Since 2010, the Locarno Film Festival's Pardo alla carriera Ascona-Locarno Tourism pays tribute to one or more personalities whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema and the collective imagination. In addition to the Awards ceremony on the Piazza Grande, the tribute also comprises a conversation with the audience and a small retrospective.
The cinema of Tsai Ming-liang entails a passionate convergence of stories and languages. From the outset he has been able to capture the multiple identities of a creative pathway through the complex articulations of both Taiwanese history and his personal story as a Chinese moving between Malaysia and Taiwan. In his films, eroticism and observation join with formal research and narration to form a filmography of striking beauty, awe and wonder, in which the urban melancholy of the post-modern metropolis has been given new and nuanced portrayals. Tsai Ming-liang is a filmmaker who examines the cinema and the world with lucidity and feeling.
Giona A. Nazzaro
