ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
25 October - 8 December 2024
Long Takes
Since the last UK retrospective of his work in 2010, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has made an astonishing twenty-two feature films and several shorts. With his incisive and humorous explorations of infidelity, artistic endeavour, and communication (or lack thereof), Hong’s narratively concise and formally radical work has marked him out as not only contemporary cinema’s most prolific filmmaker but also its most inventive.
Since 2010 Hong has consistently and radically reinvented his approach to the medium. From his repurposing of the zoom as an instrument capable of oscillating between comedic and tragic registers, to his mesmeric utilisation of repetition, ellipses, and general temporal disruption.
In the process it has become abundantly clear that each of Hong’s film is a part of something larger, and the most illuminating way both to view and consider these films is as a body of work. As Joachim Lepastier writes ‘...his films would thus be chapters of a vaster and more continuous oeuvre to which the work of time would give its material and density...'.
While Hong's work has been celebrated regularly at major festivals like Berlin and Cannes and through major retrospectives in New York and Paris, in the UK his films have remained difficult to see beyond festival screenings and their distribution has been inconsistent at best.
The ICA is delighted to present this retrospective of Hong Sangsoo's work since 2010, and to provide audiences in the UK with this long overdue opportunity to explore the ever-evolving oeuvre of this great artist.
Long Takes
Since the last UK retrospective of his work in 2010, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has made an astonishing twenty-two feature films and several shorts. With his incisive and humorous explorations of infidelity, artistic endeavour, and communication (or lack thereof), Hong’s narratively concise and formally radical work has marked him out as not only contemporary cinema’s most prolific filmmaker but also its most inventive.
Since 2010 Hong has consistently and radically reinvented his approach to the medium. From his repurposing of the zoom as an instrument capable of oscillating between comedic and tragic registers, to his mesmeric utilisation of repetition, ellipses, and general temporal disruption.
In the process it has become abundantly clear that each of Hong’s film is a part of something larger, and the most illuminating way both to view and consider these films is as a body of work. As Joachim Lepastier writes ‘...his films would thus be chapters of a vaster and more continuous oeuvre to which the work of time would give its material and density...'.
While Hong's work has been celebrated regularly at major festivals like Berlin and Cannes and through major retrospectives in New York and Paris, in the UK his films have remained difficult to see beyond festival screenings and their distribution has been inconsistent at best.
The ICA is delighted to present this retrospective of Hong Sangsoo's work since 2010, and to provide audiences in the UK with this long overdue opportunity to explore the ever-evolving oeuvre of this great artist.
Programme
Opening Night
Fri 25 October, 6.30pm
Oki's Movie
Comprising four short films, Hong Sangsoo's eleventh feature centres upon a love triangle between a film student called Oki and the two men vying for her affection.
Sat 26 October, 4.15pm
The Day He Arrives
Déja vu abounds in Hong Sangsoo's tale of a former film director returning to Seoul and finding himself in a seemingly inescapable loop of reconnections, drunken dialogues and romantic entanglements.
Sun 27 October, 3.30pm
List + In Another Country
In the first of three collaborations with Isabelle Huppert, Hong Sangsoo crafts a triptych of overlapping stories centred upon three different French women named Anne (all played by Huppert). Preceded by Hong's 2011 short film List.
Wed 30 October, 6.30pm
Nobody's Daughter Haewon
Dreaming takes centre stage in Hong Sangsoo's luminous and profoundly melancholic film about a young woman coming to terms with her mothers emigration and the complications of a relationship with an older man.
Sat 2 November, 3pm
Our Sunhi + Hill of Freedom
A double bill bringing together one of Hong Sangsoo's most rigorously composed works and one of his most structurally playful.
Sun 3 November, 2.30pm
Right Now, Wrong Then
A film of two halves, Hong Sangsoo's first collaboration with Kim Minhee is both a radical culmination of his explorations with repetition and a profoundly beautiful portrait of the roles imagination and truth play, in both art and love.
Thu 7 November, 6.40pm
Yourself and Yours
A delightful comic mystery of mistaken identity, he-said she-said, and excessive drinking, Hong Sangsoo's eighteenth feature questions what it means to know someone and to be known.
Sat 9 November, 3.30pm
On the Beach at Night Alone
With an incredibly raw and vulnerable performance from Kim Minhee at its centre, Hong Sangsoo embraces emotional directness in this quietly devastating tale of an actress reeling from an affair with a married director.
Sun 10 November, 2pm
The Day After
A caustic comedy of infidelity and mistaken identity, Hong Sangsoo's 21st feature centres upon Areum's first day at work at a publishing house, as she finds herself unwittingly embroiled in her bosses extramarital entanglements.
Wed 13 November, 6.30pm
Claire's Camera + Grass
Love, death, miscommunication and friendship abound in this exquisite double bill of two of Hong Sangsoo's most astounding works.
Sun 17 November, 2pm
Hotel by the River
Shot in stunning black and white with an unusually handheld camera, Hong Sangsoo's Hotel by the River is a powerful meditation on family and death set in the stunning snowy environs of the Han river.
Sun 17 November, 4pm
The Woman Who Ran
Enigmatic and endlessly enjoyable, Hong Sangsoo's The Woman Who Ran is a careful and considered examination of friendship, reconnection and what it means to be a visitor in someone else's world.
Thu 21 November, 6.40pm
Introduction
At the centre of Hong Sangsoo's twenty-fifth feature as director and his first as cinematographer, sit a series of intergenerational interactions, as Youngho, a young man on the brink of adulthood, questions the direction his life is taking.
Sat 23 November, 2.30pm
In Front of Your Face
Beautifully simple and heartbreakingly tender, Hong Sangsoo's In Front of Your Face is a rapturous exploration of faith, mortality, and hope.
Sun 24 November, 2.30pm
The Novelist's Film
Sketched in charcoal blacks and bleached whites, The Novelist's Film centres upon a disenchanted novelist whose visit to an old friend leads to a number of chance encounters. Personal and profound, Hong Sangsoo's 27th feature is an eternally inquisitive ode to artists.
Thu 28 November, 6.30pm
Walk Up
In his ninth collaboration with Hong Sangsoo, Kwon Haehyo plays a film director visiting a building owned by an old friend with his daughter. From this simple premise Hong constructs perhaps his most temporally and spatially complex film, one that explores loneliness, mortality, and the inevitable passage of time.
Sun 1 December, 2.30pm
In Water
The uncertainty of creativity, the joy of friendship, and the bittersweet nature of existence combine in this serenely melancholic story of three friends attempts to make a short film.
Sun 1 December, 4pm
In Our Day
An actress and a poet each separately receive visitors, give advice and eat ramyun in Hong Sangsoo's thirtieth feature, a wondrous unravelling of philosophical conversations and simple pleasures.
Thu 5 December, 6.30pm
A Traveler's Needs
An elegiac study of the transformative effects of language, poetry and sincerity, Hong Sangsoo's third collaboration with Isabelle Huppert, is a moving portrait of one of the filmmakers most mysterious characters.
Closing Night
Sun 8 December, 4.30pm
London Premiere
By the Stream
The latest film from Hong Sangsoo reunites Kim Minhee and Kwon Haehyo in an autumnal tale of desire, self-expression and the inescapable nature of the past.
Opening Night
Fri 25 October, 6.30pm
Oki's Movie
Comprising four short films, Hong Sangsoo's eleventh feature centres upon a love triangle between a film student called Oki and the two men vying for her affection.
Sat 26 October, 4.15pm
The Day He Arrives
Déja vu abounds in Hong Sangsoo's tale of a former film director returning to Seoul and finding himself in a seemingly inescapable loop of reconnections, drunken dialogues and romantic entanglements.
Sun 27 October, 3.30pm
List + In Another Country
In the first of three collaborations with Isabelle Huppert, Hong Sangsoo crafts a triptych of overlapping stories centred upon three different French women named Anne (all played by Huppert). Preceded by Hong's 2011 short film List.
Wed 30 October, 6.30pm
Nobody's Daughter Haewon
Dreaming takes centre stage in Hong Sangsoo's luminous and profoundly melancholic film about a young woman coming to terms with her mothers emigration and the complications of a relationship with an older man.
Sat 2 November, 3pm
Our Sunhi + Hill of Freedom
A double bill bringing together one of Hong Sangsoo's most rigorously composed works and one of his most structurally playful.
Sun 3 November, 2.30pm
Right Now, Wrong Then
A film of two halves, Hong Sangsoo's first collaboration with Kim Minhee is both a radical culmination of his explorations with repetition and a profoundly beautiful portrait of the roles imagination and truth play, in both art and love.
Thu 7 November, 6.40pm
Yourself and Yours
A delightful comic mystery of mistaken identity, he-said she-said, and excessive drinking, Hong Sangsoo's eighteenth feature questions what it means to know someone and to be known.
Sat 9 November, 3.30pm
On the Beach at Night Alone
With an incredibly raw and vulnerable performance from Kim Minhee at its centre, Hong Sangsoo embraces emotional directness in this quietly devastating tale of an actress reeling from an affair with a married director.
Sun 10 November, 2pm
The Day After
A caustic comedy of infidelity and mistaken identity, Hong Sangsoo's 21st feature centres upon Areum's first day at work at a publishing house, as she finds herself unwittingly embroiled in her bosses extramarital entanglements.
Wed 13 November, 6.30pm
Claire's Camera + Grass
Love, death, miscommunication and friendship abound in this exquisite double bill of two of Hong Sangsoo's most astounding works.
Sun 17 November, 2pm
Hotel by the River
Shot in stunning black and white with an unusually handheld camera, Hong Sangsoo's Hotel by the River is a powerful meditation on family and death set in the stunning snowy environs of the Han river.
Sun 17 November, 4pm
The Woman Who Ran
Enigmatic and endlessly enjoyable, Hong Sangsoo's The Woman Who Ran is a careful and considered examination of friendship, reconnection and what it means to be a visitor in someone else's world.
Thu 21 November, 6.40pm
Introduction
At the centre of Hong Sangsoo's twenty-fifth feature as director and his first as cinematographer, sit a series of intergenerational interactions, as Youngho, a young man on the brink of adulthood, questions the direction his life is taking.
Sat 23 November, 2.30pm
In Front of Your Face
Beautifully simple and heartbreakingly tender, Hong Sangsoo's In Front of Your Face is a rapturous exploration of faith, mortality, and hope.
Sun 24 November, 2.30pm
The Novelist's Film
Sketched in charcoal blacks and bleached whites, The Novelist's Film centres upon a disenchanted novelist whose visit to an old friend leads to a number of chance encounters. Personal and profound, Hong Sangsoo's 27th feature is an eternally inquisitive ode to artists.
Thu 28 November, 6.30pm
Walk Up
In his ninth collaboration with Hong Sangsoo, Kwon Haehyo plays a film director visiting a building owned by an old friend with his daughter. From this simple premise Hong constructs perhaps his most temporally and spatially complex film, one that explores loneliness, mortality, and the inevitable passage of time.
Sun 1 December, 2.30pm
In Water
The uncertainty of creativity, the joy of friendship, and the bittersweet nature of existence combine in this serenely melancholic story of three friends attempts to make a short film.
Sun 1 December, 4pm
In Our Day
An actress and a poet each separately receive visitors, give advice and eat ramyun in Hong Sangsoo's thirtieth feature, a wondrous unravelling of philosophical conversations and simple pleasures.
Thu 5 December, 6.30pm
A Traveler's Needs
An elegiac study of the transformative effects of language, poetry and sincerity, Hong Sangsoo's third collaboration with Isabelle Huppert, is a moving portrait of one of the filmmakers most mysterious characters.
Closing Night
Sun 8 December, 4.30pm
London Premiere
By the Stream
The latest film from Hong Sangsoo reunites Kim Minhee and Kwon Haehyo in an autumnal tale of desire, self-expression and the inescapable nature of the past.
no. 236848.