The Cinematheque

Vancouver Premieres

“A gently gorgeous delight … By far the most visually beautiful of [Hong’s] non-monochrome films.”

Thomas Flew, Sight and Sound

in water
물안에서
South Korea 2023
Hong Sangsoo
61 min. DCP

Cinematheque staple Hong Sangsoo continues to find inspired new ways of articulating the life of an artist onscreen. Here, in perhaps his most aesthetically off-kilter work, the restless auteur tells a characteristically modest and, at only a whisper past an hour, succinct story of three friends preparing to shoot a picture together on Jeju Island. Hong regular Shin Seokho plays the film-within-a-film’s novice director, an actor seeking ​“honour” in a self-made project. Scouting beachside locations with his lead and cinematographer, he forages for inspiration for his not-yet-written movie. In its relaxed pace, reflexive structure, and understated implications, in water could be considered well-trodden Hong territory. Yet the film’s unorthodox visual conceit complicates easy unpacking: shot almost entirely out of focus, its pillowy images resemble impressionistic painting, evaporating memories, or, as the title lets on, a world seen underwater. Precisely why Hong employs this device is up to each viewer to discover for themself.

In Korean with English subtitles

“A fearless, genuine experiment.” Nicolas Rapold, Artforum

preceded by

The Daughters of Fire
(As Filhas do Fogo)
Portugal 2023
Pedro Costa
9 min. DCP

A collaboration with Os Músicos do Tejo, a Portuguese early music ensemble, Pedro Costa’s ravishing nine-minute short is a musical triptych depicting three Cape Verdean sisters—singers Alice Costa, Karyna Gomes, and Elizabeth Pinard—lamenting their fates in the aftermath of Pico do Fogo’s volcanic eruption.

In Portuguese with English subtitles

“In Daughters of Fire, Costa pushes even further towards an obsidian palette as he crafts three painterly portraits of exquisite and haunting beauty.” Giovanni Marchini Camia, Cinema Scope