Chung Kuo, Cina
Directed byMichelangelo Antonioni
Written byAndrea Barbato
CinematographyLuciano Tovoli
Edited byFranco Arcalli
Music byLuciano Berio
Production
company
Distributed byITC English Language version
Release date
1972
Running time
220 minutes
LanguageItalian

Chung Kuo, Cina ([ˌtʃuŋˈkwo ˈtʃiːna], "Zhongguo, China") is a 1972 Italian television documentary directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Antonioni and his crew were invited to China and filmed for five weeks, beginning in Beijing and travelling southwards. The resulting film was attacked as slanderous by Chinese authorities and the Italian Communist Party.[1]

Release

Chung Kuo was scheduled to be shown on at the Museum of Modern Art on December 26, 1972, as part of a series of films made for RAI, but the film was not ready for public showing.[2] The film was aired on Italian television in three weekly parts in from January 24 to February 7, 1973.

Reception

Andrei Tarkovsky considered it a masterpiece and named it one of the 77 essential works of cinema.

Chung Kuo was well received in Italy, provoking discussion on "Antonioni's China" as well as screenings and airings in other countries. The film was also well-received when previewed by Chinese diplomats in Italy.[1][3]

John J. O'Connor, writing in The New York Times, compared Chung Kuo (truncated to two hours for American television) favorably to the NBC-produced special The Forbidden City, commenting that the former "reaches a degree of sophistication that would appear to be beyond the capabilities or experience of most American television".[4]

A year after the initial broadcast, the People's Daily published a scathing editorial titled A Vicious Motive, Despicable Tricks (Chinese: 恶毒的用心, 卑劣的手法), denouncing the film and accusing Antonioni of creating "viciously distorted scenes" in order to "slander China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and insult the Chinese people". The editorial was followed by a mass anti-Antonioni campaign, with activities including televised denouncements, written criticisms from around the country, and schoolchildren being taught anti-Antonioni songs.[5] The campaign was later attributed to the Gang of Four. Antonioni was rehabilitated by the People's Daily in 1979.[3] Chung Kuo was screened publicly for the first time in China in 2004 at the Beijing Film Academy.

References

  1. 1 2 J. Hoberman (December 28, 2017). "Forgotten Masterpiece: Antonioni's Travelogue From China". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "SCREENING OF ANTONIONI'S "CHINA" CANCELLED" (PDF), Museum of Modern Art, December 22, 1972, retrieved 26 May 2023
  3. 1 2 di Carlo, Carlo (August 23, 1989). "Ritorna in TV la Cina vista da Michelangelo Antonioni" (PDF). L'Unità. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  4. ↑ O'Connor, John J. (January 28, 1973). "Television: Whose China Is Nearer the Truth?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  5. ↑ Xiang, Alice (July 2013). "'When Ordinary Seeing Fails': Reclaiming the Art of Documentary in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1972 China Film Chung Kuo". Senses of Cinema. Retrieved 26 May 2023.

Further reading

  • Rey Chow, China as documentary: Some basic questions (inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni and Jia Zhangke, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2014, 17, 16–30, doi:10.1177/1367549413501482
  • Xin Liu, China’s reception of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 2014, 2, 1, 23–40, doi:10.1386/jicms.2.1.23 1
  • Umberto Eco, De Interpretatione, or the Difficulty of Being Marco Polo, Film Quarterly, 1973, 30, 4, 8–12 doi:10.2307/1211577


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