No matter how many people in Hollywood might complain about restrictive ratings and tough critics, it’s an easy life compared to filmmakers in China.
The latest to incur the wrath of the government is director Lou Ye and producer Nai An, who have been slapped with a five-year filmmaking ban after they submitted their film Summer Palace to Cannes without getting official approval.
Government censors claimed that Lou sent a poor quality copy of the film, which meant they couldn’t review it properly. But despite Lou’s offer to remove any troubling scenes, the movie’s real sticking point was clearly the use of documentary footage of 1989’s social unrest, which culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre.
"I am very sad that the Chinese public will not be allowed to see the fantastic love story," French co-producer Sylvain Bursztejn told The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s not the first time Lou has fallen afoul of China’s stringent policies – he was handed a two-year blacklisting in 2000 for making the film Suzhou River without the necessary approval.