What Time Is It There? (Ni Neibian Jidian / Taiwán, France, 2001)

Director Tsai Ming-liang likes long panoramic shots. Every scene in this movie lasts at least three minutes, some are much longer. There is no background music. This is the perfect example of minimalism in film. Some will love it and some will surely hate it. There is no formal script, and actors are just given clues as to how they must act in every scene. Tsai Ming-liang explores his most recurrent themes: solitude, dysfunctional families and lack of communication. In this French-Taiwanese production, Lee is a street vendor. One of her customers insists on buying Lee’s own watch. She tells him she is going to Paris on vacations. He starts to daydream about Paris, and one night, after asking the operator on the phone what time it is in Paris, he suddenly feels a need to change the time of every watch or clock he stumbles upon. He sets every clock to time in France. Meanwhile, we are taken to Paris to see how this girl spends her days in the city of lights. Nothing unusual happens because she is alone all the time, she doesn’t speak French and feels somewhat isolated. This is an interesting take on minimalism in film.