Le Rire de madame Lin
(Last Laugh)

The laugh of Madame Lin, a poor elderly peasant woman, now superfluous and a burden for her family, erupts without warning and for no apparent reason. The old woman is bundled from house to house, carrying her laugh inside her like an absurd dissonance whose resonance irritates those who cannot understand it – like ourselves perhaps? What is her laugh hiding? Or on the contrary, what does it reveal? The untimely laughter is no longer the sign or symbol of a collective recognition, but rather a transgressive manifestation, returned to its power of truth – to which each reacts differently and often harshly. For Madame Lin, it is an inner voice, perhaps a prayer, a way of taking her leave, the expression of her madness, or the metamorphosis of tears too long held back. Let our imagination roam. In this first film, Zhang Tao, without a hint of complacency, demonstrates a precise gesture of mise-en-scène and a gaze that is all the more assured as he has intention of dictating to anyone what they should think. He thus removes those he films from any kind of judgement. JB