Last weekend, the 73rd Berlin Film Festival officially ended.
For domestic fans, this year's Berlin is particularly worth watching, in addition to two Chinese-language films ("Light of the White Tower" and "Art Academy") jointly shortlisted for the main competition, another major attraction is the chairman of this year's jury "Little K" Kristen Stewart.
From the uproar at the official announcement to the ridicule of ambiguous statements at the press conference, she has successfully earned a lot of topics for this film festival.
Little K is a formula photo of the Berlin Film Beat
But that wasn't Berlin's real purpose in choosing her.
Perhaps most people's impression of Little K still stays on those fixed labels——
Twilight Girl, facial paralysis, acting, scandals.
Outside the public opinion field, Xiao K's path of becoming an actor has become wider and wider over the years, but it has always been ignored.
So, Time Jun today wants to take this opportunity to talk about her changes, maybe you will know a different Kristen Stewart.
bias
Little K, born in 1990, is 32 years old this year.
This also means that she is not only the youngest jury president in the history of the Berlin Film Festival, but also the first post-90s president of the three major European film festivals.
However, in the absence of important acting awards, such a supreme honor only attracted huge criticism for her.
This time, at the same time as Xiao K, there is also Du Sir, who is more familiar with and loved, and it is obviously the latter who should take on this important task when it comes to seniority and competing works.
Further on.
The one who snatched the title of "Berlin's youngest chairman" by Little K was Gong Li, who was 34 years old at the time.
Gong Huang won the Venetian film queen at the age of 27 with "Qiu Ju Fights the Lawsuit", and at the same time, with the blessing of films such as "Alive", "Red Sorghum" and "Farewell My Concubine", he frequently brushed his face and became internationally renowned for his acting skills.
In 2000, the red carpet of the closing ceremony of the 50th Berlin Film Festival
The gap between him and his predecessors is so large that it is almost incomparable, and it is no wonder that some people question Little K's "too water".
In fact, the Berlin Film Festival this time to hire people is to innovate and unprecedented.
Not only does it refer to Little K, but in terms of judging the lineup, it also uses the combination of "5 women and 2 men" for the first time to show its attention and support for female creators.
When the relevant person in charge talked about the reasons for choosing Little K in the interview, he also intended to recognize her personality and spirit as a young actress, which happened to be in line with the "current values of the Berlin Film Festival".
As for what kind of values?
Little K's own understanding is to break prejudice.
With her debut for more than 20 years and more than 50 films, her most impressive works and roles have always been able to avoid "Twilight".
This world-hot love movie successfully pushed it to the top position in Hollywood at that time, which also made her nominated for Jin Sour Mei for 4 consecutive years, and she was long-saddled with the reputation of "bad acting".
In addition, after the image of the Mary Sue heroine is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the outside world always regards her as an "ignorant and brainless" flow.
So, after bidding farewell to "Twilight", every life choice she made seemed to be trying to break these prejudices.
The rebellious type of self-indulgence, same-sex scandals that affect careers, frequent performances in low-cost European art films... This not only did not keep her away from the mainstream of Hollywood, but also allowed her to gradually break into the higher palace of film art.
In 2018, Little K served as a judge at the Cannes Film Festival, and last year, he was nominated for an Oscar for the first time with the biopic "Spencer".
Little K who publicly took off his high heels at Cannes
Over the years, Xiao K has long broken through the shackles on his body and constantly exceeded the audience's expectations.
Some media even began to say that she is now an actor who can represent this era.
transformation
A cold knowledge that even fans are about to forget, this year marks the 15th anniversary of the release of "Twilight".
In these 15 years, the real opportunity for her to start the transformation came from getting to know a director.
In 2012, the "Twilight" series was completely completed.
At that stage, Xiao K's image fell to the bottom due to negative news.
In 2014, she left a foreign country to fight for the opportunity to star in French director Olivier Assayas' "Sils Maria".
In the film, she cooperates with French actress Juliet Binoche as the female star's assistant, and the two have a large number of rivalry scenes and playful ambiguous relationships.
Breaking through the previous image framework, Xiao K rarely had the opportunity to use a restrained performance to complete the presentation of the characters' complex emotions.
This earned her the French César Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she became the first American actor to win the award in record form.
Later, Assayas went on to tailor "The Private Buyer" for her and took her to Cannes.
The film eventually won the Best Director Award, and Little K's performance also attracted international attention again on the Cannes stage.
When you meet a good director, the actor will be reborn with new life and strength, just like the relationship between Little K and Assayas.
In Assayas's view, Little K's performance has a natural "sense of surplus", or "afterglow".
This is not necessary for fast-paced, straightforward commercial films.
Thankfully, in the process of cooperation between the two, Little K was discovered to have deep acting ability.
She also fell in love with French cinema and rediscovered the art of cinema.
At the same time, he began to target French actresses such as Juliet Binoche and Huppert, and found his new direction as an actor.
Screenshot of "Sils Maria"
Since then, she has cooperated with Woody Allen ("Coffee Commune"), Ang Lee ("Billy Lynn's Halftime War"), David Cronenberg ("Future Crime") and other well-known art film directors, and does not mind the size of her role.
At least, none of these roles are repetitive and obscure, infinitely broadening her boundaries as an actress.
On the other hand, she is also experimenting with her own filmmaking.
In 2017, Little K personally directed a 17-minute experimental short film "Come to Swim", which has the characteristics of Assayas in terms of image style, and the completion is good.
And another feature film "The Age of Water", written and directed by herself, is also always in the shooting plan.
Based on a woman's memoir, the story follows the process of a swimmer turned artist, covering a variety of issues such as sex, violence and drugs, and is clearly a major theme that can impact the three major themes.
Xiao K, who will transform from an actress to a female director in the future, is also worth looking forward to.
fight
Little K's transformation all the way is actually not an inspirational story of traffic idols trying to transform into powerful people.
Because, her popularity is a "disaster".
Go back in time to "Twilight", when 18-year-old Little K has been acting for almost a decade, and most of them are niche literary films.
Born in an acting family, she has wanted to be an actress since she was a child, so she began acting at the age of 8, even if it is always tepid, she is still happy.
When I first approached Twilight, it was just an independent film project that couldn't even pull investment.
Little K and actor Robert Pattinson present the emotional entanglements in it according to the performance mode of independent films.
After the result was released, it exceeded everyone's expectations and exploded, and then with the strong intervention of capital, it kept remaking sequels, directly turning into a bloody and superficial story.
For Little K personally, for a long time, the price of overnight fame is that his life is chaotic, and it is also a notoriety on the road of an actor.
Under the unprecedented attention, all kinds of misunderstandings and stereotypes are impossible to argue.
As she said that she likes to read Kerouac's classic "On the Road", it will also be amplified and ridiculed by the media.
If you have seen Xiao K's interview, you will find that she is not actually an actor with an empty head and no ideas, including reading is just her daily behavior.
Later stories, everyone knows, after sinking a bunch of time, Little K has become more perverse and presumptuous, using personality and rebellion to spy on Hollywood's tolerance bottom line.
In those years, the scandal hung on the global headlines every day, attracting 11 tweets from Trump in a row.
However, she still acted like a model worker in the most unexpectedly unwanted circumstances.
At most, there are 6 movies a year to meet the audience.
Little K in "Billy Lynn"
Until now, the controversy about Little K has never completely ended, but at least she has come up with more and more masterpieces outside of "Twilight".
Against the doubts and pressure, she cut her short hair, starred in the French New Wave goddess Jane Ssibo, played Princess Diana, who was very different from her temperament, and then challenged the famous American female scholar and writer Susan Sontag...
Objectively speaking, Xiao K's acting skills have not yet reached the point of pure youth, and sometimes she cannot perfectly control the role, which is why she has not won the acting award so far.
However, judging from the main roles she later enthusiastically played, she was either a pioneer woman or a legendary symbol, all of which were female figures full of energy.
It is not so much that she is using this to play her acting skills, but that she is fighting with her roles and works.
Isn't maintaining herself and daring to break through in this way the key to her long-term life as an actor?
Don't forget, Little K is 32 years old this year, still the right age for an actress.
Wait and see, time is in no hurry to give its answer.