Censorship problems plague Chinese Cannes entry

May 18, 2006, 14:04 GMT

Cannes - Chinese director Lou Ye said Thursday in Cannes that he was prepared to change his film in any way to receive approval by his government's censors.

'I would agree to removing any scene they want,' Lou told journalists at the 2006 Cannes International Film Festival after a screening of his Summer Palace, the only Asian movie selected this year to compete for the Palme d'Or for best film.

Even as his film was being screened in Cannes, one of the producers of Summer Palace told the trade publication Variety that the movie would have 'to give up the chance of competing for the Palme d'Or' because the Film Bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television refused to approve it.

The reason given by the Bureau, Nai An said, was that the print had lighting and sound flaws. But most observers believe that the censors are objecting to the film's explicit sex scenes and its political background, the student rebellion of 1989 which culminated in the bloody repression by Chinese soldiers of a protest on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June of that year.

Nai An even suggested that Lou would be flying back to Beijing to plead with the Bureau.

However, Lou was in Cannes, surrounded by his stars, and declaring himself ready to meet all of the Film Bureau's demands. And he tried to play down the political implications of Summer Palace.

Asked why he set an important part of the film in 1989, he replied, 'Because I was a student at university then and I was in love. The film is not about 1989.'

Perhaps speaking tongue in cheek, Lou took the blame for the film's problems with Chinese censors.

'When I am shooting, I forget all about censorship problems,' he said. 'I guess I will have to improve my method of working.'

This is not the first time the 40-year-old Shanghai-born director has had problems with the Film Bureau. He was previously banned from making films for two years for his 2000 movie Suzhou River, which was produced without official approval.

If Summer Palace is rejected by the Film Bureau he could be blacklisted again and the film would probably be denied legal exhibition in China, a consequence Lou said he wants to avoid at all cost.

Asked why he brought Summer Palace to Cannes although it had not been approved, he said, 'This film is not only my own effort, but everyone's effort, which I wanted to show here.'