Centre Stage
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Muranów
Muranów
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Film description
Ruan Lingyu was a tragic legend of the silent era of Chinese cinema. An ambitious actress, she achieved great success at a young age, but paid the ultimate price for it – she died prematurely, by her own hand. Years later, hoping to get a better understanding of her, Stanley Kwan decided to take a closer look at her life, and invited Maggie Cheung herself to play the leading role. He also found Ruan Lingyu's old films and interviewed older filmmakers who had worked with her personally.
Kwan uses the formula of a biographical film, but interweaves scenes reconstructing the most important events in the actress's life with documentary sequences. In this way, he brings out much more from the convention than one would expect from a typical biopic. The film becomes not only a story about an extraordinary woman ahead of her time, but also about the essence of acting and cinema.
text:
Marcin Krasnowolski
Stanley Kwan
1985 Kobiety / Nu ren xin/ Women
1986 Miłość na straty / Dei ha ching / Love Unto Waste
1987 Yim ji kau / Rouge
1989 Ren zai Niu Yue / Full Moon in New York
1991 Aktorka / Ruan Ling Yu / Center Stage
1998 Yue kuai le, yue duo luo / Hold You Tight
2001 Lan Yu
2005 Chang hen ge / Everlasting Regret
2018 Baat go leuiyan, yat toi hei / First Night Nerves