The Novelist’s Film

A film by Hong Sangsoo. In Korean with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

Famous nove­list Junhee’s reuni­on with two acquain­tances would appear to be tin­ged with a slight sen­se of acrim­o­ny. The first of the­se col­le­agues gave up wri­ting to open a book­s­to­re on the out­skirts of Seoul and has not given her any feed­back about her last book. The second, a film­ma­ker, never adapt­ed Junhee’s novel as plan­ned. But the more pres­sing issue is that Junhee has not published any­thing in a while. Instead, she has begun to ques­ti­on her approach to wri­ting and is having doubts about the sen­si­bi­li­ty that for­ged her style and her cha­ris­ma­tic, scathing per­so­na­li­ty. During a stroll in the park with the film direc­tor and his wife, she meets a famous fema­le actor who is expe­ri­en­cing a simi­lar hia­tus. The two con­nect so deep­ly that an idea for a film, which would be her first, soon beg­ins to ger­mi­na­te in the novelist’s mind.
Hong Sangsoo’s twen­ty-seventh fea­ture is an occa­si­on for a spellb­in­ding encoun­ter bet­ween Kim Minhee and Cho Yunhee. His latest work muses on the effect of time on lives devo­ted to art; it also cele­bra­tes the beau­ty of chan­ce encoun­ters and the importance of being truthful in the disho­nest world of film. A pae­an to actors that is, well, sim­ply a love let­ter. Even if you are fami­li­ar with Hong’s con­sis­tent mas­tery of the form, not­hing pre­pa­res you for the heart­brea­king can­dour of the film you are about to see.

Credits:

So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa
KR 2021, 92 Min., korea­ni­sche OmU
Regie, Kamera, Schnitt & Buch: Hong Sangsoo
mit Lee Hyeyoung, Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Park Miso

Trailer:
The Novelist’s Film (So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa) | Trailer | Berlinale 2022
The film is scree­ned with German subtitles
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