The Lincoln Center Film Association recently announced its program lineup for this year, including a retrospective exhibition titled “The Grandmaster: Tony Leung.” The event will run until May 7th, marking Tony Leung’s first public screening and interaction at Lincoln Center in over 25 years. The organizers stated that this retrospective will systematically present his illustrious career spanning about 50 years, covering significant milestone works.
As one of the key figures of the Hong Kong New Wave movement, Tony Leung is renowned for his restrained and precise acting style. His collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai in films such as “In the Mood for Love” and “Chungking Express” are considered pivotal in his career, and his involvement in influential works like “Infernal Affairs” has also been noteworthy. Among these, “In the Mood for Love” earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, making him the first Hong Kong actor to receive this prestigious accolade.
This retrospective exhibition coincides with the release of his latest starring film “The Quiet Friend” at the Walter Reade Theater in the United States. Directed and written by Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó, this is Tony Leung’s first involvement in a European art film feature. The movie will be screened in New York from May 6th to May 14th at the Walter Reade Theater.
“The Quiet Friend” centers around an ancient ginkgo tree in a botanical garden in Marburg, Germany, unfolding through three segments spanning over a century, set in 1908, 1972, and 2020 respectively. The film delves into human understanding of the natural and plant world, extending to themes of human perception, scientific exploration, and intergenerational communication.
In the 2020 segment, Tony Leung portrays a neuroscientist from Hong Kong stranded on a campus due to a pandemic lockdown, attempting to measure the ginkgo tree’s electromagnetic signals. This experiment, guided remotely by a French botanist played by Léa Seydoux, gradually evolves into an exploration of the boundaries of human perception.
The Lincoln Center Film Association has announced the full screening schedule and detailed event information on its official website.