Film Fest Gent On Tour

FFG Wide Angle

For each On Tour film, Film Fest Gent provides a Wide Angle every month. With this dossier, we delve into the film, its director and themes (and more) by means of texts in various forms by various authors and a podcast. (Texts and podcast in Dutch)

Film Fest Gent On Tour 20.06 l Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003) is one of the most memorable films of the 21st century and possibly the most powerful homage ever dedicated to the power of (the collective experience of) cinema. With the pandemic fresh in our memory this marvelous film only gains relevance. Tsai transports you to a dark, rainy night in Taipei City where an old cinema is on the verge of forever closing its doors. Inside a handful of audience members, the remaining staff and maybe even a few ghosts are watching King Hu's wuxia classic Dragon Inn. Each of them are haunted by memories and longings called upon by cinema itself. An elegic reminder to what meanings cinema can mean both as a physical place and art form.

Wide Angle: Goodbye, Dragon Inn

• Director Tsai Ming-liang outlined by Patrick Duynslaegher

• Essay in collaboration with Fantômas

• Video essay in collaboration with Filmscalpel

• Podcast hosted by Bo Alfaro Decreton & Tim Maerschand - in collaboration with Urgent.fm