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Got a few million to spare?
A rarely seen hand-scroll created in 1945 by master Chinese ink painter Fu Baoshi (1904-65) will be auctioned off at the Beijing Forever Autumn Auctions on November 9 at the Sofitel Wanda Beijing.
Estimated to be worth between 18-28 million yuan ($2.4-3.7 million), the 3.2-meter-long ink painting was inspired by ancient Chinese artist Wang Xizhi's essay and calligraphic work entitled Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Poem Collections (Lanting Xu).
Attached to the original painting, which crosses over landscapes and portraits, are comments and appraisals inscribed by Chinese connoisseurs and artists such as Wu Zuoren, Liu Haisu, Zhu Qizhan, Xu Beihong and Tang Yun, making it 8.2-meter-long in total.
Wang Xizhi (AD 303-361), best known as the "Sage of Chinese Calligraphic Art", created the work at the biannual gathering for top literati at Lanting near Shaoxing, in East China's Zhejiang Province in the spring of AD 353.
Wang's original calligraphic work is lost and survives only in several fine traced copies and other forms of duplications such as rubbings.
Small town wins big movie
The Western Trunk Line, a Chinese movie that tells the tale of a remote town at the end of 1970s, won the Special Jury Prize at the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday.
"I have been thinking about making such a movie since 1994," director Li Jixian said at the awarding ceremony at Shibuya's Bunkamura, Tokyo. "I met quite a few challenges in making screenplay, but I never thought of quitting."
The Band's Visit, a movie jointly produced by Israel and France, grabbed the top prize, the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix. British film Dangerous Parking by Peter Howitt won for best director, while the Best Actress and Best Actor awards respectively went to Shefali Shah (Indian movie Gandhi My Father) and Damian UI ( Polish movie Tricks).
Two popular films in the competition sector, the festival's opening movie Crossing Over, which is jointly produced by Japan and China, and the US movie Reign Over Me, featuring a post-September 11 storyline, did not win any awards.
HK film fans get eyeful of Francophile style
The 36th French Cinepanorama will run from December 7 to 16, the Alliance Francaise of Hong Kong said on Monday. The French Cinepanorama, a film festival first launched in 1953, introduces new French films to Hong Kong audiences.
The 36th French Cinepanorama will offer 23 of the latest and hottest French movies, which have been classified into three categories: New Films 2007, Reels Discovery and Focus on French Film Noir.
Passion Blows Up, the theme of this year's festival, focuses on the human passion for the cinema, life and romance.
China Daily-Xinhua
(China Daily 11/01/2007 page18)
