Fifth-generation Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine” wowed the Cannes jury under president Louis Malle in 1993 — all the way to a Palme d’Or win.
But by the time the three-hour epic set in the world of the Peking Opera reached U.S.
theaters that year, Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein had cut 20 minutes from the movie that left even Malle puzzled.
According to Peter Biskind‘s influential “Down and Dirty Pictures,” Malle said the new version seemed “longer because it doesn’t make any sense.
It was better before those guys made cuts.”At last, “Farewell My Concubine,” the only Chinese-language film ever to win the Palme, is now being returned to theaters in its full 171-minute glory, courtesy of Film Movement Classics.
IndieWire exclusively announces that the distributor will release a newly restored 4K version in North American theaters beginning September 22 at Film Forum in New York City.
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