The more you look: Hong Sang-soo and Paul Cézanne | BFI video essay 

For prolific South-Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, seeing Paul Cézanne’s The Plate of Apples on display in Chicago was a transformative experience.
Inspiration from Cézanne can be seen throughout Hong’s large body of work, whose 29th feature, In Water, played recently at the Berlin Film Festival.
Repetition is a key factor in both artists' practices. Cézanne approached the mundane - pieces of fruit, kitchen decor - as if searching for something more within them. Hong’s filmography also returns to the same subjects again and again, using a returning cast of actors and camera setups. Much like Cézanne, the simplicity in Hong’s style invites the viewer to always find something of themselves reflected in the art. An art of the mundane that reveals more the more you look.
This essay, by writer and programmer Sam Smith, visually explores some of the parallels in their work, styles and philosophies, exploring Hong’s filmography as a student of Cézanne.
Sources:
Hong Sangsoo knows if you’re faking it, The New Yorker
www.newyorker....
Hong Sangsoo on In Front of Your Face, Film at Lincoln Center
• Hong Sangsoo on In Fro...
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne, Tate Modern
www.tate.org.u...
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