Farewell My Concubine: A Queer Film Classic

Farewell My Concubine, part of the QUEER FILM CLASSICS series, is a thought-provoking consideration of Chen Kaige's acclaimed 1992 Chinese film about two male Peking opera stars and the woman who comes between them, set against the political turmoil of a China in transition in the mid-20th century. The film's treatment of gender performance and homosexuality was a first in Chinese cinema, and the subject of much controversy there. The movie, which helped to bring contemporary Chinese films onto the world stage, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (the first Chinese film to do so), and was nominated for a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.