to live (huozhe) - zhang yimou - 1994

Zhang Yimou, often regarded as China's leading contemporary filmmaker, directed this drama chronicling the ebb and flow of one family's fortunes, set against the backdrop of China's tumultuous history between the 1940s and the 1970s. Fugui (Ge You) is the father of a once-wealthy family whose addiction to gambling and chronic bad luck causes him to lose his home in a game of dice with Long'er (Ni Dabong).

Fugui's wife Jiazhen (Gong Li) abandons him, and he finds himself working as a peddler, until the man who now owns his home gives him a pair of shadow puppets. Fugui learns the art of puppetry and travels as a performer; while on the road, he is arrested by Nationalist forces, until he is liberated by advancing Red Army factions, and he comes him home to his wife and children as they adapt to the nation's new leadership.

While once a lazy spendthrift, Fugui vows to change his ways, and he struggles to become a better worker and citizen. But Fugui and his family soon realize that there is adversity waiting for them around every corner, and the onset of the Cultural Revolution makes it clear that China's new regime can be as corrupt and callous as the old order.

While a Grand Prize winner at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and recipient of the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 1995 BAFTA Awards, Huozhe did not fare well in its homeland. Chinese censors objected to the film's commentary about political abuses in China's past, as well as Zhang Yimou's attempts to present the film at several international festivals. As punishment, he was forced to write a formal apology and was not allowed to make another film for two years.

last year at marienbad - alain resnais - 1961

One of the most enigmatic and distinctive films ever made, Last Year At Marienbad (L’Année Dernière à Marienbad) is an astounding collaboration between director Alain Resnais (Night and Fog) and leading French novelist Alain Robbe-Grille. n a vast and opulent hotel, an unnamed man (Giorgio Albertazzi) attempts to persuade a similarly unnamed married woman (Delphine Seyrig) that they have not only met before, but that they were also romantically involved and had planned to elope together. The woman recalls no such encounter and so begins a sensual and philosophical examination into the uncertainty of truth.

Strikingly composed and beautifully shot in Cinemascope by Sacha Vierny, Last Year at Marienbad represents a key moment in the development of cinematic modernism. Writer Alain Robbe-Grillet’s screenplay merges chronology to radically blur the boundaries of reality and fantasy and he was nominated for an Oscar for his work on this film. A seductive and utterly fascinating cinematic puzzle, Last Year in Marienbad has been astonishing audiences since its release in 1961.