Coming soon... Anna May Wong: The Art of Reinvention, BFI September & October

 

Just a quick note to make sure you’re all aware of what promises to be one of the finest silent seasons at the BFI in years this autumn! Anna May Wong was a unique presence in early Hollywood and the season includes some of her earliest appearances when her screen presence was as undeniable as the studio’s inability to turn her into a fully-fledged star. Her best films were – mostly – made in Europe and those are here too along with her talkies most of which I haven’t seen so, if you’re looking for me in September and October I shall mostly be gazing at the screen on the Southbank as Anna’s legend glows brighter! 

Quoting the press release:

“This season celebrates Anna May Wong’s transnational life and career, as well as her collaborations with and inspiration for Asian diasporic communities. From silent cinema to multiple-language talkies, vaudeville to television, Hollywood to Europe and beyond, Wong constantly reinvented herself, even when being routinely typecast in roles and narratives confined by racist and sexist stereotypes and taboos.

The illustrated discussion INTRODUCTION TO ANNA MAY WONG’S REINVENTIONS on 8 September, led by season curator Xin Peng and featuring Wong’s niece Anna Wong, author Katie Gee Salisbury and film historian Pamela Hutchinson, will consider Wong’s key roles and films, discuss her life and career, and reflect on her legacy. The event will be followed by a book signing of Salisbury’s Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong.”

 

Films screening will include:

Drifting (Tod Browning, 1923), restored by the George Eastman Museum

Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924), restored by the George Eastman Museum

The Toll of the Sea (Chester M. Franklin, 1922)

The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924)

Song (Richard Eichberg, 1928), restored by Filmmuseum Düsseldorf

Pavement Butterfly (Richard Eichberg, 1929), restored in 4K by Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum

Piccadilly (Ewald André Dupont, 1929), restored by the BFI National Archive with support from Simon and Harley Hessel

Hai Tang (Richard Eichberg, Walter Summers, Jean Kemm, 1930)

Daughter of the Dragon (Lloyd Corrigan, 1931) on a restored 35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive

Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932)

Java Head (J. Walter Ruben, 1934)

Dangerous to Know (Robert Florey, 1938)

Daughter of Shanghai (Robert Florey, 1937)

Lady from Chunking (William Nigh, 1942)

Portrait in Black (Michael Gordon, 1960) 

Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, 1961)

“A key scholar lecture ‘A YELLOW SPOT ON THE SILVER SCREEN’ - ANNA MAY WONG’S PERFORMATIVE PLEASURE on 2 October will see Professor Yiman Wang reanimate Wong’s legacy and delve into her performative pleasure to advance a method of enjoying the actor’s paradoxical agency as a tragedienne and a comedienne.

Presented in partnership with the Department of Film Studies, King's College London, and Cambridge Film & Screen, the event will be followed by a signing of Wang’s book To be an Actress: Labor and Performance in Anna May Wong’s Cross-Media World.”

 

Watch out for further details on the BFI’s website!

 

One for the Clive Brook fans...