"Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" Key Gift Film "Revolutionaries" landed in major theaters across the country on July 1. Produced by Guan Hu, directed by Xu Zhanxiong, and starring Zhang Songwen, Li Yifeng and Tong Liya, the film depicts the magnificent revolutionary epic of Li Dazhao leading a group of revolutionary volunteers to actively run for the survival of the country and rise up against it between 1912 and 1927, and recreates in vivid detail the moving picture of Li Dazhao's exchanges and discussions with students in the library of Peking University and inspiring progressive young people represented by young Mao Zedong to embark on a revolutionary journey.
Revolutionary poster.
Referring to the innovative non-linear narrative of this revolutionary romantic epic, producer Guan Hu explained: "Mr. Li Dazhao has experienced too many people and too many ups and downs in his life, and the conventional narrative form cannot be completed, so the main creative team combined modern shooting methods and young people to create this work. ”
In order to respect history, the creator set a creative principle: big things are not vain, small things are not informal. Director Xu Zhanxiong said that many of the scenes in the film, no matter how stylized, are actually supported by historical materials, and the audience can see for the first time Li Dazhao who can play the piano, Li Dazhao who cultivates with old farmers in the field, and Li Dazhao in front of righteousness. There are many large-scale group scenes in the film, including the "March 18" massacre, the Kailuan strike, and some scenes on the Shanghai docks, with 400 or 500 extras at most, and the scene scheduling is particularly difficult.
Li Dazhao can play the piano and can cultivate the land, and there are more fireworks
"Zhang Songwen has always been an actor candidate for Li Dazhao", director Xu Zhanxiong remembers that when the two first met, Zhang Songwen said that if he was allowed to play Li Dazhao, he must be shaped with flesh and blood. The two coincide in their creative philosophy.
There are many scenes in the film where Li Dazhao eats, such as eating fritters in front of the breakfast stall, and Chen Duxiu eating hot pot and other very life-like scenes. This is what Xu Zhanxiong has always stressed, do not put Mr. Li Dazhao on the shelf and become a towering figure, "To make Li Dazhao more pyrotechnic, when the guests eat a lot of meat, he will also feel sorry for his own money." All these small details are supporting our desire to be a flesh-and-blood Li Dazhao. ”
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao was playing the piano.
As for Li Dazhao's understanding, most of the audience knows that he was the pioneer of the Chinese communist movement and one of the main founders of the Chinese Communist Party... But "The Revolutionary" presents the audience with some aspects of Li Dazhao that have not been seen in film and television works before. Xu Zhanxiong said that everyone may not have seen Li Dazhao play the piano, the creator in the process of collecting information, found that Li Dazhao actually can play the piano, he has a piano at home, often played to children. Audiences also often see Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong, Sun Yat-sen and other people in film and television works, but they may not have seen what it was like for him to farm with old farmers in the farmland, and these bits and pieces of daily life are exactly what "Revolutionary" first presented to the audience.
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao is farming in the field.
Zhang Songwen, who plays Li Dazhao, said that Mr. Li Dazhao is a living person, and then he is a revolutionary and a great man. For Zhang Songwen, the most difficult thing in the performance is the idea, "I liked this script very much, because it conveyed his ideas through his daily work, life, his speeches, and through the details of his time with colleagues and family." ”
Do not "play" the role, but "really" restore
Zhang Songwen is an actor who believes in "truth". After coming to the set, he wanted to feel how the scene was, how the atmosphere inside was, and then to experience what Li Dazhao would do at this moment.
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao is giving a speech.
Before filming began, the creator showed Zhang Songwen a lot of historical records about Li Dazhao himself and others on Li Dazhao, and there were many video pictures. Among them is the only video of Li Dazhao's activities, a video of a speech he gave at the Moscow State Theatre in September 1924 during his trip to Moscow to attend the Fifth Congress of the Communist International. Unfortunately, due to the conditions at the time, the speech video did not have a simultaneous voice. Zhang Songwen repeatedly observed li dazhao's speech status in the video, learned his signature movements, and restored Li Dazhao's actions when filming the scene in which Li Dazhao gave a speech at the first congress of the Kuomintang.
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong talked freely about revolutionary ideals.
When preparing to shoot a lame scene, Zhang Songwen put a sharp stone in his shoes in advance, so that there was obvious pain in walking, he said, there is no need to act at all, the real thing will be much better than the fake fake. Zhang Songwen does not want to "act" himself, does not want to use his acting skills to play this role, but lets himself become that role, when he appears in front of the camera, let the audience believe that he is Li Dazhao himself. Xu Zhanxiong felt that this was a very valuable point for Zhang Songwen.
There is also a scene where Li Dazhao is tortured in prison, and before filming this scene, Zhang Songwen "boiled eagle" like a "boiling eagle" for several days without sleeping, and he wanted the tiredness of this character. Because Li Dazhao was severely tortured in those few days in prison, he certainly couldn't sleep, and he needed to restore how Li Dazhao's body felt at that time.
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao was arrested and imprisoned.
Not long ago, the Internet leaked a tidbit of Zhang Songwen's restoration of Li Dazhao's righteousness, Zhang Songwen stood on the gallows, the rope was put around his neck, and his body fell down again and again, which was very heart-wrenching. Xu Zhanxiong said that this scene has been filmed several times in different scenes, because there are panoramic shots, and it is necessary to shoot the shot of Zhang Songwen falling down and the rope being tightened. If it is too safe, the moment the actor falls, the rope is loose, and without that tight sense of gravity, it is not real. Although there is Weiya hanging Zhang Songwen's shoulders, the feeling of falling is real, the momentum brought by the rapid fall, after five or six shots, Zhang Songwen's neck is still reddened by hemp rope.
For playing Li Dazhao, Zhang Songwen said that this is a very important part of my acting career, and I will always accompany and encourage myself on the road of acting, but it is also the most unconfident time since he started in the industry, "If I use acting technology to shape Mr. Li Dazhao, I am sorry for him, but more than that, I hope I can try to understand him and get close to him." For his great personality and career, I may have only touched Mr. Shouchang, who was on the tip of the iceberg. ”
Present major historical events and firmly rely on historical materials to support them
Because "The Revolutionary" is the first film to focus on the main theme of "Li Dazhao, the pioneer of the Chinese communist movement", there are not only real historical figures, but also important historical events, how to balance the relationship between historical truth and artistic creation? Xu Zhanxiong said that the main creator has set a creative principle: big things are not vain, and small things are not informal.
For some small details, the team will give some room for fiction. For example, the roles of Qingzi and Newsboy played by Li Jiuxiao are fictional. In Xu Zhanxiong's view, they are all typical images, representing the toiling masses from the bottom, what happened between them and Li Dazhao, what kind of Li Dazhao is in their eyes, trying to look at Li Dazhao through their perspective.
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao drove Chen Duxiu out of Beijing.
There is also a passage in the film where Li Dazhao, in order to protect the wanted Chen Duxiu, dresses up as a farmer and drives a mule car to escort Chen Duxiu out of Beijing. The creator made a very romantic artistic treatment of this section, and the two hummed songs in the snow, which was very beautiful. Xu Zhanxiong said he believed that Li Dazhao and the revolutionary volunteers of that generation had romantic feelings, "they were so convinced of everything they believed in, and even gave their lives." ”
Before Li Dazhao took the righteousness, he talked and laughed with the revolutionaries in prison, and the same artistic creation made by the director was to show the optimism of the revolutionaries, because this kind of drama is easy to shoot heavily, and the director deliberately wants to break this heavy atmosphere, do the opposite, show the revolutionaries' belief in the future, and believe that the dream will be realized one day in the future.
In addition to these small details, in the presentation of large historical events, the film is firmly supported by historical materials, and there are historical experts to guide the creation. For example, the film examines the Beijing Normal Detention Center in Xijiaomin Lane, Beijing, where Li Dazhao was detained after his arrest, and Li Dazhao's gallows, which are currently placed in the exhibition hall of the National Museum of China, which is a national first-class cultural relic numbered 0001, and the film is also restored 1:1.
In the film, Li Dazhao was shaved before the righteousness. Xu Zhanxiong said that this should be the first time in the film and television works that the image of Mr. Li Dazhao was truly restored when he was executed. In previous film and television works, Mr. Li Dazhao walked onto the gallows with a flat head and glasses. "But from the historical evidence, this is not the case, Mr. Li Dazhao was shaved his head, and his glasses were also taken off."
Stills from The Revolutionary. Li Dazhao was heroic and righteous.
Xu Zhanxiong has repeatedly stressed that many scenes in the film, no matter how stylized, are actually supported by historical materials. There is a scene in which Chen Duxiu throws leaflets at tourists on the fifth floor of the New World Amusement Park, which has been shown in many film and television works, but "Revolutionary" is the first time that it has been completely restored with very strict historical materials. "For example, Chen Duxiu evaded the pursuit in front of many haha mirrors, you may think it is fictional, but I can tell you in turn that all the scenes in it, the open-air movie, the haha mirror, the billiard hall, including Chen Duxiu, played by Qin Hao, who was dressed in white and wearing a hat that night, were all filmed after strict historical examination."
Teng Chao, a senior reporter of the Beijing News
Senior Editor Huang Jialing Proofreader Chen Diyan Zhai Yongjun