Wishful images
Three cinematographic portraits of a national film company
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21788588 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Kerlan (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-21 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-23 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Chinese Cinemas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1750-8061 • E-ISSN: 1750-807X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17508061.2021.1926637 |
| OpenAlex | W3170199577 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This paper explores how the Lianhua Film Company, founded in 1930 and active until 1937 6, 1/8/1937, 14, “Lianhua shengwei.”[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], communicated its identity and project through its films. These drama films offered an idealized portrait of the movie world and the Chinese society, revealing how the company’s members defined their role in a society looking to build a national identity. The paper focuses on three films: Two Stars of the Milky Way (1931) was a cinematographic interpretation of the founding statement of the company and depicts the company’s utopia. Lianhua’s Symphony (1936), composed of eight shorts, was a patriotic call to resist the Japanese enemy. A Sea of Talents (1937 4, 1/1/1937 , 13 “1937 nian Lianhua zhi rongyu gongxian .” [Google Scholar]) was produced in the final days of Lianhua, just before the Japanese invasion. It offers a portrait of the artistic world disillusioned and far from patriotic anxieties. These films, analysed here alongside written sources, draw a portrait of the company both as it wanted to be seen and as it actually was. Studying them illuminates the hopes, battles and disillusions of a world of professionals who projected on the screen theirs visions, sometimes conflicting, of a stronger and unified Nation
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Media studies · Portrait · Sociology · Vision · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Japanese History and Culture
| Highly cited | No |
|---|