The Legacy of Italian Cinema in Contemporary Chinese Film-Making

JICMS 2 (1) pp. 7–21 Intellect Limited 2014

Elena Pollacchi Stockholm University

Spaces and bodies: The legacy of Italian cinema in contemporary Chinese film-making

Abstract Keywords Italian neorealist films have had a strong impact on Chinese cinema since the found- Chinese cinema ing of the PRC in 1949. Chinese directors of the 1980s and 1990s have looked at the Italian cinema works of Italian neorealist directors with renewed interest and Jia Zhangke’s early Neorealism films have come to epitomize the lasting imprint of Italian Neorealism in China. Wang Bing This article investigates the influence of Italian neorealist tradition (and beyond) on Li Ruijun Chinese film-makers whose careers started after the turn of the century and whose Liu Shu works share a concern for the interplay of individuals and their surroundings. The Antonioni essay also argues that space has a hermeneutic role for understanding the influ- Fellini ence of Neorealism on certain recent Chinese narrative and documentary films. In line with the perception of an increasingly fragmented society, the impact of Italian directors on contemporary Chinese film-makers such as Liu Shu, Li Ruijun and Wang Bing emerges as an on-going process of re-appropriation rather than the lasting imprint of master teaching. While textual or stylistic references may not always be immediately apparent, the influence of Italian directors on contemporary Chinese film-making becomes clearer after some close analyses of certain Chinese films in conjunction with an examination of the directors’ own observations.

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 7 12/11/13 5:07:55 PM Elena Pollacchi

1. From a conversation 尽管于中国共产党的政治路线相去甚远，意大利新现实主义电影对中华人民 between art curator 共和国建国后的电影产业产生了重要影响。20世纪80年代和90年代的中国电 Li Zhenhua and artist Yang Fudong published 影人带着新的兴趣观看意大利新现实主义导演的作品，意大利新现实主义在 in BOMB (2012: 56–63), 贾樟柯早期的电影上尤其烙下了持久印痕。本文探讨了意大利新现实主义及 reprinted in part in the 其它电影传统给在新世纪开始职业生涯的中国电影人留下了什么。他们的电 exhibition brochure published by Marian 影讨论个人与环境之间的互动。同时文中讨论，在理解意大利新现实主义对 Goodman Gallery 最近某些中国故事片及纪录片的影响中，空间的诠释作用。与日益分散的社 to accompany the 会观念一样，新千年中意大利导演们对同时代的中国电影人的影响显现为一 exhibition of Yang Fudong’s film The 种持续进行重新解读的过程，而不是永恒一成不变的大师教导。虽然文本或 Nightman Cometh 风格上的参考可能并不总是立刻就显现出来，但是意大利导演对中国电影人 and other works at 的影响通过对某些中国电影的深度解读以及通过导演们自己的观察将变得更 the Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, 加清晰。 28 March–28 April 2012. 2. For a discussion of the transition from the early neorealist ‘Neorealism’ is a kind of history theatre where current and contempo- works to the cinema rary societal conditions come to play. Who exists realistically, the warrior of Antonioni, Fellini, Germi, Pasolini and baron in his period costume or the ghost in a modern outfit? When the other later Italian ancient battlefield scene and other historical events appear and reap- directors, see Millicent pear, where do they belong, in the past, the present or the night-falling Marcus (1986). future? How impossible it seems to make up your mind, when there is 3. For an analysis of the no easy answer to get from the narration! It is getting dark. The soldier impact of neorealism on the international or the warrior has to decide whether to disappear/escape (die) or to film scene of the late continue fighting, which of course might lead to the same fate – death. 1940s and 1950s, see There is hope nonetheless. The body is desirable, yet the soul is more Gian Piero Brunetta (2009: 108−66). precious. Yang Fudong on his 20-minute film Ye Jiang/ 4. The Beijing Film 1� Academy has been the The Nightman Cometh (2011) (Li 2012) only state-run higher education institution The term Neorealism has a staying power worldwide despite the absence of dedicated to film production since 1950. a consistent definition and the variety of styles it embraces. Traditionally, its Like other higher- roots are in the Italian masterpieces by Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and education institutions, Luchino Visconti made in the immediate aftermath of World War II. A handful it could not enrol new students during the of films, as Gian Piero Brunetta has noted, ‘suddenly became the guiding light decade of the Cultural of cinematic artistry and a legitimate political and diplomatic representative of Revolution. a country that was returning to the international stage’ (2009: 117). However, the same directors and others that emerged from a neorealist tradition such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini, redefined the movement from 1950 onwards.2� Not only did foreign film critics immediately embrace these films, but also directors from all corners of the world recognized the relevance of Neorealism. Rossellini’s Roma città aperta/Rome Open City (1945), De Sica’s Sciuscià/ Shoeshine (1946) and Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves (1948) even made their way into countries with strong limitations on the import of foreign films, including Eastern Europe and China.3 Despite the different political lines that informed Chinese film production from the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, Italian Neorealism has been a model for Chinese directors and film critics alike. Indeed, the vast range of literature from China concerning Italian post-war films – reviews, critical literature and memoirs of film directors – confirms their impact on Chinese society and cinema. After the iconoclasm of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the films of Rossellini and De Sica and later Italian films that emerged out of Neorealism, such as Antonioni’s works, were screened to the students of the Beijing Film Academy.4� To quote

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 8 11/29/13 4:35:30 PM Spaces and bodies

Ying Zhu, the 1980s, ‘were marked by the arrival of a modernist film discourse 5. The Fourth Generation refers to Chinese film- promoted by the Fourth Generation film-makers who idolized Italian makers who graduated Neorealism, French New Wave, and Japanese Modernist Film’ (2003: 41). The in the 1960s but could Fourth Generation of Chinese film-makers trained Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige only start directing after the end of the and their fellow directors of the Fifth Generation as well as later film-makers Cultural Revolution. such as Zhang Yuan, Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke.5 In Ni Zhen’s words, The Fifth Generation Italian neorealist films ‘became objects of intense fascination’ together with refers to the first group of students the films of the nouvelle vague, and the works of Kurosawa Akira and Martin who embarked on Scorsese (2002: 98).6 film studies after the Cultural Revolution. Italian Neorealism has also been used as a unifying reference in order It includes Zhang to place different film traditions in dialogue with one another as shown Yimou, Chen Kaige, Tian in two recent studies on its global resonance (Ruberto and Wilson 2007; Zhuangzhuang and those who graduated Giovacchini and Sklar 2012). This investigation of the legacy of Italian from the Beijing Film Neorealism in contemporary Chinese film-making stems from both the Academy in 1982. importance historically attributed to Italian Neorealism and its lasting imprint 6. Ni Zhen recalls the on world cinema. Neorealism, with its wide-ranging philosophical, political genesis of the Fifth and aesthetic manifestations, has also provided a model to deal with social Generation film- makers (Zhang Yimou, conditions and tackle the interplay of the individuals and their surroundings. Chen Kaige, Tian As the 41-year old artist Yang Fudong suggests in the opening quote above, Zhuangzhuang) since their formative years the continuous fight for life, involving both the body and the soul, is revealed at the Beijing Film in the ‘history theatre’ of Neorealism.7 Many contemporary directors – whether Academy. Through of feature films, documentaries or video art – seem to share such a humanistic interviews with the protagonists Ni offers claim. Do they still look at the neorealist practice as a model? And, beyond a vivid account of the such general references to Neorealism, does Italian cinema still have an films which influenced impact on contemporary Chinese film-makers? Most directors educated at the the Fifth Generation. Beijing Film Academy in the 1980s and 1990s were trained on the works of 7. Yang Fudong is Italian Neorealism, but many others whose careers started after the turn of the an internationally acclaimed artist whose twenty-first century experienced quite different educational backgrounds and works encompass worked against a changed social backdrop compared to their predecessors. photography, multi- screen installations, What is their understanding of Italian Neorealism and does it still play a narrative and role in their film-making practices? Neorealism has also been discussed as experimental films. For a movement that implied a certain sensibility towards social and political a discussion of some of his works, see Marcella conditions. As Mark Shiel has noted, its disposition towards the real and Beccaria (2006). things as they were – the visible world rather than a staged reality – also 8. For an overview of the implied a concern for the relationship between the people and the space they transition from state live in (2006: 12–16). Shiel’s approach takes the treatment of the city space as studio to independent the privileged focus for understanding neorealist directors. In line with this production, see Zhang Zhen (2007) and Jason analysis, I also argue that space has a hermeneutic role for understanding the McGrath (2008). influence of Neorealism on recent Chinese films. 9. The three films are The renewed interest in urban spaces since the end of the 1980s has been set in Jia’s hometown viewed as a turning point in Chinese cinema: in particular after independent Fengyang, Shanxi film-makers such as Zhang Yuan and Wang Xiaoshuai moved away from both Province. the enclosed studio settings and the rural locations of the Fifth Generation directors to capture images of Beijing.8 A few years later, Jia Zhangke’s ‘hometown trilogy’ (1997–2002) – Xiao Wu/Pickpocket (1997), Zhantai/Platform (2001) and Ren xiao yao/Unknown Pleasures (2002) – brought to prominence the peripheral space of the Chinese provincial towns and the people at the margins of Chinese modernization (McGrath 2008: 136–47).9 Yet analyses of Jia’s early works have focussed mostly on their aesthetic-formal features, in particular his use of the long take as a strategy to express time rather than space. However, as Zhang Xudong has noted, Jia’s aesthetics also suggests ‘the lasting imprint of Jia’s exposure to Italian Neo-Realism’ (2010: 75). In addition

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 9 11/29/13 4:35:30 PM Elena Pollacchi

10. Jia has referred to De to Jia’s avowed admiration for De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, his cinematic Sica’s Bicycle Thieves as one of the most approach to time, the way of connecting history, memory and the present influential films in his (Berry 2009: 113), his use of regional languages and non-professional actors early career (Lin et al. (Liu 2006), and the choice of marginal characters are part of the neorealist 2003: 114−15). Hu and Qu (2011) provide a influence on his work. In fact, Jia Zhangke’s debut film Pickpocket has come comparative study to epitomize the impact of Neorealism on contemporary Chinese cinema.10 of the two films in Although other contemporary film-makers share Jia’s preoccupation with the Chinese. Gina Marchetti (2011) offers a close implications of socio-political conditions on individuals, the impact of the analysis of Xiao Wu Italian film movement on their cinema has been less frequently scrutinized. in the light of Bicycle Thieves and Robert I explore this topic by examining a set of recent works in which the cinematic Bresson’s Pickpocket. approach to space, in particular the relation between characters and settings 11. Although not without (or between social actors and space in documentary films) offers an interesting problems, the term perspective on the current legacy of Neorealism. independent has This interpretative framework, which focuses on directors whose careers referred to Chinese films produced outside started in the twenty-first century, is also linked to the definitional elusive- the state studio system ness of current Chinese independent film production.11 Since the emer- since the early 1990s. gence of independent film-making in the early 1990s, the number of works For an overview of the evolution of Chinese produced outside the boundaries of official institutions (state studios, produc- independent cinema, tion companies, other broadcasting and film production enterprises) has see Paul G. Pickowicz (2012: 325−43). increased enormously. Moreover, the introduction and wider availability of digital technologies since the end of the 1990s have created new opportuni- 12. For a study of the 12 wide-ranging digital ties. However, since very few film-makers reach the international circuit of productions in China, film festivals, a vast number of these works (feature, documentary, amateur see Paola Voci (2010). films) remain unknown. As Paul Pickowicz has pointed out, the character of 13. Instead of using the non-state Chinese film-making ‘seems to change each year with the latest single interview format, flood of works’ (2012: 328). In addition to a domestic distribution still virtually I have on several occasions engaged controlled by the state and a political censorship system, economic forces act the film-makers in as a further restriction. As a consequence of the transformation of the Chinese conversations on the film industry into a major sector of the entertainment industry, only films with research topic. This was made possible thanks strong box-office potential are distributed domestically. Hence, accounting for to my regular visits to the many different streams of Chinese production has become more complex. China as a result of my collaboration with the In this article, I make reference to the Chinese film-makers Liu Shu, Li Ruijun Venice International and Wang Bing, all active outside the official system, at different stages in Film Festival as a their careers and with diverse backgrounds.13 correspondent for Chinese cinema. Unless Although most of the works of these film-makers have been shown in otherwise stated, all film festivals worldwide, their names are less familiar to the international conversations took audience than that of Jia Zhangke. The only one with an established reputation place in July 2013 in Beijing. Translations is Wang Bing, whose first documentary Tiexi qu/Tiexi qui. West of the Tracks from Chinese are mine. (2003) received immediate attention worldwide. Some of his works have been distributed internationally although only within the art-house circuit.Li Ruijun’s most recent work Gaosu tamen wo cheng baihe qu le/Fly with the Crane (2012) had a limited domestic distribution after a long festival tour, whereas Liu Shu’s debut feature film Xiao He/Lotus (2012) had an impressive circulation but only at international film festivals. Furthermore, even if they share the same festival arena, it would be an over-simplification to identify them with one single film- making practice as their backgrounds and range of activities do not have much in common. Wang Bing, born in 1967, was trained in photography and took courses in cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy in the mid-1990s before starting documentary film-making. Liu Shu, born in 1972, and Li Ruijun, born in 1983, both currently active in feature films, were trained in journalism and cinema respectively. However, all their works share a common focus on human struggle and on how the socio-political environment impacts on

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 10 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Spaces and bodies

individual lives and the collective space. Their works also have an ethical focus in their representations of the interaction of space and individuals. Perhaps it is less than surprising that Neorealism keeps appearing as a common reference for these film-makers. Yet the current influence of Neorealism differs in two aspects from what came earlier: first, current film practices more frequently evoke those of the second generation of neorealist film-makers such as Fellini, Antonioni and Pier Paolo Pasolini; and second, in line with such a tradition, their particular cinematic construct of space is used as a way to define the complex relationships that exist between individuals and their physical environments. By looking at the directors’ own thoughts on this subject and illustrating their observations with aesthetic, narrative and ethical analogies in some of their films, I will examine both of these aspects. Finally, I will argue that the emphasis on the spatial dimension has provided opportunities to tackle the clashes between China’s modernization and individual’s needs through different cinematic approaches.

In a fragmented society like China’s, in which the pace of change has not been comparable to that of any other nation in modern times, attention to the scale of the change and its spatial dimension appears inevitable. To quote David Harvey’s analysis of the Chinese model, ‘whilst China is now third in terms of the number of billionaires in the world, environmental degradation, forced relo- cation and huge urbanization continue to increase social inequalities and push a significant portion of the population into poverty’ (2012: 65). These phenomena – immediately visible in the Chinese space – and how they affect people’s lives are at the core of a certain line of film-making in China. Just like the ‘conflict- ing postsocialist temporalities’ in Chris Berry’s analysis (2009: 113–38), space is better approached as a wide-ranging construction in which individuals are caught in their struggle against socio-political and economic constraints. Such emphasis on space thus implies political and ethical concerns and a shift from the individual to the collective political dimension, which is frequently achieved through images of conflicted bodies. As Karl Schoonover has noted in his study of the international character of neorealist films, ‘corporeality was as important as other aspects of the mise-en-scène to making these films appear newly real, relevant, and vital for filmgoers around the globe’ (2012: xv). The films discussed here feature characters whose very bodies offer a meas- ure of the human struggle against an overwhelming space. Whether workers or little country girls as in Wang Bing’s documentaries, or elderly men whose wish is to be buried in their village and not be cremated – as state regulations decree – as in Li Ruijun’s Fly with the Crane, it is by positioning the human body at the centre of the cinematic space that these films relate to the broader socio- political dimension. Even in Liu Shu’s Lotus, the abusive nature of the political and economic system is often expressed through its impact on the female body. However, these works do not trigger any form of compassion or empathy, as did the films of the Fifth Generation or even the early works of Jia Zhangke. Rather, these recent films take a critical stance towards today’s China by portraying economic outcasts against overpowering backdrops. While embracing neorealist heritage, contemporary directors also distance themselves from the ways Neorealism influenced earlier Chinese directors. As such, the admiration from Liu Shu, Li Ruijun and Wang Bing for the works of Fellini, Antonioni and Pasolini rather than for the early neorealist masterpieces becomes more meaningful. As Schoonover has further observed, the second generation of neorealist film-makers ‘develops from a tension between referencing and breaking with

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 11 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Elena Pollacchi

14. ‘Let some people get Neorealism’ (2012: 186). The early works of Fellini and Antonioni were made rich first’ was the slogan launched in during Italy’s dramatic transformation in the decade after the Marshall Plan. conjunction with Deng This was the time of the so-called ‘economic miracle’, a fast-paced transition Xiaoping’s Economic from an agrarian to an industrial economy. Although the Italian context of the Reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. For the 1950s and 1960s cannot be easily compared to contemporary China, similar impact of such policies, phenomena emerged from the economic policies of both countries: a rapidly see Duncan Hewitt increasing gap between developed and underdeveloped areas, social inequali- (2009). ties and a collective drive to become wealthier.14 While textual or stylistic refer- 15. In Liu Shu’s words, ‘such ences may not always be immediately apparent, the imprint of Italian directors admiration was based on the confidence De on Chinese contemporary film-making becomes clearer by some close read- Sica’s film was able to ings of Chinese films in conjunction with an examination of the directors’ own infuse in their process of film-making on the observations. basis of its simplicity When asked about her understanding of Italian cinema, director Liu Shu and sincerity’. referred to a conversation with two documentary film-makers, Ma Li and Conversation with Liu Shu, Beijing, Qiu Jiongjiong, during which they agreed in regarding Bicycle Thieves as the 10 July 2013. most influential work in terms of their approach to film-making.15 Yet Liu Shu 16. Conversation with Liu went on to argue that it was in fact Fellini’s ‘trilogy of loneliness’ – La strada/ Shu, Beijing, 10 July The Road (1954), Il bidone/The Swindle (1955) and Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of 2013. Cabiria (1957) – that influenced her own work the most. She remarked how, 17. The film was first ‘with no special effect but on the basis of sincerity, sympathy and compassion screened as part towards his characters, Fellini has managed to focus our attention towards the of the 27th Venice International Film life and faith of the humble folks against the harshness of their epoch’; she Critics Week of the 69th then added that she had watched these films repeatedly.16 Venice International Film Festival. Liu Shu’s debut work Lotus revolves around the story of a young single Observations collected woman (Xiao He) who works as a teacher in a provincial town in present-day during the Q&A session China. Tired of her dead-end job, she resolves to move to Beijing in search of a following the screening on 6 September 2012. new start and a better life. The narrative follows the struggle of the lonely Xiao He in the city, the impositions of her managers at work and the abusive attitude of all the men she encounters: these include a policeman who mistakes her for a prostitute, a lonely and uninteresting man who courts her and an exhibitionist who causes her to fall off her bike. Until the final sequence, the narrative is linear and the spatial dimension is mostly defined by a dominance of eye-level shots that align the viewer with the female protagonist; then a close-up shows the protagonist driving an expensive car. When she stops at a traffic light, a doppelganger Xiao He – identified by the clothes she was wear- ing when she first arrived in Beijing – crosses the street. This reverse shot suddenly challenges the viewer’s first assumption: maybe she has not chosen to marry her uninteresting but well-off admirer and she moves on in her journey. In Liu Shu’s own words, this open ending ‘juxtaposes the two possible trajectories of the protagonist’s life: continuing to struggle or giving up hope for a better standard of life’.17 In his reading from a broader socio-political perspective, Berry has argued that this doubling could be ‘a symptom of compulsory progress under conditions of Chinese neo-liberalism, which combines a one-party authoritarian political system with a market economy structured around growth’ (2013: 14). Despite the different socio-historical situations of Italy in the 1950s and contemporary China, the compulsive attitude towards wealth is also the driving force of The Swindle. At the time of the Italian economic boom, Fellini managed to emphasize the contrast between those who lived in central Rome and those who lived in its poorer neighbourhoods or in the country; he also showed how everyone was already involved in the same quest for money. Moreover, the two films emphasize the eye-level perspective and end

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 12 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Spaces and bodies

with a sudden shift of identification. In Fellini’s film, Augusto, the con man 18. Xia zhi/Summer Solstice (2007) and whose perspective the film adopts, is the focus for such a shift. Towards the Lao Lütou/Old Donkey end of the film, Augusto carries out the same scam he has performed many (2009) are Li Ruijun’s times and with which the film opened: he and his accomplices go around the two previous films. Fly with the Crane was first outskirts of Rome posing as priests to extort money from naive country folks. screened at the 69th The game seems to end when they meet a farming family with a disabled Venice Film Festival on daughter. The viewer is encouraged to assume that Augusto has taken pity 5 September 2012. on her and therefore he has not collected the money. However, when his accomplices beat him for having taken such a decision and search his body, the money is actually found. In Schoonover’s reading, the diegesis of The Swindle appears in line with neorealist tradition until it reveals that several key moments were kept from the viewer, who was ‘swindled’ by the only apparent ‘realistic claim’ taken from the start (2012: 192). I go on to argue that the ending of the film is also a puzzling sequence. Augusto’s agonizing body lies at least for a day and a night on a deserted roadside. A dissolve into the dark shot of the road suggests that he is dead but one last sequence goes against this assumption. He struggles to crawl up to the street, looking at a young country woman with children pass- ing by, and utters his final words before dying, while the image is already full of a pervasive bright light as if in a vision. Thus, both film endings put the linear narrative at stake and move away from the representation of the contingent reality. These endings also encourage a reflection on the constraints of the individual under social pressures. In The Swindle, Augusto’s final act differs from his previous scams as it is motivated by his wish to support his daughter Patrizia. She wants to study to become a teacher and she is ready to work part-time in order to support herself, but for her to be employed as a cashier she needs to pay a deposit of a few hundred thousand lire. In Lotus, Xiao He is a teacher and ready to support herself in order to improve her position but whatever attempt she makes, the system also constrains her. Regardless of Xiao He’s final choice, she remains an outcast who does not conform to social conven- tions: despite her independent attitude she remains an easy and vulnerable target. Augusto’s ‘descent to hell’, to quote Peter Bondanella’s reading of The Swindle (2002: 27), finds echoes in the way Lotus depicts a woman’s journey through the hostile space of the Chinese metropolis. The films of Li Ruijun and Wang Bing also offer insights into the legacy of Italian Neorealism but by means of different cinematic approaches to rural and peripheral settings. The countryside no longer offers any hope, as we can see in Li Ruijun’s Fly with the Crane and Wang Bing’s San zimei/Three Sisters (2012). Fly with the Crane is Li Ruijun’s third film and, like his previous works, is set in the director’s hometown: the Gansu region in the northwest of China.18 Family members and friends were involved in the film-making process and compose the majority of the cast. While adopting documentary features such as shooting on location and using the local dialect, Li Ruijun also attempts to define his own visual style. The film focuses on Old Ma, once a highly respected village carpenter. Together with his friend Cao, they used to make coffins until the government imposed cremation and banned traditional burials. When Cao dies, Ma worries about his own impending death. He starts going to the lakeshore everyday, ignoring his children who think he is senile but with the lively support of his grandchildren. He awaits the white crane that should, according to traditional beliefs, take his soul to heaven. And, even if the crane does not appear, he eventually manages to

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 13 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Elena Pollacchi

19. Conversation with Li fulfil his wish by getting buried alive by his grandchildren so that the crane Ruijun, Beijing, 9 July 2013. can peacefully carry his soul to heaven. By adopting the perspective of the ageing man and by emphasizing his 20. Jia Zhangke has also referred to Chung tiredness of living in a world that is forgetting its roots, the film prepares Kuo in his Haishang the seven-minute-long closing sequence of the old man being buried alive chuanqi/I Wish I Knew by his grandchildren. Old Ma moves slowly, he often falls asleep in long (2010) by interviewing the party member who takes that encourage the viewer to sympathize with his final decision. Yet assisted Antonioni’s the drama is always downplayed and the emotional flow is often inter- production crew in rupted by ethnographic takes on the rural life as in the long sequence Shanghai. in which the villagers work in the river. Through its partly documentary 21. Yang (2012) discusses approach the film tackles the increasing distance between the country- the debate on Antonioni’s Chung Kuo side with its traditional beliefs and Chinese urbanization. Also, it high- and its influence on lights how the latter affects family relations: the profound understanding Chinese cinema. between Old Ma and his grandchildren is contrasted with the estrangement between him and his daughter. The importance attributed to human relations in the film and the intensity of the bond between the old man and his grandchildren mean that the tragic ending is received as a peaceful and positive one. In Li Ruijun’s own words, ‘the centrality of the subjects in the film image derives from [his] admiration for Antonioni’s Chung Kuo and De Sica’s Bicycles Thieves’.19 Indeed, Antonioni’s Chung Kuo, Cina/Chung Kuo (1972) has repre- sented an object of admiration and an opportunity for many young directors to look at a unique take on a bygone China.20 In his remarks on Antonioni, Li Ruijun refers to a group of Chinese directors who were looking for tickets for a screening of Antonioni’s documentary at the Beijing Film Academy as late as in 2004. It is worth remembering that Chung Kuo was also at the centre of a harsh political debate. The film was banned in China and its circulation remained limited until well into the reform era of the 1980s.21 Criticism was based on Antonioni’s focus on rural spaces and old faces, instead of show- ing the modernizing socialism Chinese officials expected and wanted to see. His style was a further reason for criticism: as John David Rhodes has noted, ‘[w]hen Antonioni took his abstracting camera to China, at the invitation of the Chinese government in the 1970s, he shot the Chinese landscape (natural and man-made) in a way that was mostly consistent with his manner of shooting Los Angeles in Zabriskie Point (1970)’ (2011: 296). Instead of putting ‘socialism on display’, to quote Rhodes, in abstracting vision from the event, Antonioni’s cinema ‘gives us an articulate visual language for the apprehen- sion of our implication in the creative and destructive forces of global capitalism’ (2011: 297). Chinese film-makers still see Chung Kuo as a model because Antonioni managed to visually put at stake the contrasting forces at play in the Chinese society of that time and created a style that could make images of remote areas travel internationally and be part of a universal cinematic language. In Fly with the Crane Li Ruijun defines his own style, in particular when compared to his earlier works or to other contemporary independent films. Li departs from the ethnographic approach to the rural life of Gansu of his previous works by means of heavily saturated photography, colour effects and the use of contemporary music based on traditional folk songs. It may be argued that such stylistic elements mirror Antonioni in encouraging a process of abstraction: they encourage the viewer to look at the space of the village as a universal space in which the ageing man placed at the centre is, in fact, the epitome of the socio-political constraints experienced

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 14 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Spaces and bodies

by individuals in present-day China. As Murray Pomerance has remarked, 22. Conversation with Li Ruijun, Beijing, 9 July ‘the colour effects we see in Antonioni’s films are often abstract, in the 2013. sense that they are meant to approach and transform the viewer without 23. Fly with the Crane is specific practical reference to the objects in which they inhere’ (2009). The adapted from a short saturated, bright tones of the Gobi desert echo Antonioni’s use of colour story by Su Tong. The effects, in particular those he adopted for the American West in Zabriskie Chinese writer became known for his Wives Point. Yet, in Li Ruijun’s work, references to Italian Neorealism are better and Concubines (1996), read in the light of earlier Chinese directors who were first indebted to the from which Zhang Italian movement. In Li’s view of Italian cinema, ‘the impact of the early Yimou adapted Da hong denglong gaogao Neorealist films can be traced back to the Fourth Generation, as in Xie Fei’s gua/Raise the Red Benmingnian/Black Snow (1989) and in the works of the Fifth Generation Lanterns (1991). such as Zhang Yimou’s Qiu Ju da guansi/The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Yige 24. Unless otherwise dou bu neng shao/Not One Less (1999)’.22 In fact, the use of colour has also stated, Wang Bing’s observations cited been a specific feature of Zhang Yimou’s films, whose impact is evident in this essay were in Li’s work and confirmed by his collaboration with the writer Su Tong.23 collected in a series However, this simply demonstrates that the influence of Italian cinema on of conversations that took place in Beijing, Chinese contemporary film-makers should by no means be seen as a linear 5−10 July 2013. narrative but rather as a process of re-appropriation that cuts across differ- 25. For a study of Wang ent approaches. Bing’s feature film World-acclaimed film-maker Wang Bing has described his own way Jiabiangou/The Ditch of shooting as a continuous process of revising and retracing the heritage (2009) in the light of Pasolini and in relation of film masters. In his own words, ‘when I shoot my films I have in mind to other contemporary Antonioni, Pasolini, Tarkovskij but probably above all Visconti’.24 In interviews, world film-makers, see he has referred to the influence of Italian directors as well as to the cinema Elena Pollacchi (2012). of Tarkovskij, although with varying degrees of importance at different times. 26. Lu’s analysis was first published as ‘Ruins of Here, I identify the various streams of influence from Italian directors in some the future’: Class and of Wang Bing’s documentary works.25 History in Wang Bing’s Wang Bing’s first documentary Tiexi qu. West of the Tracks, which was Tiexi district’ in the New Left Review, shot between 2001 and 2003 in the northern region of Liaoning, prompted 31, January 2005: references to Antonioni’s Il deserto rosso/Red Desert (1964). In this nine- 125–136. hour-long work, Wang Bing captured a vast industrial space in the proc- 27. Wang Bing’s remarks ess of becoming a desolate area as workers were laid off. Also because of on Antonioni’s work its industrial setting, Antonioni’s visual imprint has been the most obvi- were first collected in Beijing, 9 July 2013 and ous. In Lu’s pioneering discussion, it is the ‘aesthetic of the machine’ and in a later interview in the imagery of the first segment of the film that most evoke Antonioni’s Venice on 4 September film setting (2010: 63).26 Moreover, Wang Bing’s approach to the grow- 2013. ing estrangement of the workers from the community recalls Antonioni’s 28. This was the title used for the first focus on alienation. When specifically asked about this film, Wang Bing complete American acknowledges not only Red Desert but also L’avventura/The Adventure (1960) retrospective of Wang as influences. He cites Antonioni mostly for his style and for his ability to Bing’s works at the Harvard Film Archive, explore spaces while evoking the relationships between his characters. In October−December Wang Bing’s words, ‘in Red Desert and The Adventure, the ways the frame 2010. is conceived, its angle, the movements within the shots and the transition between them, all build up a space which goes much beyond its physical, contingent dimension’.27 In Wang Bing’s work, articulation of space is of extreme importance and has led to the definition of his cinema as the interplay of ‘the epic and the everyday’.28 In their analysis of Antonioni’s spaces, Laura Rascaroli and Rhodes argue that ‘[a]t once abstract and yet so materially specific, [spaces] act as stages on which historicized bodies and gazes are geometrically disposed (and collide) according to class, gender, age, clothing, birthplace, accent’ (2008: 45). Such a classifying approach seems to inform the organization of

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 15 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Elena Pollacchi

29. The restored version space in Tiexi qu. West of the Tracks where specific areas such as the plant, the of Stromboli was presented at the 69th changing rooms, the workers’ residential neighbourhoods, and the hospital Venice Film Festival gain relevance not just as powerful backdrops but as stages on which the on 6 September 2012 workers are naturally disposed. It is thanks to their relation to space that the and Wang Bing’s observations on the workers emerge, in this case, as a collective conflicted body. As reform poli- film were collected cies affect the working and social life of the district of Tiexi, even the workers’ after the screening. bodies appear weaker, in need of medical treatment and, finally, as ghostly 30. Wang Bing’s Three figures moving around an emptied space. Sisters was first shown Thus the lesson of Neorealism, which Wang Bing had learned during at the 69th Venice Film Festival on his formative years, together with the French nouvelle vague, shows its stay- 7 September 2012. ing power more in relation to aesthetics and style than to subject matters. 31. Conversation with This was also the case for Rossellini’s Stromboli terra di dio/Stromboli (1950), Wang Bing, Beijing, which left a strong impression on Wang Bing for its powerful inter-play 9 July 2013. between the narrative and the harsh natural landscape and for the ways in which Rossellini managed to engrave his characters into the natural surroundings of the islands.29 Indeed, in Wang Bing’s cinema, the relationship between subjects and spaces – no matter whether an industrial district or the mountainous area where Three Sisters was shot – is a central aspect. Rhodes’ definition of Antonioni’s approach to space as a treatment of both ‘landscapes and the humans and objects that populate it’ (2011: 276–77) proves to be appropri- ate when looking at Three Sisters.30 The film focuses on the daily life of three girls who live mostly by themselves on the mountains of the Yunnan region. The girls’ daily activities, their struggle for life, are turned into an epic story of survival in which the sisters epitomize the hidden side of China’s success. Such a dimension is achieved by means of Wang Bing’s approach to space in which landscapes, humans and objects have equal importance in the frame. Close-ups of the girls’ sparse cooking tools, of their baskets to collect dung are as essential as the long takes in which we see the oldest sister picking the lice off of her younger sister. In the second hour of the film, there is a predominance of long shots of the vast region at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. These not only serve to define the backdrop of the spartan living conditions in that area, but also, and more significantly, they serve to contrast with shots taken from a closer distance such as the medium shot of the older sister that ends an aimless run into the immense countryside. After a tracking shot following her with his handheld camera, Wang Bing eventually frames the girl from a lower angle while she is sitting still on a stone. Such a frame could be read as an empowering shot, in which the tiny girl like a heroine with only the bright blue sky above her and the vast countryside at her feet appears to dominate the immense space. By insisting on such a spatial construction, the viewer is encouraged to become familiar with the landscape in such a way that details are perceived even when they are not actually visible in the frame such as the dung or the potatoes, both necessary for the survival of people and animals. This attention to detail also draws upon Wang Bing’s appreciation for Visconti’s ability to control each single element in the frame. As Wang Bing has stated, ‘Visconti was able not only to engage the viewer with space but also to recreate space and make it feel as real’.31 In his on-going exploration of the conflicted relationship between subjects and spaces, Wang Bing also confirms his interest in exploring the potential of cinema as a universal language. Wang Bing’s social actors- characters and the ways in which they are framed evoke a universal,

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 16 11/29/13 7:10:23 PM Spaces and bodies

spiritual dimension. Such a concern can be read in the light of Pasolini’s 32. Wang Bing’s thoughts on Pasolini were work to which Wang Bing has also referred: ‘Pasolini’s cinema has been able collected in Beijing, to express both the director’s interest for his own time and his concern for 9 July 2013. 32 humanity as such’. As Rhodes has remarked, Pasolini’s concern to expose 33. Conversation with the inequalities brought about by global capitalism was connected with his Wang Bing, Beijing, interest in peripheral spaces and, at least as a project, was intended to shift 9 July 2013. from the specificity of the working class suburbs of Rome to include the rest 34. Conversation with of the world’s slums (2007: 143). Similarly, in his most recent work Feng Ai/’Til Wang Bing, Beijing, 9 July 2013. Madness Do us Part (2013), Wang Bing gets closer to Pasolini’s concern by drawing his attention to a hidden asylum whose patients embody all the possible illnesses of contemporary society. In this four-hour-long documentary in the enclosed social actors of the asylum, the subjects – patients, prison- ers and doctors – incessantly repeat their actions with only minor variations. The interplay between spaces and bodies turns into a claustrophobic experience of enclosure in which darkness dominates as night shots in the dormito- ries account for the majority of the film. Yet, as Wang Bing has stated:

cinema is not only about subject matters but also about what the film image can convey in relation to a broader space than that of the frame. Antonioni’s frames are often empty and so too Pasolini’s images are often not so beautifully crafted. What makes them significant is their being consistent with a vision of the whole cinematic work.33

Also, Wang Bing has openly detached himself from the heritage of the early neorealist films as, in his own words, the ‘narrative of marginal characters in Rossellini’s and De Sica’s early films is often structured in tight relation to the Italian post-war context so that is unable to refer to present-day China’.34 This concluding observation highlights how the staying power of Neorealism should not be simplistically related to a concern for documenting reality but, in fact, its legacy is much more complex.

The influence of Italian Neorealism, a period that Chinese literature defines as starting with Rossellini’s Rome Open City (1945), has been frequently traced from an historical point of view. In particular, Chinese scholars established the connection between Chinese cinema and Italian post-war films on the basis of their common interest in representing people who struggled under political oppression in order to rebuild a collective sense of a nation. Even in the 1980s, during the early reform years, scholarly interest for neorealist works was mainly based on a comparative understanding of China – still defined as a Third world country – and Italy in the aftermath of World War II. In addition to looking at the reality of everyday life, neorealist films were praised for using techniques (location shooting, non-professional actors and documentary footage) that could offer a cheaper and more effective means of production (Chan 2007: 207). Such a configuration of Neorealism confined the movement to a fairly narrow socio- political understanding. Indeed, it contributed to the introduction in China of later Italian films and, during the 1980s, it provided the basis for the study of the neorealist tradition along with the French nouvelle vague. Yet, it was only thanks to the admiration of the Fourth Generation of film-makers – and their teachings to the following generations – that Neorealism and the later works that emerged out of this tradition could have a lasting imprint on Chinese film aesthetics. Jia Zhangke and other directors who studied at the Beijing Film Academy during the 1990s were formally trained at a time when Bazin’s theories came

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 17 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Elena Pollacchi

to prominence along with his praise of neorealist cinema and the French nouvelle vague. Yet many younger film-makers have experienced Italian neorealist films outside film schools, especially once China entered the globalized flow of cultural and media products. The fast-paced Chinese economic transition from a state economy to a market economy, albeit within a socialist state, has elevated China to world power status but also magnified its contradictions. In line with the perception of an increasingly fragmented society, the impact of Italian directors on contemporary Chinese film-makers can be better approached as an on-going process of re-appropriation rather than the lasting imprint of a master teaching. In fact, the notion of Italian Neorealism in modern-day China appears flexible and wide enough to embrace all the various phases of its development: from the wanderings of De Sica and Rossellini in post-war urban spaces to Visconti’s understanding of Neorealism as the battle for freedom and for the deconstruction of the ‘assumed correspondence between reality and its cinematic reproduction’ (Haaland 2012: 158). Contemporary Chinese film-makers, regardless of the scale of their productions, their varying subject matters, and their different approaches, continue to establish a dialogue with Italian directors across a broad spectrum of Italian neorealist cinema. The films discussed in this article account for different cinematic articulations of the relationship between the individuals and their surroundings while sharing a focus on the uncertainty and estrangement of the human experience in China. Such uncertainty is reflected also in the difficult positioning of these film-makers, mainly at the margins of the Chinese film industry. Hence, it is not surprising that while mainstream films monopolize production and distribution circuits worldwide, film-makers who are concerned with the representation of the individual in increasingly competitive (and often dehumanizing) societies evoke the neorealist tradition. And while art cinema is everywhere marginalized by market pressure, the distinctive voice of Neorealism offers hope that some resistance to global commercialism will continue.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Chinese film-makers who have agreed to share their thoughts and views on Italian cinema, in particular Liu Shu, Li Ruijun and Wang Bing. I would also like to thank Dr. Jan Romgard and Jonathan Sellers for their feedback and the two anonymous reviewers for their precious comments and insights.

References Antonioni, Michelangelo (1960), L’avventura/The Adventure, Rome: Cino del Duca and Produzioni Cinematografiche Europee; Paris: Société Cinématographique Lyre. —— (1964), Il deserto rosso/Red Desert, Rome: Film Duemila; Paris: Francoriz. —— (1970), Zabriskie Point, Los Angeles: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, Inc.; Rome: Carlo Ponti and Trianon Productions. —— (1972), Chung Kuo, Cina/Chung Kuo, Rome: RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana and SACIS. Beccaria, Marcella (2006), Yang Fudong, Ginevra-Milano: Skira. Berry, Chris (2009), ‘Jia Zhangke and the temporality of postsocialist Chinese cinema: In the now (and then)’, in Olivia Khoo and Sean Metzger (eds), Future of Chinese Cinema. Technologies and Temporalities in Chinese Screen Culture, Bristol, UK and Chicago, USA: Intellect, pp. 113−38.

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 18 11/29/13 7:10:51 PM Spaces and bodies

—— (2013), ‘The Chinese woman doubled: An essay in memory of Paul Willemen (1944–2012)’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 14: 1, pp. 14−25. Bondanella, Peter (2002), The Films of Federico Fellini, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bresson, Robert (1959), Pickpocket, Paris: Agnès Delahie Production. Brunetta, Gian Piero (2009), The History of Italian Cinema: A Guide to Italian Film from Its Origins to the Twenty-First Century (trans. Jeremy Parzen), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chan, Natalia Sui-Hung (2007), ‘Cinematic neorealism: Hong Kong cinema and Fruit Chan’s 1997 Trilogy’, in Laura E. Ruberto and Kristi M. Wilson (eds), Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 207−25. De Sica, Vittorio (1946), Sciuscià/Shoeshine, Rome: Cinematografica Alfa. —— (1948), Ladri di biciclette/Bicycle Thieves, Rome: Produzioni De Sica. Fellini, Federico (1954), La strada/The Road, Rome: Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica. —— (1955), Il bidone/The Swindle, Rome: Titanus and S. G. C. [Mario De Vecchi Films]. —— (1957), Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria, Rome: Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica; Paris: Les Films Marceau. Giovacchini, Saverio and Sklar, Robert (2012) (eds), Global Neorealism. The Transnational History of a Film Style, Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. Haaland, Thorun (2012), Italian Neorealist Cinema, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Harvey, David (2012), ‘The China story’, Rebel Cities. From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, London and New York: Verso, pp. 64−66. Hewitt, Duncan (2009), China. Getting Rich First: a Modern Social History, New York: Pegasus Books. Hu, Dahai and Qu, Zhuan (2011), ‘Yidali xin xianshizhuyi dui Zhongguo dianying de yingxiang chuyi – yi yingpian “Zixingche de ren” he “Xiao Wu” de wenben bijiao wei lie’/‘The influence of Italian Neorealism on Chinese cinema: A comparative study of Xiao Wu and Bicycle Thieves’, Dianying Pingjie/Movie Review, 2011: 21, pp. 11−13. Jia, Zhangke (1997), Xiao Wu//Pickpocket, Beijing: Beijing Film Academy; Hong Kong: Hu Tong Communications; Fenyang: Radiant Advertising Co. —— (2001), Zhantai/Platform, Hong Kong: Hu Tong Communications; Tokyo: T-Mark Inc.; Paris: Arcam International. —— (2002), Ren xiao yao/Unknown Pleasures, Hong Kong: Hu Tong Communications; Tokyo: T-Mark Inc. and Office Kitano; Paris: Lumen Films. —— (2010), Haishang chuanqi/I Wish I Knew, Hong Kong: Xstream Pictures; Shanghai: Shanghai Film Group Corp. Li, Ruijun (2007), Xia zhi/Summer Solstice, Beijing: Li Ruijun Film Studio. —— (2010), Lao lütou/The Old Donkey, Beijing: Li Ruijun Film Studio and Indie Workshop. —— (2012), Gaosu tamen wo cheng baihe qu le/Fly with the Crane, Beijing: Heaven Pictures Culture and Media Co. and Li Ruijun Film Studio; Nanjing: Nanjing Reade Cultural Communications Limited. Li, Zhenhua (2012), ‘Yang Fudong (interview)’, BOMB, 118: Winter 2012, pp. 56−63.

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 19 11/29/13 4:35:31 PM Elena Pollacchi

Lin, Xudong, Zhang Yaxuan, Gu Zheng (2003) (eds), Jia Zhangke dianying/ Films by Jia Zhangke, Beijing: Zhongguo mangwen chubanshe. Liu, Jin (2006), ‘The rhetoric of local languages as the marginal: Chinese underground and independent films by Jia Zhangke and others’, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, 18: 2, pp. 163−205. Liu Shu (2012), Xiao He/Lotus, Beijing: Hour Hand Film Workshop. Lu, Xinyu (2010), ‘West of the Tracks: History and class-consciousness’, in C. Berry, X. Lu and L. Rofel (eds), The Chinese Documentary Film Movement. For the Public Record, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp. 57−76. Marchetti, Gina (2011), ‘Bicycle Thieves and Pickpockets in the “Desert of the Real”: Transnational Chinese cinema, postmodernism, and the transcen- dental style’, in V. P. Y. Lee (ed.), East Asian Cinemas: Regional Flows and Global Transformations, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 61−86. Marcus, Millicent (1986), Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. McGrath, Jason (2007), ‘The Independent cinema of Jia Zhangke: From postsocialist realism to a transnational aesthetic’, in Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 81−114. —— (2008), Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Criticism in the Market Age, Stanford: Stanford University Press. Ni, Zhen (2002), Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy (trans. Chris Berry), Durham and London: Duke University Press. Pickowicz, Paul G. (2012), China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy, Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Pollacchi, Elena (2012), ‘Wang Bing’s The Ditch: Spaces of history between documentary and fiction’, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 6: 2, pp. 189–202. Pomerance, Murray (2009), ‘Notes on Some Limits of Technicolor: The Antonioni Case’, Senses of Cinema, Issue 53, http://sensesofcinema.com/ 2009/feature-articles/notes-on-some-limits-of-technicolor-the-antonioni- case/. Accessed 14 August 2013. Rascaroli, Laura and Rhodes, John David (2008), ‘Antonioni and the place of modernity: A tribute’, The Journal of Cinema and Media, 49: 1, pp. 42−47. Rhodes, John David (2007), Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. —— (2011), ‘Antonioni and the development of style’, in Laura Rascaroli and John David Rhodes (eds), Antonioni. Centenary Essays, London: British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 276−300. Rossellini, Roberto (1945), Roma città aperta/Rome Open City, Rome: Minerva Film and Excelsa Film. —— (1950), Stromboli terra di Dio/Stromboli, Rome: Berit Films and Los Angeles: RKO Radio Pictures. Ruberto, Laura E. and Wilson, Kristi M. (2007) (eds), Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema, Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Schoonover, Karl (2012), Brutal Vision. The Neorealist Body in Postwar Italian Cinema, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. Shiel, Mark (2006), Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City, London: Wallflower Press. Su Tong (1996), ‘Wives and Concubines’, in Su Tong (2012), Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas (trans. Michael S. Duke), Harmondsworth: Penguin. Voci, Paola (2010), China on Video: Smaller-Screen Realities, London: Routledge.

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 20 11/29/13 4:35:32 PM Spaces and bodies

Wang Bing (2003), Tiexi qu/Tiexi qu. West of the Tracks, Beijing: Wang Bing Film Workshop. —— (2009), Jiabiangou/The Ditch, Hong Kong: Wil Productions; Paris: Les Films de l’Étranger and Arte; Bruxelles: Entre Chien et Loup. —— (2012), San zimei/Three Sisters, Hong Kong: Chinese Shadows; Paris: Album Productions. —— (2013), Feng ai/‘Til Madness do us part, Paris: Y. Production; Tokyo: Moviola. Xie, Fei (1989), Benmingnian/Black Snow, Beijing: Beijing Youth Film Studio. Yang Yishu (2012), ‘Andongniaoni de “Zhongguo”: kan yu beikan’/‘Antonioni’s “China”: To see and to be seen’, Wenyi yanjiu/Literature and Arts Studies, 2012: 10, pp. 106−12. Zhang, Xudong (2010), ‘Poetics of vanishing: The films of Jia Zhangke’, New Left Review, 63 (May/June 2010), pp. 71−88. Zhang Yimou (1991), Da hong denglong gaogao gua/Raise the Red Lanterns, Beijing: China Film Group Co-production Corp.; Hong Kong: Era International Ltd. —— (1992), Qiu Ju da guansi/The Story of Qiu Ju, Beijing: Beijing Youth Film Studio; Hong Kong: SIL-Metropole Organization Ltd. —— (1999), Yige dou bu neng shao/Not One Less, Guanxi: Guanxi Film Studios; Hong Kong: Columbia Pictures Film Prods. Asia. Zhang, Zhen (2007) (ed.), The Urban Generation, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 81−114. Zhu, Ying (2003), Chinese Cinema during the Era of Reform: The Ingenuity of the System, Westport: Praeger.

Suggested citation Pollacchi, E. (2014), ‘Spaces and bodies: The legacy of Italian cinema in contemporary Chinese film-making’, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies 2: 1, pp. 7–21, doi: 10.1386/jicms.2.1.7_1

Contributor details Elena Pollacchi has a Ph.D. in Chinese Film Studies from the University of Cambridge and a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship from Stockholm University. She teaches Chinese Film History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and serves as a correspondent for Chinese and Korean cinema for the Venice International Film Festival. She also serves as an invited curator for the Asian section of the Trondheim International Film Festival (Norway). Her research interests and publications encompass contemporary Chinese cinema (aesthetics, production and distribution circuits), the Chinese film market, transnational East Asian Cinema and Chinese film festivals. Contact: Stockholm University, Department of Oriental Languages – Chinese, Kräftriket 4B, room 227, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]

Elena Pollacchi has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.indd 21 12/11/13 5:13:11 PM DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA

Experience global culture through the magic of ﬁlm

The Directory of World Cinema aims to play a part in moving intelligent, scholarly criticism beyond the academy. Each volume of the Directory provides a culturally representative insight into a national or regional cinema through a collection of reviews, essays, resources, and film stills highlighting significant films and players. Over time, new editions will be published for each volume, gradually building a comprehensive guide to the cinema of each region.

To contribute to the project or submit a review please visit the website

WWW.WORLDCINEMADIRECTORY.ORG

To view a complete list of books and journals published by Intellect, visit our catalogue at www.intellectbooks.com. Ordering information: North America: 1-800-621-2736 / UK: +44 (0)117 958 9910

JICMS_2.1_Pollacchi_7-21.inddCINEMA WORLD 22 11/29/13 4:35:33 PM