BFI Recommends: Long Day’s Journey into Night
The trend for really long takes is often just showing off, but the 55-minute shot that ends this dreamlike Chinese drama offers something far richer. Our latest recommendation is chosen by Chris Trowell.
The long unbroken camera take has become something of a cliché in contemporary cinema and TV. Made easier by digital technology, these self-conscious set pieces can seem like shallow logistical challenges or empty showmanship. Yet, the 55-minute, continuous shot that closes Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey into Night feels different. It feels intimate, otherworldly and absolutely vital to the mood of the film. After an hour of elegant and formalist filmmaking, the final shot releases the audience from the rules it established; the distinctive style and editing are replaced by a sense of freedom and space. If the first half of the film echoes Wong Kar-wai’s tense romanticism, the final sequence’s empty spaces and wandering perspective are closer to Pedro Costa’s work.
For me, the balance between these two moods – the ‘real’ plot presented like a vision and then a dream filmed with the immediacy of real-time – captures the unique pleasures and ideas of the film. Together the two halves explore how we create meaning from the past and the images we hold in our mind, whether from dreams, memories or cinema screens.
Chris Trowell
Trust and Foundations Coordinator