Sunset in Paris
SunsetInParis
Guest Director: Wu Yusen
Starring: Zhang Guorong Zhong Chuhong Maggie Cheung
Premiere: April 23, 1989
From "Music" Movie to Music "Movie"
Paris, a beautiful and romantic city, is a place to meet love.
Zhang Guorong chose this place to shoot his musical film and perform a love story about the origin and extinction of the origin.
It is not the first time that Zhang Guorong has shot a musical film. In 1985, when the song was only a simple music and picture counterpart MV when the Song was broadcast on Hong Kong Television, it was he who took the lead in proposing ideas, using several popular songs of his own as a clue to shoot a musical movie with characters and plots, "Thrilling Feelings", and the heroine was Li Lizhen. "Thrilling" is about Leslie, a young Man from Hong Kong, who found a magical old suit and traveled through time and space to Shanghai in the 30s, falling in love with the young fluttershy, but had to be separated because of the war. Back in Hong Kong in the 80s, Leslie met a girl who resembled Fluttershy, and after the two fell in love, Leslie found out that she was Fluttershy's daughter...
"Thrilling" is more than forty minutes long, and most of the time is performing songs, and the plot is not much, it is a veritable "musical" movie. This first-of-its-kind music film in the Chinese music scene received unprecedented popularity when it was broadcast on television, breaking the ratings record in one fell swoop, which triggered a boom in singers competing to shoot music films, and Zhang Guorong himself once made a cameo appearance in a "Dream Style" for his old friend Mei Yanfang, playing Mei Yanfang's lover, an old schoolboy.
In 1989, Zhang Guorong, who was about to bid farewell to the music scene, decided to shoot his second and final musical film "Sunset in Paris". At this time, Zhang Guorong is not only a music superstar, his film career is outstanding, and eagerly look forward to the opportunity to become a director, so "Sunset paris" and other singers' music films and even Zhang Guorong's own old work "Amazing Feelings" are quite different, the seventy-minute film only contains eight songs, and dilutes the singer's individual, more emphasis on the "film" side, large-scale portrayal of characters, show plot, highlight acting skills. Zhang Guorong is very involved in this film, personally inviting the famous director Wu Yusen, who has cooperated with him, and the popular film stars Maggie Cheung and Zhong Chuhong to shoot in Paris, personally design the plot, personally participate in the screenwriting, scene selection and other work - if a film can only be named "so-and-so work" by the director's name, then "Sunset Paris" can almost be regarded as half of "Zhang Guorong's work".
A fairy tale of love in a paradise
"Sunset in Paris" contains eight of Zhang Guorong's new songs of the year: "Farewell", "Thinking of You", "Eccentricity", "No Need Too Much", "Flame Lamp Moth", "Emotional Thorn", "Favorite", "Starting from Zero", three of which were composed by him himself, and four were masterpieces that won the Golden Melody Award. The sequence of the songs roughly shows the plot: the thoughts after parting — the feelings that shouldn't have happened — the unrestrained love — the conflicts and troubles — the choices and decisions — and everything starts all over again. The male protagonist Leslie, played by Zhang Guorong, is a drama director with a successful career and happy love, but he fell in love with the wandering painter he met when he went to France for further study, and was separated by the fiancée who heard the news, and finally the truth came out, and Leslie left alone.
"The legacy of hate is always immortal, a thousand gold smiles are still there, right and wrong are like a thousand grievances blown by the lake, I have been loved and hurt, I have been loved and hurt, you were originally for me to meet you and be separated again..." Zhang Guorong has sung the helplessness of love in his song. When Leslie was in Hong Kong, he thought that Maggie was his whole world, and fate made him meet the more cute and tacit Sherry, is he still loyal to the life that has not yet been determined with Maggie? Falling in love with this handsome man is not Sherry's fault, in the face of Maggie's blackmail, does she have the right to insist? Does Maggie deserve sympathy for seeing Leslie as his all and wanting to keep him by his side at all costs? ...... There is no definite number of emotions to stay, too many suitable people meet at inappropriate times, and at the right time, they are not necessarily the person in their own lives. An encounter between these three people may be just a joke of fate, how to distinguish between right and wrong, leaving only a sigh in the face of impermanence.
Zhong Chuhong, who played the wandering painter Sherry, was twenty-four years old at the time, full of beauty, and that dazzling style could not be ignored by anyone, and Leslie's love at first sight was extremely logical. In the film, she has a cloud of curly hair, sometimes scattered, sometimes pulled up, sometimes with a simple long skirt, sometimes wearing a formal evening dress... Whether it's smiling in a phone booth or looking around after waking up in the morning, there are different beauty. Maggie Cheung is twenty-three years old and is transforming from a vase to an acting star, playing Leslie's fiancée Maggie in the film, probably the only role with a little negative color in her many years. The two heroines are the first-line stars in the show, and several opponent scenes in the film are very exciting, but it is Lord Wu Yusen, who made a cameo appearance as Maggie's uncle, and the level of director shocked China and foreign countries, and acting is really lackluster.
Zhang Guorong, Chinese New Year's Eve three years old, has experienced thirteen years of wind and rain in the show business circle, the look is a little vicissitudes, the face is still pure, the "duck tail" hairstyle designed by himself and popular in Guangdong and Hong Kong makes him add a little bit of the childishness of a big boy, but the elegance and calmness in the temperament have gradually emanated. In the film, Leslie is a colloquially known "negative man", always in the midst of self-struggle, several important emotional transitions are performed in a fine and good way, and there is no lack of stoic image in the haggard after breaking up with his girlfriend that he has never seen in his previous official films. Beautiful music, gorgeous background, handsome youth and gentle girl, such a story really should not end in tragedy, watching Leslie finally look back under the tower at sunset, I believe many viewers are wondering: Is it possible that at the next street corner, he will meet the person he loves deeply?
Take a dip in Paris with Zhang Guorong
Paris is a world-famous cultural city with many places of interest and monuments, many of which represent the highest achievements of European civilization. While depicting the love story, "Sunset in Paris" also spends a lot of ink on rendering the beauty of Paris under the background of music, which may wish to be seen as a scenic tour of the capital of Paris.
The most popular attraction in the film is the landmark Eiffel Tower in Paris, named after the designer Eiffel, which was built during the rapid development of science and technology during the industrial revolution, and unlike many traditional buildings in Paris, it is welded with 7,000 tons of steel, but the exquisite design makes the tower beautiful and meticulous, imposing, and no sense of excess. As a story that takes place in Paris, "Sunset in Paris" can not miss this landscape, Leslie was present when she first arrived in Paris, and later accompanied Maggie on a tour, and the last scene of the whole film is also under the tower.
The Arc de Triomphe is also one of the most famous attractions in Paris, where Leslie stopped for a long time while roaming the city. Built under Napoleon's orders to commemorate the French army, this magnificent building features exquisite reliefs on each side, among which the Marseillaise, commemorating the march of the Volunteers, is famous all over the world. There are twelve avenues around the Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs Elysées directly opposite was once an aristocratic residential area of Paris, and is still the fashion center of the world, with many designer shops, long-established restaurants and theaters, cafes, etc., and Leslie once visited one of them.
Leslie and Sherry first met in The Hilly Square, a gathering place for wandering painters, and Sherry quarreled as soon as she appeared because they had usurped her favored position. In this square you can see wandering painters from all over the world and paintings all over the street, you can always sit down and ask a painter to paint a portrait for you... Perhaps these painters are not famous, and the paintings are not of a high artistic standard, but the art-loving desire shared by sellers and buyers makes the square full of vitality, and many tourists who are not very attentive to art linger.
Leslie's first conversation with Sherry is quite interesting: first the exterior of a large building, the Paris Opera House, and then the camera pushes towards Leslie, who is sitting next to the Fountain of the Innocents in the Al-Market district. Sherry sat under the fountain opposite, and as she sketched Leslie, we could see the spring water behind her flowing down the steps, like a beautiful string of beads. In other words, Sherry's sketches are also very interesting: none of the sketches she painted for Leslie in the film are actually based on him, and insiders can see at a glance that they are all copying Zhang Guorong's 1988 photo album.
As they roamed with Sherry, the place where the two sat and read the newspaper was the Pyramid Square, surrounded by buildings with colonnades on three sides and joan of Arc, which was not ingested in the camera, as characteristic of this small square. After Maggie arrived in Paris, Leslie took her to the banks of the Seine, where they took a Parisian-style cruise ship through the beautiful bridges of the long river, selected postcards from the old bookstores on both sides of the river, and visited Notre Dame Cathedral, another very prestigious attraction on the shore. This majestic building also appeared in the film "Across the Sea" filmed in the next two years, and it is a magnificent church that is very familiar to the whole world.
There are many famous churches in Paris, and the Sacre Coeur is also one of them. This snow-white cathedral is located on the top of Montmartre and can be seen from almost any part of the city. The cathedral's architecture is both Romanesque and Byzantine, with a large row of stone steps built by the mountain opposite the gate, where tourists often sit and rest, while overlooking the city of Paris. Leslie used to sit here when she first arrived in Paris, and was later reunited with Sherry on this stone staircase.
Leslie and Sherry reunited in a woods, and as they talked, they suddenly walked to the royal garden in the Palace of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles is the palace of several Dynasties in France, the architecture is magnificent, the garden behind it is known as a model of French garden design, covering an area of 100 hectares, standing on the steps of the palace entrance, looking far away, only to see a large pool, fountain, sculpture, lawn, garden that stretches endlessly on the central axis, staggering to the lush forest near the edge of the sky. When Maggie finds the two, they are flanked by the most famous fountain of Apollo in the Royal Garden: the sun god drives out of the water, and the siren blows its horn around... This fountain is beautiful, but strangely it does not always spray water, I have been standing by for a long time and have not been able to see a spring gushing out of the horn, so seeing that the fountain in the film has no water flow, it is another special kind of kindness.
Another famous fountain in Paris, located in the Place de la Concorde, also appears in Sunset Paris, the one where Leslie sat melancholy and meditated after breaking up with Maggie. This fountain is two in one form, the volume is not very large, but the sculpture is gorgeous, the water column curve is beautiful, and the scenery is as enchanting as a fairyland when the Chinese lights are first lit at night. In the middle of the two fountains is a giant obelisk from Egypt, which does not appear in the film.
Leslie walked down from the two copper doors with a melancholy look at the Pantheon, a large, beautifully structured building with a large portico of twenty-two columns, and Leslie leaned on one of them and looked into the distance. This building is actually a great ancestral hall dedicated to the great man, which contains the tombs of many famous people, but it is also suitable for Leslie to remember her lost love.
There are many other places worth mentioning in "Sunset in Paris", such as the outdoor café where Leslie drank coffee a few times, the wandering entertainer who played drums and sang on the side of the road, the "baguette" bread that Leslie and Sherry ate while walking, the carved iron railings on the balconies of the house, the small square stone pavement built in the Napoleonic era on the road... It's all Parisian details. Of course, let the daily events of the hero and heroine all take place in famous tourist attractions, and everywhere deliberately embellishes the characteristics of Paris, just like let us go to the Forbidden City for a date, to the Great Wall to talk, to quarrel in the Summer Palace, to tiananmen square to break up... It's not funny to think about. This shortcoming has disappeared in Zhang Guorong's other Paris story "Left and Right Love", but two of the three protagonists of "Sunset paris" are new to Paris, and it is natural to love to go to tourist attractions, not to mention that this is originally a romantic and beautiful music film, perhaps there is no need to demand it with formal film standards that emphasize authenticity and rationality, right?