The Lady from Shanghai

1948, Orson Welles, USA, 92 min.

Introduced by Chris Welles Feder.

A seaman is hired to work on the crew of a yacht, and it seems he already knows the owner’s gorgeous and mysterious wife.

From this beginning unfolds a pattern of deception and murder, which leads all the way to a famous climax in a hall of mirrors, where things are not as they seem.

“A whirling thing of wonder, Welles’s brilliant, brash noir moves from city to sea, courtroom to hall of mirrors, crackling with chemistry between him and Hayworth.”

—Peter Bradshaw

About Cabaret Cinema: Perception

Can the truth truly be trusted? Is it objective or rather tinted by our experience and memories? Perhaps there is no better medium with which to explore these questions than the illusory cinema. In that pursuit we have invited scientists to introduce films that potently demonstrate that much of our perception is clouded by the distorted lens of our assumptions and desires.

About the Introducer

Chris Welles Feder, the eldest daughter of Orson Welles, is a writer living in Greenwich Village, New York. She has published numerous books and educational materials for schoolchildren, including Brain Quest, a children’s game now in its fourth edition and a national bestseller since 1991. Her memoir In My Father’s Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles came out in 2009. Chris has traveled extensively in her life. As a teenager and young woman, she lived in South Africa, Europe, and South Korea. In the 1960s, she lived briefly in Nepal, studying Tibetan Buddhism. Her deep interest in Asian art and culture continues to this day.