Chinese blog claims top spot Jul 20, 2007
Xu won international acclaim when she won the best director award for Letter From An Unknown Woman at the 2004 San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. Huang Ke, an analyst with Sina, told Reuters Xu's website has had two million more hits since July 12 breakthrough. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Actress 'most widely read blogger' Jul 19, 2007
Xu won international acclaim when she won the best director award for "Letter From An Unknown Woman" at the 2004 San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. Leading blog search engine Technorati has said Xu's blog recorded last year the most incoming links of any on the Internet, according to the online edition of the China Daily. (CNN -- International)
BLOG CAPTURES CHINA'S FANCY Jul 18, 2007
" Her blog offers a glimpse into her life in the hope that readers see her not just as a celebrity but, as she says, a regular "Beijing-born girl. " "In the past, actors seemed mysterious, as if they came out of nowhere," she said. "By writing about my daily life, it resonates with people that we are all alike. (San Francisco Chronicle)
About last night May 27, 2007
LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948). For his opulent Hollywood masterpiece, master-of-doomed-love Max Ophuls put a tragic, fertile twist on fornication in the pre-sexual-revolution era: Smitten as a teen by philandering concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan), who lives (and loves) next door, Lisa Berndl (Joan Fontaine) has a long-awaited rendezvous with the ivory tinkler and winds up preggers. (Boston Globe)
AFI showcasing Keaton May 10, 2007
Mr. Ophuls had directed three exceptional movies in Hollywood during the late 1940s -- "Letter from an Unknown Woman," "Caught" and "The Reckless Moment." The very titles seem to evoke his attraction to doomed romantic liaisons. James Mason, a co-star of both "Caught" and "Reckless Moment," composed a memorable short verse about the director's style: "A shot that does not call for tracks/Is agony for poor dear Max,/Who, separated from his dolly,/Is wrapped in deepest melancholy./Once, when they... (Washington Times, DC)
Rise Of The Dragon Girls May 4, 2007
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'Spotlight' on German director (Gary Arnold) Jul 8, 2006
It shares affinities with the Max Ophuls classics "Letter From an Unknown Woman" and "The Earrings of Madame de ... ." If you think you have seen the actor playing the heroine's undesirable suitor, you have: He's Siegfried Breuer, later cast by Carol Reed as one of Harry Lime's sinister Vienna cronies in "The Third Man." In 1944, Mr. Kautner followed "Romance" with "Great Freedom No. 7," which united the director with an established star, Hans Albers, who had partnered Marlene Dietrich in "The... (Washington Times)
The film everyone was afraid to make Jun 10, 2006
" .Thank You for Smoking opens next week, Rob Reiner: Son of Carl, actor-director best known for his collaborations with Mel Brooks and Steve Martin. Rob's biggest hit was When Harry Met Sally but he is revered above all for the sublime This Is Spinal Tap. Sofia Coppola: Daughter of Francis. Also, cousin of actors Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage. Sofia quickly made her name with The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. Samira Makhmalbaf: Daughter of Mohsen, a key figure in the new Iranian... (Telegraph.co.uk)
Asian American Film Festival Picks Mar 13, 2006
"Letter from an Unknown Woman," a Chinese film that Mark Lee Ping-bin shot right before "Cafe Lumiere," is a fascinating and unapologetically old-fashioned remake of Max Ophuls' classic 1948 Hollywood weepie starring Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan. The twist here is that this story, which has been told from a male viewpoint (Ophuls adapted an Austrian short story by Stefan Zweig), is now written and directed by its female star, the elegant Xu Jinglei. (San Francisco Chronicle)
