Mary Stephen

Mary Stephen, perhaps best known as Eric Rohmer’s editor, made her feature debut in 1978 with the alluring Ombres de soie [Shades of Silk], which traces the relationship between two Chinese women in Shanghai in the 1930s.

“An astounding low-budget achievement (in which 1970s Paris passes for 1930s Shanghai), this entrancing film evokes the Marguerite Duras of India Song, which is no accident: Stephen explicitly wished for Ombres de soie to be a counterpoint to India Song, from an Asian woman’s point of view. ” – New York Film Festival

Restored from a 16mm print scanned at Library and Archives Canada. The 2K restoration work was carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna in 2024, and is made possible by the generous support of M+, Hong Kong, 2024.