1905 Film Network News On the afternoon of April 25, the 14th Beijing International Film Festival Emile Kusturica Film Master Class started. The guest speaker of this film master class is Serbian director, screenwriter and actor Emir Kusturica, who has a dialogue with director Huang Jianxin and writer Yu Hua.
Cannes, Venice and Berlin are three major international film festivals, the Grand Slam of important awards, and a member of the "Double Palme d'Or" club, these dazzling achievements symbolize that director Emile Kusturica has become an insurmountable mountain in the history of world cinema. His works always use absurd narrative techniques and expressions to present grand themes such as the country and the nation, and convey deep feelings for the family and country. In this master class, director Emile Kusturica and two panelists reviewed the more than 40 years of filmmaking around the theme of "National Epic and Spiritual Miracles", and talked about how he realized himself in the torrent of times and social changes.
Speaking about his country, Serbia, director Kusturica said: "For me, I went through a period like this, and until the end of the last century, it didn't alleviate the pain in my soul due to the historical background. I can hear from the depths of each and every one of the masses whether they have been traumatized by the prolonged turmoil, and at the same time they have a sense of humor that is out of the midst of suffering. It also made me rethink whether there are other elements that can be reflected in my films. I hope to be able to show this kind of background in my films, and I also hope that I can better convey my personal feelings of home and country through this kind of display. ”
Writer Yu Hua recalls his acquaintance with Kusturica, which is related to the latter's masterpiece "Underground", and the two of them visited the birthplace of the creative inspiration for the film "Underground", which is an old, ruin-like door, quietly erected under the light. It is this small door that passers-by don't pay much attention to, but behind it is the dreamlike but deep and heavy world of light and shadow of the movie "Underground". Recalling this, Yu Hua said to director Kusturica: "Our creation, our inspiration, everything in our story may have come from a small door, and after entering, I realized that it was such a wide world inside. ”
Regarding the whimsy in Kusturica's works, writer Yu Hua commented: "Kudao has two souls in my mind, one is the soul of Shakespeare and the other is the soul of Chekhov. These two souls are sometimes separated, for example, "Daddy Goes on a Business Trip" is Chekhov's soul beating, but "Underground" is Shakespeare's soul beating, it is Shakespeare's kind of presumptuousness, that kind of openness, that kind of freewheeling, that kind of whimsy, all these things come out. But when it comes to "Song of the Wanderer", it feels like two souls are together again. ”
For director Huang Jianxin, the choice of themes and stories is also closely related to life experience. Director Huang Jianxin said: "When I started making films, I paid special attention to ordinary people and the small things that accompanied me to grow up around me. After that, I started to shoot more realistic films to record the changes that have taken place in the development of the country, so I have "Stand Straight, Don't Lie Down", "Back to Back, Face to Face", and "Red Light Stop, Green Light Go". For example, the scene in "Red Light Stops, Green Light Goes" is the yard where I grew up when I was a child, and that is where I grew up. ”
At the end of the masterclass, the moderator invited director Kusturica to share his feelings under the theme "Where am I in history".
"We know that the sun rises in the east and sets in another corner of the world, and that is how the extension of our culture slowly unfolds. I hope to be able to express the changes of the times and my country with the lens of my family. No matter what kind of person we become, or what path we have taken, we need to be based on the present and look back at history, which will bring us change and inspiration, so that you can know where you came from and where you are going. If you ask me where I am in history at this moment, I feel that I am in the torrent of time, from where I belong. I'm in the process of growing my society, culturally, historically, and I'm in a time where I believe in. ”