Chinese Opera Film Series - Double Feature: Romance of the Western Chamber and Two Stars in the Milky Way with Live Accompaniment by Donald Sosin

The University of Chicago Smart Museum of Art, Film Studies Center, Department of Cinema and Media Studies presents this double feature with live accompaniment of Chinese Opera.

Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiang Ji) is the first screen adaptation of a classical play of the same title from the Yuan Dynasty (1234-1368). The film chronicles the blossoming affair between a young scholar and a courtier's daughter, set against the backdrop of a bandit siege. One of the first films from the martial-arts-magic spirit genre cycle, it showcases a unique blend of operatic performances and cinematic inventions. The extant print of the film is a shortened European version preserved by the Netherland Film Archive, thanks to the film's tour in Europe in 1928-1929.?(Hou Yao, China, 1927, 35mm print courtesy of EYE International, 59 min)

In Two Stars in the Milky Way, a well-known film actor meets a pretty, Westernized singer who is to perform alongside him in a film about traditional China. After a courtship involving mini-golf with mini-pagodas, the two stars fall in love among the sets and studios of the rapidly modernizing Chinese film industry. Showcasing Art Deco Shanghai in all its glory, the film plumbs the clash of social mores in 1920s China, as the demands of provincial life catch up with the modern lovers. The title refers to a legend about lovers who were torn apart and turned into stars in the Milky Way.
(Tomsie Sze, China, 1931, 87 min)

Featuring a live score performed by pianist Donald Sosin. With more than one thousand film scores written and recorded to date, Donald Sosin is one of today's leading silent film composers, and a regular performer at the world's largest silent film festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, among many other festivals, museums and music venues.

In conjunction with the exhibition Performing Images: Opera in Chinese Visual Culture at the Smart Museum (February 13 - June 15, 2014), this film series celebrates the Chinese passion for opera and theater that permeated the visual and material world of everyday life during the Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911).

Sponsored by The Smart Museum of Art, Film Studies Center, Department of Cinema and Media Studies.