samyanari

Gong Li, as Pan Yuliang, and Zhang Yimou, as "Supervisor", add their prestige to this film by woman director Huang Shuqin. It seems than many film productions have been planned in China, too many stressing the lurid brothel background of the artist.

This film dramatizes the turbulent life of Pan Yuliang (1899-1977), the first Chinese woman artist to be recognized in Europe.

Faced with the dismal future as a prostitute, Yuliang (Gong Li), a maid in a brothel, suddenly finds refuge/ happiness with well-bred/ compassionate Pan Zanhua (Er Dongsheng), a customs official. In an attempt to quell gossip he makes her his second wife. Yet, they are forced to move to Shanghai where he teaches her to read and write and introduces her to Hong, a Western style painter. She shows talent in painting nudes at the Shanghai Art Institute, until it is closed by prudish authorities.

Unable to bear a son for Zanhua, Yuliang encourages him to `return' to his first wife (Shen Hairong). She then goes to France on a government art scholarship. (She actually received top scores at the Nat'l Art School in Paris and then received a Rome scholarship.) After several years, she has gained peer recognition.

In Nanjing, Yuliang is welcomed back by Zanhua and idolized by art students as a professor of art in the National Central University. Her happiness is short-lived when her work is discredited because of her brothel background and by a China not ready for Western Art. She and Zanhua make the heart-breaking decision to separate.

Yuliang returns to Paris to remain for decades in poverty, totally devoted to art. Her culminating triumph, shared with her long-time friend Wang Shouxin (Shichang Da), was her exhibition at the prestigious Musée D'Orsay.

In a sub-plot, He Qiong (Zunxia Gao), is the artist friend in Shanghai who urges Yuliang to go with her to Paris. There, Yuliang is unable to help Qiong who is victimized by a Chinese wheeler-dealer in arts. **************************************

Her wish to have her work given to the Peoples' Republic of China was fulfilled in 1985. There have been >20 exhibitions of her work, including controversial nudes, in various cities in China and Taiwan. `She has become a household name in China'.

For the sake of art, it is "fortunate" that Pan Yuliang remained a self-exile in France. It is not likely that she and her paintings would have survived the Cultural Revolution.

Articles on Pan Yuliang and some of her distinctive paintings can be found on Internet: "Pan Yuliang".

VIVE NOUS! Director/lead Camile de Casabianca. Judo brings couples together in this delightful romantic comedy. Valérie (Camile de Casabianca, a Leslie Caron-type pixie) is married to a selfish heel. Yves (Thibault de Montalembert) is cheating on her and threatens to divorce her. Impulsively, she takes up judo and becomes skilled. She and Bruno (Dieudonné), her manly judo teacher, are attracted to each other, but their romance is thwarted by Yves' indecision about divorce. Of her men-hungry friends, Annette (Michèle Bernier) finds rich banker Alain (Daniel Prévost) but Clara (Emmanuelle Devos) is still looking. Marc (Pascal Elbé) is Bruno's sensible assistant- confidant. Dieudonné was a scheming clairvoyant in Voyance et Manigances.

VERTICAL RAY OF THE SUN VIETNAMESE, Dir Anh Hung Tran (Scent of Green Papaya). Serene view of three close-knit sisters and the men in their lives. The film beautifully illustrates calm Buddhist livelihood of compassion, togetherness and non-violence. Vivid color imageries show harmony with nature. Spirited Lien (Tran Nu Yen-Khe, in Scentof Green Papaya) has a teasing/loving relationship with older brother Hai (Quang Hai Ngo) with whom she lives. She baby-sits for her oldest sister Suong (Nhu Qynh Nguyen) who is in a troubled marriage to withdrawn Quoc, caused indirectly by his lengthy absences on photographic outings. Khanh (Le Khanh), the middle sister, is happy supporting husband Kien (Manh Cuong Tran), who is trying to finish his first novel. Mutual trust and love among the sisters parallel those of Chekhov's Three Sisters.