Vive L'Amour

I truly at am a loss for words for how to start this.  Skirting the overt in favor of the indistinct. Genuinely some of the most precise and effective direction I have ever seen in a film.  Tsai Ming-Liang opts for a drawn back style here, choosing long takes and minimal dialogue, and it works wonders. On occasion when a movie chooses to go for this style it can feel unearned and can lead to alienation for the viewer, Vive L’amour however may be the best example of proper usage.  Vive L’amour opts for this minimalist style to show the loneliness of its characters. To express the unexpressed feelings and desires, the unrequited glances, the desperation of the lonely in a crowded world.  Vive L’amour takes its time, and that time ends up being one of its strengths. Roaming with its characters, or holding a shot just a moment longer than another movie would.  The movie is building up to its final twenty minutes, one of the most captivating displays of loneliness, desire and sorrow ever put to film. A lonesome man satiated for the moment, a stolen kiss of unrequited desire, a breakdown of realization.  Absolutely mesmerizing.