The Center of the World (2001) Wayne Wang
Related: China - film - director
Biography
Wayne Wang (born January 12, 1949) is a Chinese American film director.
Born in Hong Kong, he studied film and television at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Chan Is Missing (1982) and Dim Sum: a little bit of heart (1984) established his reputation. He is best known for the independent features Smoke (1995) and Anywhere But Here (1999).
He is married to a former Miss Hong Kong, Cora Miu, and rumor has it that she once dated Chow Yun-Fat (her co-star in a then famous TV drama) the Hollywood movie star from Hong Kong, back in the seventies.
The Center of the World (2001) Wayne Wang
The titular center of the world is a matter of perspective in Wayne Wang's (The Joy Luck Club, Smoke) notorious, explicit drama of emotional isolation and sexual commerce in the modern world. According to rich, apathetic cyber-geek Peter Sarsgaard (Boys Don't Cry), it's his home computer. Amateur rock & roll drummer and part-time stripper Molly Parker (Wonderland) deems it an erotic part of the female anatomy. Their "date" is merely a sexual contract that takes them to Las Vegas, a place as phony and impersonal as their so-called romance. "You know it's just an act, right?" she reminds him between her slinky bump-and-grind striptease shows and their sweaty sexual gymnastics.
The Internet makes a great metaphor for modern social alienation, with its impersonal communication and virtual sex, but there's not much else new in this familiar story other than the erotic content. Shot on dimly lit, high-definition video, the gray, washed palette sucks the glamour and titillation right out of the spectacle, turning it into an empty, soulless exercise in physical sensation and self delusion--appropriate to this story of lonely souls unable to break through their own isolation. --Sean Axmaker for Amazon.com
The Center of the World is an American film directed by Wayne Wang, released in 2001. It stars Peter Sarsgaard as a Dot-com millionaire who hires a drummer/stripper (Molly Parker) to stay with him in Las Vegas for three days for $10,000. She writes a contract beforehand detailing the conditions of her stay, including: no talking about feelings, no kissing and no penetration. The "film" (which was shot digitally) opened to mixed reviews, and has been compared to movies with similar "hooker in love" storylines such as Exotica and Pretty Woman. *The Center of the World* is by far the most explicit of the three, with both female and male full frontal nudity. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Center_of_the_World [Dec 2005]
Unsimulated sex The Center of the World (2001) - during a strip club sequence, porn star Alysha Klass, playing a dancer, inserts a lollypop into her vagina. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mainstream_movies_with_unsimulated_sex [Dec 2005]
The film is not a collaboration between Wayne Wang and Paul Auster, as some reviewers have suggested, nor was the screenplay written by Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt. At Mr. Wang's request, Mr. Auster and Ms. Hustvedt contributed some general story ideas at an early stage of the project, but neither one of them was involved in the making of the film. The final screenplay was the result of many contributors' work, including internet entepreneurs, sex industry workers, other writers, the actors, as well as Miranda July and Wayne Wang himself. To accurately reflect such wide and varying sources, the screenplay credit was assigned toa pseudonym. --http://www.paulauster.co.uk/centeroftheworldnotice.htmq [Dec 2005]
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