Hong Sang-soo Retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise

In conjunction with the theatrical release in France of Hong Sang-soo's "Ha Ha Ha", the director is the subject of a retrospective of his works at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris (March 14-28).

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"Life is too complicated to be interpreted in an ideological way", he told AFP ahead of his master-class at the Cinematheque. Hong was also quoted as telling the AFP: "It is always a tiny but concrete thing from reality that shakes my convictions, and it is precisely this discovery in itself that interests and stimulates me the most".

Hong Sang-soo made his directorial debut in 1996 with "The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well".

Richard Brody, writing last week in The New Yorker, described "Ha Ha Ha" as being an extraordinary film "cleverly structured as a series of flashbacks from the reminiscences of two friends who meet at a bar and liberate their romantic tales with plenty of alcohol".

Brody also notes: "We're still waiting, here in New York, for a theatrical release of Hong's equally fine, tightly-sprung, self-punishing, cinema-centric drama 'Oki's Movie', one of the jewels of last year's New York Film Festival.

Earlier this year, Hong Sang-soo was also featured in a retrospective at Harvard University's Film Archive. Hosted in conjunction with the university's Korea Institute, the retrospective "Play it as it Lays" screened eight of the director's 11 works.