(These notes from 2004 fill in some of the background on Zhang Yimou’s films seen in the West. There are links to entries on this site for individual films.) Zhang Yimou has been the most prolific Chinese filmmaker to emerge since 1984 in terms of films seen internationally. He graduated from Beijing film academy as … Continue reading
Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-1956) “The comparisons are as inevitable as they are unfashionable,” wrote James Quandt, introducing the centenary retrospective of the films of Kenji Mizoguchi. “Mizoguchi is cinema’s Shakespeare, its Bach or Beethoven, its Rembrandt, Titian or Picasso.” If this remains a minority opinion, it’s not because others have tried him and found him wanting. … Continue reading
In 1984, Yellow Earth was the first film from the so-called ‘Fifth Generation’ of new Chinese filmmakers who had emerged as the first new graduates of the Beijing Film Academy in the early 1980s to be seen widely outside China. The visual power of the film came from the partnership between Chen Kaige and Zhang … Continue reading
