''Lady Blue Shanghai'' is a 16-minute Internet promotion short film for Dior written, directed and edited by David Lynch. It stars

Marion Cotillard Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, film producer, singer, and environmentalist who is widely known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions. She has received ...

, Gong Tao, Emily Stofle, Cheng Hong, Lu Yong and Nie Fei, with music by Lynch, Dean Hurley, and

Nathaniel Shilkret Nathaniel Shilkret (December 25, 1889 – February 18, 1982) was an American musician, composer, conductor and musical director. Early career Shilkret (originally named Natan Schüldkraut) was born in New York City, United States, to parents ...

. The film centers on the surreal circumstances surrounding Cotillard's character, who encounters a mysterious Dior handbag and 1920s music as she enters her hotel room in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. It has been likened thematically to Lynch's 2006 feature film '' Inland Empire''.

Background

David Lynch's previous work with fashion companies includes advert collaborations with

Gucci Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragran ...

, Calvin Klein and Yves Saint Laurent. According to Lynch, he was contacted by Dior with some basic guidelines:

They called me up and said, 'Would you like to make a
short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
for the internet? You can do anything you want, you just need to show the handbag, the
Pearl Tower Pearl Tower or Pearl at the Sea is a 70-floor 242 meter (794 foot) skyscraper in Panama City, Panamá. Construction was first planned in 2007. The building was completed in 2012. See also * List of tallest buildings in Panama City * List of ta ...
and some old Shanghai.' ... This falls between a regular film and a commercial. I liked that idea. There are adverts and people get hit hard, and then there is this, where it is like coming at it from a different angle.

The short film is

's third appearance in a Dior promotional project. Of Cotillard, Lynch stated: "She has got that modern quality and old quality that I think the great ones have always."

Plot

Cotillard, whose character is not given a name in the film, enters her Shanghai hotel room at night. As she nears her room she hears a 1920s tango, which, as she opens her hotel room door, she sees is coming from an old 78 rpm record playing on a vintage record player."Fate (Tango Valentino)", composed by

and recorded in 1926 by him directing the International Novelty Orchestra, played in the film on a circa 1940 RCA Victor machine. She stops the music, and instantly an expensive Dior bag appears in the room in a puff of smoke. In a panic, she calls the front desk to say that someone is in her room. Two security guards search her room and find nobody. She is questioned about the bag and asked if it could have been left by someone she knows. At first she says she just arrived in Shanghai and knows nobody, but then she reluctantly relates, through a flashback, what seemed like a vision to her as she went to see the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower that afternoon. The vision is of her seeing Shanghai as it was at an earlier time and going up some stairs to a room in which she saw a Chinese man named Yu (Gong Tao). As they kiss and profess their love for each other, the scene changes to modern Shanghai, and the man says he wants to stay, but can not. As the vision of her lover fades, he hands her a blue rose and the flashback ends. Cotillard is in tears. She opens the bag and finds a blue rose. The picture ends with her clutching the bag to her heart.

References

External links

* {{David Lynch 2010 films American drama films French drama films Short films directed by David Lynch Films about reincarnation Films with screenplays by David Lynch Sponsored films Promotional films 2010 short films Films scored by Nathaniel Shilkret 2010 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s French films