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I had the distinct pleasure of re-watching Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer Day on a theatrical screen and continue to be amazed at how some of the contemporary films that seem to me to be the highest achievements of the art of film are woefully under appreciated or remain unknown to the vast majority of filmgoers. It remains a problem for cinephilia to know what to do about foreign films that are too long for theatrical distribution. How else to explain, for example, the failure of the American art-cinema circuit to properly release a film like Yang's 4-hour masterpiece. Another great film from the early 90s that very few people have seen is the long version of Stanley Kwan's ACTRESS aka CENTER STAGE, the meta-cinematic biopic of the legendary Ruan Ling-yu. This post is also motivated by my growing conviction that Lav Diaz is a major talent and that his Norte: The End of History is the millennium version of "the A Brighter Summer Day phenomena: a masterpiece few have seen mainly because its running time makes it unsuitable for theatrical distribution. I have managed an art cinema since 2009 and I tell you, my audience that fills the seats for Sage-femme or Lost in Paris is not interested in a Filipino 4-hour film, no matter how great I tell them it is. (They also lack the patience and sensibility to enjoy the 103 minutes of Horse Money, another major recent film).
Last edited by oscar jubis; 08-02-2017 at 08:52 AM.
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