费穆，我国卓越的电影导演、编剧，善于刻画人物的性格和特征，镜头凝炼，构图优美，节奏缓慢，清丽淡雅。他学贯中西，法文非常流利，也通英、德、意、俄等外语，博览群书，喜爱诗词等古典文学作品，造诣颇深。是一位儒雅的、有深厚人文情怀的导演。人们说，“费穆有三多：看书多、看事多、看影戏多”。 在国内，他第一个在默片中配上民族音乐，第一个拍彩色片——梅兰芳主演的《生死恨》。被尊为“中国现代电影的前驱”。

　　费穆1906年生于上海。1916年迁居北京，因长年苦读，致左眼失明。后开始接触电影，撰写影评，办电影杂志，翻译英文字幕和撰写说明书。 1932年至上海任联华影业公司导演。同年执导了《城市之夜》，反映人民疾苦，这部电影充分显示出他的导演才华。之后，他又陆续导演了《人生》、《香雪海》、《天伦》。 1936年由他导演完成影片《狼山喋血记》，被认为是国防电影的代表作。抗日战争爆发后，费穆拍摄了《北战场精忠录》。“孤岛”时期，导演了《孔夫子》、《世界儿女》及京剧戏曲片《古中国之歌》。太平洋战争爆发、日军占领租界后，费穆转向戏剧舞台。抗战胜利后重返影坛。

　　1947年，他执导了由京剧大师梅兰芳主演的戏曲片《生死恨》。这是中国第一部彩色影片，达到了建国前戏曲片拍摄的最高水平。1948年，导演《小城之春》是费穆的颠峰之作。但在当时却未受重视，反而受到不少批评，台湾戏剧导演赖声川曾说：“人有人的命，戏也有戏的命”，《小城之春》显然生不逢时。因为诸多原因，《小城之春》沉寂了数十年，直到八十年代中后期，被重新翻检出来，并获得了几乎至高无上的评价。成为“中国电影艺术上的一个里程碑”，“集三、四十年代中国电影优点之大成”，费穆凭借《小城之春》开启了中国诗化电影的先河，他把中国传统美学和电影语言进行完美的嫁接，开创了具有东方神韵的银幕诗学。

　　1949年5月费穆去了香港，创办龙马影片公司，执导影片《江湖儿女》，未竟而病逝，年仅四十五岁。

Born in Shanghai, China, Fei Mu is considered by many to be one of the major film directors prior to the communist revolution in 1949.

Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, Fei made his first film, 1933's Night in the City (produced by the Lianhua Film Company), at the young age of 27, and he was met with both critical and popular acclaim.

Continuing to make films with Lianhua, Fei directed films throughout the 1930s and became a major talent in the industry, with films like 1936's Blood on Wolf Mountain and 1935's Song of China. Fei's legacy as one of China's greatest directors was sealed with his 1948 influential masterpiece Spring in a Small Town about a love triangle in post-war China. In 2005, Spring in a Small Town was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made by the Hong Kong Film Critics Association.Fei remained active in this so-called "Second Golden Age" and also directed China's first color film Remorse at Death (1948), which incorporated Beijing Opera and starred Mei Lanfang. Following the Communist revolution in 1949, Fei Mu, along with many other artists and intellectuals fled to Hong Kong. There he founded Longma Film Company ("Dragon-Horse Films") with Zhu Shilin and Fei Luyi and produced (under the Longma name) Zhu Shilin's The Flower Girl (1951).

Following his death in Hong Kong in 1951, Fei Mu and his work fell into obscurity, as much of his filmography was forgotten or ignored on the Mainland, rejected by leftist critics as indicative of rightist ideologies. It was not until the 1980s, when the China Film Archive re-opened after being closed down during the Cultural Revolution, did Fei Mu's work find a new audience. Most significant was a new print made by the China Film Archive from the original negative of Spring in a Small Town.