Lou Ye and actor Chen Sicheng
Lou Ye’s “Spring Fever” opens Competition
Festival Competition starts with the presentation of "Spring Fever" by Lou Ye
Chinese director has braved a ban on his filmmaking imposed by censors in his own country to make Spring Fever. The feature, which screens In Competition today at Cannes, is the story of a torrid passion within a threesome composed of two men and a beautiful woman. The subject, still highly taboo in Asia, if not elsewhere, was a considerable obstacle to obtaining financing, according to the director, the veteran of two Palme d’Or Competitions, with Purple Butterfly in 2003 and Summer Palace in 2006.
"I started working on the screenplay for Spring Fever as soon as I’d finished Summer Palace, and was immediately confronted with a certain hesitancy, let’s say, on the part of the producers. Since I’d been "banished," prohibited from directing for five years, why finance my new film, which they wouldn’t even be able to show in Chinese theaters? They all said, "Let’s schedule a meeting in five years!" Thankfully, in the end, we were able to secure all the necessary funding through the French film financing system and partly from Hong Kong."
Not only has Lou Ye been present in Cannes with previous films, but he also participated in the Cinefondation Atelier last year, an initiative created in 2005 by the Cannes Festival with the intention of assisting filmmakers in completing their financing, to speed up the completion of their projects.
