Contact Lens
The contacts work as metaphors for both seeing the world differently and the imprisoning cycle of routine.
Contact lenses become a proxy for both liberation and imprisonment, in this Chinese tribute to Chantal Akerman's most famous film - from the Rebels with a Cause section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Awoman puts her contact leses on, wanders aimlessly around her apartment and intakes some sort of fake Chinese reenactment of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1976) before beginning and recycling the same routines again and again. The contacts work as metaphors for both seeing the world differently and the imprisoning cycle of routine.
The hopeful ending, in which the woman (Yunxi Zhong) breaks from the cycle and reaches for the door handle to exit her apartment, requires knowledge of the tragic ending to Chantal Akerman’s masterpiece for maximum appreciation. Contact Lens will, however, stir and rouse those familiar with the film that topped Sight and Sound’s 2022 poll as the greatest film ever made. It’s a poetic essay that sings a liberatory, even if challenging, song for cinema.
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