"Daytime Fireworks" is an important work in Wen Yan's career as a producer
The 71st Venice International Film Festival is in full swing a few days ago, and this year's Chinese filmmakers have attracted much attention, especially Chen Chong, Xu Anhua and Wen Yan, who have formed a group to become judges, which is very surprising. But who is Wen Yan? Presumably many people are not familiar with it, but she has become a judge in the "Lion of the Future" section of this year's Venice International Film Festival, which is definitely the light of China. Last year, her directorial debut, Watermark Street, which she directed and wrote, was screened at the Venice Film Festival and received considerable acclaim. Wen Yan is not only a director, screenwriter, but also a senior producer, she has served as the producer of the movie "Night Train", "Cowherd Weaver Girl", "Spring Dream", "Daytime Fireworks", "Daytime Fireworks" won the Golden Bear Award for Best Film and the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor at this year's Berlin Film Festival, and has achieved box office results of over 100 million yuan in the mainland, becoming a new benchmark for literary and art films.
I remember that the last time I interviewed Wen Yan was at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, when she had just finished the Venice Film Festival with her directorial debut "Watermark Street", when she appeared in a plain face, there were not many directors who were forced to look at the style, nor was she the kind of independent filmmaker who was full of complaints, and she sincerely and indifferently talked about her views on the film. Half a year later, Wen Yan's "Daytime Fireworks" as a producer was well-known at home and abroad, but the name "Wen Yan" is still unfamiliar to most people. I couldn't resist asking her why she didn't take the opportunity to make herself popular, and she just laughed and said, "Better do the movies I love to do"! Still so sincere and calm.
Talking to Wen Yan is pleasant, but for me, there are always regrets. I heard that the last time at the Toronto Film Festival, only one of our media took the initiative to contact and interview her, and I always wondered, when international film festivals and foreign audiences are familiar with such a Chinese director, how much do we know about her as compatriots? How many media outlets are willing to reserve space for filmmakers like her? And how many Chinese media and audiences have seen "Watermark Street" and are willing to watch such a literary and artistic film? The only thing that can be determined is that there are not a few filmmakers like Wen Yan who dream of film and work silently for it, and what a pity if our eyes are limited to those brilliant filmmakers!
Interpretation of the Venice "Lion of the Future" awards said that female directors have become an important force in Chinese films
The "Lion of the Future" section of the Venice International Film Festival is set up to recognize the best emerging directors, and her biggest feature is the film that spans the main competition of the festival, the horizon and other four units, and the award is unique, and does not accept "double yolk eggs". As a judge of this year's "Lion of the Future" unit, Chinese director Wen Yan believes that the judging criteria of the award are not the pursuit of perfection and maturity of the work, but the sincerity and innovation of the director.
As a female director, Wen Yan said that she would not pay special attention to movies because of her female identity, but it is undeniable that in recent years, Chinese female directors have risen in an all-round way. Last year, Zhao Wei's film "To the Youth We Will Eventually Pass Away" exceeded 700 million yuan at the box office, and the works of Directors such as Xue Xiaolu, Xu Jinglei, Li Yu, Huang Zhenzhen, and Jin Yimeng have also been recognized by the market. This year, Chen Chong, Xu Anhua and Wen Yan are the judges of the Venice Film Festival's main competition, Horizon and Lion of the Future units. For the collective outbreak and shine of Chinese female directors, Wen Yan believes that Chinese films have never lacked excellent female directors, and said that female filmmakers have formed a powerful force in the Chinese film market, but everyone's attention to female directors is not high enough, Wen Yan also hopes that the mainland can be like other countries, there are more and more organizations and funds to support female directors.
1905 Film Network: Your directorial debut, "Watermark Street," received a good reputation at the Venice Film Festival last year, is that why you were invited to be a jury member at this year's Venice Film Festival?
Wen Yan: "Watermark Street" was really popular at the Venice Film Festival last year, the mainstream media in Italy reported on the film, the film was also shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival' best film exhibition, after the film festival, "Watermark Street" was screened in many cities in Italy, I think this is an important reason why I was invited to be a jury member of the Venice Film Festival. Of course, the film festival will also have her comprehensive consideration, and I have been working as a producer of art films all these years, and I believe this is also a big reason.
1905 Movie Network: What do you need to do as a judge for the Lion of the Future?
Wen Yan: When the jury is nothing more than watching, discussing and finally judging, I am the jury member for the best debut of the "Lion of the Future" at the Venice International Film Festival, which is special in that there are 18 candidate films across the main competition, horizon, Venice Day and critics Thursday. The biggest challenge for us was that this award could only select 1 winner, not a tie, so I think several of our judges would have a very intense discussion at the end.
1905 Movie Network: What are your criteria for judging films, and will there be a special focus on women as a part?
Wen Yan: I don't pay much attention to a certain aspect of the film because I am a woman, and the most important thing about the film, especially for the debut, is to see if the director has innovation and something special. Debut works cannot require her to be perfect, and what we pursue is not mature, stylized works, but very sincere and moving things.
1905 Film Network: This year, there are 3 female Chinese filmmakers as judges in Venice, and at present, in the mainland, the works of female directors are also very popular, does this mean that female directors have supported half of the mainland film market?
Wen Yan: Half of it? We have never lacked excellent female directors in Chinese films, such as Zhang Nunxin and Ning Ying, Xu Jinglei, Xue Xiaolu, Li Yu later, and Liu Jiayin and Yang Lina, who made art films, some of whom have achieved commercial success, and some of whom have achieved great achievements in art.
I think that female directors are already a force, but I personally feel that people do not pay enough attention to female directors. In many countries in the West, there are organizations, funds, and activities to support female directors, but there are still relatively few in China, and I hope to advocate it, because this will encourage more female directors to create better works.
1905 Film Network: This year, Wang Xiaoshuai's "Intruder" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival, which is also the second time that mainland films have been shortlisted after 2 years of dudfire, what do you think are his chances of winning?
Wen Yan: Of course, I very much hope that director Xiao Shuai can win an award, he has been doing art films for many years, it is not easy. However, we should not focus all our attention on winning the award when we go to the film festival, and the shortlisting is already a huge affirmation in the first place, indicating that your film has reached a certain level. Winning awards is actually a certain degree of serendipity, which is related to the quality of other films this year and the judges, and the award is not, nor should it be the whole purpose of our going to the film festival.
The "Daytime Fireworks" model is not a panacea, but literary and art films have market potential in the mainland
How many mainland films that won awards at international film festivals suffered box office Waterloo when they were released in China? For example, "Tuya's Marriage", which won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, "The Good Man of the Three Gorges" directed by Jia Zhangke, the winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and "The Piano of Steel" and "Police Diary", which won the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, etc., but Diao Yinan's "Daytime Fireworks" broke the spell and not only won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival this year, but also won more than 100 million yuan in the mainland, which is considered by the industry to be the most beautiful turnaround battle played by literary and art films. However, the real attention of "Daytime Fireworks" is not simply attributed to awards and box office, but a commercial exploration of the genre of literary and art films, which is a new attempt for literary and art film directors to collide with the market, and it is also expected to find a new way out for domestic literary and art films.
As the producer of "Daytime Fireworks", Wen Yan believes that the model of "Daytime Fireworks" is not necessarily applicable to all literary and art films, "The reason why this film can be successful, there is her own particularity, "Daytime Fireworks" mainly combines the commercial elements of genre films, while retaining the literary and artistic temperament, plus the film won the Golden Bear Award, which is of great help to the performance and publicity of the domestic market. However, Wen Yan is very confident in the audience of literary and art films, and she also uses examples such as The Chinese Archive and the rear window screening, "I believe that there is a market for art films in the mainland, but now the filmmakers and publicity teams have not yet found a good model to build a bridge between literary and art films and the audience." ”
1905 Movie Network: As the producer of Daytime Fireworks, how do you think this film achieved artistic recognition while at the same time earning high box office?
Wen Yan: "Daytime Fireworks" has a certain particularity. I remember in 2005, when Diao Yinan and I saw the dilemma of art films in domestic financing, distribution and other aspects, I suggested to him, can you make a certain commercial film, in the 8 years of preparation, the script of "Daytime Fireworks" has also undergone a transformation, from the original comparative literature and art to more and more commercial, this is an exploration of the market by art filmmakers, and now this film has such achievements is the most ideal situation, but it does not mean that all art films can do this.
"Daytime Fireworks" won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, which is of great help to the promotion of the domestic market, otherwise the box office in the mainland would not necessarily be so good. The question about (how art films get high box office) is still very complicated, but I have always believed that art films have an audience, but I just said that the original publicity and distribution mechanism, we have not found a particularly good model to build bridges, and now "Daytime Fireworks" gives everyone a possibility, and I hope she will bring a positive effect.
1905 Movie Network: Do you think other art films that want to be commercially successful can learn from the operation model of "Daytime Fireworks"?
Wen Yan: There is no one-size-fits-all medicine! In fact, the film itself has a distinction between the public and the minority, which is a very natural phenomenon, in the United States, in the Western very mature business environment, the largest audience of the film is still 14-21 years old young people, they must like to watch "Transformers" more. But this is not a problem, nor does it mean that every art film has to have a box office of several hundred million, and eighty or ninety percent can't do it at all. I think if you're sure you're making an art film, then the standard of the film itself is still the most fundamental thing.
The success of "Daytime Fireworks" is due to its combination of a genre film, which itself meets the basic demands of the commercial genre, while it also retains some literary temperament. But it's not for the box office, this kind of film is the only genre we want to make in the future. Now the very successful art films in the West, like Richard Linklater's "Boyhood", it is a very pure art film, and it is in the art film, and it is also very good at the box office. So if you want to get a relatively successful box office, there are multiple possibilities, and I think the most fundamental thing is to work hard to make her into a real thing you want to express.
1905 Movie Network: What exactly did you do to Daylight Fireworks?
Wen Yan: In the process of creating the script for several years, both macroscopic and detailed, there have been many discussions. At the beginning, the film was relatively literary, and I also participated in some venture capital at overseas and Shanghai film festivals in the process, and got market feedback, and I filtered this thing back. In 2011, after I approached investors, I began to coordinate the demands of investors and directors to help them find a common appeal.
Diao Yinan and I began to cooperate with his movie "Night Train", I know some of his habits, such as he shoots slower, and likes to shoot smoothly, etc., which may bring some difficulties to the producers, so I will communicate and prepare in advance before the shooting of "Daytime Fireworks" to make the shooting smooth. "Daytime Fireworks" basically continues Diao Yinan's previous style from the shooting style, but also has some expansion.
The Director's Dream of a Veteran Producer Making a film for the first time also has the confusion of a new director
Although Wen Yan served as a producer in "Daytime Fireworks", she still had a movie dream
Wen Yan has always been very low-key, not good at promoting herself, so that until now, her name is still very strange to the public, and her face is not even a reporter who specializes in running movies can recognize her, but Wen Yan is actually a senior film producer, she has served as the producer of the movie "Night Train", "Cowherd Weaver Girl", "Spring Dream", "Daytime Fireworks", these films have been shortlisted for Cannes, Venice and other international A-class film festivals, and "Daytime Fireworks" has won the Golden Bear Award in one fell swoop. However, she did not use the East Wind to make herself popular like other filmmakers, she said that she was not good at publicity, nor was she too interested in deliberately increasing exposure, she was only good at making her favorite movies.
She has been a producer for nearly 10 years, but it is the first time to shoot a film, and last year she took her directorial debut to venice, Toronto and other international film festivals. Wen Yan also admitted that although he has been in the industry for many years, when he really made a movie, he realized that the difficulties he and all new directors face are the same, that is, how to make others trust you. For many new directors complain about the difficulty of financing and scheduling films, Wen Yan's mentality is very peaceful, she believes that mature directors also have such troubles, the key is to watch the film theme, so she is also relieved.
But from the conversation with Wen Yan, it is not difficult for me to find that she also has her own helplessness. You know, when Wen Yan's "Watermark Street" appeared in Venice last year, many foreign mainstream media reported that the famous Italian film critic Angela Prudenzi commented that Wen Yan was "a film that perfectly combines form and content between Antonioni's "Enlargement" and Greenavel's "Painter's Contract"." The Italian authoritative magazine "Film Magazine" listed Wen Yan as one of the eight most promising new directors in the world. In Munich, there can also be loyal German audiences waiting for her to appear with flowers, but the film "Watermark Street" has few reports in China, even if it is released in the mainland, presumably this genre will inevitably escape the fate of "theater day trip", but many bad films can achieve super high box office, which is really a bit of a collapse. Wen Yan believes that the explosive development of the mainland film market in recent years will inevitably cause difficulties in screening audiences, which is also the main reason for this phenomenon. As for whether this phenomenon will hit a group of filmmakers, Wen Yan laughed and said that there is no point in complaining about the market!
1905 Movie Network: You are a veteran producer, but as a director or a newcomer, will it be difficult to be a director for the first time?
Wen Yan: When I was shooting "Watermark Street", I realized that I, like all other newcomer directors, felt that everything was difficult. In fact, everyone faces the same problem when making a movie for the first time - you have to make others believe in you and convince you in every aspect. To put it bluntly, it has nothing to do with my senior producer.
1905 Movie Network: Do you think the new director's first work should be more commercial or self-expression?
Wen Yan: We should all cherish our first time, whether your first work is a commercial film or an art film, your focus is on self-expression, or it appears as a commodity, I think the first time to make a movie, not only let others know you, but also a process of self-understanding and self-discovery, so be sure to let others hear your voice in the movie. Especially in the first and second films, when you don't fully understand yourself, you must do this search, which is a particularly valuable experience.
1905 Film Network: You've been a producer for so long, and after being a director, is financing still a problem for you?
Wen Yan: Financing is always difficult, which is still true for many mature directors, the key is to see what genre you shoot, because the market is always the most affinity for works with a lot of commercial elements, in fact, this kind of film may not really make money, but in the financing process is the easiest, once your subject matter has some depth, relatively niche, financing will encounter difficulties, this is a very normal phenomenon, as a director must be a good mentality.
In fact, director Diao Yinan also began to struggle with why his script was so good, but he did not get investment immediately as soon as he took it out. This phenomenon is the same all over the world, such as Bergman's previous comedy "Smile on a Summer Night", which won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was also successful at the box office, and then his investors said that you can make any movie you want to make in the future, so that you have "The Seventh Seal" and "Wild Strawberries" and other provocative works.
1905 Film Network: You have been to many international film festivals, in terms of new directors, our country compared with other Western countries, how many works and quality?
Wen Yan: The number of films made by our domestic directors is not quite a lot, but why don't we see many at international film festivals? I think there are two reasons: on the one hand, the domestic film market is developing very fast, and many people give new directors the orientation of the market, hoping that the new director will make a film that caters to the taste of the market as soon as he comes up, and this kind of film is not very suitable for the taste of art film festivals. On the other hand, many countries have plans to support new directors, including mentor-based study classes, as well as fund support, etc., which can help new directors reduce some of the pressure of financing, and can also let them make some relatively self-related films, but the domestic support in this regard is still weak, so the overall quality of our films is less than theirs, after all, the film is not only an idea, but also a presentation.
1905 Film Network: The works of new directors or literary films are very difficult to schedule in our country, do you think there is any solution?
Wen Yan: Our country has more than 600 movies a year, very few can be released, it takes everyone to work together to change this situation, and at present I don't have a particularly good way. I've heard that art film distribution is very limited, very small-scale, but as the number of screens grows, I believe that there will be people who are willing to show art films in the future.
1905 Movie Network: What do you think of the phenomenon of bad movies at the high box office?
Wen Yan: There are such phenomena everywhere, of course, because the Chinese film market has developed very rapidly in recent years, it can be said that it is an explosive development, all kinds of movies are coming, it is difficult for everyone to have a ability to identify at once, so it is a bit chaotic, the audience is more dazed, a little overwhelmed. I think this kind of film exists, itself is not a problem, but everyone should be very sober, the support of the support, the protection of the protection, if we can do it, the market will be very healthy, we will not complain here about what the current market is.
1905 Movie Network: Directors who will not promote themselves are not very popular in today's film circles, you rarely promote, why didn't you use "Daytime Fireworks" to fry yourself in the first place?
Wen Yan: I think that our most important job as filmmakers is film creation, film promotion is only a small part of the work, using movies to hype ourselves, it has nothing to do with what we do, of course, I am not deliberately low-key. I think there are many layers of film promotion, and the most superficial layer is to use hype topics to attract audiences. There's also a lot of value beyond that – an in-depth look at the successes and failures of a film is very valuable to our burgeoning film industry, but it hasn't received much attention, and hopefully our film media will be interested in doing some in-depth coverage of this as well.
1905 Movie Network: You have three identities of producer, screenwriter and director, which direction will you focus more on in the future?
Wen Yan: For me, these three roles are not contradictory, at present I want to focus on making another film as a director, the specific theme is still in the making, and the script is still written by myself.