VISAGE

PARTIE 1 & 2

of MING-LIANG Tsai

FRANCE, 2009, 02:21:00

Production : JBA PRODUCTIONS, HOMEGREEN FILMS, MUSEE DU LOUVRE, ARTE FRANCE CINEMA, CIRCE FILMS, TARENTULA
Collection : Musée du Louvre
Genre : Fiction
Keyword : Louvre Museum, Narration

Summary :
A Taiwanese filmmaker shoots the myth of Salomé at the Louvre. Although he speaks neither English nor French, he insists absolutely on giving the role of King Herod to the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. To give the film a chance, the production gives the role of Salome to a star of international renown. But from the beginning of the shoot, problems accumulate ... An old snow cannon, rented for a musical scene, happens to be a kind of antiquity which sows disorder and confusion. Jean-Pierre Léaud, true to his legend, comes without warning on the set while he is not called, and triggers disasters. Finally, the star (Laetitia Casta), against all odds, falls madly in love with a big deer which mysteriously disappears. In the general confusion, the director suddenly learns the death of his mother. The producer has to take off to Taipei to attend the funeral and bring the director back to Paris. But the director falls into a deep sleep. The producer has no other choice but to wait, lost in a foreign city. Like after a very long journey, the shooting resumes, but each lost himself in different paths. The star, obsessed with her image, hides window and mirrors, the producer launches herself into the desperate search for Jean-Pierre Léaud, who will get out of a final frame before leaving the scene, and the director, hurt by mourning, takes the place of John the Baptist, unable to put the scattered puzzle of these lives back in place.

Interpretation:Lee Kang-Sheng, Lu Yi-Ching, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Fanny Ardant, Laetitia Casta, Norman Atun, Jeanne Moreau, Nathalie Baye, Mathieu Amalric, Yang Kuei-Mei, Chen Yin Guang, Alice Roland, Sandrine Borau, Tsai Ming-Liang

This film was developed as part of the program « Le Louvre s’offre aux cinéastes ».

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