La Romancière

“Hong Sang-soo’s latest work muses on the effect of time on lives devoted to art; it also celebrates the beauty of chance encounters and the importance of truth in the dishonest world of film. A paean to actors that is, well, simply a love letter.” Carlo Chatrian 

“As the Berlin International Film Festival wraps up, what image will we retain of the stimulating schedule, and which of these 72nd-edition films should we take away? First of all, those tucked away in the parallel selections, demonstrating our capacity to freshen up our vision, with a singular vow of silence. It is indeed by subtracting that these fearless works found a way to rise up. As if they had all got the memo from Junhee, the protagonist in Hong Sang-soo’s film The Novelist’s Film, (La Romancière) in one of the most delicious scenes: she puts a finger to her mouth to signal to her friends that they must put everything on hold, until they can all repeat together the sentence in sign language that a student has just taught her, over and again.” Sandra Onana, Libération, 17 February 2022.