Indefatigable South Korean one-man band Hong Sangsoo continues his idiosyncratic exploration of creativity, chance encounters, noodles, booze and small talk in his 27th feature, “The Novelist’s Film,” which opens at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Nov. 18.
Continuing is “18 1/2.”
“The Novelist’s Film” tells the story of novelist Junhee (Lee Hyeyoung, last seen in Hong’s “In Front of Your Face”), who has grown disenchanted with her own writing. On a trip to see an old friend, she runs into a film director who was set to adapt one of her novels before the project fell through. One chance encounter leads to another and soon she finds herself having lunch with Kilsoo (Kim Minhee), a well-known actress also questioning her role as an artist. It’s then that Junhee has an epiphany: she will make a film starring Kilsoo. It won’t be like other films. It will be the novelist’s film.
For his 27th feature, Hong holds a mirror up to his own artistic process and asks what exactly it is we’re looking for from a work of art. As his characters discuss their lives and work and the ways they intertwine, Hong sets down a sort of manifesto for his own inimitable oeuvre before exploding it (or perhaps fully realizing it) in a moving final flourish. With sparkling performances from Lee, Kim and an incredible cast of Hong regulars, “The Novelist’s Film” is a summation of Hong’s career-long artistic project, even as it signals bold new directions.
“The Novelist’s Film” is showing through Dec. 1.
“18 1/2” is a 1970s-era Watergate conspiracy thriller/dark comedy about a woman in the Nixon White House who tries to leak the 18 1/2-minute tape to a reporter.
The film starts in January 1974, when the Watergate scandal is at a boiling point. Connie, a low-level government stenographer, obtains a tape of Richard Nixon listening to, and then erasing, the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap that would eventually force him to resign the presidency.
Connie takes the ferry to an isolated Chesapeake Bay town to leak the tape to a reporter, but a broken reel-to-reel player leads the two on a hunt to find a new machine so they can listen to the evidence. Along the way, they encounter a Bossa Nova loving couple, a group of conspiracy-obsessed hippies, and nefarious forces working to stop them at every turn.
“18 1/2,” which is rated PG-13, is showing through Nov. 24.
Learn more about the films, including show times and ticket availability.
