Venice. Ye Yan.

"Announced as China's opulent version of Shakespeare's Hamlet and originally expected to surface at Cannes, Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet finally emerges three months later as an out of competition screening at Venice," writes Dan Fainaru for Screen Daily. "Staunch in its belief that bigger is better, The Banquet piles up enough condiments for a dozen meals but never really tries to cook them into one satisfactory repast." The film "is a case of the sum being very much less than its very tasty parts: a convoluted tale of love and treachery, desire and death, set in the 10th-century Beijing court. As such it plays out lamely, crossing a second-rate House of Flying Daggers with the artificiality of something like Kingdom of Heaven.

Updated through 9/8.

"First and foremost, The Banquet is a tragedy, not an actioner," writes Derek Elley in Variety. "Final half-hour, set during the banquet, is certainly gripping, as the pieces come together and slaughter of Jacobean proportions ensues. Till then, however, pic only comes alive spasmodically, not helped by the principals' slow, pregnant delivery of their lines, lack of acting chemistry (normally a strength of Feng's pics), and the unremittingly gloomy look."

Update: Grady Hendrix has found an interesting angle on the film taking hold in the Chinese press.

Also: Jia Zhangke's Still Life is a "secret, last-minute addition to the Venice Film Festival."

Update, 9/8: Todd at Twitch: "The Banquet is a curious blend of competing and seemingly self-contradictory elements - at once larger than life yet tightly restrained, both shockingly beautiful and shockingly brutal - and that Feng is able to pull it off is a testament to his very talented cast, his range of gifted collaborators, and his own skills as a director. Reportedly frustrated with his reputation as a purveyor of fluff, Feng has intended The Banquet as proof that he is capable of more and prove his point he has."

Posted by dwhudson at September 5, 2006 11:30 AM