Interview: Teacher Cen, the Peking Opera "Tears of the Barren Mountains" is the only opera video material left by Mr. Cheng Yanqiu, what was the creative situation in all aspects at that time?
Cen: When filming Mr. Cheng Yanqiu's "Tears of the Desolate Mountain", I did not invite experts from the former Soviet Union because the burden of filming was too heavy. Mr. Cheng is different from Mr. Mei, his singing, reading, acting, etc. have their own characteristics. Mr. Mei's performance has reached the level of arbitrariness, and Mr. Cheng Yanqiu's performance has fixed rules, and the singing voice has its own characteristics.
Cheng Yanqiu film "Tears of the Desolate Mountain"
At the same time, Wu Zuguang has made a lot of achievements in the adaptation of the script, and the script he adapted is different from the stage performance, and he has made great efforts in text, lyrics and structure, especially the four flat tones of the first "Wang Wu Shan Xia" are very good. At the same time, Mr. Cheng Yanqiu also made an adaptation with his pianist Zhong Shizhang and drummer Bai Dengyun. Mr. Cheng's scenes are more about changing the script and redesigning the singing voice, etc., it can be said that mr. Cheng's one play is more than mr. Mei's several plays. I also made a lot of preparation before shooting, because there was a lot of new content in the adapted scene.
Mr. Cheng himself made a lot of effort to shoot "Tears of the Wild Mountain", but the effect of shooting was not too good. Mainly because Mr. Cheng's image is too fat and too tall. We also did a lot of work to this end, all the doors, windows, tables, chairs, including the actors who worked with Mr. Cheng, all looked for big ones to narrow the contrast, of course, also played a little role.
Including color, I don't think color and black and white should be completely opposed. They are not the same, but the color film is not all red, orange, yellow, green, black and white is also one of the colors, in the color film to use black and white. "Tears of the Barren Mountain" is like this, because it is a color film, the clothes worn are required to be flowers, in fact, Mr. Cheng sometimes wears black and white clothes but is beautiful, and does not look so fat.
Wu Zuguang filmed Cheng Yanqiu's "Tears of the Desolate Mountain"
Interview: For Mr. Cheng's only opera film, do you have any regrets during the filming process?
Cen: It should be said that there is, I have a characteristic of making movies, that is, I attach importance to the characters, and the actions of the characters should pay attention to the internal basis and have a purpose. At that time, when I was filming, I felt that Mr. Cheng's end was too much water sleeve (of course, I said it from the perspective of shooting general feature films). Therefore, together with Zu Guang, he discussed with Mr. Cheng to reduce some water sleeve performances, and Mr. Cheng accepted. But then I thought about it, and I thought I was wrong, I can't equate opera with feature films, and opera films must respect opera. Opera pays attention to skills, such as water sleeves, hair, plumes, etc., so while paying attention to the inner basis of the characters, we must also pay attention to the unique skills of the opera. I ignored this problem at that time, because I still have some principle limitations in making feature films in my heart, so I have regrets about filming Cheng Yanqiu's "Tears of the Wild Mountain" in this regard, so I think none of these scenes I shot can be said to be successful, and it should be said that there are gains and losses.
(Between the Stage and the Screen)