CANNES GETS LOU YE IN HOT WATER

The trouble with Lou Ye's SUMMER PALACE comes to a boil with a recent comment from the international relationship department of China's government certification board. According to the department, the producers of SUMMER PALACE have broken the law by submitting the film to Cannes without getting approval from the board first. This is the same fix Zhang Yimou got into when he sent TO LIVE to Cannes without government certification, but there's a difference here.

The producers of SUMMER PALACE never submitted their movie to Cannes.

Fang Li, one of SUMMER PALACE's producers, says that he finds this very sad because the producers of the film had no idea the movie had been submitted. He thinks it was done by the international sales agents without his knowledge and he says that Cannes never even contacted the producers in China to tell them SUMMER PALACE was accepted to the festival. He only learned that the movie was in Cannes when he read it on the internet.

He gets his news from the internet, just like us!

(A million thanks to the sharp-eyed reader who is translating these articles like a fiend)