I Am Not Madame Bovary  /  De Lan

Chinese superstar director Feng Xiaogang teams for the third time with screenwriter Liu Zhenyun, adapting his own novel, in this sublimely droll telling of a village woman who doggedly pursues a grudge arising from a “fake divorce” from the provincial courts all the way to Beijing and the highest corridors of power.  Belittled at every turn, stubborn Li Xuelian, played by “duly de-glammed” (Variety) movie star Fan Bingbing, yet manages to flummox all the male government suits who cross her path in her decade-long, determined pursuit of justice.  Intriguingly irised in round and square-shaped mats, I Am Not Madame Bovary nabbed the prestigious FIPRESCI prize and the top Golden Shell award respectively at the recently concluded Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals, while Fan won Best Actress at San Sebastian for her portrayal of an ordinary woman of incomparable chutzpah.

DCP, color, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 137 min.  DIR: Feng Xiaogang.  PROD: Hu Xiaofeng.  SCR: Liu Zhenyun, based on his novel I Did Not Kill My Husband.  CINE: Luo Pan.  EDIT: William Chang Suk-ping.  CAST: Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao, Da Peng, Zhang Jiayi, Yu Hewei.