2017 Hong Kong International Film Festival’s full programme line-up announced
Masterclasses by Olivier Assayas and Agnieszka Holland, new films by Jim Jarmusch, Yoji Yamada and Todd Solondz, foreign language Oscar winner The Salesman, free screenings of 20 post-1997 Hong Kong films among highlights
Screenings of foreign language Oscar winner The Salesman and new films by the likes of Jeff Nichols, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Solondz and Yoji Yamada, an Edward Yang retrospective and free screenings of 20 post-1997 Hong Kong films are among the highlights in the full programme of the 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), announced today.
As previously reported, the festival will open on April 11 with the world premiere of Love Off the Cuff , the third instalment in Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung’s romantic comedy series after 2010’s Love in a Puff and 2012’s Love in the Buff.
The festival will close on April 25 with the high-school horror comedy mon mon mon Monsters, the second directorial effort by prolific Taiwanese author Giddens Ko (2011’s You are the Apple of My Eye). Ko has previously acted as producer and screenwriter for various adaptations of his books, including Café. Waiting. Love (2014) and last year’s The Tenants Downstairs .
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Edward Yang, and the HKIFF will screen all seven films by the great Taiwanese filmmaker in a special retrospective programme, “Edward Yang, 10-year Commemoration”. Two of Yang’s closest collaboraters, screenwriter Hsiao Yeh and Yang’s widow, Kaili Peng, will meet the audience respectively after the screenings of A Brighter Summer Day (April 16) and A One and a Two (April 13).
The festival continues to offer Hong Kong film-goers their best opportunity to sample a representative selection of recent titles from world cinema. Included in its Gala Presentation sidebar are new films by Joachim Lafosse (After Love), Pablo Larraín (Neruda), Lone Scherfig (Their Finest), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals) and Todd Solondz (Wiener-Dog).
Apart from screenings of four Robert Bresson films that will be followed by an extended retrospective programme from May to July, the restored classics this year include Fritz Lang’s Destiny (1921), Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) and Jacques Rivette’s 13-hour classic Out 1 (screening over two days on April 29 and 30), among others.
A treat for Hong Kong cinema fans is Paradigm Shift: Post-97 Hong Kong Cinema, a programme of free screenings of 20 of the most notable Hong Kong films released since the handover. Don’t miss the chance to see Fruit Chan’s indie gem Made in Hong Kong (1997), modern classic Infernal Affairs (2002) and Johnnie To’s improbably relevant gangster epic Election (2005) on the big screen with an enthusiastic crowd.
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