‘Man In Black’ Review: Wang Bing’s Cannes Documentary Paints Powerful, Stripped Down Portrait Of Dissident Chinese Composer Wang Xilin
deadline.comChinese director Wang Bing is more than content to take his time. His documentary Youth (Spring), which premiered in competition at Cannes last Thursday, runs three-and-a-half hours long.
His second Cannes film, Man in Black, runs considerably shorter at a mere 60 minutes, but it too unfolds patiently. Man in Black, a Monday night premiere in the festival’s Special Screenings section, begins with an elderly man moving slowly and silently in the shadows of an empty auditorium.
It takes some moments for the audience to realize he is nude. He holds a railing as he makes his way along an aisle. As he descends a staircase a classical score erupts with percussive force.
This is Wang Xilin, one of China’s leading classical composers, laid bare. The camera follows as he makes his way to the stage, entering a key light.
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