On November 27, 2020, Zhang Yimou's film "One Second" was released nationwide, which was considered to be "a love letter written by Zhang Yimou to the film era", the film recreated the grand situation when people watched the film movie "Heroes and Children" at that time, which suddenly returned to the era of scarcity, and the film once brought people's touch and faith. Since Chinese cinemas eliminated film projectors in 2012, there are only a few theaters in Beijing that still have film screening halls, and the number of film projectionists still working is less than ten. In the digital age, where a wide variety of digital and laser projectors have become the absolute mainstream of the market, it is a wonderful professional journey for former film projectionists, and now is the time for enthusiasts who like to collect film projectors. In early November, our reporter walked into the home of two film projector collectors and interviewed them about their indissoluble relationship with film films.
Hand-cranked silent film projectors for power generation produced by the French company PATH are 112 years old
Film projectionist Xia Yue:
Hearing the sound of the film projector is solid
Born in 1961, Xia Yue officially retired in August this year, and in 1988 he went to work in the Beijing Film Machine Repair Factory, where he began to repair film projectors, "repairing almost all the theaters in Beijing"; obtained a screening license in 1990; screened film for the first time in 1992; and officially became a film projectionist in 1996. Since then, it has completely experienced the transformation of the film era and the digital age, and has been screening film films for film review in Beijing Film Co., Ltd.
In the seven months before his retirement in 2021, he screened a total of 19 film copies, including "Have Something to Say", "New Year", "Find Fun", etc., and the last film copy of his career was "Nanchang Uprising", which was screened on June 18 this year.
Xia Yue
"At present, Beijing municipality wants to count the projectionists who have let go of the film machine before, and it is estimated that there are twenty or thirty people, but there should be less than ten people who are still showing the film machine." These people put both digital and film projectors. There are no projectionists who really put film full-time! Xia Yue told reporters.
There are also only a few theaters that retain film screening halls, "there is a Chinese Film Archive; the China Film Museum has a film public welfare screening room, which the audience can watch for free by appointment; the contemporary MOMA Broadway Film Center has a film screening room; the Jinji Hundred Flowers Cinema under the China Film Association also has a film screening standard hall, which retains two sets of film machines; and then there is the Beijing Film Co., Ltd., where I work, which has a film screening room for film review." Xia Yue talked about these things, like a number of family treasures. In October this year, a film projector in a theater malfunctioned, that is, he rushed to repair, he checked, found that the stereo line connector is broken, so the screening time missing a channel, he reconnected the thread, the machine is working normally.
At present, the auditorium clubs of some large factories and mines in Beijing still have film projectors, but it is not known whether they can be screened normally. Xia Yue remembers the most recent time when there was a large auditorium of thousands of people at the Chengde Iron and Steel Factory in Hebei Province, and in 2014, it was necessary to release film films, or specially rushed to Beijing to get copies.
In the ending list of "One Second" directed by Zhang Yimou, the name of "Xia Yue" also appears, and his identity is "projector maintenance". It turned out that in May 2017, the "One Second" crew bought back a "Songhuajiang" brand 5501 type film projector from Songzhuang, which was produced in the 1950s and was in line with the age in the film, but this projector was bad when it was bought, and the crew found Xia Yue, and he quickly repaired it. Director Zhang Yimou also has a request, that is, when the movie "Heroes and Children" is screened in the auditorium that appears in the film, when Wang Cheng is about to jump down with a blaster in his hand, the film is just burning, and the picture of the burning film appears on the big screen - paste. This phenomenon seems simple, but it is not easy to copy it at the time point. However, for Xia Yue, it was a trivial matter, and he quickly got it done and made an effect that satisfied director Zhang Yimou.
After a lifetime of dealing with the film projector, Xia Yue has already explored the performance of the film projector, taking the reverse film as an example, as long as he touches the film, he can quickly determine where the problem is, "more sensitive than using the instrument to check." ”
In 2011, he was called to show a film on film for an important event, with big leaders present. When the result was put on the third copy, Xia Yue suddenly smelled a mushy smell, and intuitively, he judged that this was the heating of the terminals caused by poor contact on the rectifier, and he quickly found an electrician and quietly repaired it to ensure the smooth progress of the entire screening.
Another time was in June 2006, when he went to Guizhou to show a film version of "Shining Red Star" to a primary school, when the lead actor Zhu Xinyun also came to the scene. But less than 5 minutes before the official screening, the light of a projector suddenly stopped turning on, fortunately, Xia Yue prepared two sets of machines, he quickly dismantled this machine, and then replaced it with the normal one, because of the fast speed, there was no delay in the screening time.
Despite caution, small problems when projecting film machines are inevitable. One year, the unit wanted to review the film of "Party A and Party B" directed by Feng Xiaogang, Feng Xiaogang himself also came to the scene, and as a result, an externally invited projectionist reversed the film when reversing the film, and soon Feng Xiaogang saw the problem, although this was not Xia Yue's direct responsibility, but it also made him feel "very embarrassed".
"When the sound of the film projector sounded, my heart felt very solid." In Xia Yue's view, being able to be a film projectionist is a very beautiful thing. "Other people need to buy tickets to watch movies, we can watch them for free, and we can go to shows all over the country, and it's a very happy job to combine play and work."
Comparing the difference between a film projector and a digital projector, Xia Yue said bluntly that when putting the film copy, as long as you hear the crisp and rhythmic sound of the film projector, you are at ease, there is time in the middle, and even go to other rooms for a while, "because the heart is very bottomed, in case there is a problem, the sound of the projector will remind you at any time." The digital projector does not have such a sound, and the heart is bottomless during the screening, and the heart is always lifted. ”
Xia Yue and Li Shuchao became friends because of their collection of film projectors
Projector collector Li Shuchao:
These film projectors are a living film history
When film screening has become more and more an "antique" of cinemas, the number of people collecting film projectors in the folk collection is also expanding, and Li Shuchao, who lives in Fengtai District, is one of the best.
Li Shuchao retired in January this year, he used to be a soldier, worked in the TV station and transportation bureau, also ran a shopping herald, his enthusiasm for film projectors can be traced back to his childhood, he was born in Beijing, grew up in a military compound in the West Third Ring Road, from childhood the most like to watch open-air movies, the deepest impression is "Bitter Cauliflower" and albanian movie "Fighting Morning", "After watching, the next day the friends gathered together to imitate the role, very lively." ”
This passion for watching movies has always grown with him. In 2001, he wanted to buy a film projector and became acquainted with Mr. Xia Yue. At that time, the flea market in Women's Street could find film projectors, and Li Shuchao called Xia Yue to ask about machine maintenance, and the two became friends.
Li Shuchao officially collected film projectors in 2004, and at present, he has collected hundreds of film projectors of various styles, most of which are foreign machines.
Li Shuchao's home is located on the first floor of a residential building in Fengtai District, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw a full shelf of film projectors in the living room, and a small screen hung on the wall of the north room. On the balcony to the south, more than a dozen large film projectors are packed.
"In the past, when the house was chaotic, we ate on the machine." Li Shuchao pulled open a room on the north side, and the shelves on both sides of the room were full of projectors of various styles, one of which was the "hand-cranked power generation silent projector" produced by the French company EMI, which has a history of 112 years, "Which is also the earliest film projector preserved in China so far." ”
"Almost all of my machines work." This makes Li Shuchao very proud. On the balcony of his house, there was a French-made 16 mm film projector, a special projector in the office of former French President Charles de Gaulle, which later fell into the hands of a private collector whose wife disposed of it after the collector's death. In 2011, Li Shuchao came from France, "This is a lonely piece, very valuable cultural relics." ”
There is also a 16 mm projector produced by LEIITZ (the predecessor of the Laika camera), which was produced in the 1960s, and only two can be seen in China at present, and Li Shuchao bought it at any cost 5 years ago. He told reporters that another machine is now in the collection of a real estate developer in the northeast.
From Bauer in Germany, Siemens, Kodak, to Japan's EIKI, Li Shuchao's collection of these brand film projectors covers almost the entire history of film film development, "Film from silent to sound, from black and white to color, is how step by step, today's young people, living in the digital age, they may not understand these histories, these film projectors are a living film history, telling them that movies have come step by step." ”
Maintaining and repairing the machine has become a compulsory course for Li Shuchao every day
Li Shuchao told reporters that at present, the number of people in Beijing who are keen on collecting film projectors has a preliminary statistics of about thirty people, and on the number of collections, he and Xia Yue are not the most.
Unlike Li Shuchao, who is keen to acquire foreign machines, the main position of Xia Yue's collection is the domestic brand of film projectors, and the number of collections is currently less than 100. He collected a "Chinese and Western brand" film projector, the production time can be traced back to the 1930s, is the earliest preserved domestic film projector.
It was a sunny early winter afternoon, and Li Shuchao used the "La · Marzocco "The coffee machine made a cup of good-tasting cappuccino for the reporter on the spot, this coffee machine is handmade in Italy, it cost him 50,000 yuan," La · Marzocco" is also known as "Rolls-Royce in coffee machines". Then, he took out a treasured cartoon and used one of the projectors to put the movie in the living room, and in the aroma of coffee, naughty jumping animals appeared on the screen, and time seemed to flow back to the past...
"Compared with collecting watches, mahogany furniture, calligraphy and paintings, etc., collecting film projectors is still a relatively economical hobby." Li Shuchao revealed that the price of general machines is not high, "half of a month's salary can be won, and the collectors of film projectors are more like niche people." ”
Drinking coffee at home in the afternoon and watching an old film movie is Li Shuchao's most enjoyable moment
Li Shuchao and Xia Yue organized the "Beiping Old Film Lovers Association" more than a decade ago, when there were only five or six members, and now, they have become members of the "Old Film Collection Professional Committee" of the Beijing Film Association, Li Shuchao is the director of the "Old Film Collection Professional Committee", and Xia Yue is a director of the Beijing Film Association.
After retirement, Li Shuchao's daily life was almost filled with these film projectors. After all, it is an old machine, maintenance can not be neglected, each machine after a period of time to be oiled, change accessories, some accessories can be bought, some are a lot of trouble, at home and abroad to go around to change. The film copy of the collection will stick over time, and it needs to be "overwind" from time to time. A hundred or so machines rotated down, and a year passed.
Li Shuchao was happy in it, "There is pleasure in the old, which is a good way to maintain health, and it is also a inheritance of film culture and spirit." Li Shuchao and Xia Yue both have a wish, hoping that in the future, there will be an opportunity to open a "movie café", show film films in it, and show these treasures, "The film cafes on the market are not doing well at present, and now the state also has plans to protect and inherit film culture, I believe that there will be opportunities in the future."