A person has their hand on anothers bare chest and their mouth over their nipple.

Vive L’Amour Sydney Film Festival

  • Cinema
  • Playhouse
  • Run time: 118 minutes Subject to change
  • Seating map

Tsai Ming-liang’s 1994 classic portrait of urban alienation

Taiwan | 1994 | Mandarin Chinese | Romance | Unclassified 18+

Tsai Ming-liang’s 1994 classic follows three lonely souls orbiting an empty Taipei apartment in this sensual portrait of urban alienation.

A vacant luxury apartment in Taipei becomes the unlikely meeting point for three strangers drifting through the modern city alone: a real-estate agent, a street vendor and a lonely man (Tsai regular Lee Kang-sheng) who has secretly claimed the apartment as his own. They move around one another in near silence, colliding through chance, sex and private rituals of longing. Winner of the 1994 Venice Golden Lion, Tsai’s breakthrough feature announced a major new cinematic voice, already displaying the subtle humour, erotic charge and sense of urban despair characteristic of his work. Sexy, sly and quietly devastating, Vive L’Amour is one of the key works of the Taiwanese New Wave, now beautifully restored.

Presented by Sydney Opera House and Sydney Film Festival

Event details

Tsai is one of the great sardonic observers of urban spaces, with a keen eye for both the alien chill of gleaming towers and the poetic allure of decrepitude.

Richard Brody, The New Yorker

With Vive L’Amour, Tsai began to emerge as one of our great poets of modern alienation

Jake Cole, Slant Magazine

Cast and credits

Ah-jung Chen Chao-jung
Hsiao-kang Lee Kang-sheng
May Lin Yang Kuei-mei

Director & Screenwriter Tsai Ming-liang
Producer Hu-pin Chung
Producer Hsu Li-kong
Screenwriter Tsai Yi-chun
Screenwriter Yang Pi-ying
Cinematographer Liao Pen-jung
Cinematographer Lin Ming-kuo
Editor Sung Shun-cheng

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Attending this event

Plan your visit

Address

Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Getting to the venue

The Opera House is a 7-10 minute walk from Circular Quay, and is easily accessible by car, train, ferry, lightrail, bus, bike and on foot.

Location and access

Playhouse

The Playhouse is located in the north-western corner of Sydney Opera House, best accessed through the Western Foyers.

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