Excerpts from Variety

(en français un autre avis ici)

« Exquisitely-costumed and voluptuously shot, the film evokes life in the Qing Dynasty court with studied elegance and rare intimacy that make it more than just another Bertolucci or Zhang Yimou wannabe. »

« Fan, at perhaps her most imperious and brittle, plays the beautiful Ulanara, second empress to Qianlong. Not only is she jealous about the emperor’s favors to other consorts, but she is deeply insecure about his undying love for his late wife. When she sees (or imagines) his longing at the sight of the portrait of the late Empress Xiaoxian drawn by Castiglione, she entreats Qianlong to commission one of herself as well. She hopes the painting will arouse the same desire in him — a commentary on the power of the image and the cultural differences between the East and the West regarding art’s purpose, whether to interpret or reproduce reality. »

 » what makes De Meaux’s version interesting, if not exactly original, is that Ulanara is not positioned as a passive object of the male gaze, nor put on a pedestal. As much as Attiret studies her, for technical purposes, Ulanara is the one who expresses curiosity about his occidental theories of art, his faith and views on love, including his vow of chastity. The way the two look at one another is dramatized to probe whether art and beauty have universal standards, as implied in a scene when the Chief Eunuch Chen (King Shih-chieh) asks Attiret if the imperial consorts and their ladies-in-waiting look attractive to Western eyes. »

« Veteran Taiwanese actor King is creepily inscrutable as a eunuch, as is Huang, who conveys the monarch’s absolute power by making neither his wrath nor his pleasure discernible, when he sees her portrait by Attiret. »

« Acting as his own cinematographer, de Meaux aptly conveys an outsider’s vision of Chinese art and culture, meticulously framing every shot like a painting. His beautiful approach recalls Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” while the delicate lighting doesn’t overdo chiaroscuro effects. »

 

PRODUCTION: (France-China) A Hengda Film Co. (in China), Rezo Films (in France) release of an Evergrande Pictures, SFDC, Anna Sanders Films production in association with Back Up Films. (International sales: All Rights Entertainment, Hong Kong, Paris.) Producers: Charles de Meaux, Timothy Mou, Huang Tao. Co-producers: Lattes, Lim Chin Siew.