Center Stage

Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month Film Club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. In 2015, Film Movement launched the reissue label Film Movement Classics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis on films by auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano.

International superstar Maggie Cheung (In the Mood for Love) embodies tragic screen siren Ruan Lingyu, known as the "Greta Garbo of China," in this unconventional biopic by Hong Kong New Wave master Stanley Kwan (Rouge). Praised for her moving and emotive onscreen presence, Ruan’s private life, which was frequent fodder for the vicious Shanghai tabloids, began to mirror the melodramas which brought her fame, culminating in her suicide at age 24. Kwan and Cheung paint a kaleidoscopic yet intimate portrait of the ill-fated actress, deftly blending lush period drama, archival footage, and metatextual documentary sequences of Cheung reflecting on Ruan’s legacy. The result is, much like the films of Ruan Lingyu themselves, “tender, vivid and almost overwhelmingly moving” (Time Out).

directed by: Stanley Kwan
starring: Maggie Cheung, Han Chin, Carina Lau, Tony Leung Ka-fai
1991 / 154 min / 1.85:1 / Cantonese, Mandarin, English Mono

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• Stanley Kwan 2021 Introduction
• Stanley Kwan Interview
• HK Cinema Expert Paul Fonoroff Interview
• Booklet with new essay by Aliza Ma, programmer The Metrograph Theatre
• English subtitles