CANTON, LA CHINOISE

of CAHEN Robert, ROMBOUT Rob

FRANCE, 2001, 00:52:00

Production : CICV PIERRE SCHAEFFER, En association avec BOULEVARD DES PRODUCTIONS, IMAGES PLUS, LAMY FILMS, LES FILMS DE L'OBSERVATOIRE, RTBF, ARTE
Genre : Documentary
Keyword : City, Portrait, Asia

Summary :
Canton is said to be the most Chinese of cities. It is also a megalopolis of eight million inhabitants, a city gone wild where traces of the past disappear under concrete and tarmac and where chaos rules the organisation of time and space. The protagonists – the film’s messengers – are caught between two cultures, two systems, indeed, between two conceptions of art. All of them are preoccupied by their own cultural survival, doomed to become the observer of a massive urban transformation.
In this experimental documentary, the five characters form an involuntary group that must confront this mass of humanity. There is always a screen between these actors and their surroundings: a window, a photograph, a painting or a language barrier, for instance.
Through the intimacy of feelings, the interpretation of signs and aimless wandering about, the film addresses the notion of what it means to be in China and at the same time not be there. Personal stories come together with images to create the vision of an incredibly mobile, perhaps imaginary city.

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