FRANCE: CANNES FILM FESTIVAL JURY PRESIDENT ISABELLE ADJANI DENOUNCES POLITICAL PRESSURE FROM CHINA AND IRAN

Record ID: 386993

  • Title: FRANCE: CANNES FILM FESTIVAL JURY PRESIDENT ISABELLE ADJANI DENOUNCES POLITICAL PRESSURE FROM CHINA AND IRAN
  • Date: 7th May 1997
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 7, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) NEWS CONFERENCE - JOURNALISTS IN AUDIENCE FESTIVAL JURY MEMBERS ARRIVING AND SITTING DOWN JURY MEMBER ISABELLE ADJANI (JURY PRESIDENT) WEARING HAT JURY MEMBER LUC BONDY JURY MEMBER NANNI MORETTI JURY MEMBER MIRA SORVINO JURY MEMBER PATRICK DUPOND JURY MEMBER MIKE LEIGH JURY MEMBER TIM BURTON JURY MEMBER GONG LI JUR
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA15NQZ5JHSIC18BYODOQIP4BB6
  • Story Text: Cannes film festival jury president Isabelle Adjani on Wednesday (May 7) denounced political pressure from China and Iran, saying Cannes had been created 50 years ago to counter the Nazi hold on the Venice festival.

    Organisers of the May 7-18 competition had hastily overhauled the running slate after industry sources said China refused to allow Zhang Yimou's "Keep Cool" to run in competition for the Golden Palm award although it had been selected.

    Earlier on Wednesday, festival boss Gilles Jacob said in a curt statement that Abbas Kiarostami's "The Delicious Taste of Cherries" would run in Cannes though the Iranian director had quoted Tehran authorities as refusing him a green light.

    "The Cannes festival was created (in 1939) to oppose the Venice festival which was under Nazi influence," French film star Adjani said at a news conference when asked about the Chinese and Iranian pressures.

    "Its mission is to receive films which have a vocation to leave their country of origin. So the festival organisers do everything they can to ensure this happens," said the actress, born to an Algerian father and German mother.

    Adjani spoke with China's Gong Li, a member of the jury who has starred in several of Zhang Yimou's films, sharing the platform.

    Gong Li made no comment.

    There was no official explanation for the Chinese red light.

    Chinese authorities have criticised previous films by Zhang, whose "To Live" won awards at Cannes in 1994 although he had been banned from attending, for portraying China as backward in films for Western audiences.

    Nor was there any official explanation for Kiarostami's eleventh-hour competition slot.

    The director had last month quoted a Culture Ministry official as telling him that Tehran would not allow him to take the film to Cannes because it should first be shown at the Fajr (Dawn) festival in Tehran which marks the country's Islamic revolution every February.

    Other jurors picking this year's Cannes winners include last year's Golden Palm holder Mike Leigh, American director Tim Burton, Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti and American actress Mira Sorvino.

    At the news conference Leigh spoke about competition among the film-makers at Cannes. "You don't really get a genuinely competitive sense at Cannes, not in my experience, as to being in competition, curiously enough, with the honourable and disgusting exception of the Oscars."
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