Critic’s Choice: Bi Gan’s ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ lights up China Onscreen Biennial
Real movie magic — the kind that leaves you genuinely wondering, “How did they do that?” — is in relatively short supply these days. But “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” the swooningly beautiful and technically staggering new feature from Chinese director Bi Gan (“Kaili Blues”), conjures that magic in abundance. Its centerpiece is a nearly hourlong 3-D sequence, shot in a single unbroken take, that propels this melancholy, noirish romance to a new level of cinematic audacity.
A highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” screens Oct. 19, as part of the fourth annual China Onscreen Biennial, presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and other film institutions. Also part of the program is a November mini-retrospective of the director Jia Zhangke, including “Platform,” “The World,” “Still Life” and his deeply satisfying latest, “Ash Is Purest White.”
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‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’
Where: Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
When: Friday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.; series runs through Nov. 18
Tickets: $9
Info: www.cinema.ucla.edu/events
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