Li Qiankuan (first from right) work photo
Movie "Founding Ceremony"
◎ Liu Hongqing
On August 12, the famous director Li Qiankuan died of illness. As an outstanding representative of the fourth generation of Chinese film directors, he has been well known to domestic audiences for his works such as "The Founding Ceremony", "Chongqing Negotiations" and "July 7 Incident". Born in Dalian in January 1941, Li Qiankuan, whose ancestral home is Penglai, Shandong Province, claims to be the descendant of the "Guandong" and the son of a peasant, and his lens tells about major historical events and contains the people in his heart.
Ding Yinnan, an 83-year-old famous director who is loved by the audience with feature films "Sun Yat-sen", "Zhou Enlai" and "Deng Xiaoping", believes that Li Qiankuan is a representative of China's contemporary main theme films. Ding Yinnan said: "Qiankuan is my good friend and good brother. His enthusiasm is heartfelt, he loves life, loves the people around him, loves his career, and is always full of enthusiasm, like fire, full of vitality to ignite the enthusiasm of everyone. In the face of leaders or ordinary people, he treats them equally, which is rare. He is sick but optimistic and strong, and is a hero in the fight against cancer. He was indeed a great brother, a man who loved life, a man of high quality, and I miss him very much. ”
The director "hand-picked" became a field record to participate in the remake of "Green Pine Ridge"
In 1964, Li Qiankuan graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Beijing Film Academy and was later assigned back to the Changchun Film Studio in northeast China. He said: "The Long Shadow compound is very large, there are several square kilometers around it, all of which are power grids. "There is a villa in the southeast corner of the Changying compound, which is the villa of Zhang Jinghui, the prime minister of the Japanese and pseudo-Japanese periods, and later the expert guest house of Changying, commonly known as the "Little White Building". "Little White House" is a good memory for long-term shadow people, because many masters who have worked in the long-distance film studio have created and completed their classics here. Li Qiankuan said: "The theme song "My Motherland" written by Qiao Yu and Liu Chi for the movie "Shangganling" was completed here; the films "Liu Sanjie" and "Flowers of the Motherland" written by Qiao Yu were also created here. ”
The preparation for the film "Qingsongling" was at the end of 1972, when the factory let Li Qiankuan go to Chengde alone to experience life and understand the situation of the actors. In anonymity for two months, Li Qiankuan had to implement the actors, get the script back, and then shoot the scene. He lived in several counties around the Great Wall, such as Chengde, Xinglong, Qinglong, and Pingyuan in Hebei. The area is mountainous, and pear trees are planted on the one hand, and some crops are planted in the seams. Li Qiankuan remembers that Xinglong County produces walnuts, pears, hawthorns, and mushrooms. So there is a line in "Green Pine Ridge" that is: "My little mushroom, that little mountain goods..."
At that time, Li Qiankuan had been in the factory for several years, and the directors liked him. Liu Guoquan returned to the factory from the countryside to take over the filming of "Qingsongling", and said to everyone: "Qiankuan will do my field notes, follow me." That year, Li Qiankuan was 31 years old.
There are forty or fifty houses in the "Little White House", and next to it there are small bungalows that serve as a kitchen for the artist to cook. Shi Wanchun, the composer of "Qingsongling", traveled from Beijing to Changchun and lived in the XiaobaiLou. Li Qiankuan recalled: "At that time, sometimes there was electricity, sometimes there was no electricity. The night I went to see him, there was no electricity, and Shi Wanchun lit a candle, and the shadow dragged for a long time. Because it was cold and the heating was not good, Shi Wanchun wore a large cotton jacket, a dog skin hat, two ropes on both sides, and wrote music under the candle with his waist on his back. I asked, 'Is it Shi Wanchun?' I'm Li Qiankuan of the crew, and the director asked me to come and see you. ’”
At that time, Li Qiankuan's task to Liu Guoquan on the spot was to "urge the book". Shi Wanchun's first impression on him was that he was like a big car. So Li Qiankuan jokingly asked: "You won't be the one who catches the big car in "Qingsongling", right?" ”
After that, Li Qiankuan and Shi Wanchun went deep into life together, listening to folk minor tunes and listening to the cries of farmers. Finally, the musical elements in the theme song of "Qingsongling" are the sound of the countryside when the audience hears it, and regional things come to the fore. Li Yuqiu, composer of "Long March Suite Song", and Qin Yongcheng, dean of Shenyang Conservatory of Music, praised Li Qiankuan: "The music of "Qingsongling" is really authentic, elegant and popular, and easy to catch! ”
He strongly advocated "Running Forward along the Socialist Avenue" sung by Jiang Dawei
Who sang the theme song of "Qingsongling" "Running Forward along the Socialist Avenue"? At that time, there were two choices, one was Li Shirong, who had already become famous, and the other was Jiang Dawei, who was not yet famous. Li Qiankuan said: "Li Shirong is a full-time chinese film singer, the top pillar of the long film, many of the film interludes of the 1960s and 1970s were sung by him, such as "Grassland Morning Song", "Liu Sanjie", the movie interlude "Wedding Oath", "Missing Comrades in Arms" in "Visitor on the Iceberg", etc., singing really well, famous throughout the country. However, Li Shirong is a theatrical tenor, who is almost fifty years old at this time, and his voice is a bit old. ”
Jiang Dawei was a singer and actor in the Jilin Provincial Forest Police Force Cultural and Labor Troupe at that time, in his twenties. He did not pass the examination for changying, but he was young and energetic, and his voice image was very consistent with the young people in the play. And his voice is more simple and more ethnic. Li Qiankuan thought that Jiang Dawei was more appropriate.
The film is long shadow, the song is long shadow, the long shadow band is determined to use Li Shirong, and the female voice uses Wang Yunzhi. Li Qiankuan ran to ask Shi Wanchun for advice, and the composer said, "You still have to use Jiang Dawei." Although he is not famous, his songs are used in the film without a sense of distance from the characters. ”
Who to use and who not to use? There was a heated debate. The orchestra wants to record Li Shirong's, and the film crew wants to record Jiang Dawei's. After both plans were recorded, they were decided by the party committee and the factory director. At that time, the director of the factory was Su Yun, Su Yun asked the crew, and the crew listened to the director. Li Qiankuan said: "This is not a small thing in Changying, it is a big thing. The old man Liu Guoquan liked me and admired me, and he said to listen to me. ”
Li Qiankuan told director Liu Guoquan: "Music should be combined with the image, or jiang Dawei should be used, the fame is not enough, but the audience listens to the song." ”
Liu Guoquan said: "Oh, you and the composer both admire Jiang Dawei? ”
Li Qiankuan said, "Yes! We have no grudge with Li Shirong, nor do we have anything to do with Jiang Dawei. Jiang Dawei is in line with the picture and in line with the image. The director said, "Good, good." ”
Wait until the director of the factory, Su Yun, asked: "Director Liu, what is the opinion of your crew?" ”
Liu Guoquan said: "The young people recorded in line with the picture of the character image, and the character has no sense of distance, very appropriate, the voice is very tender, the bottom is very strong. In the end, Jiang Dawei became famous in one fell swoop, and later sang "Peony Song" in Changying, and then transferred to Beijing. Li Qiankuan said: "The crew listens to the director, and the director is the work I do, and I can count on digging out a Jiang Dawei." ”
The epic Founding Ceremony is a landmark
In 1989, Li Qiankuan directed "The Founding Ceremony" to present the 40th anniversary of the National Day. He recalled: "I came up and filmed a big scene, Tiananmen. This was opposed by the crew at the time. "According to common sense, such a big drama, there are 138 people with names and surnames, the Liaoshen Decisive Battle, the Pingjin Battle, the Huaihai Battle, millions of heroes crossing the river, especially the Tiananmen Square Founding Ceremony, any one event can be a separate film, the preparation time is at least one year, but Li Qiankuan only used three months. He said: "The film can't be made without making it, so I will combine history and the present." ”
Li Qiankuan once told this writer: "In the movie "Founding Ceremony", Chairman Mao shouted 'Long live the people' was recorded by actor Zhang Keyao. I told him that Chairman Mao had been shouting for a day, and his voice was hoarse, and he must let the audience feel that the chairman was shouting from the heart. On the screen, the warrior falls in the salute. Others usually use 24 flowers to shoot, but I use four times, 96. I specially invited 64 martial arts actors to use the long focal tone to lengthen the movement of the warrior falling, falling down and getting up again, falling down and getting up again. I must remind the audience that in celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Republic, it was our people's warriors who fell in the liturgy. And the music is stacked up layer by layer, a bit like the national anthem. ”
"The Founding Ceremony" is a landmark work of Chinese cinema that reflects the historical themes of major figures since the reform and opening up. With epic pictures, the works praise important figures in Chinese history, have innovations and breakthroughs, and use the laws of art to reflect the founding ceremony of the Republic, which has epoch-making significance.
In the process of submitting this work for review, there were two different opinions, and finally when the leader of the film saw Chairman Mao shouting "Long live the people" on the screen, the soldiers flipped over and down in the stacked ceremonial flowers, and the theme music was pushed up layer by layer, and Li Qiankuan slapped it three times on his hand. Li Qiankuan said: "In this way, I have a bottom in my heart." ”
After the movie, someone stood up and said, "Good! It's too realistic. The leader of the film also said: "This film is well filmed, and this director is very smart!" With the documentary and the film he made, true and false, fake and true, I don't know which is true and which is false. This director is very powerful! He made the film into a documentary effect, and I learned a lot from him. ”
"The Founding Ceremony" allows the husband and wife file to enter the golden period of creation
Li Qiankuan's wife, Xiao Guiyun, was born in Harbin in 1941 and graduated from the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1965 and entered long film. Li Qiankuan studied film art, and Xiao Guiyun was the real director. In 1982, the couple began to collaborate on a co-directed "General Sabre". Since then, movies have been their lives, and their lives have mainly revolved around movies.
After the "Founding Ceremony", the couple planned "After the Decisive Battle", which was adapted from the long reportage "The General's Decisive Battle Will Not Stop at the Battlefield" by Huang Jiren, chairman of the Chongqing Writers Association. Western Film has been selecting directors in the country for many years, just when "The Founding Ceremony" was released, and decided to give the directorship to Li Qiankuan.
Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun once said: "Since the beginning of the class, mankind has had wars, and when there have been wars, there have been war criminals, and this has been the case in ancient and modern times, and the same is true at home and abroad." How the victors of the war treated the prisoners of the order was a major issue of universal significance. In the history of modern China, the actions of the Chinese Communists in how to deal with the representatives of the hostile class military clique have undoubtedly written a shining page in the history of human warfare. ...... Huang Jiren's long-form reportage "The General's Decisive Battle Is Not Over the Battlefield" mainly depicts the reformed life of a large number of high-ranking Kuomintang war criminals captured by us during the Liberation War in the prisons of New China. The movie "After the Decisive Battle" is based on the original work, and the mentality of dozens of real historical figures such as Du Yuming, Huang Wei, and Qiu Xingxiang from being forcibly transformed to consciously transforming is truly and profoundly displayed. ...... This is a decisive battle to transform the soul after the war, the battlefield is smokeless, but it is extremely fierce. Bringing this subject to the screen is a very difficult task. ”
The environment of "After the Decisive Battle" is limited to a very enclosed space such as "prison", and there is not a single woman in the "character" group, but a group of war criminals wearing the same prison uniform, and everyone sits there and is reformed. How can I take a good picture? Li Qiankuan said: "Those years were the peak period of my lover's and my lover's creation, one play a year. She was doing this film in the post-production, and I started shooting the next film. ”
As early as 1988, Li Qiankuan was preparing to shoot "Chongqing Negotiations", and as a result, he collided with the Emei Film Studio. The two sides fought the lawsuit to Beijing, and a leader said: "This is a matter of Sichuan, let Emei Factory shoot it." Li Qiankuan had to stop.
After filming "The Founding Ceremony" and "After the Decisive Battle", the film of Emei Factory has not yet been made. Relevant parties decided: "The "Chongqing Negotiations" was also filmed by Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun. After that, Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun also directed "The July 7 Incident".
In 1996, Li Qiankuan and his wife filmed "Red Hijab", the film story is a love tragedy that takes place in Shandong. In this film, Li Qiankuan uses Wu Bixia, who is still reading. Li Qiankuan recalled: "Entering the recording studio, the child opened his mouth, his voice was too good, pure and transparent, pure without a single flaw, this sound made me impressed." ”
In 1998, Mr. and Mrs. Li Qiankuan accepted the invitation of Hubei Film Studio to accept the task of directing the industrial wide-screen film "Dream of the Century", which reflected the Three Gorges Project. Li Qiankuan, a northeastern desperate sanlang, in the absence of a script and the crew has not yet been formed, took five cameras to the Hubei Three Gorges Project site to experience life and shoot pictures. Because of the construction scene of the Three Gorges Project, if you wait for the script to be completed and then re-set up the shooting, it will cause huge waste.
Many years later, when Shi Wanchun learned the news of Li Qiankuan's death, he told reporters: "I have known Li Qiankuan and Xiao Guiyun and the husband and wife director for a long time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, when "Qingsongling" was revised, director Liu Guoquan had the couple participate in the creation as assistants. Since then, we have forged an indissoluble relationship in art. Since then, we have cooperated in more than a dozen films such as "Founding Ceremony", "Chongqing Negotiations", "After the Decisive Battle", and "July 7 Incident". Qiankuan, whether his character or art is very close to me, his death hit me very hard, for several days, friends, peers, students kept texting to inquire about this matter, every time I was very painful to tell them, Qiankuan is indeed gone, indeed gone..."
Li Qiankuan is a passionate, life-loving person who loves the earth. In 1992, he gave his voice in the film "Chongqing Negotiations" directed by himself - when Chairman Mao flew away from Yan'an, an old man who herded sheep, "Xintianyou", became the absolute sound left by Li Qiankuan to the world: "The pagoda on Pagoda Mountain is connected to the blue sky, and Chairman Mao and the people in our mountains are connected by hearts..."
Courtesy photo/ Courtesy of Li Qiankuan before his death