Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung on why language doesn’t matter, and Terrence Malick’s ‘stupid’ films
New film Eternity, which divided critics with its sparse dialogue and lack of plot, uses the language of cinema, not mere words, says writer-director, who admits being influenced by Malick’s The New World – but not his recent work
There is a time for everything.
It’s a thought that may enter the head of anyone who has seen Eternity, Tran Anh Hung’s sixth feature film, or followed the Vietnamese-born, Paris-based filmmaker’s career since his Oscar-nominated feature debut, The Scent of Green Papaya (1993).
In the new film, four of French cinema’s greatest actresses (Audrey Tautou, Melanie Laurent, Berenice Bejo and Irene Jacob) play women from different generations of a huge aristocratic family. Essentially a series of unconnected vignettes charting key moments in the lives of its many characters, this plotless and often dialogue-free film makes use of its classical piano soundtrack and entrancing visuals to fashion a sensual meditation on human life.
Tran’s experimental effort has proved an acquired taste. While programmers at Europe’s top festivals decided against offering it a premiere slot before Eternity opened in France last September, those who have seen it have been similarly divided over the languorous yet unmistakably lyrical film.
“It depends on their own taste about things,” Tran says of his audiences. “If they really enjoy dialogue, then they should go to watch Woody Allen – but not my movies. Because what I’m doing is to try to bring emotions through the specific language of cinema, and that doesn’t need much dialogue.