Another sudden bad news.
According to the Shanghai Filmmakers Association and shanghai film group
On April 21, the famous director Huang Shuqin died at the age of 83 in Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital.
After confirming the message.
Director Lu Chuan sent a text to express his condolences to Huang Shuqin.
In the article, he told about his depressed film career in that year, fortunately there was the sentence in director Huang Shuqin's letter: "For the sake of the film, always prepare for the !!! "Let him learn to wait.
Cao Kefan, who worked with Huang Shuqin, also recalled the director's rigor of art:
She will not make 'compromises' or 'appease' because you are a well-known actor, the bigger your wrist, the more strict she is for you, and she will never lower her high standards of artistic creation because of her personal relationship.
Xie Fei.
Chen yao.
Xue Jianing.
Lü Liping, Hu Bing... The stars mourn.
At this point, you may still wonder: who is Huang Shuqin?
The name may not be familiar, but if you list her works, more or less, you will have seen some.
Movies: "Long Live Youth", "Man Ghost Love", "Painting the Soul"...
TV series: "Siege of the City", "Debt", "Laughing Karma"...
It is not an exaggeration to say that she is one of the most famous directors in China.
01
A director who can't make a movie
In Sir's memory, the last time he saw the news of Huang Shuqin was "Homecoming" 8 years ago.
Before the film began, Gong Li visited Huang Shuqin.
Not just because of visits.
It is also because, in the movie, the character played by Gong Li has Alzheimer's disease.
And Huang Shuqin, at that time, had gradually lost track of things
It was already noon when I arrived, and when she arrived, she was very happy and remembered me, but when she couldn't remember, she wouldn't say she couldn't remember, she would laugh, and many intellectuals were in that state, embarrassed to say they didn't know you, trying to remember, and then laughing.
Then I gave her the book "Painting the Soul" and asked her do you remember this? She smiled and nodded at me, mm-hmm... Actually, she didn't remember. All that she didn't remember, that she was embarrassed to say, in fact she forgot, but her expression would betray her. Even as an ordinary person, you will be touched by this situation. (Gong Li)
Later, Huang Shuqin's son went to see a movie, and when he came back, his mother asked him if Gong Li was acting well.
The son said– Acting well, I saw your shadow in it.
This is almost the last impression that Huang Shuqin left to the world:
An old man who has gradually forgotten is also gradually being forgotten by the world.
Just as one looks at Chinese film directors divided by generations
Xie Jin, the representative figure of the third generation, and Zhang Yimou, the representative of the fifth generation, can't remember who the fourth generation is.
And Huang Shuqin is the representative of the fourth generation of Chinese directors.
Now when we look at the fourth generation, we will feel that this is the generation of filmmakers abandoned by the times.
I learned to make movies, but I always couldn't make movies.
Take Huang Shuqin as an example.
In 1957, Huang Shuqin, who graduated from high school, aspired to apply for the Beijing Film Academy, but that year, the film academy had begun to refuse to enroll, and Huang Shuqin insisted on taking the film exam, so she responded to the call of the state and went to the countryside for two years.
In 1959, he was admitted to the film academy as he wished, and after graduation, he was assigned to the Shanghai Film Studio, but in the same year, he was arranged to go to the countryside to participate in the "Four Qing" movement for two years.
In 1966, 10 years of turmoil began, and her distance from the film became more and more distant.
We've been in the studio for more than a decade, getting married, having children, and farming. 15 years, my children are in elementary school, what is the movie? Neither side was touched. Although he received a salary of 59.5 yuan from the film factory, he never had the opportunity to work next to the film machine, and a person has more than ten years!
It was not until 1979, when Huang Shuqin was 40 years old, that she had the opportunity to follow director Xie Jin to make the movie "Ah! Cradle " – but also because Xie Jin is a student of his father.
But do you think that following Xie Jin is equivalent to making a movie?
No, no, no, you have to start by managing the donkey and learning the rules of the shooting scene.
(Yes, pipe donkey)
In "Ah! In "Cradle", As an assistant director, Huang Shuqin's biggest job is to let the donkey stand in a suitable place and "bury".
Once disobedient, twice disobedient, Huang Shuqin needs to constantly build a good relationship with the donkey.
Perhaps it is precisely so, from Huang Shuqin and her films, you can not see the arrogance of literary and art workers, there is only the simple enthusiasm derived from "lateness".
At that time, the mood was to tell me to do whatever I wanted, as long as I was allowed to participate in the filming of the movie, as long as I could see the camera, listen to the sound of it turning, and do whatever I wanted.
And this is also a common feature of the fourth generation:
Solve the problem of touching the camera first, what style and what characteristics, that is a matter of consideration later.
Wu Yigong, Zhang Nunxin, Wu Tianming... Maybe you won't think anything when you look at the work alone, but compared with the obvious historical narrative of the fifth generation style, it is really called "no style".
But this "no style" also means that they are not so limited, and the space they can have is larger.
02
It was also "a crowded alley"
Huang Shuqin's works before his death were not highly productive.
8 movies, 4 TV series, 2 TV movies, 2 plays, gone.
It's also hard to sort out a fixed style.
Youth films, biopics, romance films, opera films... Shoot everything.
However, she can play with it freely in almost every genre.
The literary and art films "Long Live Youth" and "Childhood Friends" have participated in the "Three Major Film Festivals" Chinese Film Festival in Nantes, France.
In the era when the fifth generation had not yet risen, she was a "rising star".
The commercial film (then called entertainment film) Operation Supranational, became the best-grossing film and the most sold copy in the studio that year.
Even a ticket is difficult to find, priced at 3 dimes tickets, was fried by scalpers to 10 yuan a piece.
You know, it was 1986.
Of course, the most sensational is the TV series.
The most well-known to the previous generation are "Debt" and "Siege".
First of all, let's talk about "Evil Debt", a Shanghainese TV series.
At that time, at 8:05 p.m., the TV series started on time, and there were almost no people in sight on the streets of Shanghai.
Everyone stayed at home to watch "Bad Debts", and some restaurants even moved color TVs to the store hall to solicit customers.
The tailors and barber shops on the side of the road are all the theme songs of this play.
To this day, Sir still remembers the lyrics of the ending song "Where Is My Home": "Beautiful Xishuangbanna, can't keep my father, Shanghai is so big, is there no home for me..."
In 1995, "Sin Debt" hit a super high rating of 42.62% on Shanghai Television.
Later, one episode a day was really not addictive, and Shanghai TELEVISION station did not hesitate to lose 2 million advertising expenses and changed it to two episodes a day.
The other: "The Siege".
Adapted from Qian Zhongshu's novel of the same name.
Chen Daoming, Lü Liping, Yingda, Ge You... The stars are gathered.
Wu Yigong, Sha Yexin... Various intellectuals cameoed in, and even the narrator was Bicker, which was also his last dubbing work.
Huang Shuqin filmed this TV series with the attitude of filming, and 10 episodes were filmed for 100 days.
Because of the essence of Qian Zhongshu's original work, so that there are thousands of remakes, but remake "Siege"? No one has dared to do that.
The general audience is also enthusiastic, 32 years later, Douban still has a high score of 9.3.
The year after the TV series was broadcast, Huang Shuqin won the Feitian Award for Best Director and Chen Daoming won the Best Actor Award.
It can be called the most popular work of Huang Shuqin.
03
China's first female film
But in the midst of this, Sir still wants to bring out three movies alone.
Known as Huang Shuqin's "women's trilogy": "Man, Ghost, Love", "Village Prostitute" and "Painting the Soul".
Huang Shuqin once said: "I think of women's movies as opening a window to the east or west in a place where people are used to sitting in rooms facing south and facing north, and the windows are always facing south. This other window allows us to see a different landscape. ”
This first window opened in "Man, Ghost, Love".
After watching it, many people call this movie a sexual transformation of "Overlord Farewell".
But in fact, 1987's "Man, Ghost, Love" is 6 years earlier than "Farewell to the King".
Now it seems that there are indeed many interesting intertexts between the two films, as if they were two sides of the same coin.
In "Farewell to the Overlord", Xiao Douzi is cut off six fingers by her mother, who is a prostitute, and sent to the drama class.
At first, he always mispronounced "I was originally a female petite, not a boy."
It wasn't until a pipe was inserted into his mouth that he finally completed the gender transition.
"Man, Ghost, Love" is similar.
In the 1950s, Qiu Yun's parents sang "Zhong Kui Married Daughter" in the drama team, and her daughter naturally became addicted to drama.
But one night, Qiu Yun inadvertently saw her mother secretly flirting with her father in the grass with her back, and it wasn't long before the two eloped.
Qiu Yun wants to sing, but her father refuses, and the girls' family singers are either bullied or "out of shape" like your mother.
Qiu Yun was angry, but told his father:
Then I don't play dan roles, I play men
Did you find it?
Cheng Dieyi and Qiu Yun were able to complete social recognition through "castration" of the original gender.
But what is different is:
There are times, social unrest, and regime changes in "Farewell to the Overlord"... The landing point is larger.
But "Man, Ghost, Love" is not "greedy", she just talks about Qiu Yun's fate and predicament as a woman.
Dai Jinhua spoke highly of the film, even describing it as China's first and only "women's film" so far.
In a sense, it is the first and only "women's film" in China so far. It's about expression, it's about silence; it's about the story and fate of a real woman, and it's a metaphor for the historical fate of women, especially modern women. A woman who rejects and tries to escape the fate of a woman, a woman who succeeds – succeeds by playing a man, but ultimately fails to be saved as a woman.
Naturally, the words are exaggerated.
But at that time, it was really quite rare.
Sir still remembers the end of the film.
Director Huang Shuqin uses the way of interweaving illusions
Set on a black cloth, the opera Zhong Kui appears, and through his dialogue with Qiu Yun, he photographs Qiu Yun's suffering over the years.
Zhong Kui: I am you, you are me, you can't do without me, I can't do without you, but you're a woman, tired. Don't hide from me, I'm a ghost, an ugly ghost, men pretending to be Zhong Kui are disgusted with labor, you a woman dressing me, it's hard for you.
Qiu Yun: No, I'm not too worried, I acted very painfully, you come back, I have been waiting for you to fight ghosts since I was a child, waiting for you to fight ghosts to save me, you don't leave.
Is she really happy?
If it is really painful, why do you have to use "waiting for you to save me"?
I remember that after Qiu Yun became a famous character, she once said to her father:
My whole book is done with one thing
The matchmaker's business
Over the years, she once broke free of her daughter's identity and tried to escape the fate of women.
But a woman who succeeds by playing a man does not mean that the woman is saved.
Qiu Yun always longs for a home to protect herself, she envies Zhong Kui's sister, and her brother still remembers her destination after her brother dies.
But throughout, no such man came out to protect himself.
Father can't, he likes but the married Teacher Zhang can't...
She had to make a bell on the stage herself, fight the ghosts herself, and protect herself.
But the sadness that could not be escaped was known only to Qiu Yun herself.
Many years ago, when filming this film, in a conservative social environment, Huang Shuqin did not subconsciously think of female consciousness and female independence, but only said:
This is a movie that I took the initiative to make very much, this scene is very painful, and it is worth it to have such a hearty expression in life.
04
Conscious female themes
If we say that this first "window" is completely an unintentional instinctive move by director Huang Shuqin.
After that, Huang Shuqin consciously took care of women.
For example, The Village.
The film tells the story of people in the Xiangxi region who, because of their poverty, develop an unwritten custom - the husband cultivates the land at home, and the wife goes to the boat in the city to do business and earn money, that is, to work as a prostitute.
The film is adapted from Shen Congwen's novel "Husband".
Look closely at the title.
"Husband" to "village prostitute", male perspective to female perspective.
It is not difficult to see that Huang Shuqin, in the process of adaptation, pays special attention to the fate and psychology of women.
Before "Village Prostitute", the more important one is "Painting the Soul", which is probably the most widely known one in Huang Shuqin's series of works.
Three women are arranged in "Painting the Soul".
First woman: Chitose Red.
Yichun Courtyard top card.
Every time I go out, there are a bunch of men watching and touting.
Even the old bustard had to kneel down and persuade her to sign a "contract" for one more year, and the scenery was infinite.
But in the end, he offended the guests, and he was still taken to his life without a sound, and he was stripped naked and thrown naked at the door of the brothel in the snow and ice.
Second Woman:
He Qiong is a student at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.
In that year, he went to Paris, a mecca of Western art, with Pan Yuliang to study painting and continue his further studies.
Later, because her boyfriend Xue Wu was a prostitute on the streets of Paris, he fell ill and died.
Only Pan Yuliang had a good ending.
Originally a prostitute, she met her honest and open husband Pan Zanhua, who did not mind her past and helped her redeem herself.
This is of course Pan Yuliang's greatest luck.
But this is not enough to determine the end of Pan Yuliang's life.
The two most correct things That Pan Yuliang has done spontaneously in his life:
The first is to insist on painting Western paintings, even nude paintings, regardless of everyone's opinions;
The second is to leave the old hometown and go to France.
Although her freedom was given by men, her legend was created by herself.
In the final analysis, the issue of women is not clear today.
Especially in the near future, it is a good "magic realism".
After all, even the word "independent woman" has become "negative."
It seems that the subject itself has become a "fundamental source" of evil.
The crops were eaten by the crows.
The idea is not how to protect the crops and drive away the crows, but to pull out the crops and "stop the loss in time".
It's unbelievable to think about.
05
Pure and forgotten
Back to the beginning of the topic – the forgotten and the forgotten.
The point is not on forgetting, but on why it is forgotten.
In Huang Shuqin's last interview, she often mentioned one word: backwards.
At that time, she participated in the "No Love" directed by Sang Arc, and when she acted, she did not want to act, "shrinking back".
When she saw boys at school, people went on a rampage, and she still "shrank back."
This can almost represent the character of Huang Shuqin, who does not argue when things happen, and listens to its nature.
That is what we often say, there is no sense of existence.
It is also for this reason that others do not want to shoot, she will not hesitate to follow.
"Contemporary Man", a very old-fashioned theme, but let her officially enter the ranks of directors.
"Painting the Soul", knowing that she cannot balance business and art, has become her best-known film.
It is also for this reason that she has less impurities and more purity for movies.
"Man, Ghost, Love", insists on its own feelings, so it can become a masterpiece of women's films.
"Siege of the City" insists on the production of movies, so it can become a generation of classics.
It can be said that because it is "pure", it is "not disputed", and because it is "not disputed", so it is often forgotten.
However, it is precisely because of "no dispute", precisely because of "purity", that I know better what I want.
Looking at today's directors, everyone is really too "smart".
So, from a female perspective
We are grateful that the film can have a female director like Huang Shuqin, who wakes up early and turns the female story into an image to point out the way forward.
From a cinematic point of view
We are grateful to director Huang Shuqin for being able to have a desire and enthusiasm for the film to "see the camera, listen to its turning sound, and do whatever you want" for the film.
Speaking of which, Sir couldn't help but think of the last scene of Cinema Paradiso.
Dodo opened the relic that Everett had left for himself.
On the screen, there is a three-minute kissing scene.
The romances that were castrated by the priest were picked up and edited again many years later.
Childhood memories, frame by frame back to the eyes, Dodo gradually smiled, but laughed and shed tears.
This may be the power of these films and filmmakers in reality.
In memory of Jacques Behan, in memory of Huang Shuqin.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: Day and night for canned lids