winning “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle on Thursday gently chided China for curbing free speech in cinema, but the British filmmaker said he would love to shoot a movie in the country. Serving as jury president at the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival, Boyle told a panel discussion that it was “regrettable” that Beijing imposed restrictions on movies. “I know there are restrictions on filmmakers, which from our perspective, are regrettable. Great artists who work here – and there clearly are great artists – should be free. It's very important and valuable to the society that they are free,” Boyle told a packed audience at a hotel ballroom in Shanghai. But he added, “But for me personally, given an invitation to come and work here, I'd love to work here,” joking, “It would be a challenge learning Mandarin.” Boyle also said he tried to shed an “imperialist” mentality when he shot “Slumdog Millionaire,” learning from the experience of his 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio drama “The Beach,” when he arrived in Thailand with 200 crew members. By contrast, he said he brought only 10 crew members from Europe to Mumbai to shoot “Slumdog,” relying heavily on a local Indian crew, which he said worked better because Indian extras “won't react to the controlling instincts of the Western crew, quite the opposite — the chaos just becomes more and more manifest the whole time.” He said he believes working with local crews is the future of Western films shooting overseas.
