Summaries

An elderly, asthmatic filmmaker travels to China, hoping to film the wind.

This film travels through fantasy and reality as Joris Ivens goes to China to capture the wind. The film reflects the filmmaker's journey from Pour le Mistral (1966), his first film on the wind, to this project, which is his final film. The essay film flows between fantasy and reality moving between the images the filmmaker has made, seen or dreamt about. Combining documentary with Chinese mythology and opera and even Georges Méliès' Le voyage dans la lune (1902), Ivens melds culture, landscape and mindscape with breathtaking effect. The old director travels as a boy from his windmill home in erstwhile Holland in a glider made from clothes from a clothesline. We see his journey through life and into the mysticism of the orient in his old age. His memories take us into a humorous, sometimes pensive, magical journey while the film's crew struggles to capture the wind and his breath.—Hrishikesh

Details

Keywords
  • breath
  • metaphysics
  • director's final film
  • filmmaker as subject
  • actor director co writer
Genres
  • Fantasy
  • Drama
  • Documentary
Release date Mar 18, 1989
Countries of origin Netherlands United Kingdom France West Germany
Language Mandarin French
Filming locations China
Production companies Channel Four Films Capi Films Air France

Box office

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 20m
Color Color
Sound mix Mono
Aspect ratio

Synopsis

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