Hard Light Cinema at UR: The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai

Director: Orson Welles
1947, 87 minutes

Join the Film Studies Program for a film screening in partnership with Hard Light Cinema. 

Nothing is what it seems in Orson Welles's dazzling tale of seduction, deception, and murder. Enter a hall of mirrors where truth and illusion become one. Though hacked to pieces by the studio and released to mixed reviews back in 1947, Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai has only grown in estimation since its release. Welles adopts a self-consciously maximalist style that both elaborates and parodies 1940s-era film noir aesthetics. Filmed in San Francisco and, literally, on Errol Flynn’s yacht, the movie combines athletic cinematography, baroque visuals, and a dreamy logic that culminates in an iconic hall of mirrors scene that is imitated in Bi Gan’s Resurrection, the action-packed John Wick 2, and the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. An underseen classic, this film demands the big screen and an attentive audience.

Hard Light Cinema is a Richmond collective of cinephiles bringing arthouse and non-mainstream films to central Virginia’s young professionals. The collaboration with the Film Studies Program at the University of Richmond aims to connect UR students with Richmond city film fans. Hard Light focuses on films typically unavailable in standard movie theaters. On campus, Germany is the setting for all fall 2025 film features.

Upcoming Hard Light at UR Events

All events are at 7 p.m. in Jepson 118 

October 22, 2026
Blow Out
Director: Brian De Palma
1981, 108 minutes

November 19, 2026
Minority Report
Director: Steven Spielberg
2002, 145 minutes

December 3, 2026
Decision to Leave
Director: Park Chan-Wook
2022, 138 minutes