Chung Kuo, revisited: how Antonioni’s 1972 documentary on communist China was unfairly attacked – and finally vindicated
- The Italian director was invited by the Chinese government in 1972 to make a film singing the praises of the communist revolution
- His film was banned in China for 40 years and is the subject of a new Chinese documentary, Seeking Chung Kuo, that talked to people from the original film
In 1972, Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni toured China at the invitation of then premier Zhou Enlai and made a documentary about the lives of ordinary Chinese during the Cultural Revolution. The film – Chung Kuo, Cina – sparked one of the biggest, and least warranted scandals in cinematic history, something which plunged its director into despair.
Conceived by Italian public broadcaster RAI and the Chinese embassy in Rome, the idea behind the film was to have a leftist filmmaker visit China and make a film singing the praises of the communist revolution.
However, Antonioni shot a film that was worlds away from propaganda – a 217 minute travelogue showing ordinary Chinese in tattered clothing amid nondescript architecture.
Mao Zedong’s wife, Jiang Qing, who used the film as a pretext to attack Zhou – bad luck for a director who was at the peak of his fame and creative powers. Chung Kuo, Cina, together with the rest of the director’s works, were soon banned in China.
Subjected to relentless attacks in the state media, Antonioni was branded an enemy of the Chinese people. Under pressure from Beijing, several foreign screenings of the film were cancelled, and Italy’s communists picketed his appearance at the Venice film festival.