“The cumulative impression is of figures being lightly traced in the sand only to be inevitably washed away, intentionally ephemeral and quite charming for it.”

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

What started out as an informal dinner in Seoul between mutual admirers Hong Sangsoo and Isabelle Huppert swiftly parlayed into a film project, with the legendary French star playing three versions of a woman named Anne. A paper-thin framing device sets up the tripartite picture, in which a film student, hiding from debt collectors with her mom, scribbles down movie scenarios set at the seaside guesthouse they’re holed up in. Anne, unvaryingly, is a comically irresistible Frenchwoman, visiting Mohang Beach to: reconnect with a flirtatious filmmaker friend (Kwon Haehyo); consummate an affair with an overly paranoid director (Moon Sungkeun); clear her head after her husband’s infidelity. In each variation, an overzealous lifeguard and the search for an elusive lighthouse factor into the increasingly analogous stories. Huppert would reunite with Hong twice more, their latest, A Traveler’s Needs, sharing much with this déjà vu comedy.

In English and Korean with English subtitles

“One of the funniest and most surprising installments in Hong’s body of work.”

Film at Lincoln Center

“A beguiling set of variations on a theme, a gossamer-light étude composed for delight rather than dissection.”

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times
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