In the South China Morning Post (via AsiaMedia), Vivienne Chow and Joey Liu write:
The director of Asia's only hope of winning the Palme d'Or this year is expected to withdraw his movie Summer Palace from the Cannes Film Festival's competition after it failed to win the approval of the mainland's censors yesterday.
Organisers selected the film by mainland director Lou Ye for the competition but Beijing requires all films competing abroad to be vetted by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft).
The delegation representing Summer Palace -- which includes Lou and cast members Hao Lei and Guo Xiaodong -- decided to go ahead with their trip but Lou declined to speak to the media after arriving in Cannes last night.
"Nothing has changed," the film's publicist said in Cannes of Lou's travel plans. "But the director didn't want to speak [to the media] until they had seen the film."
Summer Palace, which may still be screened at Cannes out of competition, traces the relationship of a young couple separated by the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations and is the first mainland production to tackle the subject.
To read more:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=45737
Comments