Many European and North American directors have been drawn to the complex aesthetic and political histories of Shanghai and Hong Kong. This film program gestures towards this parallel history of distanced fascination — a Pandora’s box of cultural stereotyping — with a double feature from Josef von Sternberg. Von Sternberg sets the powerful rhythms of Shanghai Express 1932 amid the struggle for control of the new People’s Republic of China and casts leading Chinese–American actress of the 1920s and 1930s Anna Mae Wong alongside Marlene Dietrich (who utters the immortal line: ‘It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily’). Wong was criticised in China for misrepresenting Chinese womanhood. A decade later, in Shanghai Gesture, von Sternberg draws a portrait of decadence and impenetrable cultural difference.
Shanghai Guesture 1942 Ages 15+
1.30pm Thursday 5 April / Cinema A
35MM, 97 MINS, B. & W., MONO, USA, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR: JOSEF VON STERNBERG / PRODUCER: ARNOLD PRESSBURGER / SCRIPT: JOSEF VON STERNBERG, GEZA HERCZEG, JULES FURTHMAN, KARL VOLMOLLOR / ORIGINAL STORY (PLAY): JOHN COLTON / CINEMATOGRAPHY: PAUL IVANO / EDITOR: SAM WINSTON / ART DIRECTION: BORIS LEVEN / SOUND: JACK NOYES / MUSIC: RICHARD HAGEMAN / CAST: GENE TIERNEY, VICTOR MATURE, ONA MUNSON, WALTER HUSTON, PHYLLIS BROOKS / PRODUCTION COMPANY: ARNOLD PRESSBURGER FILMS / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: FILMS AROUND THE WORLD, NEW YORK
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