On the evening of February 28, local time, the 78th American Golden Globe Awards came to an end. Previously nominated for the Golden Globe Awards for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress, "The Land of No One" won the Best Director and Best Picture in the Drama Category. Become the first Chinese female director to receive this award.
▲Make history! Chinese female director Zhao Ting won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and delivered an acceptance speech online. Beijing News Our Video Production (ID: wevideo)
Zhao Ting also made history, becoming the first Asian female director to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture, and the second woman in the history of the Golden Globes to win best director after Barbara Streisand (1984 Yantel).
In her acceptance speech, Zhao Ting quoted a passage about compassion in "The Land of No One", to the effect that "compassion can open all barriers and bring us together", and she also thanked all those who have generously allowed her to pursue her film dreams freely.
After Zhao Ting won the award, Song Dandan also forwarded Weibo to express his blessings:
My baby: I don't know how to congratulate you! Each of your new awards is beyond our imagination and gives us great surprises. A Chinese girl who does not know English.16 years old went abroad to study, choosing a path that we never favored but could only respect. Today, in the home of the home of the fight for other people's strengths, achieved such recognition, set such a record. You are the legend of our family, and I believe that your story will also inspire countless Chinese children
As early as last year, the film directed by Zhao Ting has already won the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture in Venice, and this year it has swept the major awards ceremonies and is also the number one seed contestant competing for the Oscar awards in April this year.
Zhao Ting's first two works, "The Song My Brother Taught Me" and "The Knight", have established a spiritual connection with the American West, expressing loneliness and freedom through the vast sky and open scenery there. Part of its "Western Trilogy," The Land of Nobody is an adaptation of Jessica Brudd's 2017 realistic novel The Badlands: Survival in 21st Century America, about a woman in her 60s, Fern (Francis McDormond), who lost everything in the Great Depression and began her journey through the American West as a modern nomad living in a van.
▲ Poster of "The Land of No Man".
In this latest work directed by Zhao Ting, the mental state of a nomadic person living on the edge of the "American Dream" is presented, abandoned in a ruthless economic environment, but overflowing with a tenacious and exciting force off the screen. These nomads offered material sacrifices in exchange for spiritual freedom and integration with nature. Although the film investment is only about $5 million, but the word of mouth is bursting, Rotten Tomatoes freshness is 94%, and the authoritative website IndieWire said that the cooperation between Zhao Ting and McDormand "created magic".
When you feel lost, you should go west
Journalist Jessica Brudd began covering the phenomenon of vagrant elderly people in 2011, and in 2014 she published a cover story about real-life characters such as Swanki, Linda May and the movement's leader, Bob Wells. Her 2017 book, Wasteland: Survival in America in the 21st Century, is a documentary novel expanded on that cover story. It is a non-fiction work dedicated to baby boomers who are forced to live in camping camps due to financial hardship. The book caught the attention of the famous actress Francis McDormand and her producer partner Peter Spears, who bought the rights to the film adaptation but did not find a suitable director.
In September 2017, McDormand participated in the Toronto Film Festival for his role in "Three Billboards" campaign. Before that, a friend recommended her to watch the film "Knight", just during that film festival, she took advantage of the gap between activities to sneak away to watch "Knight", and was deeply attracted by the movie, and immediately after watching it, she immediately gave Peter Spears, "The director we wanted has found."
Francis McDormand played Fern in The Land of No One.
Six months later, McDormand and Zhao Ting met at the American Independent Spirit Awards, zhao Ting won the Bonnie Award, and McDormand won the best actress award for "Three Billboards". On the same day, McDormand, Peter Spears and Zhao Ting gathered at McDormand's apartment in Los Angeles to discuss the collaboration "No Man's Land".
"She was wearing cargo pants," Zhao recalled her first impression of 63-year-old McDormand, "she was a very fashionable person, and my mind was imagining at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour what Fern would look like in the film, and could we create another image through her?" It soon became clear to the two that they had a lot in common, and that the things that appealed to them in the book were similar.
▲ Zhao Ting is very fond of the Western United States.
Zhao Ting, 38, was born in Beijing and has always liked to go to Inner Mongolia, and spent a long time in Inner Mongolia as a child. At the age of 14, she went to boarding school in London and later received a film education in the United States. She spent a long time in New York in her 20s and felt a little lost. "When you feel lost, you should go west." She went to South Dakota, where the land had not yet been reclaimed, and stood there feeling as if time had stopped. She traveled extensively, became fascinated by the American West, and began to focus on many underappreciated group lives, her debut novel "Brother Taught Me Songs" focused on American Indians, and "Knight" focused on the American West cowboys. When she first read the original book of "The Land of No One", she was eager to make a road movie set in the American West, "the way of life of an entire generation is disappearing", and the story of "The Land of No Return" clearly aroused Zhao Ting's strong interest.
Blurring the lines between feature films and documentaries
After Zhao Ting signed the contract, she began to write the script. Initially, several creators wanted McDormand to play the real character Linda May in the documentary novel Wasteland: Survival in 21st Century America, but after discussion, they still felt that Linda May would play herself, and McDormand would play a fictional role in order to connect these nomads. McDormand was so involved in the play that he even thought of the character's name, just called "Fern", "I kept thinking, when I was 65 years old, I was going to change my name to Fern, start smoking cigarettes, drinking wild turkey whiskey, and then driving on the road." 」 It's my dream. McDormand shared a lot of details of his life that he used in movies. Even Melissa Smith, who plays Fern's sister, is McDormand's best friend in real life.
At the suggestion of the original author, Jessica Brudd, Zhao also went to Arizona to collect wind, because it is the place where the nomadic people in the book gather, and the characters in the book like Swankie, Linda May, and Bob Wells are there. When she met Swankie, she shared with Zhao Ting her videos of birds and traveling in the United States and playing kayaking. Zhao Ting wrote these stories into the script. When filming this scene, Zhao Ting had already written the lines she was going to say into the script. She probably won't follow the script word for word, but in general won't stray too far from the script. Zhao Ting probably wrote a 90-page script. But McDormand never felt like he had a script, "What Zhao Ting asked me to do was to stay there quietly and be part of the scene." ”
▲ Zhao Ting and McDormand.
In September 2018, Zhao Ting and McDormand officially embarked on the road and began filming the film, which only invested about $5 million. Zhao Ting's first two works cost less, and "Brother Teaches Me Songs" only has a budget of $100,000.
Given the extremes of the Western United States, the weather determined the shooting schedule. The first scene takes place in Badlands National Park. Zhao Ting insisted on making South Dakota her first stop because she preferred the September sunshine there, and her first two works were shot at this time. In addition to South Dakota, the six-month shoot also covered Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, and California.
Joshua James Richards, the cinematographer of The Land of No Return, is Zhao Ting's boyfriend and has also worked on her first two independent films. The original novel provides Richards with a familiar backdrop, but the abundance of desert wilderness scenes is also a challenge for photography. Richards's photography was inspired by films such as The Runaway Rider (1969), My Own Idaho (1991), and the photography in The Wolf, which tells the story of street children living in Los Angeles.
▲ Stills from "The Land of No Man".
Working with photographer Richards allowed Zhao Ting to blur the line between feature films and documentaries. She sets off her subjects with magnificent landscapes and brilliant watercolors painting sunsets, but she never beautifies nature. In addition to the spectacular and dramatic scenes, these lonely roads, rugged mountains, and rocky deserts are an inherent part of a traveler's life, not a panoramic view of sightseeing. The 63-year-old McDormand did not try to hide the signs of aging on his face, and he was plain all the time. There's a shot of Fern floating naked in the river, and a shot of her sitting behind the wheel with a bison running along the side of the road, both show the strength she derives from nature.
The fusion of professional and non-professional actors
"Brother Taught Me Song" and "Knight" both use non-professional actors, and Zhao Ting's experience in shooting the first two works has laid a good foundation for "No Man's Land": to create a fictional character whose emotional journey organically blends with some interesting characters in the book.
With the exception of McDormand and David Strazern, "The Land of NoBody" is basically non-professional actors. For Zhao Ting, this is an unforgettable shooting experience, and she has to find a very appropriate way to incorporate non-professional actors and their experiences and life stories into this journey.
When communicating with non-professional actors, the answers they gave to Zhao Ting at first were all specially stylized answers. "You have to wait for them to finish these answers, which have been repeated countless times, before they can ask the more personal question, 'Which football team do you support?' Or, 'Tell me your high school love story.' Zhao Ting said.
▲ The actors who appear in "No Man's Land" are basically non-professional actors.
"Zhao Ting has created a space for everyone, professional and non-professional actors, based on patience, compassion and curiosity about everyone's life." Producer partner Peter Spears said.
Zhao Ting found that the imperfection of non-professional performances made the story more emotional. "It feels so real to have them stutter and say their lines." Zhao Ting said that this is almost impossible to reproduce on stage. In her shot editing of non-professional actors, she often stays on close-ups of them, while a more "traditional" way of editing scenes from McDormand and David Stryzeen.
There is a scene in the film in the garage, Fern's car is broken, looking for a repairman to repair the car, the repairman suggests that she sell her van, Fern is particularly reluctant. When the crew arrived at the garage and was ready to shoot, the director found that the repairman was one of the cutest people she had ever met, and his favorite thing to do was to repair the car, because he felt that in Nebraska, your car is your life. The car broke down, like I was sick. He especially likes to help others. McDormand and the repairman developed a deep connection that gave a very good performance.
McDormand said: "When you are exploring the rules of improvisation with a director full of unknowns, you want to have both hands to hold the compass steadily. That's what you'll have when you work with Zhao Ting—a pair of steady hands and a clearly marked map. She was also the only person I knew who could buy a plush coat from the flea market and still wear it fashionably. ”
The full list of Winners of the Golden Globe Awards
Film:
Best Film in a Drama Series: "The Land of No One"
Best Picture in Musical/Comedy: Borat 2
Best Animated Feature: Journey of the Mind
Best Foreign Language Film: "Minari" USA (Korean)
Best Director: Zhao Ting, "The Land of No Man"
Best Screenplay: Alan Sorkin, "The Trial of the Seven Gentlemen of Chicago"
Best Actor in a Drama Series: Chadwick Bosman, "Queen of The Blues"
Best Actress in a Drama Series: Andra Day, "America v. Billie Hallday"
▲ Stills from "The Queen of The Blues" and "America v. Billie Hallday".
Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy: Sasha Byron Cohen, "Borat 2"
Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Category: Pei Chunhua, "I Care"
Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kalua, "Judas and the Black Messiah"
Best Supporting Actress: Judy Foster, "Mauritanian"
Best Original Song: "Io Si (Seen)", "Coming to Japan"
Best Original Music: Journey of the Mind
TV:
Best Drama Series: The Crown
Best Musical/Comedy Drama Series: "The Rich And the Poor"
Best Limited Series/Television Movie: Rear Wing Deserter
Best Actor in a Drama Series: Josh O'Connor, "The Crown"
Best Actress in a Drama Series: Emma Colin, "The Crown"
Emma Colin played Diana in The Crown.
Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy: Jason Sudakis, "Football Coach"
Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Series: Catherine O.Hara, "The Rich Man's Road"
Best Actor in a Limited Series/Television Movie: Mark Ruffalo, "I Know It's True"
Best Actress in a Limited Series/Television Movie: Anya Taylor-Joy, "Rear Wing Deserter"
Best Supporting Actor: John Boyega, "Little Axe"
Best Supporting Actress: Gillian Anderson, "The Crown"
Duty Editor Wu Yanzu