Gao Hongbo: The past of movies

When it comes to movies, there are many topics. Because my favorite thing to watch since I was a child is movies, and the movie theater in the small town of my hometown of the grassland is almost a happy paradise in my childhood. And my mother's only subscription magazine was Popular Cinema, which enriched our family's spare time and was turned over in the faux puff, so I knew the movie stars of the fifties and sixties inside out. Especially the twenty-two celebrities, their big photos were posted in the cinemas of each city back then, which was far bigger and more impressive than the current stars, and their images were more enviable.

In addition to "Popular Cinema", another connection between me and cinema is that I worked as a film projectionist for five years. As far as I know, there are at least three writers who are my peers, one is Bai Hua and the other is Li Junlong, both of whom are both seniors in my military camp and teachers of writing that I regard as writing, and the other is Zhu Xiangqian, vice president of military arts, an important critic in the military. At that time, in the club of an artillery regiment in the Yunnan military camp, I worked as a projectionist as an announcer, librarian, and propagandist of art letters, but the main role was that of a film projectionist. Because of my identity, in the barracks back then, from the regiment commander to the recruits below, they all called me less than 20 years old: Lao Gao. On the one hand, this "Lao Gao" is because my surname is Gao, and on the other hand, because in the most popular movie "Southern Expedition and Northern War" at that time, when the main character Gao Battalion Commander and the villagers met, there was a famous line: "Lao Gao, progress again!" "Southern Expedition and Northern War" is a good film, I was just one year old when I shot this movie, and I recently saw relevant information that "Southern Expedition and Northern War" filmed in 1952 The soldiers are real soldiers, the firearms are real firearms, and the extras are the extras who really have experience in the past, so its realism and life have not been surpassed so far. I played this movie countless times, to my comrades-in-arms, and to the villagers around the barracks, so I won a proud name for ten years in the military - Lao Gao. After leaving the barracks and returning to "Literature and Art Daily", I changed from "Lao Gao" to "Xiao Gao", and this "Xiao Gao" has been called for decades, which is a name given to me by the movie.

When we become projectionists, we first have to learn projection techniques. The film captain in the division is a veteran of the Naxi tribe, his speech has a strong accent, but we can barely understand it, he taught us to rewind, connect, and teach us to repair the generator, because the generator is the most important property of every projection team, the 200-watt single-cylinder generator, you have to keep in close contact with it, the generator is obedient to ensure the power supply, and at the same time can make the movie show normally.

Once we learned these skills, we began our semi-professional careers. I remember more than once in a distant frontier, using an old projector to show the charm of cinema to the wilderness, to the mountain village, to the curious and enthusiastic audience. Occasionally, I think back to the nightly screenings, how an uninvited storm lifted my screen among the trees, how the enthusiastic audience watched my slides with great enthusiasm, the hospitality of the village fathers before the screening, and the tall and bright moon when I drove back to the barracks on the mountain road after the screening. In fact, life is like a film, the mind is just like a screen, operated by the projectionist of the years, and the scenes are unfolded in front of the eyes, at first fragments, then successive scenes, with the same clarity and vividness as if you were sitting in the best seat of a cinema.

I remember once going to a Sani cottage to show a movie called a North Korean feature film "Brothers-in-Arms". The road we walked was too rough for the car to pass, which naturally brought great inconvenience, the projector and the generator needed ox carts to transport it, and the most delicate amplifier could not withstand the bumps, so the villagers simply sent four strong men to carry the treasure on their shoulders. Later, I learned that the Sani Cottage where the movie was shown was the first time to receive the PLA screening team, and many elderly people actually saw the movie for the first time in their lives. I was so moved by the sight that I left behind the hard day's trekking in the mountains. Because I vaguely felt that a duty to transport modern civilization was urging me.

There was also an interesting anecdote at that screening, when there was a lot of gunfire on the screen, and when the bullets were raining down, a few Hani children ran to the screen to grope for something. When I asked, I learned that their secret was to pick up bullet casings! It turned out that the little dolls naively thought that the battle on the screen was real, and in this case, they would definitely be able to pick up yellow and yellow golden bullet casings! Seeing their happy and disappointed expressions, the vague sense of responsibility in my heart became even clearer.

The climate in the border areas of Yunnan is very abnormal, sometimes the weather is sunny at the beginning of the screening, and after a while, it may be thick with clouds, and even sand and rocks are flying, and the wind is fierce. When I was screening in another village, I encountered a heavy rain that was disrupting, and I remember that it was during the screening of "Tunnel Warfare", and when the battle was in full swing, Tiangong also came to cheer. A corner of the screen hanging between the trees was torn off by the wind, and it flew incessantly. At this time, a young man rushed forward and grabbed the chain, so that he did not put the battlefield of "Tunnel Warfare" into the clouds. Then it rained, and I was anxious to end the screening, but the old branch secretary sitting next to the projector grabbed the microphone and comforted the audience in Hani language, which I didn't understand, so I saw that the commotion of the crowd was quiet, sitting quietly in the wind and rain, they took off their clothes to cover the top of their heads, and supported me to put the film down with silent actions. And the old branch secretary held the projection umbrella for me, as firm as an old tree. "Tunnel War" is over, the wind and rain have stopped, but the wind and rain in my chest have been noisy for a long time, and people who have not shown movies in the mountains and wilderness can't understand my feelings no matter what.

There was a time when I put on a film that was not very exciting, it seemed to be the North Korean movie "Village with Flowers". As a political mission, we went to the villages to show them. The villagers saw the end, it was a cold wax moon, and the cold air invaded the bones. We have to enforce the regulations again, and we will screen two in a row. The first show was early, and there were more people watching, so it was lively. At the beginning of the second session, it was past 10 o'clock, and the surrounding spectators dispersed, leaving only seven or eight young men and a few children. Even if it's an audience, it's going to be screened! We endured the cold tricks and the teasing of sleepy insects, and let it go. At the end of the day, there were only three people left, and it was probably the most frustrating scene in my screening history.

There are two cinema cameras in one film group, so there is a special technical requirement when showing the movie, that is, the connection between the two projectionists must be accurate, so as not to make the audience feel that you are changing the film. So now, whenever I watch a movie, my eyes will always subconsciously stare at the upper right corner of the screen, and after seven or eight minutes, there will always be a white dot there, which is the signal to change the phone. I'm picky about how well the projectionists work together to take pride in the projection technology of the day. However, it is more of a memory of the simple villagers, and the mountain town that used to sound the motor must have been electrified now.

I remember I left the projection team and became a platoon leader in an artillery company. The last time I worked with a movie was when I went to Guizhou as a platoon commander to pick up recruits in 1978. The task of receiving the troops was completed very smoothly, and after a long business trip of two months, it was the end of the year, and I went to the town where the company headquarters was located to get together with my comrades-in-arms, but I didn't expect to have a dinner before I knew that "Liu Sanjie" would be screened nearby, which was a great news!

The screening point of "Liu Sanjie" is in the geological team, which is more than ten miles away from the town. We finished the last glass of turbid wine, and just about to go out, Guizhou, which was "sunny for three days", threw out the gift of sleet, so we looked for rain gear and raincoats, and a few people staggered into the vast night.

We were still a step late! First, we heard Liu Sanjie's singing from a distance, and everyone quickened their pace, and then saw the blurry and slender figure of Liu Sanjie on the screen, swaying in the rain, full of poetry. We anxiously walked forward, wanting to see the film as soon as possible, but the closer we got to the screening venue, the greater our disappointment. Because the small square has long been surrounded by mountain people. The people inside sat calmly on the small stools they carried, and most of them were accompanied by dogs that were also in high spirits, and the people in the outer circle stood in an orderly and disorderly manner, at their own angles. The umbrellas are intertwined with each other, and the hats kiss each other with their wet lips, all of which form a barrier of art, covering our admiring gaze at Liu Sanjie.

I had no choice but to wrap myself in a raincoat and listen to the songs.

Listening to the song, let the particles of rain and snow fall on the eyebrows, and let the cold air rise from the soles of the feet. The wind from the plateau occasionally blows, and there is a commotion in the square. The shaking of the old tree leaning on the screen, and also for the short-term blur of Liu Sanjie's good image. The wind is settled, the song is singing, and the fields are silent, what a difficult realm to find!

We listened to Liu Sanjie mock the sour Xiucai, and sighed for the wit and humor of this Zhuang girl; we listened to Liu Sanjie embroider a purse for her sweetheart, and our hearts were beautiful, as if the purse could be thrown off the screen and thrown on the head of an unknown lucky person; we listened to Liu Sanjie's grievances and grief in the rich man's house, and felt the anger and agitation of the soul; we listened to Liu Sanjie sing the Lijiang River at night, swaying the oars and traveling far away, fascinated by her wonderful metaphor of vines entwining trees and trees entwining vines, and we were glad for the ending of her and Brother A Niu finally becoming married. In short, Liu Sanjie reached the peak of her singing career that night, and it also made several of our young soldiers vaguely feel the breath of spring and the call of spring.

Doesn't the fact that Liu Sanjie can face the singing of the mountains and wilderness itself to indicate the disappearance of some kind of imprisonment and the thawing of the cold wave? She also brings us the enlightenment of art, the inseparable coexistence relationship between the singer and the audience, and in a broad sense, the induction between literature and the people and the adversity of the times.

All this may be far from what a mythical little singer can predict. All she can do is sing loudly, for joys and sorrows, for life, for her own pursuit of love, for the joy of beauty, and all the feelings and experiences that human beings care about.

"This song should only exist in the sky, how many times can the world hear it?" For me, the sudden and helpless listening to the song in the mountains and wilderness in Guizhou cannot be copied like a natural sound, and it is stored on the tape of memory, becoming a "lone book" and "swan song", and it is also a special movie.

Speaking of going to the movies, I remember that in the 90s of the 20th century, Beijing's weekend life was no longer just about playing chess and visiting the parks, but also karaoke halls and night market snacks, and more importantly, many movie theaters started a business - all-night movie evenings.

I once watched four very fresh movies at the Beijing Dahua Cinema, starting at 22:50 at night, the titles were "Ghost Building", "Eight Faces of the Rivers and Lakes", "Mercenary Police" and "TV Killer", these four movies are very unfamiliar to people now, but they aroused my great interest at the time.

The ticket price was not expensive, but it was not cheap in terms of the price at the time, 6 yuan per ticket. My wife and I bought five rows of seats upstairs, which shows that there are so many buyers. When I entered the venue, I couldn't help but feel ashamed! Almost all around me were young people, in their twenties, eating all kinds of things, mostly couples, and leaning on their heads to form a special realm that can only be seen on the Bund in Shanghai.

Looking closely, there are several middle-aged men, judging from their clothes, they look like outsiders catching a train. I suspect that their weekends must have something to do with the overabundance of time. And the intention of young people to spend the weekend, except for a one-night gathering, must be more content than form: being able to watch four movies in a row and relish it is bound to prove the sublimation and warming of each other's emotions.

Not to mention that there is air conditioning in the cinema.

Four films, with two breaks in between, each lasting about 10 minutes, is a very scientific arrangement. The first time was just after midnight, and the excitement was beginning to ignite, and eating seemed to be the main content of the ten-minute break. The second time was close to 4 a.m., which was the time when people were most burned out. During the break, I bred up and observed my young companions, and found that half of the back row was gone, and the remaining empty seats were being stretched and rested by a few young people who were barely supporting, and it was hard to say whether they would wake up and watch a movie again after these ten minutes.

At half past five in the morning, the long movie evening ended. came out dizzy, the plots of the four films were mixed up, and I felt a little sober when I was blown by the dawn breeze. When I got home, my wife teased, "How do you feel?" and I replied, "It's worth it to live to be forty years old to watch such a weekend movie." ”

This is the truth, not the angry words. Because during this night's observation, I remembered the scenes when I was young and watched movies in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, watched the model play in the rain in the barracks, and even watched "Walter Defends Sarajevo" three times in the open air. This kind of memory naturally aroused emotion, and at that time, when I was middle-aged, I couldn't help but envy the young regulars in the weekend theater, envy their happiness and youth, as well as their casual and unattended, and even fell asleep freely......

I remember the next day I slept all day and slept until dinner in the afternoon. Pondering the taste of the all-night movie carefully, it is like a poor man who occasionally has a luxury, and the aftertaste is endless.

Time flies by, and the art form of film has also undergone very great changes, once it was shocked by television, and once it became so popular because of blockbusters and elegant and comfortable cinemas, that Beijing now has Universal Studios, which integrates shopping, accommodation, sightseeing, and viewing. Of course, there are very, very many visual objects that can replace movies nowadays, but I think that if a good film can be enjoyed comfortably and quietly in the cinema, the soul impact it gives you is irreplaceable by other reading materials, so I still like movies.