Good news always comes in the spring.
In the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, which opened yesterday, a total of 14 Chinese-language films were shortlisted, which is the most shortlisted for Chinese-language films in recent years. Among them, "Light of the White Tower", directed by Zhang Lu and starring Xin Baiqing, Huang Yao and Tian Zhuangzhuang, was shortlisted for the main competition unit. This is the fourth time that Zhang Lu has been shortlisted for the official unit of the Berlin Film Festival, and it is also the first time in 16 years since "Dream of the Desert" to return to the main competition in Berlin.
The story of "Light of the White Tower" is like a delicate essay. Gu Wentong (played by Xin Baiqing), a middle-aged man living alone, met young photographer Ouyang Wenhui (played by Huang Yao) at work, and they always met near the White Pagoda Temple, and as the understanding of the two sides deepened, their relationship became sometimes romantic and secretive, sometimes like a father and daughter. By chance, Gu Wentong learned the whereabouts of his father Gu Yunlai (played by Tian Zhuangzhuang), who had been missing for more than 40 years. With the encouragement of Ouyang Wenhui, Gu Wentong chose to face his father and regained the long-lost father-son relationship.
In Zhang Lu's creative concept, "Light of the White Tower" is a story that seems to be fateful. "But I'm interested not in the helplessness or arbitrariness that comes with the outcome, but in some emotional and spiritual fragments that are lost in the process... What I have to do is patiently and meticulously gather all the lost pieces, but never to connect the pieces into a whole again, but to let the pieces exist independently and without compromise. ”
This feeling that cannot be visualized is even more vivid in Ouyang Wenhui, played by Huang Yao. No one doubts her optimism and liveliness in front of outsiders, but as Huang Yao's analysis of this role in her words, "Ouyang Wenhui is actually a very dazed character. "She couldn't find her roots, she went back to the past, back to the end, and the source was blank."
"The Light of the White Tower" allows us to see the continued tenderness of director Zhang Lu, and also allows us to see a different Huang Yao from the past. The actor, who has been acting and living in his spare time, once again broadened his exploration in the performance. Before Huang Yao left for the Berlin Film Festival, we chatted with her about her behind-the-scenes intersection with "Light of the White Tower", and also talked about her new perception of acting.
Part.1
On site
What was it like to first know that Light of the White Tower was shortlisted?
I was at my parents' house and was supposed to be preparing lunch. I jumped up and down at the first time, and then I quickly shared with my parents that I could go to Berlin again.
Tell us about our partnership with Light of the White Tower.
In fact, director Zhang Lu wants to find such a role, and then dock with us. At the end of 2021, when it was the coldest time, we met at a café and had a chat. After seeing it, I went back for a year, and I came back and filmed.
How did it feel to work with a director?
Director Zhang Lu is very kind, and then also a very cute little old man.
How do you say cute?
I think he's funny, he has a lot of his own little ideas, and he's very good at recreating on set. His scripts are flexible, not the kind of director who writes exactly according to a script that has already been written. He will continue to adjust his expression according to his feelings about the scene environment.
Are there any examples like this that make you feel more emotional, you can share with us.
Director Zhang Lu's creation has a characteristic that every time he arrives at a new shooting location, he will need ten minutes of alone time. He will clear the scene, ask everyone not to come in first, let him feel and think alone in this place, and then he will often create some new dialogue or scheduling in these ten minutes. So our script is very flexible, the whole shooting process is also very flexible, and the creative atmosphere on the scene is very good.
Part.2
One article light
of prose
How did it feel after reading the script of "Light of the White Tower" for the first time?
The script of "Light of the White Tower", like an essay, is very light. But the dramatic action presented by the protagonist in the script is a retrospective and release of the past, and this thing is relatively heavy. The relationship between the characters is the kind of cautious and casual mutual temptation, which I think is wonderful.
Just talked about the relationship between the characters is actually a little bit of mutual temptation, slowly touching the feeling, how do you enter such a character when interpreting it? Will you not be sure for yourself?
Surely, I think the play itself is also a tempting process, and many things are not so clear and accurate. Sometimes it may not be accurate, but it is an accuracy.
Did you make any preparations before interpreting the role of Ouyang Wenhui?
In fact, I didn't do anything special, because director Zhang Lu actually hoped that we could play our own personal characteristics to fit the role. Because Ouyang Wenhui is not a photographer, photography is also a way to observe life and people, which is also a way that I like very much, so it is quite good to find some resonance in this regard. I can also use Ouyang Wenhui's eyes to feel the two places of Beijing and Beidaihe.
I remember that in an interview last year, you mentioned that you actually like to take your camera to sweep the streets, and this time the shooting location is mainly Beijing hutongs, do you have any new perception of Beijing through this shooting?
Beijing used to be relatively cold to me, because I am a southerner, and I have not been able to adapt to the emptiness of the northern cities and the busy state of everyone. Mainly where I usually live in Beijing, the people I deal with are also young people, and they are the busiest and most rushing stage. In this play, we often wander around the hutongs, in fact, we will feel a slower pace of Beijing, and then a more pyrotechnic, more humane Beijing. You look at the grandpas and aunts in those alleys, walking around every day, and then they sometimes come to talk to us when they watch us shooting, and many people will take a small chair to bask in the sun at the mouth of the alley or something, and you will see a lot of such times.
Let's talk about movie characters, what kind of character do you think Ouyang Wenhui is? What kind of driving role does she play in the film?
I think Ouyang Wenhui is actually a very dazed character, a dazed person. Her dazed and confused will not be externalized very concretely in the film. On the contrary, compared with Gu Wentong, she may be the more lively, more active, and more positive one, and it is also she who pushes Gu Wentong to begin to retrace the things that she cannot let go of in the past. But back to Ouyang Wenhui, I always feel that she is confused and dissociated, but maybe she will hide deeply in this state, and she may not even realize it. She will have this feeling, also because she can't find her roots, she goes back to the past, goes back to the end, and the source is blank.
Indeed, we can roughly understand Gu Wentong through the film, but Ouyang Wenhui has too many gaps that the audience does not know.
There is this feeling, I don't know where it came from, and I don't know when it disappears.
So how do you understand the emotional connection between Ouyang Wenhui and Gu Wentong?
I think there is an emotional connection between them, but this connection must not be the kind between the sexes, not the so-called love. Gu Wentong has a strong attraction for Ouyang Wenhui, she will feel inexplicably very cordial and familiar with this person, and she wants to get close to him, and she is very curious to explore him. Maybe at first we will misunderstand it as a sexual attraction, it is the charm of this man that attracts her, but in fact, this is not very certain, so she is also exploring and touching in some of her own ways, whether it is the love of men and women or some other emotion at work. Perhaps this man was a substitute for her, a substitute for some kind of vague image of her father who she had been missing for a long time, very distant, in the void of going back to the past.
Part.3
Zero Degree Performance
There are a lot of rivalry scenes with Mr. Xin Baiqing in the film, what collisions and exchanges are there during the on-site shooting?
Mr. Xin is gentle, he is very kind and then very modest. As our seniors, he will not have much of that kind of guiding intervention or guidance, and he will fully respect your creation, your expression. It was very comfortable to work with him and it was very natural.
Do you observe his performance methods when you're on site?
Yes.
Which ones are there? Because we just want to talk about this later, you already have a lot of experience working with excellent actors, and many actors will observe the working methods of other actors on the spot, are there any of them that you internalize into your performance?
I don't think it's been fully internalized yet, but it's really something that makes people feel great about seeing them in their performances. Their performances are particularly quiet, there is no such so-called performance, you don't feel that he is playing a character, and even you don't feel that he is showing any very distinct personality, or emotions, in fact, no. It's called this zero-degree performance, and I think this thing is really powerful. Whether it's performance or something else, we rise to a somewhat philosophical sense, in fact, it's a state where the road is simplified, the complex is simplified, and then everything is reduced to nothing, and I think they have this thing in hand.
There is also a question about the movie, what are some scenes that you find particularly enjoyable to act?
It's not good to say much about spoilers, probably there are a few drinking scenes, and I think it's very enjoyable to act. I drank a lot of alcohol, but I couldn't drink too much, and sometimes I used the strength of the wine to do some improvisation, which I thought was quite interesting.
When we talked last year, you said that you were actually more worried that you would become an actor in other people's "she is very good at acting, and her works are very good", you are afraid that you are too sure, but in fact, every performance is a kind of groping for you, after a year to watch, do you still think so?
Yes, I'm still figuring it out, and I still don't dare to feel too sure.
After playing the role of Ouyang Wenhui in "The Light of the White Tower", what new performance gains will you think?
One must be the kind of performance I just talked about as much as possible, this zero-degree, no-nothing, quiet performance, which is a general direction I want to find. This method of performance is not suitable for all drama genres, but in this type of film, it may be particularly gripping and effective. In fact, there are also some very detailed experiences, such as going back to the drunken scenes just now, feeling a little, acting drunk scenes, you can't think about acting drunk, but you have to work hard to act sober.
This point is wonderful, the other way around.
Yes, you can't go along and say that I am now a drunk person, and I will behave uncontrollably, and my language will be messy, acting out the typical so-called drunk state. Because the average drunk person, he is reluctant to admit that he is drunk. There is also that the more drunk I am, in fact, the stronger my desire to express, I have to try to express soberly, not to let the other party think that I am an uncontrolled madman, but to try to cover up and suppress this state, as much as possible to present sobriety. This is quite like my last drunken scene, I really drank a lot that day, and I was already very fainty at the end, but I felt that the more I had to be sober at this time. I must maintain a trace of will, and then use a very strong willpower to fight against this already drunken state, I think this kind of drama should actually be performed like this.
This is really good, to gain concrete growth in specific scenes. So what to expect from this shortlist?
I definitely hope that our works can be rewarded, and I hope that more people can feel the unique charm of our films. For me personally, my biggest hope is how to have more fun on this rare trip.
Attached is the list of Chinese-language films shortlisted for the 73rd Berlin Film Festival
Main Competition Unit (Competition)
"The Light of the White Tower" (Chinese mainland) Director: Zhang Lu
"Art Academy" (Chinese mainland) Director: Liu Jian
Special Screening (Berlinale Special)
"Homicide" (Hong Kong, China) Director: Zheng Baorui
Berlinale Series
"Moses on the Plain" (Chinese mainland) Director: Zhang Dalei
Encounters
"Snow Cloud" (Chinese mainland) Director: Wu Lang
Berlinale Shorts
"My Friend" (Chinese mainland) Director: Zhang Dalei
"Intimate" (Chinese mainland) Director: Cheng Yu
Panorama Unit
"Green Night" (Hong Kong, China) Director: Han Shuai
Generation Unit
"Deep Sea" (Chinese mainland) Director: Tian Xiaopeng
"One Moment at a Time" (Chinese mainland) Director: Zhao Hao
"Xiaohui and His Cow" (Chinese mainland) Director: Lao Xinying
"When the Rocket Launches" (Chinese mainland, United States) Director: Liu Bohao
"Tomorrow Lasts Longer Than Yesterday" (Singapore, France, Taiwan) Director: Yao Zhiwei
"A Dream in Another Mirror" (France) Director: Zhu Yunyi
Written by: Sibe
Design: Xiao B