Lady Blue Shanghai (2010)

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I really love Marion Cotillard and her being in a David Lynch movie could be truly something special, even if it only goes for 15 minutes. This is part of Cotillard's Dior campaign, where each film represents one color. This one about the color blue is actually the longest of them. However, there really wasn't that much focus on the color as I thought there would be. Obviously the rose in the end, then maybe the blue tower and the lights of the cameras, but that's pretty much it. I guess Lynch didn't really know how to use the color best, so he simply used the rose in the end.A woman comes to her hotel room, but music is running and somebody must have been there as there is an item in her room which doesn't belong there. The woman is worried and calls security only to tell them the story of her and her significant other. I have to say the mystery parts early on were solid, but when this turned into a film about Cotillard and her Asian friend, it really got worse. What a shame. I truly wanted this to be better. I have to say, I even enjoyed Cotillard's one minute comedy short "Forehead Tittaes" from 2010 even more. "Lady Blue Shanghai", not recommended.

Even though 'Lady Blue Shanghai' was made for a Lady Dior campaign it completely works as a standalone short film. David Lynch yet again creates something that is atmospheric, surreal, chilling and bedazzling. With some excellent cinematography, dazzling visuals, haunting score and the absolutely beautiful Marion Cotillard's enigmatic presence, it is easy to forget that 'Lady Blue Shanghai' was originally intended to promote a handbag. The editing is equally superb. It's made with style but none of it feels unnecessarily overdone. The element of mystery had me completely hooked to the screen (this is something Lynch has successfully done in his previous films). Like many of his films, this one also has an air of ambiguity and is left open to interpretation. His current muse, Marion Cotillard possesses the classic beauty, vulnerability and mystery which allows her to own the role of the nameless woman. 'Lady Blue Shanghai' is easily one of David Lynch's best shortfilms but I would like to see him continue making feature films as the short running time does not do justice to his creation.

This 16-minute internet-aired motion picture was created by Dior. It was available until October 2010 on Dior's website and the name Dior appears on-screen outside the picture viewing area. Except for this the viewer would have no idea that the picture was advertising for Dior.The picture opens with Cotillard, whose character is not given a name in the motion picture, hearing a 1920s tango ("Fate-Tango Valentino" written by Nathaniel Shilkret to commemorate Rudolph Valentino) in the hall as she walks to her hotel suite. She opens the door to see a circa 1940 RCA Victor phonograph playing Shilkret's original 78 rpm recording of the song. An expensive Dior handbag then appears amidst elaborate visual effects involving smoke. The remainder of the film is devoted to her reaction and the events leading to these mysterious happenings.The film is extremely well done, using sound and visual effects characteristic of David Lynch audio-video productions and with Cotillard giving an excellent performance.Thanks, Dior, for creating an entertaining film and for not ruining it with intrusive advertising.

Apparently, and maybe I'm thick-in-the-head, this David Lynch short film is a commercial for Lady Dior, which is basically a really fancy handbag. This isn't a surprise that Lynch would make a commercial - he has made several over the years, maybe as a means to get some of his ideas out there into the cinematic medium, and maybe, perhaps, to get some quick money. But this is a little different: this is a 16 minute film where it's really about a woman who goes to a hotel, a record is playing mysteriously in her room, and a handbag shines very brightly. She calls the hotel-help asking what is going on, and then tells a story of meeting a man before... or thinking she's met a man before, in Shanghai. The power of this short film is that a) I didn't have any real clue that it was a long-form commercial while watching it, and b) it carries the kind of unique mystery that Lynch unlocks with his approach to cinema - the cinematography (in this case digital video, with a more sophisticated eye than the experimentation of Inland Empire), the editing that emphasizes the human face and the enigmatic movement of characters in the frame, sound editing that is not-of-this world. I still am not quite sure what it's all about, or if it's really what it is in that handbag (I'm more-so reminded of the elusive nature of the blue box from Mulholland Drive), and I almost don't want to know, at least not until two or three more viewings. It also is a big asset that Cotillard, stunning in appearance and her quiet intensity, works so well here for him as his female-muse. Does it mean as much as his other short films? I'm still not sure about that either. Compared to some of the works on his Short Films of David Lynch or Best of DavidLynch.com DVDs, its not any kind of absurd thing he's dealing with here. It's like a splintered-in-his-mind romantic drama where love and loss and memory and not knowing converge into something one can look at and maybe recognize, or just feel. It's sublime work by a master of his self-made craft.