He served as the chairman of the international jury of the "Temple of Heaven Award" at the 14th Beijing International Film Festival and attended the post-screening exchange activities of "Song of the Wanderer...... 70-year-old Serbian director Emir Kusturica is undoubtedly one of the busiest people at this year's Northern Film Festival. On the afternoon of April 25th, he attended the "Emile Kusturica Film Master Class" held at the Punctual Theater of Langyuan Station, and had a dialogue with director Huang Jianxin and writer Yu Hua with the theme of "National Epic and Spiritual Miracle".
The standard of Chinese cinema is getting higher and higher
Before the event began, the theater was full of people, and some audiences who did not have tickets simply watched the live broadcast in front of an LED screen on the side of the road at Langyuan Station. "I don't know if I'll be able to have a good conversation for the next hour. After taking his seat, Kusturica opened the pitch like this. Yu Hua said with a smile that he and Kusturica are already old friends, and the last time they met was in 2018.
"The shortlisted films for the 'Temple of Heaven Award' this time are very amazing, very diverse, and the story and narrative angles are also very exciting, and the judges are very satisfied. Kusturica said excitedly that he didn't say polite words when he arrived in Beijing, "Literature and movies are closely related to the changes of the times and society, and these films of the Beijing Film Festival reflect the changes of the times." He revealed that the judges quickly reached a consensus during the selection, "Their attitude is very serious, and I believe that the audience will be satisfied with the final result." Regarding the three Chinese films shortlisted for the "Temple of Heaven Award", he commented: "Chinese films, whether in production or storytelling, are getting higher and higher. ”
Huang Jianxin recalled that the first time he watched "Underground" directed by Kusturica, it was a videotape recommended by a good friend, and he didn't move his position for a long time after watching it, "the impact was too great". In particular, when Huang Jianxin cried on the spot when a little boy who had been living "underground" for 15 years finally climbed out of the ground and saw the rising sun, "This is man's desire for life!" Kusturica uses free imagination and wild and uninhibited magical realism to tell the story of the country, the nation and the brothers, in which I see people, humanity and the yearning for freedom. ”
Yu Hua said that he had seen all the Kusturica movies that he could find resources. When I first watched "Dad Goes on a Business Trip", there were no Chinese subtitles, but he actually understood it. In his opinion, Kusturica's film captures the "pain" of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
It was history that chose Kusturica
"I've been through special times, I've been through turmoil, I've been lucky, but the people of my country aren't as lucky as me. "Until the end of the last century, I didn't alleviate my spiritual pain," says Kusturica. He combines his personal experience with the changes of the times, and through the expression of the film, he marks his feelings for his home and country.
"Never give in to oblivion" and "Where we are" became the most recurring themes in his films. Released in 1985, "Dad Goes on a Business Trip" is a semi-autobiographical film that uses a child's eyes to express the joys and sorrows of a family in a specific era. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 38th Cannes International Film Festival in 1985, becoming the first Yugoslav director to win the award. This year, the "Special Screening" section of the Beijing Film Festival in Beijing screened 8 Kusturica films, including "Song of the Wanderer", "Black Cat and White Cat" and "Underground", among which "Underground" depicts the tortuous history of Yugoslavia from the Nazi occupation in 1941 to the civil war in 1995. The film won him the Palme d'Or at the 48th Cannes International Film Festival, and he became one of the seven members of the Double Palme d'Or club.
"What all three of us have in common is that we all come from 'bad boy' backgrounds. Yu Hua said that although Kusturica now lives in Belgrade, he grew up in Sarajevo when he was a child, and Yu Hua, who claims to be a "Kusturica fan", also went to Sarajevo to find the neighborhood where Kusturica grew up, just to "see the experience of idols when they were children." "This guy did as many bad things as he did when he was a kid like cars coming and going on the street. Yu Hua laughed that almost all of Kusturica's childhood playmates later went to prison, "It was art and film that saved him and turned him into a great artist." ”
Yu Hua still remembers that Kusturica once took him to see the place that inspired him to write "Underground", which is a very inconspicuous ruin-like place, "so many people pass by here every day, but no one thinks of making movies, it seems that history chose Kusturica." ”
Kusturica said that when he was a child, his family was good, but there were many single-parent families and people who had committed crimes, and he developed the habit of dealing with people at a very young age, and liked to dig into the lives of these little people to find the shadow of the times in them. Kusturica, who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, hopes that the characters in his works will reveal a "sense of humor in the midst of suffering" that will soothe people's wounds, "and this is also a rethinking of Serbia's existence." ”
I hope to make some Chinese movies in the future
In the movie "Dad Goes on a Business Trip", there is a plot that Yu Hua remembers vividly: the previous set of shots was the picture of parents arguing and beating their children, but the next shot turned to a family of four lying on the bed and singing happily. Yu Hua said: "This is the miracle of the soul, which comes from the insight into life and the most familiar life. ”
During the conversation, Kusturica also made a point of mentioning the shoes he was wearing, which turned out to be untied, and his reason was that he only needed to tighten his shoelaces if someone wanted to beat him on the street, and he usually let the shoelaces loose, "so that the mood is very peaceful." Just as he feels that the Chinese are now traveling all over the world, "they did not bring a rain of bullets, they did not bring a single bullet, they brought peace and sent a steady stream of development potential to other countries." The Chinese are helping locals build railways and roads in Serbia, "and the reality is particularly shocking," Kusturica said, regretting that there are no films that tell such stories.
The host asked Kusturica how he understood "telling Chinese stories well"? He replied that after watching three or four Chinese films at the Beijing Film Festival, he found that these films were just like when he watched "No One is Missing" directed by Zhang Yimou, which made him feel universal values, and he was really moved. "No One is Missing" won the Golden Lion Award at the 56th Venice International Film Festival, and Kusturica, who was the chairman of the jury at the time, presented Zhang Yimou with a trophy. At the opening ceremony of this year's Beijing Film Festival, Kusturica presented Zhang Yimou with a special honor award from the organizing committee, and he said excitedly: "We have crossed two centuries and created many very good films, which have far exceeded our expectations, and I am very happy to be here and finish this marathon with director Yimou." ”
"I hope to make some Chinese films in the future. Kusturica revealed that he would like to put a script "The White Clouds of Genghis Khan" that has been in preparation for many years to be filmed in China, because this is the hometown of Genghis Khan. "This time I wanted to capture Genghis Khan's strong and fragile side, to show the multifaceted nature of human beings. ”