"If I die, I can awaken those who are numb, and I can die."
On April 28, 1927, in the Jingshi Detention Center in Xijiaomin Lane, Beijing, Li Dazhao was the first to board the gallows, looking calm and generous.
After 94 years, through the picture of the movie "Revolutionary", the magnificent life of Li Dazhao, the pioneer of the Chinese communist movement, was repeated on the big screen for the first time.
With its ingenious narrative structure, poetic writing full of revolutionary romanticism, and character modeling full of fireworks, the film has received rave reviews from the audience, with ratings of 9.5, 9.4 and 7.5 points respectively in Taobao, Maoyan Movie and Douban Movie.
On the eve of the release of "The Revolutionary", the 1905 film network also interviewed the director Xu Zhanxiong to listen to him reveal how to make Li Dazhao's story bloody and romantic.
1
tale
Key nodes with pyrotechnic gas
"When I received this project, I asked myself, what do I really know about Mr. Li Dazhao?" With awe, Xu Zhanxiong and the team decided that the first thing to do was to plunge into the historical materials and return to the "present" of history.
A lot of information about Li Dazhao is a memory of him by later generations, but for the creator, it is even more valuable to see what the people present at the time, such as Mao Zedong, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, Liang Shuming, and his friends and even enemies, evaluate him. It is from those materials that we have obtained a real understanding of Mr. Li Dazhao. ”
In the process of collecting information, there are too many stories that touch Xu Zhanxiong: Li Dazhao was a famous professor before his death, and his monthly salary was close to three hundred yuan of ocean, but he still only ate steamed buns and pickles every day, and his son did not change into new cotton clothes for several years.
It turned out that he spent almost all of his salary on funding students, printing advanced publications and the activities of the communist group, and Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University, even specifically instructed the finance department to give a part of his salary to Li Dazhao's wife, Zhao Shulan, in order to ensure his family. "He is such a noble and selfless man."
After Li Dazhao's heroic righteousness, his wife Zhao Shulan could not even come up with the money to buy a coffin. It took her six years to raise enough money for a coffin and buried her husband in the Wan'an Cemetery, where she fell seriously ill and died three months after Li Dazhao was buried. This touching story also became the inspiration for the beginning of the film.
How to let "Li Dazhao" walk out of textbooks and history books and be born into a flesh-and-blood character requires not only a three-dimensional and multi-faceted personality, but also vivid and vivid details, for example, Li Dazhao will lean on his wife's shoulder and cry; he and Chen Duxiu will quarrel in private and eat buns on the street; rub hot pot with Mao Zedong late at night; when he rises, he will play the piano, sing the big drum of the music pavilion, and so on.
"These details with pyrotechnics are precisely the most precious things in The Revolutionary, because it reduces Li Dazhao to a truly flesh-and-blood person, rather than an untouchable image floating in the sky." Xu Zhanxiong said.
If flesh-and-blood figures are the core fulcrum, it is indispensable to support major historical events. "The Revolutionary" selects important historical nodes such as "Southern Chen and Northern Li Rendezvous to Build the Party", "Kailuan Coal Miners' Strike", "First Kuomintang-Communist Cooperation", "March 18 Massacre", "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary Coup" and other important historical nodes, combined with relevant figures, condensed and showed Li Dazhao's magnificent life.
"We focus on the history of Li Dazhao's return to China in 1916 to his heroic righteousness in 1927, which is also the most brilliant chapter in Li Dazhao's life. We also filmed the young Li Dazhao and the clip of knowing and falling in love with Zhao Shulan, but in the end we still wanted to closely focus on this crucial decade. ”
The choice of character perspectives includes famous historical figures such as Mao Zedong, Chen Duxiu, Zhang Xueliang, and Chiang Kai-shek, as well as ordinary small figures such as Qingzi and Xu San, who together constructed a vivid picture of all strata of the Chinese revolution at that time.
"In Li Dazhao's life, he has met and influenced many such poor people, and Xu San and Qingzi are the typical images we have refined." Xu Zhanxiong explained,
Li Jiuxiao as Qingzi
Before preparing for the heavy scene of Li Dazhao's righteousness at the end of the film, the team found the last photo of Li Dazhao taken by a Dutch reporter at the time, and found that he had shaved his head before hanging. As a result, "The Revolutionary" not only restored this image, but also designed the shaved head play that was full of laughter and generosity.
The historical picture of Li Dazhao's gallows was once a cultural relic of the Museum of the Chinese Revolution No. 0001. The "Revolutionary" crew also reproduced this prop, and the actor Zhang Songwen also experienced as much as possible the extreme feeling that Li Dazhao was strangled by a rope and tortured for forty minutes.
In the end, Xu Zhanxiong chose to poetically recreate this historical moment with artistic techniques, and Li Dazhao's self-sacrifice aroused the spiritual awakening of hundreds of millions of people, truly confirming the sentence: "Noble life is often in the heroic sacrifice." ”
2
actor
The form and the god are indispensable
"The choice of actors is both god and spirit." Talking about the casting of "Revolutionary", Xu Zhanxiong said so. The team first found the photos of several historical figures to compare with the actors, and then found candidates to try on makeup, and through layers of screening, they determined several actors in the film.
In Xu Zhanxiong's heart, the powerful actor Zhang Songwen has always been the best candidate to interpret Li Dazhao, especially when he put on a wig and stood in front of him with a beard, it was like Li Dazhao walking out of the book, "It's just too similar!" ”
Not only is it both similar to the shape and the god, Zhang Songwen also deeply speculates on the inner world of the characters. He once said in an interview: "I don't think I can use acting techniques to shape Li Dazhao, but temporarily lend the body to this role, I only try to understand and approach him, maybe only touched a little." 」 ”
For this state of "foolishness", Xu Zhanxiong also has a deep understanding. He revealed that Zhang Songwen has been fully "integrated" with Li Dazhao on the set, and there are often improvised passages with a flash of inspiration, "He will ask: Director, do you say that Li Dazhao can speak Russian?" Do you speak English? Then you see the improvised passage in the film where he speaks russian and English, the phrase "Welcome to China!" (China welcomes you) is a stroke of God, full of irony. ”
There is also the scene where Li Dazhao suddenly broke out when he was tortured, which also makes Xu Zhanxiong remember vividly, and he still imitated it at the scene, "At that time, he had been tortured for more than twenty days, and he was indifferent, until the prison guards stimulated him, do you know where Luo Yinong went?" Where did Xiao Chunu go? Teacher Songwen suddenly began to laugh like a madman, and then laughed and cried, and this instantaneous explosion was very shocking. ”
After determining that Zhang Songwen would play Li Dazhao, the choice of Qin Hao to play Chen Duxiu seemed "natural". “
Qin Hao is too suitable, he and Zhang Songwen have cooperated in many works such as "The Hidden Corner", and the tacit understanding and contrast are just right. ”
In addition to the powerful drama bones, the choice of young actors such as Li Yifeng, Peng Yuchang, and Han Geng in "Revolutionary" is also eye-catching.
Xu Zhanxiong bluntly said that Li Yifeng was a "huge surprise", "He put on that outfit, and when he starts performing, you will find that it is too similar!" He performed the youthful spirit of the young Mao Zedong. ”
Han Geng put down the "idol baggage" and boldly tried the top of the style, highlighting Chiang Kai-shek's gloomy and suspicious temperament.
The highlight of Peng Yuchang is the performance of Zhang Xueliang's different states of 16 years old and 26 years old, on the one hand, he is less and less, youthful and hot-blooded, and on the other hand, he is calm and stoic, subject to his father Zhang Zuolin.
Han Geng as Chiang Kai-shek
Peng Yuchang as Zhang Xueliang
3
innovation
Multi-line narrative and revolutionary romanticism
Starting from the countdown of 38 hours before Li Dazhao's righteousness, "Revolutionary" leads the audience back to the scene of the event through the perspectives of different characters, and witnesses the historical moments of the storms and clouds in an immersive way. This multi-perspective, multi-clue non-linear narrative mode, as well as the expression method full of romantic colors, is also a bold innovation in the creation of the main theme of the film.
Xu Zhanxiong said that the choice of this narrative structure can be seen as a kind of "breaking the problem", "the general biopic will use a linear narrative, but because everyone is more familiar with Li Dazhao's life, this way will appear flat and direct, we think of using the form of countdown, as well as the structure of multiple perspectives and multiple clues, to create a sense of suspense, increase the type element, and more in line with the aesthetics of young audiences." ”
In addition to narrative innovations, many sections of the film also skillfully integrate realism and freehand, such as the spark of stars gathered by the coal workers' hat lamps; the birds that Li Dazhao used his hands to compare in prison; the huge red flags held up by workers and peasants; and the wind and snow sending each other in the south chen and north Li.
In Xu Zhanxiong's view, this romance is on the one hand a portrayal of the revolutionary's heart, "In the face of the dark reality, when you see everything you believe in, no one believes at all, only when you are romantic and have an incomparable yearning and hope for the future, you will have no remorse." So that generation was romantic. ”
On the other hand, the romantic expression method is also the "background" of "Revolutionary", "I want to show not only what they did in a certain year and day, but also want to capture their mentality, emotions, ambitions and hopes at that time." 」 ”
Coincidentally, the English title of "The Revolutionary" is "The Pioneer", which refers to both the groundbreaking revolutionaries and the film's "avant-garde" attempt at audiovisual language. It's like the meaningful picture at the end of the film: teenager Li Dazhao drives a rumbling train and embarks on a journey in the dark of night.
Off the screen, countless revolutionary martyrs have also turned into the "locomotive" of history, leading the "China" train all the way and rolling forward.
Written | A K
Source: 1905 Movie Network