From Oscar-winning American blockbusters to low-budget French art-house flicks, the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival has something for everybody.
Zhang Bin, a manager at the Shanghai Film Art Center, said the most popular films among the 200 or so movies showing there have been the Oscar-winning film "No Country for Old Men," Wong Kar-wai's latest movie "Ashes of Time Redux," a remake of his 1994 classic, and Hollywood gangster-crime film "American Gangster."
Officials from Stellar Cinema City and Yonghua Cinema said award-winning films as "The Talented Mr Ripley," "Cries and Whispers" and "Wild Strawberries" have proved popular.
Robert Burton, a movie fan from Canada who is on a Shanghai business trip, said he will choose some recent Chinese films such as the romance "Phoenix" and the sports film "Dream Team."
"I love Chinese cinema and I think it is an excellent way for people to get to know modern China and its brilliant culture," Burton said.
About 300 foreign and domestic pictures will be presented during the festival which runs from Saturday until June 22.
Wang Wenqing, an ad agency worker, bought tickets for small-budget art movies such as the French film "Conversations with My Gardener," which tells the moving story of a friendship between two men, and the Italian biopic "Piano Solo."
"I have been attending movies at the festival for years ever since my university days," he said.
"The festival provides us a rare chance to see a few excellent art-house and experimental pictures on the big screen."
Recent productions and a retrospective exhibition of Swedish film master Ingmar Bergman, acclaimed Hong Kong film maker Run Run Shaw and the late British director Anthony Minghella will be shown, too.
Tickets for the festival over the weekend are selling well, with prices for each screening ranging from 30 yuan (US$4.20) to 60 yuan.
This year's festival has proven popular among locals with more than 3 million yuan in tickets already sold, a 10-percent rise from last year.
(Shanghai Daily June 10,2008)
