The Paper's reporter Chen Chen
02:11
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Gong Li: Come to "Lyceum Theatre" and feel a pure movie. Video Editor Xue Song (02:11)
Lou Ye's new film "Lyceum Theatre" will be released on October 15. This film, which tells the story of Shanghai and was also filmed in Shanghai, returned to Shanghai on October 12 for its premiere. Director Lou Ye, producer and screenwriter Ma Yingli, and lead actors Gong Li, Zhao Youting, Wang Chuanjun, Huang Xiangli, etc. also reunited in the peace hotel, an important filming location in the film, to look back at the process of "dream-making" together.
"Lyceum Theatre" tells the story of the famous actress Yu Yan (Gong Li) who returned to Shanghai in 1941 to star in the drama "Saturday Novel" directed by her old love Tan Na (Zhao Youting), but it triggered the close attention of various forces to her movements... The film adopts a dual narrative, the stage space and the real space are interlaced, and the structure of the play and the intricate character relationships are fascinating.
Poster of "Lyceum Theatre"
The movie "Lyceum Theatre" is adapted from Hongying's novel "The Death of Shanghai" and Heng Guangli's novel "Shanghai". The film was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 76th Venice International Film Festival and the special screening unit of the 44th Toronto Film Festival.
Although Lou Ye's films have never lacked the strength of actors, it is undeniable that "Lyceum Theatre" is the one with the most "big-name" actors in Lou Ye's films. In addition to Chinese stars such as Gong Li and Zhao Youting, in order to restore the real language of the Shanghai Concession in that era, a number of powerful international superstars such as Oda Cejang, Pascal Gregory, Tom Rasziha and Nakajima Bu were specially invited to play on the same stage across languages, reproducing the real and complex individuals wrapped up in the big era. And the actors are also full of a sense of accomplishment when they talk about their experience working with a director who is unique in both aesthetic style and live style.
At the same time, compared with Lou Ye's past works, the film adds a large number of spy battles and action genre elements, but it continues Lou Ye's authorial expression style such as handheld photography and no soundtrack, and even makes Gong Li, who has watched the film several times, sigh, "Even for a moment, this is a feature film or a documentary, and the process of watching will follow the camera and actors into the big era." ”
Group photo of the creators of "Lyceum Theatre"
The actors play freely, and the camera is responsible for capturing
Every actor who has worked with Lou Ye will be impressed by his unique way of working. He gives enough space for actors to perform, often not saying dead lines according to the script, the camera follows the actor to become the eyes of the record, and can be extremely keen to capture the subtle state that the actor himself may not be aware of. "Freedom", almost every actor who has worked with Lou Ye will give an evaluation. Zhang Songwen, a "royal" actor who has cooperated with the director for four times, also mentioned earlier that in the shooting scene of Lou Ye's film, people from other departments cannot be seen, "only actors are acting."
Gong Li as Yu Yan
Yu Yan, played by Gong Li, is a big star in the film, and for such a character, Lou Ye hoped at the beginning of the casting, "She must be a real big star, not to play a big star." ”
Gong Li, who was described by Wang Chuanjun as "two meters and eight meters in aura", also fully released her aura and charm in the film. The dual identity attributes of actors and agents, and the plot structure design of the play-in-play, all give this powerful actress enough space to perform, even if the performance fragments of the exact same lines appear in different paragraphs of the movie, Gong Li gives a rich layer of interpretation.
When answering reporters' questions at the premiere ceremony in Shanghai on the same day, Gong Li introduced the role she played, "Yu Wei is strong on the outside, soft and lonely on the inside, and the director created this role for me, which I cherish." ”
Gong Li, Zhao Youting
Speaking of this cooperation, Gong Li frankly said that this is a very new cooperation model, "Our performance, from beginning to end, will be filmed in its entirety every time, the director told us before the start of filming, the entire room corridor is the actor's place, the camera is for the actor, you can play freely, you can give your own psychological state, want to speak or not speak, the camera to catch the moment, the actor is not to finish the line, this kind of performance is very enjoyable, a lot of performance methods, I did not have the opportunity to play in the past." ”
Zhao Youting, who described Lou Ye as "a director that every actor wants to cooperate with", revealed himself when recalling this cooperation experience, but in fact, he was very unconfident at the beginning. He plays a director in the movie, and occasionally substitutes Lou Ye into his own performance. "There is so much creative space at the same time, it is very enjoyable and challenging, as if in a desert, do not know which direction to go is right." 」 But with the shooting, Zhao Youting also summed up his experience, "After shooting, throw away the idea of going to the 'right direction' and accept what happens is beautiful." Understanding this point, I was like a fish in the water. ”
Zhao Youting as Tan Na
Later, the director portrayed by Zhao Youting directed himself on the spot, and he would also add his own drama to "scold the actor", "I know that I am quite annoying." Such a scene even makes Zhao Youting spend an hour quietly every day during the filming period when he returns to the room, "After going back, you will not remember what Zhao Youting did that day." ”
Lou Ye's unique directing method makes "Lyceum Theatre" have both the realism of life and the poetry of drama. For such a creative concept, Lou Ye said: "The on-site work of each film is to allow the actors to play as much as possible and use the camera to record very rare moments. So my work is in a high-stress situation, which is very technical work, and I have to make judgments very quickly on the spot to catch those moments. Lou Ye believes that "each film has the expression of the creators, production team, and actors, all the staff with the background of life at that time, recorded in the camera, and now looking back at the image can also see the actor's state and emotions at that time, and the film retains the memory of that moment." ”
The interesting thing about the film is that it offers a different perspective
"Lyceum Theatre" is a story rich in structure and form. In Shanghai in the early 1940s, the wind and clouds were intertwined, and the characters in the film also had their own perspectives. The exchange scene actors also revealed that Lou Ye once let each of them imagine the ending of a story.
Zhao Youting was very excited when he received this lesson, "The director was exploring various possibilities while filming. I really thought about several endings, some very flying, some virtual and some real, and I think there should be my contribution in the ending now. ”
For such a special request, Lou Ye explained, "At that time, I said this in the hope that everyone would make a vision of the ending from the perspective of the characters, which is also a very important part of the film, because it is a film that starts from the perspective of each character, rather than a macroscopic perspective to see the whole event." The ending now is very much influenced by them. There is no footage in the film, and it also provides great support for the current movie. ”
Stills from "Lyceum Theatre"
For the design of the entire story that makes great use of the drama structure within the play, screenwriter Ma Yingli talked about the challenges of the play, "The fun of this film in space and time, and the complexity of the story are the reasons why we chose to shoot this project. Its special feature is that in the play outside the play, on stage and down to structure a story, but also the restoration era, the greater the difficulty here, the more addictive, although there are not many space scenes, it is not easy to find a logical relationship between space and characters. ”
The film is based on history, giving a romantic imagination, Lou Ye followed "Purple Butterfly" to shoot a period film again, he believes, "can provide a different perspective, a different presentation, a different historical attitude, this is the film is interesting, I personally think that the more these perspectives, the richer the better." Now that different perspectives are presented less and less, I hope that everyone can accept different perspectives and draw their own conclusions. ”
Another special feature of the film is the treatment of the black and white tone, which is also the ulterior motive of the creator. The old Shanghai where the story takes place often appears in film and television works with the style of the ten mile ocean field with red wine and greenery, and "Lyceum Grand Theatre" abandons color and tries to lead the audience into the inner state of the people of that era.
"When we think that the beach in the old days was colorful, gorgeous, and bright, these impressions are actually instilled from past film and television works and posters. Because of this, we don't want people to fall into too symbolic and fixed stereotypes when they think of that era, and want to escape this impression and return to every detail. Ma Yingli said.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe