CHINESE FILM OFFICIAL PREDICTS LITTLE BIZ FOR CHINESE AWARD WINNER

Jia Zhangke's Still Life, which won the Golden Lion award for best film at last year's Venice Film Festival, is receiving no praise from China's film chief. Zhang Hongsen told China Daily that the movie "lacks love and care to working classes." He faulted younger directors for turning out movies that are "inanimate and hard to drag viewers into cinema." The state-owned newspaper commented that Zhang's remarks "raise speculation that Still Live poses a lackluster performance in the box office." (Ironically, a similar observation was made by Daily Variety when the film was screened at Venice. "It will appeal to the most faithful of the director's camp-followers and no one else," the trade paper said.) China Daily further commented: "Chinese directors have long been chided by domestic fans because they are always capturing and revealing the dark sides of the country in their movies, solely for the alleged purpose of winning international acknowledgements."

28/03/2007