Carte blanche aux Archives cinématographiques chinoises (CFA)

Across more than a century of Chinese cinema, the first three decades remain its most dynamic and innovative period. In just thirty years, the first Chinese filmmakers developed the medium from short films to feature films, then from silent cinema to sound, driven by extraordinary imagination, ambition and creative energy.

Under the theme “Revisiting the Golden Age”, this retrospective brings together fifteen classics produced between 1922 and 1936. Organised into five sections — urban life, martial arts and fantasy, romance, realism and women’s cinema — the programme traces the emotional and cultural landscape of early Chinese cinema: the sincerity of film pioneers, the humour and hardships of ordinary people, the social awareness of left-wing intellectuals and the awakening of modern female consciousness.