Collectively, I think those awkward scenes with the slow-motion and weird cuts made the most impact, because for the moment they allow you to slow down and really take in what’s going on with these characters emotionally, and what kind of toll it continues to take on their lives. If they know their spouses are cheating and they’re falling in love- why can’t they just go through with those rehearsals and get the hard part over with? I think the visual narrative of these slower takes also give time for the characters to communicate their frustration too, because for whatever reason they can’t leave their partners- they can’t bring themselves to act as badly as their partners have (in a way) because in one sense I think they believe they’re better than that, but they also can’t help the way they feel about each other and their situation.
Two other images that struck me the most were among the last scenes where he is whispering his secret into the stones and she stares out of the window of their old apartment building with tears in her eyes. It almost seems like he is so torn with the grief of remembering her that he is willing to give up the secret of their affair to try and forget about it forever, but he realizes that when he goes back to the apartment building that he will always remember and that there is no trying to forget. When she’s staring out the window, remembering him, I think the colors of that shot are what intrigued me the most. There’s deep color throughout the film that helps to convey the meaning of their longing, but from what I remember of this scene it seems like she is surrounded by the most vibrant colors in the shot, while the outside world beyond the window-without him, it seems-is gray and dismal. There was no need for dialogue in these two shots, as well as most of the movie. I think we could’ve gotten the clear message if Wong had made In the Mood for Love a completely silent film. The characters’ sense of expression could have given us all we needed to understand, and in some way I think that it may have had more of an impact, though I think he did a fine job of smoothly integrating the dialogue with the unique and artistic visuals. Maybe less dialogue and more in-depth visuals in films would be a nice new direction to go in for cinema- I think it would motivate audiences to think more about their interpretations of a work and how it made them feel, rather than the film blatantly telling them what the film is about and how it should make them feel.
Nice job, Jessica. Interesting comment about it's potential as a completely silent film. I think you're absolutely right about that. And your closing comments make me think about what Jessica N. said, as well. I wonder now how much contemporary advertising influenced Wong's style, as the kind of cinema you describe seems to be similar to a trend in commercials, which can indulge in really short doses of powerful images. The richness of the film's colors make me think about this as well. Some of the images of the hotel where Tony Leung is staying almost strike me as ads you might see in a glossy magazine. And, yes, love that scene of Maggie Cheung at the window. The massive flower on her dress is a brilliant detail.
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