Zhang Yimou and Zhang Mo's new work "Sniper" will be released on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which is also Zhang Yimou's first entry into the Spring Festival file. A few days ago, the Beijing Municipal Film Bureau, the Peking University Film and Television Drama Research Center, and the Contemporary Film Magazine sponsored the expert seminar on the film "Sniper", and Wang Jiequn, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and director of the Beijing Municipal Film Bureau; Wang Changtian, chairman of Light Media and producer of "Sniper"; Professor Chen Yu, professor of the School of Arts of Peking University and screenwriter of "Sniper"; and many experts and scholars gathered together. For "Sniper", the guests gave high praise, believing that it is another high-quality work of China's new mainstream blockbuster, and another transcendent work of director Zhang Yimou in terms of film type, technical aesthetics, imagination and feelings.
"Sniper" is a key theme film mainly grasped by the State Film Administration and supported by the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee; the film takes the little-known but significant "Cold Gun cold artillery campaign" in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea as the background, telling the story of the five squads of sniper fighters who fought a deadly duel with the SNIPER elite under the circumstances of the disparity in the armament strength of the enemy and ourselves, and showed the tenacious spirit of the volunteer army of "using qi to overcome steel" and the combat wisdom of flexibility and mobility.
Wang Jiequn: A surprising work
Wang Jiequn, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and director of the Beijing Municipal Film Bureau, talked about her three-point view of "Sniper", first, the grandeur and subtlety of the film complement each other, showing the artistic expression of small and beautiful, and presenting the artistic technique of seeing the big in the small. "'Sniper' is different from "Chosin Lake" and "Shangganling", instead of focusing on major battles, it focuses on the portrayal of a fragment in the grand war. It is more about the performance of the characters themselves, through the portrayal of vivid characters, which eventually converge into a grand theme of patriotism and elucidate the rich connotation of the spirit of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The whole movie also digs into people's inner psychology very deeply, and all aspects of the plot are very reasonable, so as to take us to the scene and take us into the depths of each character's soul, which is very difficult. ”
Second, the film presents a youthful combat aesthetic. "Our entire team of directors and screenwriters, when using the youthful feelings of young people, perfectly matched the temperament of the young volunteers on the Korean battlefield, and captured it very realistically. This youthful war aesthetic is very impressive to us. ”
Third, inheritance and innovation in film complement each other. "Although the war took place in the snow and ice, it gave me the feeling that the fresh flowers blooming in the spring were presented to me. Director Zhang Yimou and Teacher Chen Yu faced great pressure and challenges, but in the end, they perfectly displayed our Chinese characteristics and made us feel a sense of surprise. ”
Screenwriter Chen Yu: Zhang Yimou made three requests
Screenwriter Professor Chen Yu told the creative process of "Sniper", "Sniper" is the third film cooperated by Chen Yu and Zhang Yimou, on January 10, 2020, Zhang Yimou called him and proposed to shoot "Sniper", the idea of the film is that the first is to avoid grand narratives, the second is to slice the war, from small to large, and the third is the whole process of tension, no urine point.
After that, Chen Yu began to write the script, and the film was launched on January 10, 2021. For the psychology of creation, Chen Yu said that the principle of narrative first nature is the starting point of his and Zhang Yimou's creation, "The so-called narrative first principle is actually three sentences, first, storytelling is the highest goal of a film. Second, telling a good story is the fundamental reason why a movie can be put into shooting, of course, a movie should be based on a good story to decide to make, but in fact, many times it is found that this is not the case, it may also be because of the actors, because of the concept, not necessarily because of the good story itself. Third, the various elements of a film, including the performance of the actors, their performance of all these will be incorporated into the narrative, all the criteria for judging whether the judgement is good or not here, whether the actor is acting well or not, whether this design is good or not, must be based on the principle of narrative, and the excellent narrative angle will be used as a criterion for judging. As we all know, director Zhang Yimou is a first-class master of scene scheduling and film form design, and some people say that he does not attach so much importance to narrative, but in the past two years, since I have cooperated with him, I think he has a very big change, that is, he is very clear about the first principle of narrative, and the matter of 'storytelling' has become the first principle in him. Under this principle, I think we created the story of Sniper in a very compatible state. This is the first creative psychology. ”
Chen Yu summed up the second creative psychology as a "hardcore narrative". "Hardcore narrative is more like the internal drive narrative in closed time and space, in the case of relatively closed time and space, driven by the internal conflict of the narrative, this is from my doctoral training in the drama school, the essential training is to use the most minimalist way to exercise a narrative ability, the stage is empty, put a chair next to it, equivalent to this is the park, there is a person in the east, a person in the west, two people do not know each other, and then they want to have a story, to constantly use the inner driving story, Keep upgrading, all the way up to the last climax. You can't be influenced by other external factors, it's your internal problems, driven by character relationships, character personalities, and character positions, so I call this hardcore storytelling. We hope to achieve a high degree of tension throughout the process in this way, and to achieve the ultimate in the way of drama trinity. ”
The third creative psychology is the theme of man. "The theme of Sniper is human sacrifice, not sacrifice, human sacrifice, and ultimately it must be restored to people."
Chen Yu believes that the new mainstream film has now gone through three stages, the first stage is "The Great Undertaking of the Founding of the People's Republic", which commercializes the traditional main theme, and the second stage is "Chinese Captain", "Chinese Doctor" and other works, making the main theme type large-scale. And "Sniper" we want to try the third stage, to make a genre film, not to say that the genre is filmed, but really to do a genre film, at this time, it must be implemented to people, which is very difficult, under collectivism, personal feelings, personal growth challenges are very high, so "Sniper" has also made some attempts in this regard. ”
Experts; See the big in the small, go in with the small incision
At the seminar, experts and scholars praised "Sniper" and said that after watching the film, they were confident in the box office of this year's Spring Festival.
Professor Li Yang, deputy dean of the School of Arts of Peking University, praised Chen Yu's script for showing the superb skills and accurate grasp of the film after years of teaching, "The play is the most important part of the film to be established, and "Sniper" chose a very difficult creative method, restoring the principle of high unity of time and place and characters in Western drama. In today's creative context, especially for filmmaking, this is very difficult. Because today's movies often emphasize scene transformation, information iteration, and changes in the growth time of characters. The method chosen by Teacher Chen Yu brings great challenges, for example, the character has no previous history, after coming up, it will be opened and closed, you need to explain the character and previous history in a process that is almost at the same time as the battle, which requires high skills, you not only have to talk about one side, you also have to talk about two parties, and you can't talk about everything at once, you need to lay the groundwork step by step. You will find that every dialogue and every scene has a very key message coming in, and the audience's suspense and plot are pushed step by step to develop. Therefore, Li Yang sighed that the core of the film is still in the creation, "China's good movies still rely on screenwriting skills to temper." ”
Zhang Wei, executive vice president of the China Film Critics Association, also praised the film for having three major narratives, namely life and death narrative, closed-loop narrative and tragic narrative, which made the film very gripping from the beginning.
Tan Zheng, editor-in-chief of Film Art and researcher at the Film Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that the rhythm of the film is precisely controlled, and from the beginning to the end, the tense atmosphere has been spreading on the screen, oppressing the audience to forget to breathe. From the opening scene to the tank scene, to the gradual decline and combat of the seven-person class on both sides of the canyon, the design of the entire sniper is very accurate, allowing the audience to appreciate the story in a tense atmosphere. In fact, the narrative of the film is very calm, fully in line with the aesthetic needs of the moment, a reciprocal construction of the enemy and us, we are also sniper heroes, the other side is also a sniper master, and we have conducted in-depth research on the sniper master, through his judgment can cause the existence of this story, from his report to promote each part step by step forward, and even can judge that the squad leader can exchange himself for a scout, which is also the progress of the current Chinese film narrative.
Professor Wang Yichuan, director of the Literary and Art Research Center of Beijing Normal University and vice chairman of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, said that through the story of "Sniper", which is equivalent to a hidden front, the heroism of the volunteer army and the reasons for their victory were discovered, and the deeds of a sniper squad were excavated, and then dug deep and saw a special significance. See the big in the small, go in with a small incision, and then dig very deep. It depicts the process of fighting wits and courage between volunteer soldiers and powerful opponents in a delicate, vivid and vivid manner.
Huang Fuyichuan, editor-in-chief of Contemporary Cinema, also praised "Sniper" for its impact on the future in the history of Chinese cinema. We can also look at the value and significance of such a film from the coordinates of some innovative consciousness created and expressed in the new mainstream films, especially in recent years, "In addition, I think it can also be placed on the road to The road to China's film power to look at the value and significance of this film." ”
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang