Cannes was slow to notice the rise of world-class films from China and Hong Kong; Chen Kaige’s The Yellow Earth and Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum got recognized in Locarno and Berlin before their directors ever got invited to Cannes. But the awarding of the Palme d’Or to Chen’s Farewell My Concubine (a prize it shared with Jane Campion’s The Piano) made headlines throughout East Asia. The 50-year story of two opera stars — stalwart Zhang Fengyi and the charismatic Leslie Cheung — was frowned on by Chinese censors for its scenes of government-forced betrayals during the Cultural Revolution. As a youth during that troubled time, Chen had been obliged to denounce his father, also a filmmaker, as a reactionary running dog. The night he won the Palme, Chen called his father to share the news, and the prize, with him.
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