“Caught by the Tides”, when Jia Zhang-ke makes something new with something old

Published on January 24, 2025 at 3:10 p.m. / Modified on January 24, 2025 at 10:05 p.m.

4 mins. reading

It is a strange object that is suitable for the Cinémas du Grütli in Geneva and the Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne (which bought the distribution rights) in the wake of the Black Movie festival, and especially that of Cannes, where it was revealed in competition. Designed by Jia Zhang-ke during the country’s long period of quarantine (lifted only in early 2023), Caught by the Tides is in fact much more experimental than A Touch of Sin (2013) or Beyond the mountains (2015), which broadened its audience. It was born in a moment of pause which pushed the Chinese filmmaker, now in his fifties, to look into his archives, giving him a funny idea.

Confronted with a quantity of scenes not retained but also with the documentary images that he is used to taking on the sidelines of his filming, he designed a new work built from these “falls” and centered on two recurring actors, his wife and favorite actress Zhao Tao and the discreet Li Zhubin. Obviously great? Not so fast, the Chinese darling of international critics has already experienced serious downturns! And we can barely make out a story in the collage which occupies at least the first two thirds of the film. It is therefore above all a flow of disconnected images punctuated by music and editing. But finally, Jia Zhang-ke added a beautiful ending, which gives meaning to the gesture and reminds us of the great filmmaker that he is.

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