A Tale of the Wind
| A Tale of the Wind | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
Joris Ivens Marceline Loridan |
| Produced by | Marceline Loridan |
| Written by | Joris Ivens Marceline Loridan |
| Starring | Joris Ivens |
| Music by | Michel Portal |
| Cinematography |
Thierry Arbogast Jacques Loiseleux |
| Edited by | Geneviève Louveau |
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Production
company |
Capi Films
La Sept Cinéma |
| Distributed by | MK2 Diffusion |
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Release date
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Running time
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77 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language |
French Mandarin |
A Tale of the Wind (French: Une Histoire de vent) is a 1988 French film directed by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan. It is also known as A Wind Story. It stars Ivens as he travels in China and tries to capture winds on film, while he reflects on his life and career. The film blends real and fictional elements; it ranges from documentary footage to fantastical dream sequences and Peking opera. It was Ivens' last film.
Next to a fast-spinning windmill, a young boy enters a large toy aeroplane and says he will fly to China. An old man, Joris Ivens, sits on a chair in the Gobi Desert. On the sand dunes around him a group of men are raising poles with microphones.
An old Chinese man practices martial arts with several younger men in front of a traditional Chinese building. Ivens, who is 90 years old, has been asthmatic since childhood, and asks the man how he manages to breathe so well. The literary character Sun Wukong, in a Peking opera appearance, watches from a tree. The man answers that "the secret of breathing lies in the rhythm of the autumn wind". The man begins to dance. Sun Wukong then throws a banana peel before the man, who slips and falls. Ivens helps him up.
Ivens visits the Golden Thousand Armed Guanyin at the Dazu Rock Carvings. Intercut are Chinese landscapes seen from the air and footage of stormy weather. The Leshan Giant Buddha is seen. In the Gobi Desert, the team of technicians set up a camp. Ivens uses an inhaler and is swiftly examined by a doctor. A member of the group says that the wind will not appear for several days.
The following day, Ivens falls from his chair in the desert and is brought to a hospital. Sun Wukong visits him in the hospital bed. In an extended dream sequence, the spaceship from the film A Trip to the Moon brings Ivens to the Moon. There he encounters the goddess Chang'e who tells him there is no wind on the Moon. Ivens finds that remarkable. In a stylised village where a wedding is taking place, a communist representative holds a speech about how fortunate the villagers are. Sun Wukong turns up and pulls the plug to the representative's microphone, and makes the loudspeakers play Western pop music instead. Ivens is briefly seen in Sun Wukong's make-up.
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Wikipedia