FRANCE: Chow Yun Fat and Samuel L. Jackson promote their latest films and are honoured at the Deauville film festival

Record ID: 206565

  • Title: FRANCE: Chow Yun Fat and Samuel L. Jackson promote their latest films and are honoured at the Deauville film festival
  • Date: 8th September 2000
  • Summary: DEAUVILLE, NORMANDY, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 8-10) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHOW YUN FAT SAYING: "I can say that it was a privilege and honour to work with Ang because when I saw the first draft, I was stunned especially the scene with the bamboo sequence, it reminded me a lot the old day King Hu movies during the seventies and this is kind of my childhood fantasy as
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2000 13:00
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  • Location: DEAUVILLE, NORMANDY, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA75FL8RGIBTB3J8K8PNFDL4D2D
  • Story Text: East met West at the American Film Festival in Deauville, when Asia's most popular actor - Chow Yun Fat - and America's 'King of Cool' - Samuel L. Jackson - arrived to promote their latest films. They were also honoured by the festival for their contribution to cinema.
    At the closing ceremony, the grand prix du cinema independent was awarded to first time director, Karyn Kusama for "Girlfight".
    Hong Kong-born actor Chow Yun Fat, who most recently starred opposite Jodie Foster in Andy Tennant's "Anna and the King" attended the 26th American Deauville film festival with the Taiwanese director, Ang Lee.
    Chow Yun Fat is the most successful actor in Asia (television and film) making his name in the television series "Hotel", when he was only 18 years old. He's since become a huge star of the big screen in Asia and thanks to his work with director John Woo he's as popular in the West.
    Fat and director Lee ("The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility" teamed up for Lee's latest project, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". The film which also stars Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi from China and Chang Chen from Taipei, is Lee's first Chinese language film and it's also his debut martial arts movie.
    "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", is an epic love story set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China.
    Produced with the backing of the Chinese authorities, the film centres on the lives of two women, both capable fighters whose fates intertwine during the Ching Dynasty.
    Jen (Zhang Ziyi) passionately attempts to break free from the constraints that society has placed on her even if it means exchanging the advantages of a privileged, aristocratic life for one of crime and passion. Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) in her lifelong pursuit of justice and honour, discovers too late the consequences of unfulfilled love. Their two destinies lead them to a spectacular, yet violent showdown.
    Speaking in Deauville, Lee said he felt that after making six English-speaking movies, he was more than ready to direct a Chinese movie.
    "It's been my boyhood dream, it's a fantasy I finally got the chance to fulfill. I felt as if I'd made six films, some of them are quite successful so I earned my right to do a martial arts film finally," Lee said.
    In order to get funding for the movie - an adaptation of the fourth part of a five-part novel by Wang Du Lu which was written before the second world war Lee needed to sign a big name to the film, his first catch Chow Yun Fat, took no persuading at all. Playing the role of Li Mu Bai, the handsome, martial artist and longtime friend of Yu Shu Lien, was an incredible opportunity he said.
    As well as being in Deauville to promote "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Fat was also in town to be honoured by the festival for his great body of work.
    Another very cool customer to jet into the coastal resort at the weekend (Saturday 9) was American actor Samuel L.
    Jackson. In town to talk about two movies in which he plays principle roles, "Shaft" and "Rules of Engagement", Jackson was also feted for his work in cinema.
    Said to be the hardest working actor of the last decade, Jackson has acted in over 30 films ranging from Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" to "Jackie Brown" to "Patriot Games".
    "Sam the Man", is at a stage in his career, where he can choose almost any role he wants. He didn't hesitate at all he said when approached by "Boyz in the Hood" director, John Singleton" to revive the part of New York cop, John Shaft, in a contemporary version of "Shaft".
    The film which stars, British actor Christian Bale, Australian actress Toni Collette and Busta Rhymes also featured the man who played the original John Shaft, Richard Roundtree.
    Due to commence filming shortly in Liverpool, England, Jackson told Reuters he's looking forward to working in the UK, the first time in twenty years.
    The winner of this year's film festival, was announced by the jury president, director Neil Jordan on Sunday (September 10).
    "Girlfight" is the first feature film of Karyn Kusama which has already garnered attention when it won the grand prize of the jury and the prize of best director at the Sundance film festival this year.
    The film is set in present day New York. It features Diana (Michelle Rodriguez) a school drop-out with a tendency to argue more with fists than words. One day she goes to the gym to take money from her father to her brother to pay for his boxing training. While there, she experiences something of a revelation. She decides that she wants to become a boxer and manages to convince the coach to give her some training.
    Thanks to courage and tenacity she wins some amateur fights.
    She also discovers love with Adrian (Santiago Douglas) another boxer whom she will ultimately have to face in the ring.
    Reuters spoke to director Kusama before the results of the jury were out. She explained where and how she came up with the original idea.
    "I had been boxing myself for several years and had been interested in the world of boxing, and interested in its sense of community and family and just decided that it would be an interesting experiment to put a woman in a traditional narrative that we've come to expect to be occupied only by male heroes which is clearly disparity that I can't live with.
    And, it was kind of organically came out of my interest in concepts of love and intimacy and how that might fit in the ring and if it could fit in the ring and perhaps that was the question. Can we find connection in these places of intense isolation and rules and I wanted to experiment with those ideas."
    Kusama is currently screening the film at the Toronto film festival in Canada.
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