The Paper's reporter Chen Chen
On October 10th, the 4th Pingyao International Film Festival opened at the Pingyao Film Palace in the ancient city of Pingyao in Jinzhong, Shanxi, where people who love movies gather in Pingyao to share a feast of light and shadow. On the night of the opening ceremony, the Pingyao International Film Festival awarded Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang the honor of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon East-West Exchange Contribution". Jia Zhangke, Diao Yinan, Zhang Yibai, Cheng Er, and Wan Ma Caidan, five important Mesozoic directors of current Chinese films, jointly awarded honors to director Tian Zhuangzhuang, and the audience stood up and applauded.
Jia Zhangke, Diao Yinan, Zhang Yibai, Cheng Er, and Wan Ma Caidan jointly awarded honors to director Tian Zhuangzhuang
"I think it may be the movie that gave me an idea of a lot of things and then let me know what to do in my lifetime." Receiving the trophy, Tian Zhuangzhuang said.
Tian Zhuangzhuang, who is about to turn 70, is still shooting films that interest him, and his new work "Birdsong" is already in the later stages, and he has also acted in movies over the years; he has contributed moving performances in films such as "Love and Affection" and "Later Us"; at the same time, he is also an important promoter behind the scenes of the current youth film creation, including "Over Spring" and "My Heart Is Excited" and other young director works that have emerged in major film festivals in recent years are also produced by Tian Zhuangzhuang. "I think this award is a reminder to me that maybe [I'm] really old, but I still have to bow down for the movie."
This year's Pingyao International Film Festival also held a course for Tian Zhuangzhuang's teacher class and a screening of the restored version of "Spring in a Small Town".
Tian Zhuangzhuang
"Small town" is spring again, Tian Zhuangzhuang recalls breaking the "ten years of silence"
On the morning of October 10th, the 4th Pingyao International Film Festival held the Tian Zhuang Zhuang Division Class - "Small Town and Spring Again" in the "Spring of a Small Town", which opened the first academic sharing day for filmmakers of this year's Pingyao International Film Festival. When "Spring in a Small Town" meets "Spring in a Small Town", film and academic dialogue meet the film hall, leading to more behind-the-scenes stories. On October 11, a restored version of "Spring in a Small Town" directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang was screened at the "Spring in a Small Town" theater at the Pingyao Film Palace, and Jia Zhangke, the founder of the Pingyao Film Festival, called it a "dialogue between two generations of Chinese film masters" and a "dream-fulfilling moment".
"This theater is named after Director Fei Mu's famous work, "Spring in a Small Town" in 1948, which is a peak in the history of Chinese film aesthetics. After many years, director Tian Zhuangzhuang remade "Spring in a Small Town" and also won the grand prize of the Venice International Film Festival that year, which can be said to have two aesthetic peaks of "Spring in a Small Town" in the history of Chinese cinema. Jia Zhangke said, "Indeed, after seven or eight months of the epidemic, we need to take such a care of each other, we need to get a kind of film power from the previous directors, director Tian has injected creativity into Chinese films since he started his career, injected fresh perspectives into world films, and promoted the film industry in all directions. ”
Poster of Spring in a Small Town
"Spring in a Small Town" is Tian Zhuangzhuang's work of breaking the silence after ten years of "silence", and the director also re-reviews the mental journey of the classic masterpiece of director Fei Mu who "depicted red" through this screening. "I didn't really want to make a movie at the time, and I felt as if I was a little out of place with the big movie world." Although I have been thinking of making "Wu Qingyuan" in the past ten years, because I have collected materials from Japan and waited for many years for translation preparations, "idle and have nothing to do, I have a whim, find out all the old Chinese films from the thirties, and watch it when there is nothing to do." When I saw the third time of "Spring in a Small Town", Tian Zhuangzhuang suddenly felt that "it is particularly sad, it may be the influence of the millennium on me." The more modern and developed people are, the greater the sense of alienation. Maybe that's why, after I finished watching something like Spring in a Small Town, which was full of emotion and etiquette, the emotion between the two men suddenly really touched me. ”
Tian Zhuangzhuang is full of awe for the works of the previous masters, "This movie is so good, I really want to paint the red mold again, I haven't made a movie for ten years, especially want to make a movie that is particularly calm and has a special surge in the heart, and it is very difficult to control the stability." Being able to make a film in peace is important to me, and it makes me sure I might be able to come back and make a movie again. ”
The scene of the event
Today's young directors have some "embarrassment" and hope to have a relatively free and academic theater line
In the master class on the first day of the film festival, director Tian Zhuangzhuang and director Jia Zhangke had a dialogue, he shared his experience from film over the years, from "The Hunting Ground Zasa" and "Horse Thieves" to "Wu Qingyuan" and "Wolf Disaster", detailing the behind-the-scenes stories of the production of many other films, and sharing the production progress of the new work "Birdsong", the humble and sincere attitude caused a round of applause at the scene.
Tian Zhuangzhuang, who came to the Pingyao International Film Festival for the first time, felt young and vitality, "This is my first time to come to the Pingyao International Film Festival, it is newly built on the basis of the original diesel engine plant, a place with special vitality, young people eager to create, eager for new spiritual pursuits, very cutting-edge." I am about to turn 70 years old, and I am getting farther and farther away from the movie, and I hope that Director Jia will continue to persevere, and I hope that I will have the opportunity to come every year. ”
Looking back on my shooting journey all the way from film to film, the opportunities and methods of each creation are different, but I have a consistent understanding and practice of film aesthetics. "I think that making a movie for me is to present it in the language of the film you want to express, the film method. Then you have to challenge yourself, I hope that each of my films is different, has its own special texture, temperament in it. But this kind of challenge is sometimes also a "luxury" for directors, Tian Zhuangzhuang joked to Jia Zhangke, "Old Jia, you are a professional director, I am an amateur director, and I have to live by salary." So I don't dare to make movies now, because movies are too expensive now, and if you want to make a movie that you especially want to make, in fact, you still have to take care of the audience and the market, and you will feel a little hesitant and a little overwhelmed. ”
Tian Zhuangzhuang has another identity over the years, as a professor in the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy. It is also because of this identity that he has always been closely related to the cultivation and support of young filmmakers. When asked about his views on the works of young directors at present, Tian Zhuangzhuang frankly said that today's young people are different from the sixth generation of directors such as Jia Zhangke and Wang Xiaoshuai, who he once helped, "Your generation can now clearly feel that your aesthetics and the overall process of film production are particularly clear." Now young directors I think sometimes make me a little hesitant, probably because the demand for the film market in recent years is too large, and the attitude of the film market to the film itself has penetrated into the film, so many young directors will have some embarrassment, some hesitation. ”
For the judging criteria for young directors, Tian Zhuangzhuang believes that "a good film problem is not the main thing, the part where you have the most power is good." Tian Zhuangzhuang said that some of the films made by young people, "may be very rough, there are a lot of burrs and imperfections." But his momentum, that kind of vigor and strength is particularly rare. ”
"All my time in the future may be helping young directors to be executive producers, or to do planning, I think it doesn't matter what to do, this film can be made, can be completed, can be liked by many people, and even can go to the world, I think this is the best kind of communication of China's culture today, the state of today's people." 」 Tian Zhuangzhuang said.
As the initiator of the academic activities of the Pingyao International Film Festival, Tian Zhuangzhuang also talked about his expectations and prospects for the "academic theater line". "I've always wanted to have another theater line, which is relatively free, academic, niche, maybe in every provincial capital or a city with good economic development, and put something that is not an entertainment movie all year round." In fact, movies should be rich, it should be so that movies can come to our lives, now we go to movie life, that is, I always say that many people now do not know movies, but know movie theaters. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang