也有權揀 怎樣愛

i can choose the way i want to love

happy early pride month, let's keep looking forward to a day where no love has to be a secret.

[beingharsh]

Vive L'Amour (1994), dir. Tsai Ming-Liang