Grand Tour

I don't think I can give you a better assessment of Grand Tour. I'd like to blame it on fatigue or excessive air conditioning in the hall, which made the experience a bit unpleasant, but I don't think that's entirely it. The content lures the viewer into the story of a man who runs away from his fiancée just before their wedding and embarks on a harrowing journey through Asia, but also the story of the fiancée herself, who wants to get married at any cost, so she determinedly travels in his footsteps to find him. What the content doesn't already tell you, however, is that this story, which is fiction but also largely just narrated, makes up about half of the film. In fact, the whole thing is interspersed with essentially old, but also more modern "documentary" footage, collages of ordinary life, culture and everyday customs from the places the ex-fiancés have just arrived. I guess I can understand the Cannes award for Best Director, because this concept is unprecedented... but I didn't like this composition, or I haven't yet matured to the point where I am able to understand and appreciate this art form. [Festival de Cannes 2024] (25/05/2024)

In the early 20th century, an engaged couple travel separately through multiple East Asian countries, where they meet various people (for the first hour, we watch the bridegroom on the run; the second hour is focused on his fiancée pursuing him through the same locations). This black-and-white anti-romantic story largely relies on narration and is frequently interspersed with documentary shots from the present including, for example, several karaoke performances, as well as demonstrations of various forms of Asian folk theatre. The result is a formalistically experimental exhibition of plot filler with a somnambulant pace, but its feel for atmosphere and imaginative work with cinematic storytelling cannot be denied. Otherwise, however, this almost meditative ode to East Asian culture and history is too hard to digest. (02/07/2024)