Author: Guo Xueqin
Film giants
▲ Yuan Muzhi
In 1934, Yuan Muzhi joined dentsu Film Company and threw himself into the left-wing progressive film movement, becoming a rare all-rounder who combined editing, directing and acting. He has successively directed and starred in films such as "Peach and Plum Robbery", "Children of the Storm", "City Scenery", "Life and Death Together", "Road Angel", "Eight Hundred Heroes" and other films, although the number is small, but the departments are excellent and have had an important impact on the history of Chinese cinema.
▲ Poster of "Children of the Storm" 1935
He wrote and starred in "Tao Li Robbery" (1934), the first film in China to be shot with sound, which became a milestone in Chinese sound film; "Cityscape" (1935), written, directed and acted, was China's first musical comedy feature film, which became an important milestone in Chinese film music creation and comedy feature films. In 1935, Yuan Muzhi starred in "Children of the Wind and Clouds", becoming the first person on the screen to sing the "March of the Volunteer Army". In "Life and Death Together" (1936), Yuan Muyi successfully played two characters with different identities and personalities- the revolutionary Li Tao and the overseas Chinese youth Liu Yuanjie, who was praised by the world-famous film master Essenstein of the former Soviet Union, who called Yuan Muzhi "the genius Li Tao". Yuan Muzhi's "Road Angel" (1937), which can be called "a classic of classics", has not only become a mature work of left-wing progressive films, but also the highest model of neorealist films, and has been highly appreciated by some famous film historians and film critics in the world for its distinct neorealist creative style.
Pioneered the people's film business
▲ Poster of "Cityscapes" 1935
People's Film generally refers to the 17th year of New China film, but its origin can be traced back to the Yan'an Film Troupe. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Yuan Muzhi defected to Yan'an and participated in the establishment of the Film Troupe of the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army in Yan'an, which was established in 1938, with Yuan Muzhi as the chief editor and director, and filmed the first large-scale news documentary in the Liberated Areas, "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army". In 1940, in order to complete the post-production of "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army", yuan Muzhi was dispatched by the Party Central Committee to the Soviet Union, and because the Soviet-German War broke out, he did not return to the Northeast Liberated Area until after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
▲ Poster of "Life and Death Together" 1936
In Xingshan, northeast China, Yuan Muzhi led the Eastern Film People to create the first people's film production on the barren hillside, the Northeast Film Studio, and served as the director of the factory. Dongying Studio is a people's film enterprise under the leadership of the party, in order to fundamentally distinguish it from the old film studio and build Dongying into a regular film enterprise, Yuan Muzhi consciously carried out a series of practices and explorations, which laid a solid foundation for the development of new Chinese films, and Dongying became the cradle of new Chinese films.
On the eve of the founding of New China, dispatched by the Party Central Committee, Yuan Muzhi entered Beiping to participate in the establishment of the national film leading organization, and in 1949, the Central Film Administration was formally established, and he served as the first director. In the more than three years that Yuan Muzhi served as director of the bureau, the whole country quickly established a complete set of scientific, systematic, regular, and state-run film production and management systems under the unified leadership of the party that can adapt to the law of the development of the people's film industry, and created a film management model with the state-run film studio as the core.
▲ Road Angel poster, 1937
At the same time, the first batch of film laws and regulations and specific rules and regulations of New China were formulated and promulgated, which for the first time in the history of Chinese cinema made the management of the national public and private film industry have laws to follow and rules to follow. In terms of production, the "workers, peasants and soldiers' films" were basically established as the main "red film" creative direction, and soon restored and rebuilt the film productivity, the state-run film production began to enter the scientific, formal, effective operation and management track, completely changed the film market is basically occupied by the British and American and other Western countries, the number of film audiences soared, distribution income also increased by more than seven times, by 1952, the film industry has ranked sixth in the country's eleven profitable industries. The film not only became one of the most favorable propaganda means for the country, but also began to make its own contribution to the socialist economic construction of New China. Marked by the "New Film Exhibition Month" held in 1951, the new Chinese film was successful in the first battle, and Chinese films ushered in another prosperous period in the history of a century of development.
From the Yan'an Film Troupe to the establishment of the Central Film Bureau of New China, Throughout the initial period of people's films, Yuan Muzhi has always been a participant, founder and leader, and he is a well-deserved pioneer and founder of people's films.
(This article is excerpted from Zhejiang Today, No. 2, 2006, with slight abridgements.) ）
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