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> 101 Essential Chinese Movies, Simon Fowler
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ah_thomas
Ecrit le : Jeudi 12 Mai 2011 14h49
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Un nouveau livre par un expat' anglais à Shanghai.
101 Essential Chinese Movies
Simon Fowler


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ISBN 978-988-19091-1-4
224 pages
Paperback
Publié par Earnshaw Books http://www.earnshawbooks.com/index.php?rou...t&product_id=35

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"Part history, part popcorn-scarfing fanaticism – all blessedly free of pretension...keep a copy of this book stashed next to the DVD player."
Josh Chin, author of Frommer's China

"Fowler explores the best Chinese films ever made—everything from early talkies to international festival prize winners to the dramas and comedies beloved by domestic audiences—and provides the reader with deep insights into not only Chinese film, but also China itself."
Austin Ramzy, Time China correspondent

Critic/historian Simon Fowler (Time Out Beijing) guides you through a century of Chinese filmmaking, from the silent era to present. This book is an authoritative list of the greatest Mainland Chinese movies, covering a wide range of genres: explosive kung-fu epics, tragic leftist melodrama, chest-thumping propaganda films and more. With detailed descriptions of each selection and countless recommendations for further viewing, this is the perfect introduction to China's rich cinematic tradition for film buffs, students and casual viewers alike.

Who is Simon Fowler?
Simon Fowler originally hails from England and has lived in Beijing since
2006. A voracious consumer of films and self-confessed cinematic obsessive,
he began his exploration of Mainland Chinese cinema soon after arriving,
and was named film editor of Time Out Beijing in 2008. His favorite non-
Chinese films include Kind Hearts and Coronets, If… and Fletch.



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ah_thomas
Ecrit le : Jeudi 12 Mai 2011 14h50
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Dragon



A 12 livres sur Amazon.co.uk (table des matières et contenu en partie visibles)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Chinese-...r/dp/9881909112

18,30 euros sur Amazon.fr
http://www.amazon.fr/Essential-Chinese-Mov...05208344&sr=8-1


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ah_thomas
Ecrit le : Jeudi 12 Mai 2011 14h56
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Interview de l'auteur sur Urbanatomy, mon ancien magazine à Shanghai. J'aurai pu faire cette interview d'ailleurs laugh.gif

http://old.urbanatomy.com/index.php/arts/film/4122-101
QUOTE

101 Essential Chinese Movies
Monday, 27 September 2010 02:09
Written by JFK Miller

A new book by first time author Simon Fowler takes a walk along the long red carpet of cinema on the Chinese mainland. Fowler talks about the book with Urbanatomy below...

What entry criteria did you have for the films which made the grade for the book?
The book started out as a very, very long list of films that I and my two research assistants kept adding to. The first thing that I wanted to make sure was that we only included books from the Chinese mainland – I feel like Hong Kong and Taiwan often dominate books on Chinese cinema, so I wanted to look at it from that perspective. I was also looking for films that had a personal resonance with Chinese people. It’s often easy to look at the Chinese films winning big at European festivals being representative of what Chinese cinema is but I think something like Ning Hao’s Crazy Stone has a lot more meaning to your average Chinese cinema-goer than anything Jia Zhangke has ever made. So after starting with this big long list, through watching and reading more around the topic you begin to understand the ‘shape’ of Chinese film history, so I wanted films to be representative of each period.

What is your top pick, i.e. your favorite movie? And do you agree with Spring in a Small Town's top place among many 'best of' Chinese film lists?
There’ a good reason why Spring in a Small Town gets the plaudits it does. If you look at the films I’ve included in the book from that period, you’ll notice that for its level of psychological and social exploration that there was nothing quite like it being made in China at the time. As far as my personal favorites go, when I saw Zhang Yimou’s To Live several years ago I was knocked out by the emotion and bitter humor of it all. Sparkling Red Star is an unintentionally great film – one of the few movies made during the early-1970s, it sees a young lad growing up in the 1940s who will do anything to help the Communist forces (including murdering and setting on fire the evil landlord). You just have to see something like that. Then of course there’s Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Horse Thief which is rarely screened at the cinema, but if you do get a chance to see it in that format, make sure you buy a ticket!

Which films didn't make the cut? We see a few notable omissions, e.g. Suzhou Creek, Ju Dou...
There are only 101 spots so of course people are going to be disappointed that one film or another didn’t make it in. When making the decisions I was looking at everything as a whole, trying to see what makes most sense in terms of Chinese film history. I know there are a lot of people who were a bit confused why some more notable underground work from current directors like Liu Jiayin’s Oxhide didn’t make an appearance, but the simple reason was I felt that there are other films that made more of an impact on the Chinese cinema. So I guess I can take that question as the commencement of the backlash?

Why is the book arranged in alphabetical order instead of chronological order? With chronological you could appreciate the evolution of Chinese cinema more...
I originally pushed for chronological listing, but as my editor pointed out when you get to the Socialist Realist films of the 1950s there’s a lot of repetition in themes – landlords in pre-communist times being the villains is a notable example. The book is kind of a journey, but I think the overview in the introduction gives you a good outline of what went on in Chinese movie history.

The write-ups are long on description and short on opinion. Why did you go for this style?
I had a very specific idea in mind when I wrote this book. The film books I’ve had and loved over the years have always been a gateway to watching and appreciating films. You pick the book up, flick through and see the photos and hopefully come across things that you like. I think there’s a fair amount of critique in the book, but ultimately I wanted to put forward why people should watch these films.

What books did you reference for your research?
It’s funny, a lot of the books I used for info I had to go to the British Film Institute Library in London to get hold of as the National Library of China here in Beijing has a few key titles missing. Great go-to books for this project were the Encyclopedia of Chinese Film, Chinese National Cinema, Celluloid China: Cinematic Encounters with Culture and Society, Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers, Chinese Film Theory: A Guide to the New Era and Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Most of what I was reading was rather academic and dry, so I attempted to make something a little more accessible to the average reader/viewer.

What was the first Chinese film you ever saw? What film piqued your interest in Chinese films?
When I moved to China in 2006 I was really more of a film fanatic living in China than a Chinese movie fanatic. For me Chinese movies were anything Jackie Chan had ever done and Farewell My Concubine which I had strong memories of seeing, but had to re-watch (with a greater deal of understanding) before I wrote the book. When I really started to hammer out the list I realized I’d seen around 30 titles before I even got started, but the impetus for writing the book came from a desire to know more about Chinese cinema. When I began to research it, I was immediately attracted to the films of Xie Jin and in particular his film Female Basketball Player No. 5.

How long did it take to research and write the book?
It’s coming up to 18 months since the project first started to get under way. Not that I don’t love Chinese movies, but I’m really looking forward to catching up on films from elsewhere which I have really neglected whilst working on this book.

How do you think is it different from other books on Chinese film?
I meant the book to be a general introduction to Chinese film, with key details about the films themselves at the center. In future years it’s going to be harder to distinguish between films from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and elsewhere so I’m glad I completed it when I did. What I hope most for is that people dip in and find a film that they might not have known about. I’ll take that to be a job well done.

What's the front cover image?
The cover image is Sun Daolin from the film Early Spring in February (1962). It’s indicative of the aesthetic that films from the early-60s were going for.

Finally, have you seen all of the 101 films or did you cheat a little?
Red Heroine is extremely rare, so I've only seen extracts from it at a lecture given by a professor from the Beijing Film Academy and a documentary about the history of Kung Fu movies. So I guess I've technically seen 100.25 of the movies.

// 101 Essential Chinese Movies is published by Earnshaw Books


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