Jingjing Chen / China / 1h12
Synopsis
‘‘The surrogacy industry has formed a worldwide network thanks to globalization. Meanwhile, the public discourse is plagued with judgment and moral kidnapping. Everything is brutally labelled, classified, and stereotyped— women are no exception. [Here] is a tempered work, with no fervent rally or fierce criticism. But at the same time it is keen.’’
Jingjing Chen’s feature film surprises, due to its concept. Built like a semi-drama semi-documentary, ‘‘Bespoke ART’’ stages several characters, all played by the director herself, who are here to confide their accounts about surrogacy. A quite experimental work, not very accessible at the start. The viewer will feel lost for, let’s say, the 20 first minutes, which is significant. But as monologues and situations go by, you’ll make connections. The characters are all interesting and credible. We particularly like Jessica for the cynicism of her lines, and Rosa for her ambivalence and a few moments of emotion.
The overall technique is quite humble. The image looks nice, but unfortunately sound-takes are often poor (for the voice). The pace is calm without being too slow, except for the birth scene that (in our opinion) drags on and turns out to be not really necessary, or anyway paradoxically less striking than the rest.
However, the film will end on a beautiful climax with a remarkable sequence-shot. Multiplicity of the displayed points of view gathered until then, and the final explicit opening of the theme, both encourage to be nuanced and ask good questions. We will leave with a double admiration for the actress’s talent and the general writing’s quality.
Conclusion
An atypical performance that had to draw our attention.
O.N-P.
« Bespoke ART » joins official selection for the Little Croco Festival’s second edition, nominated in the Feature Film category.
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