Animated film The Proud General (1956) French DVD edition cover
1956 was a very "prosperous" year in the history of the United States. The economic boom also puts the U.S. entertainment industry in a state of singing and dancing.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977) recorded Elvis Presley (1935-1977) set a new record for record sales in heartbreak hotel in the year.
Cover of Elvis Presley's Elvis Presley record Heartbreak Hotel
Hollywood is even more "a hundred flowers blooming", with Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) thrilling suspense "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), Cecil Hitchcock (1956), Cecil Hitchcock (1999-1980) B. Demil B. DeMille's (1881–1959) historical mythology The Ten Commandments (1956), John Ford's (1894–1973) Western Adventures The Searchers (1956), Anatole Litvak (1902–1974) character plot True and False Princess/ Films such as Anastasia (1956) and Walter Lang (1896–1972) love song and dance The King and I (1956) allowed the U.S. film market to break box office records while also making its film output stronger.
From left to right: Parts of the american version of the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Searchers, and The King and I
And Roger Vadim (1928-2000) of France's Roger Vadim (1928-2000) released "God Created Woman Et Dieu... créa la femme), sensationalized Europe and allowed Brigitte Bardot to successfully enter the American film market.
This also allowed American audiences to see the "wild sexiness" different from Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), and at the same time made Marilyn Monroe feel the "pressure" from Europe.
From left to right: Marilyn Monroe's image in the film Bus Stop (1956); Brigitte Bardot in the film God Created Woman Et Dieu... Image in créa la femme (1956).
Let's look at the domestic situation again: In 1956, based on the victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and the completion of the "three major transformations," a scene of peace and prosperity had already appeared in the country.
Seven years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Central Committee began to worry about the emergence of new magnates, and considering the extensive influence of Guo Moruo's "Three Hundred Years of Jiashen Festival" in 1944 under the promotion of Mao Zedong and the CPC Central Committee, or later, the criticism of bureaucracy by the rectification movement in 1957, we can see the reflection of the central government's sense of distress at the artistic level.
In 1957, the rectification and expansion of the struggle against the Rightists began, which seriously impacted the film front; beginning in 1958, the central authorities guided the vast number of literary and art workers to adhere to the "double hundred policy," and a prosperous scene once again appeared on the film front.
From left to right: Parts of the posters of the Chinese version of the movie "Before the Arrival of the New Director", "Blessings" and "Song Shijie"
In this way, after intermittently "rectifying" in the past few years, the "pyrotechnic gas" of films with "propaganda functions" did not know how to exert their "hands and feet."; in 1956, the central authorities decided in the cultural field to adopt the policy of "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending.", and under the guidance of the "double hundred" policy, the film industry recovered its "vitality" and created a large number of films that reflected the spirit of "a hundred flowers blooming."
Sha Meng (1907-1964) and Lin Shan (1914-1992) co-directed the war film Shangganling (1956), Lü Ban (1912-1976) satirizing the official scene before the arrival of the new bureau chief (1956), Sang Arc (1916-2004) adapted Lu Xun's famous book "Blessing" (1956), Shen Fu (1905-1994) costume biography "Li Shizhen" (1956) and other themes were welcomed by the common people.
Stills from the animated film The Proud General (1956).
At the same time, this year was also a very bumper harvest year for traditional drama films, and the Peking opera "Song Shijie" (1956) co-directed by Ying Yunwei (1904-1967) and Liu Qiong (1913-2002), the Yu opera "Mulan" (1956) co-directed by Liu Guoquan and Zhang Xinshi (1916-1984), and the commentary "Liu Qiao'er" (1956) by Yi Lin (1915-1979) have since become classic dramas.
It was in this environment that the 24-minute and 37-second cartoon "The Proud General" (1956), which reminded people to remain vigilant at all times, not to be blinded by the victories in front of them, and to always be vigilant against the resurgence of class enemies, came out.
Images from the animated film The Proud General (1956).
Cartoonist Hua Junwu (1915-2010) created the animation script of "The Proud General", which is based on the idiom "Grinding Guns in the Front" and incorporates many traditional Chinese artistic elements, from pure and authentic character costumes, to stylized movements born of virtual reality, to the soundtrack and dialogue of Jingyun Jingxiang, all of which embody the aesthetic characteristics of traditional Chinese culture.
Director Te Wei (1915-2010) used the national style to express the form and connotation of the virtual creation of animation works for the first time.
The story tells that a general who guards the frontier returns victoriously, triumphantly returns to the city, and is supported.
At the feast, when the preparations were staggered and the subordinates flattered and boasted about the general, an elderly subordinate hesitated for a moment and asked, "Does the enemy dare to come again?" ”
At this time, the general was exaggerated, and he looked across the eyebrows and pointed to the Ding at the door: "How heavy is the Ding?" The most flattering subordinate said: "Less to say, there are also four, five, six, seven or eight hundred pounds!" ”
The general laughed, came to the door, and lifted the ding with one hand, playing with it in his hands.
Subsequently, he bent his bow and arrow and shot down a bird with precision, and the subordinates danced with joy, directly praising the general as a "sharpshooter".
Then the general became more and more proud, indulged in wine, singing and dancing, reclining on the bed, and the world was at peace. The general's spear had rusted, there was no more forced chill, and after a few months the general had a big belly.
On the occasion of his birthday, the doormen diners still sent him a gold plaque of "the world's first hero", precious gifts, pearlescent treasures, dazzling, and finally, the enemy entered the city, and the general quickly called for someone to take his spear, but it was already rusty.
At this time, the general was besieged on the tower, shouting "Come on people", but no one answered, he fell to the ground on his back, and he was captured.
The advent of such an animated work that expresses the idea of danger in times of peace and prevents happiness and sorrow has to be said to be a warning to the newly formed power class in China.
In the spring of 1955, when the crew of "The Proud General" was founded, the studio also made instructions to "explore the road of national form and knock on the door of comedy style" and to "make some criticism of the injustices of the times" .
The "Proud General" by Te Wei, the first director of Shanghai Mei film studio and the founder of Chinese ink animation, can be said to be the beginning of the nationalization of Chinese art films.
Te Wei, the first director of Shanghai Meiyi Film Factory
His ink-and-ink animation Little Tadpole Finds Mother (1960) opened up a new style of art film, winning the Silver Sail Award for Short Films at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland in 1961, the Honorary Award at the Cannes International Film Festival in France in 1964, the First Prize at the International Animated Film Festival in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1978, and the Second Prize at the International Children's and Youth Festival at the Pompidou Cultural Centre in Paris in 1981.
"Mudi" (1963) won the Gold Medal at the Gudense International Fairy Tale Film Festival in Denmark in 1979, while "The Golden Monkey Descends" (1985) won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Fine Art Film in 1986 and the first prize for animated feature film at the First Chicago International Children's Film Festival in 1989.
Characters from the animated film Proud General (1956).
Director Tervey's original idea was to refer to the production methods of foreign animation, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the United States (1937) and the former Soviet Union's "The Farmer and the Goldfish", first looking for live-action performances, and then copying, the result was a big disappointment.
Because the film became a satirical comedy, not an animation at all, the crew decided to go their own way.
Te Wei led everyone to study Mei Lanfang's Peking Opera and draw "nutrients" from Peking Opera.
In addition, under the leadership of co-director Li Kewei (1916-2001), the staff of the "Proud General" crew went to Beijing, Shandong, Hebei and other places to collect a large number of ancient paintings, sculptures, architecture and other materials, and after more than a year of hard work, it was not until June 1956 that the 24 minutes and 37 seconds animation was completed.
In January 1960, Wan Liming and Li Keweak discussed the art design of "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" at Zhang Guangyu's home in Fangjiayuan, Beijing
Yan Dingxian, a 19-year-old yan Dingxian who was still doing art internship in the "Proud General" crew at that time, a young man who later became the chief animation designer of the animation film "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace" (1961), wrote in his "Proud General" creation diary: "After we studied the peking opera movements, we felt that many things could be absorbed into the animation, such as the bow archery in "The Proud General" and the general's steps, which were all the products of the opera actions that we absorbed after watching the Peking Opera, and after digestion and absorption, It becomes an element of cartoons (elements with Chinese characteristics) and becomes another kind of art, which can reflect the temperament of Chinese generals. ”
Yan Dingxian (right) and Osamu Tezuka in 1981
Pu Jiaxiang, who participated in the design and production of "The Proud General", once recalled that Qian Jiajun (1916-2011), who was the artist of the film, used a craftsmanship technique that seemed very fresh at the time - the method of blending the national ink bottom, and then covered with gouache colors, the background effect was thick and thick, and the design of the character generals and diners in the play was also vivid.
For the shape of the protagonist general, Qian Jiajun grasped the general's "inertia" and "pride" to create and design. First of all, accurately grasp the characteristics of the opera character image, and have the courage to make a pioneering experiment and deformation treatment of the character image. In the shape of the face, he firmly grasped the characteristics of the characters to carry out the shaping, and the general adopted a large flower face, round and full, and presented it on the screen with the painting method of peking opera characters.
In July 1962, the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was filming the ink animation "Mudi", and Qian Jiajun (left) and Te Wei (right) were studying the footage of "Mudi"
Yan Dingxian, one of the designers, later also believed that the production of "The Proud General" made many useful attempts in the domestic national style, especially the action design and the movement law of the characters, laying a solid foundation for the next foundation work "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace".
"The Proud General" is composed by the famous Shanghai composer Chen Gexin (1914-1961), who once collaborated with The Golden Voice Zhou Xuan (1920-1957), and the Chinese national style animation works pay special attention to the grasp and understanding of the relationship between virtual and real in artistic creation.
This story is tortuous and moving, the plot is ups and downs, and the script setting uses a local atmosphere to hint at the overall narrative, which fully reflects the aesthetic principle of combining virtual and real.
The local atmosphere is somewhat similar to the masonry on the opera stage, although it is some "size utensils" and "simple sets", but it can be seen from this, and when they are combined and connected with the actions of the characters, a new landscape is created.
For example, in the opening scene of the film, the general returns victoriously, riding on a high-headed horse, with a strong and burly body, a beard, and a golden armor, which is really eight-sided might! In the battlefield where there was no smoke of gunfire, only half of the red flag fluttering, and the noisy atmosphere of gongs and drums, I saw the general pacing with his head held high, accompanied by the percussive rhythm of the music, stepping in step by step, step by step.
In order to vividly express the arrogance and arrogance of the general's triumphant return, in the opening part of the animation to show the general's inability to enter the general's palace, simply borrowed the opening routine of the opera, and with the gong and drum points in a step-by-step manner, the image is vivid and vivid, and the conversion is closely combined and complemented.
With the sound of trumpets and horses' hooves, the virtual war atmosphere is portrayed in three points, and the national interest is also quite strong.
Peking Opera percussion is also often used to render fierce fighting scenes, such as the general's "shooting arrows" and the enemy's siege of the city, so that the combination of fiction and reality, with their own music to tell the story of ancient idioms, and spread Chinese culture, complement each other.
The pioneering work "The Proud General", which took the road of nationalization, was successful in New China and was officially recognized, and this cartoon also reflected the party's worries about bureaucracy and corruption in the party to some extent, and was also the embodiment of the core spirit of the rectification movement. At this time, Chinese animators at that time began to continuously draw national elements from Chinese classics and traditional culture.
If today's domestic animation wants to really go abroad and reorganize the glory of domestic animation in the past, the first task is to absolutely abandon the imitation of Japanese and American animation, and the premise must also keep pace with the times, and then come up with products that are not only nationalized in form, but also absolutely nationalized in content and ideology.
Poster of the Chinese version of the animated film The Proud General (1956).
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