The Farewell

Maine Film Center | Railroad Square Cinema presents

LISTENING TO FILM

A series sponsored by the Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities, Colby Cinema Studies, and Colby Music.

Discussion of the film’s sound design led by Colby students in MU298B: Film Music and Sound. See the full series.

Lulu Wang’s intergenerational and international story is based on real events in the director’s family, or, as the opening credits tell us, an actual lie: Billi (Awkwafina), a Chinese-American writer, and her family try to come to terms with the news that their beloved Nai Nai, Billli’s paternal grandmother, has terminal cancer. While one fundamental role of Hollywood film sound is to communicate the inner experiences of characters, Alex Weston’s striking score actually gives voice to emotions that members of the family feel unable, for various reasons, to outwardly express. Multiple covers of borrowed tunes, as well as Wang’s own piano performances of classical music, help craft the story of Billi’s sense of self, cultural identity, and family.