‘Resurrection’ is a sumptuous and giddy ode to filmmaking

Director Bi Gan's euphoric fantasy never loses touch with its humanity.

- TIM GRIERSON

One of the downsides of our movie-mad filmmakers — the Quentin Tarantinos who happily plunder from cinema’sillustrious past —is that their worldview can be myopic beyond what’s up there on the screen.

For all their technical acumen, the hum and whir of life remains absent in their work, which merely mimics the semblances of behavior they’ve observed from other films. These directors can synthesize the architecture of cinema but not the underlying humanity that transforms movies into something that resonates.

What’s so impressive about Bi Gan’s excellent third feature is that he manages to have it both ways. The Chinese director behind 2015's “Kaili Blues” and 2018's “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” makes movies besotted with the act of making movies. They include accomplished long takes and sensuous riffs on well-defined genres.

And yet he’s never lost sight of the fragile characters at the center of his spectacles. With “Resurrection,” Bi delivers something uncommonly rich, boldly conceiving his latest as a salute to the history of film. Still, his focus remains on people —whether they be in his stories or watching in the theater.