The Founding Ceremony
The Chinese have since stood up
Zhang Junfeng
"The Founding Ceremony" is a tribute film shot by Changchun Film Studio to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, with Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun as directors.
A tribute with an epic character
"The Founding Ceremony" begins with the dawn of victory of the Communist Party of China at the beginning of the new year in 1949 and Chiang Kai-shek's announcement of his resignation, showing the life-and-death decisive battle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the last year of the Liberation War concerning the future and destiny of China. Under the strategic planning of Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission, the Huaihai Battle ended victoriously, Beiping was peacefully liberated, the Kuomintang refused to sign the Beiping peace talks, the Chinese People's Liberation Army launched the battle to cross the river, Nanjing and Shanghai were liberated one after another, the corrupt rule of the Kuomintang government in Chinese mainland collapsed, the new CPPCC meeting was held in Beiping, and the People's Republic of China was born in the salute of the founding ceremony. Mao Zedong solemnly announced to the world from the tower of Tiananmen Gate that the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established! This day changed the historical destiny of the Chinese nation and had a major and far-reaching impact on the trend of world history and the formation of a new global pattern.
The magnificent history on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China has been vividly reproduced in the film "The Founding Ceremony", which is strategic, ancient and modern, and majestic, showing a kind of historical passion and epic character of the people to create a new world. There are more than 100 important historical figures in the whole film, and the film always grasps the two characters of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, reflecting the grand historical scenes with the subtle human nature and personality details.
Create a realistic artistic image of historical figures
What is the charm of "The Founding Ceremony"? The author thinks that it lies in creating the real artistic images of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, two historical figures.
Screenwriter Zhang Xiaotian said that the creation of "The Founding Ceremony" has a bit of a proposition composition, but after he received the creative task, he insisted on making a breakthrough, and if there is no breakthrough, it is better not to write. This breakthrough is not only ideological, but also structural, linear, and even performative. Whether it's positive or negative, don't make a face, but fully tap into the heart of the character. All the major historical events that everyone knows, point to point, the details of the characters' clothing, food, housing and transportation, but there is no trace of running accounts.
When talking about the creative process, director Li Qiankuan said, "We have used a lot of ink to reveal the mentality of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek. "The Founding Ceremony" is not a conceptual depiction of leaders, but tries to make the audience feel that "Chairman Mao" is not only a great person, but also an ordinary person of flesh and blood. Director Li Qiankuan asked actor Gu Yue to erase the movement of one hand on his waist and the other wave in his past performances, and perform things that were not in the image of Mao Zedong in the past in the details of life. For example, Mao Zedong used to comb his hair every morning, wipe matches on the soles of his shoes, like to read a book and chew tea roots at the same time, and he was angry at his son when he slapped the table...... Through Mao Zedong's relationship with his comrades-in-arms, his son Mao Anying, his daughter Li Ne, and his relationship with soldiers and ordinary people, he is written as a real person from multiple angles and aspects. These life-like, humorous details are new even to today's audience.
In the film, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek do not have face-to-face confrontation and direct conflict, but use a montage of parallel juxtaposition, going hand in hand in sharp contrasts, highlighting the unique personalities of historical figures in the historical conflict. There is such a scene: Chiang Kai-shek raided the Jiangfang fortress, and the commander of the Jiangfang defense, Li Xiangnan, played mahjong and gambled with his colleagues so much that he had to bet on the house, and he also made a big fuss: "The old man has lost most of China, and I am still losing?...... In the future, these will all have to be surnamed!" Seeing this scene, Chiang Kai-shek looked at several frightened subordinates with sharp eyes, and then sat down quietly to play cards, winning back the lost money for the trembling Li Xiangnan, and handed it all to Li Xiangnan and said, "You can't play cards, I can't fight a war, whether the Yangtze River can be defended depends on your brothers!" This small plot vividly shows the bleak situation of Chiang Kai-shek, who is still trapped and fighting, but has lost all the initiative, and plays an important role in revealing psychology, shaping characters, and creating emotions.
Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek were not only two individual people, but also represented two historical forces. When dealing with many characters, the creator uses Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek as the main trunks, and other characters as branches of different thicknesses and dense leaves, and then forms a magnificent towering tree, constituting a thick and long historical picture.
Focus on creating a sense of realism in historical images and scenes
The biggest feature of "The Founding Ceremony" in the use of film language is that a large number of real historical documentary images and documents are used as creative elements to participate in the creation, and there are about a dozen historical images in the whole film. The historical information film truly records the scene at that time, giving people a strong shock, enhancing the sense of historical solemnity and the unrepeatable atmosphere of the times.
Director Li Qiankuan said, "When I combined the real space of history with the hypothetical space of modern times, and combined the real emotions of the characters in the typical environment of history with the emotional experience of the actors today, I was surprised to find that the history of 40 years ago and the reality of 40 years later collided, and they produced a huge charm in aesthetics, thus making the film produce a kind of sublimation. In the selection of materials, the two directors Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun have done a lot of screening, done a lot of desk work, and made a lot of thoughtful consideration for the time, direction, size and use of the materials. In terms of means of expression, it is not confined to documentary effects, but also comprehensively uses a variety of techniques such as reproduction, expression, symbolism, metaphor, and combination of fiction and reality, and makes "The Founding Ceremony" into an epic blockbuster based on documentary, macro and micro combination, overall solemnity, simplicity, and strengthening expression.
"The Founding Ceremony" pursues the background of the times and war scenes in a macro way, and does not stick to the specific events of the war, but mobilizes some modeling scenes to outline the historical background and historical framework in a large Italian style, and concentrates the brush and ink on the daily life scenes and character psychology in the background. What is especially commendable is that all the highlights of the reproduction of history in the film are filmed in a real on-site environment: the first scene of filming is in Zhongnanhai, and then the ceremonial scene is restored on the Tiananmen Tower, Xibaipo, Xiangshan, and the former residence of Song Qingling in Shanghai are all filmed in real time, filming the scenes of Chiang Kai-shek's escape from the mainland, from Xikou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shanghai, all the way to the Nanjing Presidential Palace.
In order to reproduce the solemn atmosphere of the founding ceremony and the bearing of the founding fathers, the film crew invited three to four hundred veterans and retired cadres to be extras, and they were all happy and proud that they had the opportunity to stand on the tower of Tiananmen Square and reproduce the founding ceremony 40 years ago. On the day of filming, the Jinshui Bridge was full of onlookers, and when Gu Yue, who played Mao Zedong, walked down the city tower, the tourists all gathered around him to shake hands and take photos. Director Li Qiankuan recalled: "I want all the actors to experience the mood of the prescribed characters in the prescribed scene at that time, and only in this way can I truly express the emotions of this historical moment."
The film crew filmed the scene of Mao Zedong and the masses watching the bonfire together in Xibaipo, the whole mountain village was boiling, as lively as the New Year, the old people and children came, there were thousands of people, and the scene at the beginning of the movie left a deep impression on the audience.
In the history of the development of China's main theme films, "The Founding Ceremony" is an iconic work; In the more than 100 years of Chinese film development history, "The Founding Ceremony" also has an important and far-reaching influence. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2019, the "Founding Ceremony" was restored in 4K HD and once again met the audience with a new look, which received a warm response. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, looking back at the "Founding Ceremony" again, we are still shocked and moved by the enduring artistic charm of this classic film, and inspire us to forge ahead bravely along the Chinese road opened up by our ancestors on the new journey of Chinese-style modernization, and write a new chapter in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Long live the motherland (Nanchong Chen Xinshu, source: Sichuan Fangzhi Gallery)
Source: Study Times, page 4, 27 September 2024
Author: Zhang Junfeng (Deputy Director of the Seventh Research Department of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature)