February 28th: CYCLO (Tran Anh Hung, 1995)

A young man working as a bicycle taxi driver in Saigon is forced into a life of crime as his family struggles to make ends meet.

Writer-director Tran Anh Hung was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, and left the country at age 12 with his family for France at the end of the Vietnam War. He attended the Louis Lumière film school in Paris, and made several short films about Vietnamese culture from his removed vantage point. His debut feature, The Scent of Green Papaya, set in Vietnam but shot entirely in France, won the Camera d'Or award or Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival, and became the first and only Vietnamese submission to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

That early success allowed him to return to his home country for his follow-up, which would explore the economic disparity of post-war Vietnam and the temptation presented by the loosening of restrictions on capitalism and modernization. It was shot on location in Saigon by cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (The Proposition, The Theory of Everything), and overall includes a combination of French and Vietnamese crew members.

Tran's script uses no character names, instead giving archetypal titles to his main figures: Cyclo, Sister, The Poet, Madame, Grandfather. While casting the film he spoke with many people about their experiences during and after the war. In the title role is newcomer, Lê Van Lôc, and Tran's wife Tran Nu Yen Khe as the older sister. Hong Kong film star Tony Leung (In The Mood For Love) plays the gang leader.

Despite the realism of his location and contemporary setting, Tran was as meticulous with the art direction, costumes, sound, music, and lighting as he was with his previous film's period depiction, in the interest of providing a fully immersive sensory experience in a tactile environment.

There is a fair amount of violence in the film, which Tran stresses was not portrayed in the sensationalistic way associated with Hollywood genre fare, attempting here to drain the excitement while stressing its impact and dehumanization. This is contradicted by Tran's expressionistic and poetic visual style, operating here in the abstract for much of the running time.

Cyclo premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, the top award, as well as the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize. It received positive reviews in Europe and the U.S., and helped to bolster Tran's rising reputation.

Running time is 2 hours.