Qianjiang Evening News hourly news reporter Lu Fang
On December 2, the news came that Zhejiang director Gu Xiaogang's work "Spring River Plumbing" was selected as one of the top ten in the French "Film Handbook" this year. This is one of the many authoritative awards and recognitions that the film has won since last year and this year.
Poster of "Spring River Plumbing"
It is reported that Gu Xiaogang also became the tenth Chinese director to be listed in the top ten of the "Film Handbook", and the previous nine members of the "Film Handbook" Top Ten Club were: Hou Xiaoxian, Wong Kar-wai, Yang Dechang, Cai Mingliang, Wu Yusen, Xu Ke, Jia Zhangke, Wang Bing, and Li An.
On December 3, the Qianbao reporter exclusively interviewed director Gu Xiaogang, who said that he never thought that he would be selected, which was a great encouragement for creation, and turned his head to hope to continue to silently shoot volume TWO.
Successfully ranked among the top ten Chinese directors club in the "Film Handbook"
"Spring River Plumbing" is a Zhejiang literary and art film all shot in Fuyang and won high praise at home and abroad. The film tells the life tests faced by three generations of a family on the banks of the Fuchun River in Hangzhou in the form of a landscape scroll scroll, the family choices in the fireworks of the world, and warmly presents the beautiful yearning of ordinary people for life.
Stills from "Spring River Plumbing"
In 2019, "Spring River Plumbing" was selected as the closing film by the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, "Film Critics Week", which is the first time since the establishment of the unit that a Chinese film has been selected as the closing film.
The film also won the Best Film and Best Director at the 13th FIRST Youth Film Festival, the Critics' Choice Award at the 27th Hamburg Film Festival in Germany, and was nominated for the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards for Chinese Film for "Best Small and Medium Budget Feature Film" and "Best Music", in addition to being selected for many film festival competitions or screening units such as the Asia-Pacific Film Awards, the Vancouver Film Festival, the Melbourne Film Festival, the Busan Film Festival, the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and the Singapore Film Festival.
This year's New Year's Day "Spring River Plumbing" was released in France, and the French "Film Handbook" rarely gave four-star praise, and French film critics called it one of the best two film debuts of 2019.
Top 10 list of the French Film Handbook in 2020:
1. Boston City Hall, Frederick Wiseman
2. "The Woman Who Escaped" Hong Changxiu
3. "Original Diamond" The Safdy Brothers
4. Malmcrogg Manor, Kristi Puyou
5. "What Is Said and Done" by Emmanuel Murray
6. "Riverside Hotel" Hong Changxiu
7. "Spring River Plumbing" Gu Xiaogang
8. "Salt of Tears" Philip Garrell
9. "Fantastic" Sophie Le Tournelle
10. "The August Virgin" Jonas Truba
In the list, It can be seen that Gu Xiaogang's "Spring River Plumbing" ranks seventh. The film premiered in the Critics' Week section of the Cannes Film Festival, and was also released in France at the beginning of the year and received a good box office, and it is reasonable to be selected this time.
It is reported that the "Film Handbook" is the world's authoritative film magazine and has a great influence in the history of film. With the editorial department of the "Film Manual" as the center, a group of promising young people were united to vigorously promote the "writer's film", thus launching the precursor of the "New Wave" in France. The magazine still maintains its original posture to this day and is highly regarded by fans.
The Qianbao reporter checked the list of the top ten "Film Handbook" from 2010 to 2020 and found that Gu Xiaogang was selected again after 7 years after Jia Zhangke in 2013.
Before that, Chinese directors were shortlisted for the top ten works in the "Film Handbook", including Yang Dechang's "Juvenile Murder Incident on Muling Street", "Yiyi", Wong Kar-wai's "Spring Break", "Fancy Years", Cai Mingliang's "River", "Black Eye", Hou Xiaoxian's "Sea Flower", "Millennium Mambo", "The Best Time", "Coffee Time", etc., Jia Zhangke's "Platform", "The World", "Three Gorges Good Man", etc., Xu Ke's "Down the Current", Wang Bing's "Tiexi District", Ang Lee's "Billy Lynn's Halftime War" Wu Yusen's "Changing Faces", these films have become classics.
Never thought it would be selected
It's too much encouragement to create
On December 3, the Qianbao reporter exclusively interviewed director Gu Xiaogang.
He said: "Friends sent pictures to express congratulations, it was a bonus to open and see the news, and I never thought that I would be selected for this list, which is really too much encouragement for our creation, so I turned my head and hoped to continue to silently shoot volume two." ”
Although "Spring River Plumbing" could not be released in domestic theaters for various reasons, it received a good box office in France, and is the highest box office achieved in France by a Chinese director's debut in recent years. The Japanese schedule for "Spring River Plumbing" has also been set, and the famous curator, film critic, producer of Hou Xiaoxian and Jia Zhangke's films, and chairman of the Tokyo Ginza Film Festival, Ichiyama Shozo, personally translated and produced the Japanese subtitles for the film.
Gu Xiaogang said: "'Spring River Plumbing' was released in France on January 1, 2020 for three or four months, achieved a very good box office, and will soon be released in Japan on February 11, 2021 next year, I shared this good news with the Japanese publicity company, they are also very excited, I believe it will be very helpful to the release of Japan." ”
As for the regret that the film could not be released in domestic theaters, Gu Xiaogang was relieved: "It doesn't matter, volume two must be OK." ”
Volume II is already in the project filing declaration
Preparations are expected to begin next spring
Gu Xiaogang's "volume two" refers to the sequel to "Spring River Plumbing", that is, his second feature film "Volume Two Qiantang", which will be produced by Gu Xiaogang's own Chuxiao Pictures.
The film takes the tea from the West Lake as the entry point and has been researching in Hangzhou for more than a year. Tea is both urban and literati, both ancient and modern. Aesthetically, this time we will enter the mountains of Hangzhou and place contemporary urban portraits in the long scrolls of landscapes.
Gu Xiaogang is a native of Fuyang, Hangzhou, and graduated from the Fashion College of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.
As early as 2016, when Gu Xiaogang returned to his hometown to conduct research on his first feature film, he read the local Zhiyouyun "Chunjiang River flows into the East China Sea through Qiantang", so he began his "Hangzhou Trilogy" long-scroll film project, depicting the current era of Jiangnan landscapes and lakes, and later filmed after two spring, summer, autumn and winter to form "Volume I "Spring River Plumbing"" .
The story of "Volume 1" is integrated into the "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" painted by the Yuan Dynasty painter Mr. Huang Gongwang on both sides of the Fuchun River 600 years ago and the background of the era when Fuyang is in full swing to carry out the construction of a new city in full swing, taking the four brothers living by the Fuchun River as the main perspective, the four brothers take turns to take care of their mother who has dementia after stroke in four seasons, and the test of the four families facing family affection and life is also slowly unfolded by the changes in the cold and warm of the four seasons.
On the same day, the Qianbao reporter asked Gu Xiaogang to reveal the latest progress of "volume two", he said: "Volume two has been in the project declaration, and continues to develop in depth, and is expected to enter all the preparatory work before the official shooting next spring." ”
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Source: Qianjiang Evening News