Next Year / L’Année Prochaine / 明年

Overview

Wong deals with Alain Resnais' film L’Année dernière à Marienbad (1961). The Nouvelle Vague icon is characterized by ambiguity in the narrative and innovative visual language—both elements that Wong exaggerates in his work. In L’Année dernière à Marienbad, we never learn the specific location where the action takes place—a circumstance that Wong exploits when he shoots his version in the Marienbad Café and Fuxing Park, both in Shanghai and marked by colonial influences. The overlapping of cultural codes creates moments of irritation, as does Wong's embodiment of both male and female protagonists – familiar attributions are broken down.