Tiananmen Film (shown at Cannes) Gets Chinese Director 5-Year Ban

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: Tiananmen Film Gets Director 5-Year Ban
By REUTERS
Published: September 4, 2006

BEIJING (Hollywood Reporter) - China has banned acclaimed director Lou Ye from making movies for five years as punishment for sending his latest film ``Summer Palace,'' an erotic love story set against the backdrop of the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square, to the Cannes Film Festival without government approval, official media reported Monday....

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In a telephone interview, the film's French co-producer called the decision by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television "shameful.''

"I am very sad that the Chinese public will not be allowed to see the fantastic love story,'' said Sylvain Bursztejn, the head of Paris-based Rosem Films.

Love story, sure, but it was the film's backdrop that caused trouble with the censors, who refused to review it for approval for Cannes, claiming that the print submitted was of poor quality. The director and producers said this was a groundless excuse by the state, used to avoid addressing the film's content.

Reviewing "Summer Palace'' would have required censors to address the film's use of documentary footage of the social upheaval in 1989 that led to the deaths of hundreds and possibly thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators by China's army in Beijing's Tiananmen Square."...

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-china.html