Center Stage (1991)
Review of Center Stage / 阮玲玉 (1991)
This was one of those movies that I just happened to know never existed, but I should have known existed. Oh many I absolutely love women in film history, as well as the lead actress in this (Maggie Cheung), so I’m genuinely surprised that I had never heard of this movie before. It was the third movie that I watched with my Criterion subscription, and apparently it’s only on Criterion unless you want to watch a bootlegged version of it.
Anyways, I absolutely loved this movie. I’m going to say it upfront. It was filmed in 1991, but its hybrid nature and the way that it presents the story of such an important woman in film history makes it so relevant and fresh. It’s amazing to me how far we’ve come in film and technological history, but how we are still the same in regards to the tabloid situation.
I’ve said a lot, so let’s begin this review.
Content
Maggie Cheung stars as the doomed Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu. Ruan was once one of the biggest film stars in China, which was a miracle because of her background. She was born poor and her father died, leaving her mother the only one to make money. Ruan saw this and took up acting in order to provide an income for her family.
And it worked. She became very famous, was an it girl, but behind the scenes her life was troubled. This film is about her career and eventual downfall. At the age of twenty-four, Ruan Lingyu, after having multiple suicide attempts, finally succeeded.
There’s a distinctly hybrid nature of this film that makes it absolutely fascinating to watch and pick apart. We have the normal cinematic style in which we follow Cheung as Ruan, following a script and recreating her life in such a visually appealing way.
This movie is lush in visuals, making it completely beautiful treat on the eyes. But we also have the blend of documentary-style techniques. The directing team interviews people who personally knew Ruan, adding that footage onto the screen, recreates behind the scenes footage with modern actors, and then we have actual footage from Ruan’s silent films actually cut into the narrative.
I found this style of filmmaking to be slightly jarring, not because I haven’t seen it before, but because of the story that it was telling. Ruan’s story is quite delicate, something that holds a lot of pain and suffering, and it didn’t end well.
It’s even more complex because of how she was pushed to the edge because of the tabloids honing in and stabbing at her because of a man taking advantage of her in the past, then in the film we have people who knew her actually being interviewed.
These are the people who, in a way, failed to protect her against the evils of the world, which is so tragic. Then to actually see Ruan juxtaposed against Cheung’s performance of her is another level of complexity, letting us in on the world that Cheung is inhabiting and recreating. It reminds us that this is a movie. That this isn’t reality playing out on the screen.
In the review on Roger Ebert for this movie, they specifically bring up how the nature of this film is meant to isolate the audience and make them think, which is the angle I tend to agree with for this movie.
It’s brilliant considering who we’re talking about: Ruan. No one wanted to sit and think about her, which is what led to the very tragedy this movie is about. It forces you to deconstruct the narratives that were created around this situation and make a conclusion for yourself. We don’t actually know the facts of a situation, and the more you try to convince yourself that you know the truth, the more murky the truth actually becomes.
I also really want to bring up that the 1920s and 1930s settings are absolutely beautiful. I thought Cheung absolutely belonged in this era from the way she rocked the eyebrows and outfits. Great work from the costume designer and the set team, I was quite immersed in this world because of their awesome job.
Overall Thoughts
I think it’s a brilliant film and you need to watch it. It wasn’t exactly the most fun at times, if some would watch it they would call it unpleasant, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. I was hooked in by the early scene in which Cheung is in the snow, I thought that was an absolutely stunning shot and a piece of artwork in itself.
This was one of Cheung’s first roles and she clearly owned it, which didn’t go unnoticed—she won some awards for Best Actress for her performance as Ruan Lingyu.
And if you’re a history buff like me, you’ll find some pockets of Chinese film history tucked in the crevices of this tale—how silent film reigned supreme in 1930s China, how several young women were killing themselves in the industry (not just Ruan). It inspired me to sit and read more about the topic, as I found myself sorely lacking in this knowledge.
