Reading Response 8

I can't find Bordwells reading on the reserve cite
1. ?
2. ?

Valentina Vitali
1. Vitali answers her own question, “if the reviews of Hou’s film didn’t sell Hou’s films, what” actually sold his films were the production, distribution, and exhibition of his films, due to what was available locally.
2. Three broad trends identified by Vitali in how Hou’s films were discussed in reviews and articles are: all-pervading focus on the character; contemporary political context as the key to the films; and rare historical conditions shaping the films; and the use of his long shots.
3. The point Vitali makes by using Oliva Assayas article is that Hou’s films are seen to be a part of Taiwanese ‘Nouvelle Vague’ just as in Oliva’s article, which describes the effects of American pressure on Taiwanese society.

Paul Willemen
1. Willemen does not love Hou’s film for their complexity because he feels there is no connection between complexity and quality; he has learned this from teaching filmmakers and photographers.
2. Willemen does not love the films of Hou because of their Taiwanness, he doesn’t appreciate the films telling him or showing Taiwanese identity and feels this pushes you into a box, and that is very restrictive.
3. Willemen does not love the films of Hou, because Hou is a world cinema auteur, he feels the notion of autorship is supposed to make him pay attention to Hou’s films rather than someone else’s who is not an auteur.
4. The idea of complexity, the general question Willemen believes that Hou’s film try to answer is how do we, can we, live with the wirght of history here, on the particular patch of geo-temporal space that we inhabit.
5. Willemen’s critique of critical approaches that emphasize Chineseness in Hou’s work is Hou deals with direct aspects of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and deals with the importance of Chinese philosophy and pictorial traditions.