FRANCE: Banned film maker Lou Ye hopes for better working conditions for upcoming film makers in China

Record ID: 386219

  • Title: FRANCE: Banned film maker Lou Ye hopes for better working conditions for upcoming film makers in China
  • Date: 16th May 2009
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 15, 2009) (REUTERS) CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR LOU YE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR LOU YE, SAYING: "If you want to have an audience in China, there are only two ways of doing it. One: You follow the rules of the censorship for movies. If you do, you will have a lot of audience. The second option is to change yourself to meet their requirements." YE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR LOU YE, SAYING: "There is now a new generation of actors in China. They are much more free and much more liberal than actors before. That does not only concern their work, but also their real life." YE BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FILM DIRECTOR LOU YE, SAYING: "I hope that I am the last film director in China who is banned from working. I hope that all film directors after me can work freely."
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVABU8LDAP17CODA40IFSU88DNV6
  • Story Text: Chinese director Lou Ye's latest work "Spring Fever"
    premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday (May 14).
    The graphic drama which deals with the taboo subject of homosexuality in China was shot in secret after officials slapped a five-year ban on Lou preventing him from making films following his last feature "Summer Palace".

    "If you want to have an audience in China, there are only two ways of doing it. One: You follow the rules of the censorship for movies. If you do, you will have a lot of audience. The second option is to change yourself to meet their requirements," Ye told Reuters on Friday (May 15).

    "Summer palace", shown in Cannes in 2006, examined the protest movement that led to the brutal repression in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and earned Lou international acclaim as well as ostracism from the official world of Chinese cinema.
    Shot in grey and sombre tones, using hand-held cameras, "Spring Fever" tells the story of a woman who hires a man to spy on a passionate homosexual relationship her husband is involved in and the obsessive explosion of the affair that follows.
    Lou said he saw the film as a love story rather than a story about homosexuality, which is regarded in China with deep disapproval by both the state and society in general.

    "There is now a new generation of actors in China," Ye said when asked how he managed to cast actors for his banned and explicit movies.
    "They are much more free and much more liberal than actors before. That does not only concern their work, but also their real life."
    Ye said he hoped young Chinese film makers of the future would face easier working conditions than him.

    "I hope that I am the last film director in China who is banned from working. I hope that all film directors after me can work freely,"
    he said The raw and torrid sex scenes between the male lovers demanded bold performances from his leads, Qin Hao, Wei Wu and Chen Sicheng, but the actors praised the liberty Lou allowed them during the shooting.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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