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PRESENTING WITH LU CHUAN "CITY OF LIFE & DEATH 南京! 南京!" IN PARIS

Thursday, Jul 8, 2010 6:27PM / Event / Asian Cinema / Members only
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I had the chance yesterday during the 8^th Paris Cinema International Film Festival to meet for the second time Chinese writer/director Lu Chuan 陸川, 4 years after the French theatrical release of his second feature film « Kekexili : Mountain Patrol 可可西里» (at that time, I interviewed him for a French magazine named “Mad Asia”).

This time, I actually had the honour to introduce with him at the festival, his last movie “City of Life and Death南京! 南京!”, a powerful and moving masterpiece about the Nanking Massacre of 1937, which took almost five years to be made (It was actually presented at the HAF – Asian Film Financing Forum back in 2005).

This movie that I discovered on big screen last April at the Udine Far East Film Festival was a huge success in China last year and won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2009 (Best Film), two awards at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia (Best Directing + Best Cinematography) and two prizes at the Asian Film Awards last March in Hong Kong (Best Film + Best Director).

Among the few questions that I asked the director during the presentation, there was one about a rumour that the movie was shot in colour in the beginning and then put in black and white to tone down the violence. And this rumour was actually wrong. It was an aesthetic choice decided since the beginning that it’d be a black and white movie.

“City of Life and Death” will be released officially in the French theatres on July 21th, 2010 and I think I’ll go to watch it again.

Fred Ambroisine (July 8^th, 2010)

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Entry comments (1)

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JoanneSanderson
posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 2:23PM [Report]

I honestly feel the black & white actually made it more harrowing for some reason. I appreciated seeing City of Life and Death. The Nanjing incident was glossed over in this country, none of us knew much about it.Amazing film.

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Frederic Ambroisine

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Frederic Ambroisine is a Hong Kong cinema expert and documentary director who has made over 140 DVD bonus features for film distribution companies in France, the UK, the USA and Germany...
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Frederic Ambroisine is a Hong Kong cinema expert and documentary director who has made over 140 DVD bonus features for film distribution companies in France, the UK, the USA and Germany. Born in France, his passion and knowledge of Asian cinema led him to become a regular writer since 2002 for the French magazines Kumite, Asia Pulp and Mad Asia. He is an artistic consultant, writer and director of DVD extra features for Wild Side Film’s 100+ DVD/Blu-Ray collection “Shaw Brothers – Les Essentiels”. Fredederic visits Hong Kong annually and has interviewed hundreds of cinema industry personalities over the years. Many of his interviews and extra features have appeared on dvds/blu-rays from CTV International, Pathé Distribution, Des Films, StudioCanal, BQHL, One Plus One, Eureka Entertainment, Image Entertainment, Koch Media, Anolis, Tiberius Film and Galileo Medien Ag. His feature-length documentary “Fica: From the Near East to the Far East” was screened in 2010 at the Vesoul International Asian Film Festival. In 2011 Frederic directed the official “Making Of” documentary for Michele Placido’s action thriller “Le Guetteur” (The Lookout) starring Daniel Auteuil, Matthieu Kassovitz, Olivier Gourmet and Violante Placido.
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Occupation: Director , Screenwriter , Magazine Editor
Age: 37
Gender: Male
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