Film Movement: First Look at New 2K Restoration of Vive L'Amour and Blu-ray

Film Movement has provided us with an official domestic trailer for the recent 2K restoration of Tsai Ming-liang's Vive L'Amour (1994), starring Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung, Yen Kuei-Mei, and Lu Yi-Ching. The restoration will premiere at the Metrograph in New York City on March 18. Additional screenings will be made available in Seattle, Chicago, and Santa Monica. (Check local listings for further details).

A Blu-ray release of Vive L'Amour is expected to be announced later this year.

Label description: The sophomore feature from Tsai Ming-liang (Rebels of the Neon God, Goodbye, Dragon Inn) finds the acclaimed master of Taiwan's Second New Wave demonstrating a confident new cinematic voice. Vive L'Amour follows three characters unknowingly sharing a supposedly empty Taipei apartment. The beautiful realtor May Lin (Yang Kuei-mei) brings her lover Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) to a vacant unit she has on the market, unaware that it is secretly being occupied by the suicidal funeral salesman Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng). The three cross paths in a series of precisely staged, tragicomic erotic encounters, but despite their physical proximity, they find themselves no closer to a personal connection.

Featuring an intoxicating mix of Antonioni-esque longing and surprising deadpan humor, Vive L'Amour catapulted Tsai to the top of the international filmmaking world and earned him the prestigious Golden Lion at the 1994 Venice International Film Festival.