At the 2019 Rotterdam Film Festival, I went to see Navapen Tarronguatnari's BNK48: Girls Don't Cry. After the screening QA, a grandfather sitting next to me caught my attention, and his question was very interesting.
After I chatted with him after the show, I learned that this grandfather named Adrian was a veteran fan of Rotterdam, rotterdam had held a total of 48 sessions by 2019, and he participated in 47 sessions!
Two days later, the late movie ended, and at 11:30 in the middle of the night, Grandpa Adrian found me, and we talked for more than an hour before discovering that he was a crazy fan who watched 6 movies a day.
He loves China, he loves Chinese movies (but strangely enough, he has no impression of the famous Rotterdam's "Suzhou Creek" and the sixth generation of movies), and has a very unique way of watching movies.
The Rotterdam Film Festival may not be as high as the three "forced" in the eyes of the people of the country, and it is not as lively as the Oscar, but it is definitely the most comfortable and suitable film festival for film fans.
Here, there is no scale, can XX, can XX, all have to play mosaic, the healthiest activity is to go to the striptease, you know. There's a tradition that no one else has: everyone brings beer to the movies!
Grandpa Adrian broke a lot of materials and talked a lot of gossip with me.
Before Rotterdam 2020, we published this interview and asked Rotterdam's most senior film fan to take you to the film festival!
Finally, I wish Grandpa Adrian good health and watch fifty more movies this year!
Yin Xiang: How many films do you watch every day?
Adrian: I was fine with the previous six films, but when I got older, this year I watched four films a day and five on weekends. Only 50 people were able to get this card. This year it was written as "Super Member", and last year we called this card "Unlimited Card", which can go to the media and industry field, and you can also watch the public field films. I often see almost 54 or 55 films throughout the festival.
Yin Xiang: I watched 51 films last year. I probably don't see that much this year, it's windy and rainy, I've had a cold, and I've had a day of illness. I was careless, less clothes to wear... I always thought I knew Rotterdam well.
Adrian: You just said this is your second time here?
Yin Xiang: It's the third time, but coming to the Rotterdam Film Festival is the second time. But you're starting to see the festival for the second time... I would especially like to see your id collection.
Adrian: (Show me my handwritten schedule) Every year I make this schedule.
Yin Xiang: Wow! You also scored!
Adrian: Yeah, I score every film I've seen. It's very subjective, but that's what I do. I didn't give much five stars this year.
Yin Xiang: Let me see what kind of films you like this year... "What about the history of wild names"?
Adrian: Because this film is talking about history, it reveals what Romania did in World War II, but its way is so wonderful!
I also like this year's Chinese Sichuan opera documentary "Inner Landscape", when I asked questions after the screening, I was always the first to raise my hand when I opened the audience to ask questions hahaha.
I asked the director if he had referenced ancient Chinese paintings in composition? The director said yes, and he mentioned that he used three cameras, 16mm, Bolex and video, and he really had a lot of ideas.
I hadn't heard of the director before, but it was a pleasure to see this work this time. He did a fantastic job of making Chinese operas, far exceeding my expectations. I watched Peking Opera when I was in Beijing again.
Yin Xiang: I see you still like "Migratory Birds" and "Capernaum". Did you know that Capernaum was a big hit in Cannes last year?
Adrian: When I set my schedule for myself, I told my wife that this film must have been voted first this year (press: it is true, see our awards report last year).
You know, rotterdam's audience loves this kind of story the most: children, sad stories... For example, what little boy in Lebanon, little girl in Syria... The audience was moved to a pulp. In particular, these directors would lower the cameras, as Spielberg did in ET Aliens, and they knew exactly how to make children's scenes.
Yin Xiang: I noticed that you still like Bi Gan's "The Last Night on Earth"...
Adrian: That long shot was so shocking, the slings, the drone part was incredible, I guess I missed the stitching point of the shot?
Yin Xiang: No, no, no, one mirror to the end.
Adrian: Oh my God! By the way, I remembered that I had seen a very long shot of a cow in a palace in St. Petersburg...
Yin Xiang: The Russian Ark.
Adrian: The dance was a bit boring, but the "ghost" in the film is fantastic. I also watched Climax and didn't like it, although there was also a 40-minute or so long shot. The main thing is that I don't like the music in it, and the director's text, too much like a philosophical golden sentence, I think the director may not be far from madness.
Yin Xiang: Let's talk about yourself, how did you start to see the Rotterdam Film Festival.
Adrian: I'm 73 years old (born in 1946), which means I grew up in the '60s, and when I was in my teens and twenties, I saw what it was like in the sixties.
At that time, people in the nightclub often compared themselves to each other, and the men mainly wanted to make themselves look special in the eyes of the girls; but the girls were too scary to compare. I think men still have big hearts, and women can never forgive things, they can easily resolve.
Yin Xiang: Why haven't you been coming to the festival since the first edition?
Adrian: I didn't know it at the time! At that moment I probably... Between the ages of 26 and 27. Because I went back to learning vocational skills at the age of 25 – I was a post and telecommunications clerk and had to go to class two nights a week and all day on Saturdays.
I remember that year, I read an article written by a very famous film critic in the newspaper about the film festival "What happened to Rotterdam?" I went to see the movie, and I remember very clearly that the first movie I watched was Alain Rob Grillet's Floating Desires (the film was released in the Rotterdam film in 1974, and the second Rotterdam Film Festival was in 1973, presumably grandpa misremembered...). We in the audience were very excited because at the time this film could not be seen...
Yin Xiang: What?
Adrian: You heard that right, when you wanted to watch a movie like "Floating in desire," you had to go to a closed theater. Hubter Bals (founder and first artistic director of the Rotterdam Film Festival) figured out a way where you pay an extra piece of Guilder and you get a beer and get admission at the same time.
In fact, you can understand that this film is screened on a nightclub-type occasion, and the extra piece of guilder is the entrance fee to the nightclub.
Yin Xiang: I finally know where Rotterdam's tradition of watching movies and drinking beer comes from!
Adrian: The film was the last film of the year, and on Saturday night, I had to go to night school before I could see the movie, and that was my first time at the Rotterdam Film Festival, which was held in June.
Later, I came every year, and every year I watched more and more films, so much so that I had to watch ten days... So then I took ten days of annual leave every year to watch movies.
I later spent most of my time working in the Rotterdam city government, the post and telecommunications company, they funded me to go to school, and they also suggested that I change jobs, and then I went to work in the city government, and it was difficult not to have to do with the port in the port authority , the work of the children who grew up in Rotterdam.
If you are not a sailor, it is also good to be a human resources manager. I first went to school at the Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, and then at the age of 26, I began to study human resources and organizational management.
I was still a union member, I was only in my early twenties when I worked for the post and telecommunications company, I was the backbone of the union, I led the postman strike, which is why the human resources department of the municipal government liked me, they thought I had leadership and execution, and I was quite suitable to be a human resources manager. Of course, this will not happen again today.
Yin Xiang: When did you go to work in the government?
Adrian: After I finished my studies, when I was about 32 years old,
Yin Xiang: So how did you get interested in movies?
Adrian: I grew up watching movies, I watched a lot of great movies when I was a kid, like Around the World in Eighty Days, The Old Man and the Sea, when I was a kid an uncle took me, but when I was twelve or thirteen years old, I went by myself, I watched movies on weekend afternoons, I watched a lot of movies, Lawrence of Arabia, BingXu. I also watched the restored version of Lawrence of Arabia last month, and I was very emotional. This was one of the first films I was exposed to.
Yin Xiang: These are all commercial films that you just mentioned, and the films of the film festival... Let's talk about "art-house films," and how did you get interested in them, because of film festivals?
Adrian: My interest in art films came from Belgian national television, and in 1972 I first watched Belgian television and then I found a show where on Friday night there was a film critic Eric de Kuyper who introduced the audience to art films, such as those in Germany — I remember hannah Schogullah, who was supposed to be in and out of a church with Fassbinder... The critic always wore a hat and later made his own films. Later he came to the Rotterdam Film Festival with his film, and we became friends. He gave me a signed book.
Also, there's a book about Hubert Barrs called Que le tigre danse: Huub Bals, een biografie (Tiger Dance), which is written in Dutch, but if you're interested in Bals, it's everything in it, every step of his life, all the important films he chooses, and all the conflicts.
About Gong Li, I am deeply impressed by whether it was 1992 or 1993, Gong Li and Zhang Yimou came together, ah ah Gong Li is really beautiful, beautiful beyond belief.
The Dutch Prime Minister came — he always came to the Rotterdam Film Festival — and danced with her. I especially regret not being able to invite her to a dance.
Speaking of the Prime Minister, the year of the War in Kuwait, I also met him, went to see an Arabic movie at the film festival, he always had a beer in the bar of the central hotel near Luxor, went there to always see him, drank with her.
The Queen of the Netherlands also came to the Rotterdam Film Festival to attend a screening of a film by Julius Evans, and there were many foreign audiences at the time, who were stunned, "She just walked in?" "No cops?" Yes, it's the bare minimum of security, and you can really watch the Queen up close.
She just has a special seat, and Iris Evans loves to shoot Chinese subjects.
Speaking of which, I have been to China, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Suzhou, Taiwan a total of five or six times... I also often read books about China, study Chinese trade, and I know about your Belt and Road Initiative.
The University of Rotterdam also conducted a week-long "China Silk Road Today" themed event. When I was in China, I also saw an interview with the Portuguese prime minister on TV, and he said that he was particularly grateful to China for its help, no one in the whole of Europe helped us, but China is really a great savior of the Portuguese people...
Yin Xiang: Let's talk about the art films you've seen in Rotterdam.
Adrian: I just said those films I watched on Belgian television. Fassbinder came to Rotterdam with Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Hannah Hzhgula, and I remember when they came on stage after the screening. Hannah Hyogula is particularly sexy, and even now she is beautiful. She's my favorite actress. However, the most beautiful actress is Gong Li.
Yin Xiang: We all call her "Gong Li, the Queen."
Adrian: Hahahahaha indeed. I've seen a lot of Godard, Houmai, Bertolucci, Antonioni at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and they've all been to Rotterdam.
I don't like Hollywood movies, I don't like Dutch movies, the actors are so bad... I just love watching these art films.
When there was no film festival, I went to the Film Club in Rotterdam, where I performed various art films every week, such as "Zoom", and I started watching art films in my twenties and have been watching them until now.
I was one of the first people to have this "Infinity Card", a "secret club" of only 50 people, and I knew everyone in it before, but not now. Several of them participated in all 48 Rotterdam Film Festivals. In the beginning, this "club" was all men...
Yin Xiang: Why?
Adrian: At that time, the women were still busy in the kitchen... In the early years, women also came to the Rotterdam Film Festival, but not continuously; recently women have also liked to come to the film festival, and some people have been here for twenty or thirty years.
Yin Xiang: You participated in the 47th class, it is really remarkable, are there any people who participated in all the 48th class?
Adrian: Three or four more. When you live long enough and are healthy enough, that number can be kept going.
At first, the film festival was only four or five days a year, and then it slowly became ten days, I think... It's been at least 25 years, and I'm sure it's been ten days since the 1990s.
Every year when I arrived at the festival, my boss would talk to me, "Are you going to take another ten days off?" "Yeah, I'm going to take another ten days off."
One of my bosses, who was a very old-fashioned Christian, told me, "Don't go to the movies alone, it's a sin."
He thinks that the history of cinema is the temptation of the devil, so he never watches movies... But the whole Rotterdam government, my family, my children, my friends know that I have to disappear ten days a year to watch movies, and every time at this time, I treat my home as a hotel, that is, I go back to sleep, get up in the morning for a coffee and leave, don't do anything, my wife takes care of everything.
Yin Xiang: Why didn't you bring her to the film festival?
Adrian: She doesn't like to watch movies and doesn't doze off as soon as she gets into the movie theater. She had come with me once before to see an actor she liked. If you think about it, once in over forty years. She really didn't like to watch movies.
Yin Xiang: Do your children like to watch movies?
Adrian: Yeah, when I was with my kids, I watched movies on German tv, and they were supposed to watch or listen to Fassbinder while they were breastfeeding... I didn't watch Dutch TV at the time, and Belgian and German TV stations were much better than ours. We don't have any good directors in the Netherlands.
Yin Xiang: You have Paul Verhoeven wow.
Adrian: Yes, he's the best, other directors... Of course, the Dutch technicians are very good, especially the cinematographers; documentary filmmakers are very good, but feature films are not.
Yin Xiang: Do you remember any impressive movies?
Adrian: I have to go back and check my archives, I have notes every year at the film festival. One year during a film festival I ran into Bals in a bar, and he saw me and yelled, "What are you doing here?" I managed to get "The Little Furnacemaker's Wife" (1983, directed by Park Chul-so), hurry up and watch it!"
Then I went to see it, and it was a good movie.
I also particularly enjoyed The Draftsman's Contract (1982, directed by Peter Greenaway), which was great in music and structure. One year Michael Nyman came too, and he did the live score that year, not a symphony orchestra, but it was great.
Yin Xiang: Are you good friends with Mr. Bals?
Adrian: I don't know if it's a friend, but it's true that we see each other every year.
Yin Xiang: Did the director of the later Rotterdam Film Festival recognize you?
Adrian: I don't know if they know my name, but they certainly recognize my face. Greeted me every time we met. Two days ago I ran into Bero Beyer (artistic director of the 2015-2019 Rotterdam Film Festival, who is leaving after 2020), and he shook my hand.
Yin Xiang: Before the Rotterdam Film Festival was held in June, do you think it is good in winter or summer?
Adrian: I think it's still winter. Because you can't do anything in winter, it's better to have a film festival.
However, because of Berlin and Sundance, rotterdam is still difficult to choose a good film. In the 1980s, the Rotterdam Film Festival was equivalent to an art film, and you went to the cinema to see a commercial film, but if you wanted to see an art film, you had to come to Rotterdam.
I think rotterdam was the most important art festival at least in the late 1980s, and the media from all over Europe came to Rotterdam.
Another reason for that year was that Bals had a good relationship with the Soviet Union, he had friends in the Soviet government (legend is that his girlfriend) could help him make some films, Tarkovsky, Parajanov and so on, I have seen them in Rotterdam. There was no film festival like Rotterdam at the time, and Locarno probably counted as one.
Yin Xiang: Do you go to other film festivals?
Adrian: Never, I only attended the Rotterdam Film Festival.
Yin Xiang: Really???
Adrian: I'm loyal at that point, and the Rotterdam Film Festival is enough. In the early years, the last movie in Rotterdam was put on three o'clock in the middle of the night, and then we all ran out and stole the poster at the door... I have a whole bunch of them at home. There are a lot of crazy parties in Rotterdam every year, but I never go, I just watch movies and go home after watching them.
Yin Xiang: What about the performance?
Adrian: I don't go either, I don't like to watch shows, I don't go to any awards ceremonies, I just watch movies.
Yin Xiang: What is your favorite section of the Rotterdam Film Festival?
Adrian: I don't care about the unit at all, I just pick the films I want to see. Every year after Christmas I start researching to see what films are available this year, I watch trailers, IMDb, read reviews, and decide what films to watch.
I also don't believe in the films recommended by the festival every year. I like funny stories, historical films, Asian films, Italian films, not too commercial, but some art films are also quite annoying to me, such as "The Sound of Light" and "Climax", but I have to watch it to know that I have given two stars to these two films, not my dish.
This year's "Happy Lazzaro" and "The Last Night on Earth" are particularly good, and "Magic Land" and "River of Brothers" are also good. For example, when I was in Singapore, I noticed that the Swissotel hotel where we were staying was next to the construction workers working, and in China, I was staying at Sofitel, next to the construction site.
Yin Xiang: So in addition to taking notes, do you write film reviews?
Adrian: Never write. But some journalists would write about me, and then some people would read the article and come to say hello to me. I remember all the newspapers that had large film festival coverage, but now there is no...
Yin Xiang: The publications of this year's film festival have been changed to electronic versions, which is environmentally friendly.
Adrian: The field magazine hasn't been running for many years, four or five years. But in fact, it is also right to stop, because no one reads it. In the past, there were many reports in the daily newspapers that were very good, such as interviews with some filmmakers, and I also archived some. But it's not so good to change to an electronic version now, because you can't read criticism and complaining. Of course, you don't see all kinds of gossip anymore. For example, when Parajanov came, the Georgians and the Russians fought... You think about how you could have known today, of course it's possible that now they don't fight... If you're interested, read Bals's biography, which contains a lot of material.
Yin Xiang: Finally, let's talk about the impressive Chinese movies.
Adrian: Last year I watched "Fanghua" and I liked it very much, the music, the ballet, the history, it was very good. I love movies with historical themes.
In "Fang Hua", the part of the Vietnam War is very interesting, and it is not easy to talk about this history, I have seen some documentaries about this issue.
In recent years, I have also particularly enjoyed "Assassin Nie Yinniang" and "Blind Well". Ah I remember another Chinese movie, the story of the well in the village...
Yin Xiang: "Old Well", have you noticed that the male protagonist is Zhang Yimou?
Adrian: Oh my God, I remembered you saying that! Indeed it is! However, there have not been so many Chinese films in recent years.
I also miss the Japanese gangster movies of that year. I also love The Godfather, but you know, the best thing to enjoy at midnight every day at the Rotterdam Film Festival is to watch a Japanese or Korean gangster movie.
These films are not shown at the Japanese Film Festival in Rotterdam, where I watched a lot of Ghibli cartoons, and Hisaishi made the music very good. I was sad when Takahata passed away last year.
Hisaishi jean really should come to a concert, every year Rotterdam has a movie concert, although the music is good, but the film they choose is really annoying... I'll give you a listen to one of my favorite passages. I've decided that I'll let them play this music at my funeral. [Laughs).
This article was first published in the Adventure Movie: Cinematik
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