Pacific Film Archive Theater
2575 Bancroft Wy
510.642.0808
This event has passed.
- When
-
Friday Sep 26, 2008 (6:30pm)
- Where
-
- Price
-
$9.50
- Links
In the same way that Michelangelo Antonioni has been described as the quintessential modernist filmmaker of the early '60s, Sixth Generation Chinese director Jia Zhangke is now regarded as cinema's poet of globalization. Though Useless is a documentary, whereas his well-received Still Life (2004) and The World (2006) were fictional, Jia's long digital-video shots seem to erase the distinctions between the two. Useless opens in a cavernous clothing factory, breathtaking both for its dilapidated beauty and Dickensian working conditions. Jia's narration floats from this space to a profile of Ma Ke, a fashion designer. This portrait is pitched ambiguously, revealing some of Ma Ke's delusions as it simultaneously identifies with her artistic passion.
