MRS. FANG WAV D: Wang Bing. France/China/Germany. 86 min. Sep 13, 6:45 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 Sep 15, 6:30 pm, AGO. Rating: NNNN
Movies often give the impression that death is a hugely dramatic moment. Wang Bing’s Mrs. Fang, which won the Golden Leopard award at this year’s Locarno Festival, is the antithesis of all that: an unsentimental portrait of a 67-year-old woman, Fang Xiuying, as she lies dying of Alzheimer’s in 2016.
Wang trains a lens on her silent face as relatives chatter awkwardly, reminisce, describe her deterioration, watch over her silently, judge each other and give in to emotional flare-ups.
Outside, life goes on as people fish, drink and hang out. Through his flat, non-intrusive style, Wang contrasts the tragic smallness of the dying person’s world and the familiarity in the motions loved ones go through in the final days.
In a way, it’s the perfect subject for Wang’s much-lauded style. He eschews formalism in favour of freely exploring a specific world – a village outside Huzhou – to capture the familiar and universal.
We try to resist looking it in the face, but death transcends all else, and it’s so ordinary.
