7 years ago, "The History of the Demise of Romance" directed by Cheng Er was released nationwide, although it concentrated many stars such as Ge You and Zhang Ziyi, but only received a box office of 100 million yuan; 7 years later, Cheng Er entered the Spring Festival file for the first time with his new work "Nameless", and has received a good box office of 370 million yuan in four days of release.
Cheng Er, who appeared in front of the public this time, gave people a refreshing feeling. He has mentioned on many occasions that the story of "Nameless" is very simple, ensuring that the audience must be easy to understand. He said that "Nameless" is a "cool film", a "super commercial film", and a "very good movie". He became interested in "live streaming and selling tickets". But on the other hand, audiences who have seen the movie will find that in terms of creation, "Nameless" is still a movie full of Cheng Er's personal style characteristics, with exquisite pictures, exquisite photography, exquisite music, exquisite performance, although a certain compromise has been made in the story, but Cheng Er is still Cheng Er, a film artist who is "worthy of this bowl of white rice".
For publicity, he can lower his stature, but in terms of creation, he still adheres to his film aesthetics and film standards.
01
"Nameless" is more like an epic of that era
"Nameless" tells the story of Mr. He, played by Tony Leung, Secretary Ye, played by Wang Yibo, and Captain Wang played by Wang Chuanjun, in an intelligence department of the Wang puppet government in Shanghai from 1938 to 1945, to obtain intelligence and catch the story of internal traitors. This time, Cheng Er still used his best narrative techniques such as time and space interspersion, and filmed the process of mediating and contesting multiple forces such as Communist Party undercover intelligence officers, Japanese military agents, and Wang puppet regime agents into a twist and turn, which is gripping.
"Compared with 'The History of the Demise of Romance', the story of 'Nameless' is simpler and can be summarized in one sentence," Cheng Er said unhurriedly.
He disagrees with "Nameless" only summarized as a spy war film, "Spy war film is a relatively narrow category, it should be a single event, a huge crisis, but "Nameless" in addition to these, is also related to that era, more like an epic of that era, is an elegy." He believes that all good things have a sad side, or a sad undertone, "We also try to integrate more sense of history and life into such a wonderful plot." ”
Like "The History of the Demise of Romance", the story of "Nameless" also takes place in Shanghai during the Republic of China, which is not unrelated to Cheng Er's own experience. After graduating from the Beijing Film Academy, he was assigned to the Shanghai Film Studio, where he lived from 1999 to 2008, "When you try to understand and analyze the entire history of the Republic of China, Shanghai is a city that you cannot ignore, and a lot of this history is in Shanghai." ”
He believes that both the former Shanghai and the current Shanghai "represent more diverse possibilities, more diverse choices." He also found that most of the good films are based on a very unique and attractive city, "I think there is a very strong connection between the city, the characters and the final film." ”
02
Deliberately choose actors with elegant temperament
In "Nameless", Cheng Er wants to recreate a "island period" of Shanghai, so in the selection of actors, he requires that he be "more elegant" in spirit, which can be in line with the temperament of the city of Shanghai.
"After watching the movie, everyone knows that Wang Yibo is in the movie, exactly like the people who came out of that era, and Dapeng and Wang Chuanjun are the same. Everyone is very elegant and very calm, as if they have a thousand powers in their hearts, but they show that they are light and light. This temperament represents a certain civilization, a certain choice. Cheng Er said.
However, for Tony Leung, the actor of Mr. He in the film, Cheng Er has more requirements, "I carry more sense of history in the character of Mr. He, and we focus on combing that period of history through this character." ”
The first time I cooperated with Tony Leung, Cheng Er was very satisfied, "I found from the moment I started the machine that the current Tony Leung is both full and deep, and his mature humor and relaxed side are more charming. The feeling he brings to everyone in the crew is 'like a spring breeze', like an angel. ”
As for Wang Yibo, Cheng Er was also full of praise, "Because of the schedule, we once filmed him for 42 hours continuously, he was always very devoted, very polite, and humble waiting for us on the side, I especially want to congratulate Wang Yibo in advance on the success of his transformation." ”
03
The full script was not available until the end of filming
"Nameless" started on August 27, 2021 and was completed on December 19, 2021, which lasted a total of 115 days. Cheng Er revealed that during the filming process, there was no fixed script, but changed while shooting, "It was not until a few days before the end of filming that the main creators received a complete script." ”
He believes that the script completed before filming is just a basic logic and a basic narrative direction, "When the actors join and the set is completed, a movie seems to have life and develop itself." Cheng Er writes "flying pages" almost every day, and every day with the shooting of the previous day, or the shooting after the anticipation, "write some new paragraphs, the smallest flying page has one page, and the maximum is four or five pages." ”
Fortunately, this shooting is almost all scenes, coupled with the long shooting cycle, the time is more calm, which also gives the crew enough time to change while shooting. Sometimes, even after the content of the script has been filmed, the actors will still put on clothes and makeup every day, and still go to the scene to grind, "just like work, I will improvise on the spot." Judging from the results, there are many scenes used in the end, including many scenes in the opening chapter, which are not in the script. If I look back on the creative process one day, I think this part is particularly precious. ”
04
This time, I filmed many eating scenes
Cheng Er likes to shoot scenes where the characters eat, which has been proved in "The History of the Demise of Romance". When it comes to Nameless, it is no exception.
"Eating is more important because we spend a lot of time eating every day, and many important moments happen at the dinner table. The dinner scene is not very easy to shoot, but once it is filmed, its vividness is overwhelming, which is difficult to replace by other links. Cheng Er explained the original intention.
At the beginning of the film, there are several scenes where Secretary Ye played by Wang Yibo and Captain Wang played by Wang Chuanjun eat breakfast together, the two eat and chat, seemingly casual, but full of mystery, "This time the scene of eating is quite good!" On the one hand, the details in the meal, directly involved in the narrative of the film; On the other hand, the dinner table seems calm, but there are waves under the dinner table, it has a contrast, there is a relationship between the stage and the offstage. ”
After 7 years of brewing, and finally waiting for the release of the new work, Cheng Er was very emotional, "This is the best completion since I filmed, and every staff member of our crew has run in to the best degree, and the degree of completion is very high." I have all the thoughts, thrills, nervousness and pleasure that can be received in a movie."