Fang Xiu Ying: Mrs. Fang
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Fang Xiu Ying: Mrs. Fang |
| Original title | 方 绣 英 (Fang Xiu Ying) |
| Country of production |
France , PR China , Germany |
| original language | Mandarin |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wang Bing |
| script | Wang Bing |
| production |
Pierre-Olivier Bardet , Yang Wang , Kong Lihong |
| camera | Wang Bing, Shan Xiaohui , Bihan Ding |
| cut | Wang Bing, Dominique Auvray |
| occupation | |
|
Than herself:
| |
Fang Xiu Ying Mrs. Fang (original title: Chinese 方绣英 , Pinyin Fang Xiu Ying , English-language festival title: Mrs. Fang ) is a documentary by Wang Bing from the year 2017 . The French - Chinese - German co-production accompanies the death of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's . The film first starts in 2015 and then in 2016 will document the last ten days of her life.
The film premiered on June 7, 2017 as part of the documenta 14 art exhibition in Kassel . In the same year, Wang's directorial work received the main prize at the Locarno Film Festival .
action
The film follows the 67-year-old Chinese farmer Fang Xiu Ying (Mrs. Fang, alternative spelling: "Fang Xiuying"). Born in Huzhou ( Fujian ) in 1948 , she suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the last eight years of her life . In 2015, the symptoms of the disease were so advanced that treatment in a nursing home was considered hopeless. In June 2016, treatment was stopped and Ms. Fang returned to die in her small riverside hometown in southeastern Zhejiang Province . In addition to Ms. Fang lying motionless on her deathbed with her mouth wide open, the film also looks at her relatives and neighbors who want to say goodbye to her.
History of origin
Fang Xiu Ying: Mrs. Fang is the 13th directorial work by Wang Bing, who is considered one of the most important Chinese filmmakers. The main ambition in his documentaries is that he wants to reflect on the “truth of life”, “to find the truth behind reality”. Due to the strict film censorship in his home country, which makes it difficult to finance independent films, as well as the high costs of making feature films, Wang focuses on making documentaries. According to him, these guarantee greater freedom when shooting. He portrayed mostly ordinary people: "Their lives are not a cause for concern on the part of traditional Chinese society: They live like ants in every corner of society, but we never hear their voices," said Wang.
In 2014, Wang traveled from Yunnan Province to the coastal area of Zhejiang Province, where he first met Ms. Fang's daughter, Zhen Xiaoying. She invited him to her mother's house in 2015: “[...] when I saw her mother, I was very moved by her appearance. Then I took the camera and filmed a portrait of her, ”said Wang. He then planned to make a documentary about Ms. Fang. When Wang found out in 2016 that her health had deteriorated, he rushed to visit Ms. Fang to film her until her death. He used a handy camera for filming: “I always work digitally, never with real film. I shot Mrs. Fang with an excellent lens, the lens of a real film camera. ”When asked why the people he accompanies accept the camera, Wang said that he never thinks about it and never thinks this is a problem : “I take the camera and then I just start. It's all about getting as close to the situation as possible. "
Originally, Wang had planned to only have Ms. Fang, her family, and neighbors appear in the film - since Ms. Fang could no longer speak, it was inevitable for the director to film her relatives and neighbors. When he reached Ms. Fang's village, he decided to film everyday life in the area, including scenes of the local fishermen working at night, which he cut together with pictures of the funeral. “In a village like this practically only the old live, the young have left the place [...] They are looking for a better life in the city. [...] “, said Wang about the rural exodus . Even if the Chinese economy is developed in the Zhejiang province, many lands have been given up. The region full of lakes and rivers threatens to become "sterile". “In view of the economic development in China, the pressure that people have to endure has also increased. There is a lot of competition, but because the system itself is inherently unstable, it does not guarantee anyone. [...] The family promises balance, especially in times when there is chaos outside, ”said Wang.
reception
The world premiere of Fang Xiu Ying: Mrs. Fang took place on June 7, 2017 in the Gloria Cinema in Kassel as part of documenta 14 , in which Wang Bing took part. The art exhibition also dedicated a retrospective to him with all of his previous documentaries.
The international premiere took place on August 9, 2017 at the 70th Locarno Festival , where the film was invited to the international competition (Concorso internazionale). Pascal Blum ( Tages-Anzeiger ) reviewed the film as a “careful observation of death” about “a piece of everyday life in China” that, despite “all the delicacy of the gaze”, not all viewers could have endured. “It is not necessarily the disadvantaged and persecuted who populate his [Wang's] cinema, basically it is more the normally abandoned and lost. His documentaries take us to the reverse of the promises of happiness and property of managed Chinese mega-capitalism. «Mrs. Fang »takes place in a rural area where those who have stayed behind don't have much left but to die," says Blum. He referred to the absence of young people in the film as well as the short running time of 90 minutes compared to earlier works and the cheap digital means used, which means that despite the award, it remains difficult for Wang to finance future documentaries.
Dominik Kamalzadeh ( Der Standard ) also noticed the short running time of the film, which he praised as an "intimate study". "Bing is less about her suffering, for which neither the camera nor the staging are looking for clear symptoms, than about the act of dying itself, which here, unlike in western countries, is carried out semi-publicly," says Kamalzadeh. Some viewers might perceive the scenes on their deathbed as “a lack of empathy”. Kamalzadeh, however, defended them: "Death is present here in a casual way".
Lukas Foerster ( the daily newspaper ) saw a haunting film that had "quite rightly" received the main prize and wondered why the portrayal of Mrs. Fang on her deathbed "didn't seem obscene or even intrusive for a moment". As a possible answer, he saw the consideration of the "social conditions of dying" in that Wang also included Mrs. Fang's relatives and documented their daily lives.
An OmU television broadcast under the title Mrs. Fang by the Franco-German broadcaster Arte took place on November 13, 2017 in the night program. At the end of November 2017, the film was shown in 14 films at the Berlin independent film festival Around the World .
Awards
Fang Xiu Ying: In 2017 Mrs. Fang took part in the international competition of the 70th Locarno Festival under the title Mrs. Fang , where the production under jury president Olivier Assayas was awarded the Golden Leopard . It was the first notable award for Wang Bing, who saw the award as the start of future projects.
Web links
- Profile at documenta14.de (English)
- Profile at pardo.ch (English)
- Fang Xiu Ying Mrs. Fang in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c "Fang Xiu Ying: Mrs. Fang - documenta 14". Accessed August 13, 2017. http://www.documenta14.de/en/calendar/22365/fang-xiu-ying-mrs-fang .
- ↑ a b "Mrs. Fang - Locarno Festival ”. Accessed August 13, 2017. https://pardo.ch/pardo/program/archive/2017/film.html?fid=948137&eid=70 .
- ↑ a b c d "The friendly chronicler of suffering - News Kultur: Film - tagesanzeiger.ch". Accessed August 13, 2017. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/kino/der-freund-chronist-des-leidens/story/29499058 .
- ^ "Wang Bing - documenta 14". Accessed August 13, 2017. http://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/7364/wang-bing .
- ↑ a b c d “Number Wang! - Locarno Festival ”. Accessed August 13, 2017. https://pardo.ch/pardo/pardo-live/today-at-festival/2017/day-11/wang-bing.html .
- ^ A b c "Wang: 'Locarno Is The Best To Show Art Films' - Locarno Festival". Accessed August 13, 2017. https://pardo.ch/pardo/pardo-live/today-at-festival/2017/day-7/Q-wang-bing.html .
- ↑ "And then I'll just start" - Interview with Carin Storch. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 16, 2017, p. 10.
- ↑ Kamalzadeh, Dominik: The pulling power of quiet moments . In: Der Standard , August 14, 2017, p. 13.
- ↑ Foerster, Lukas: Walk with Zombie . In: the daily newspaper , August 14, 2017, p. 15.
- ↑ Mrs. Fang . In: programm.ard.de (accessed on January 6, 2017).
- ↑ Mrs. Fang . In: 14films.de (accessed January 6, 2018).
- ^ "The Complete Palmarès 2017 - Locarno Festival". Accessed August 13, 2017. https://pardo.ch/pardo/pardo-live/today-at-festival/2017/day-11/palmares-2017.html .