On June 27, 2020, in "Eternal Life in the Fire", Jiang Jie played the role of performance artist Yu Lan died. The recently released documentary "Actor" became the last work of her life. In the film, her role is herself.
The camera slowly shakes over the Xiaoyue River, which Lan used to walk before she died, and a thin and weak figure stands at the head of the bridge, and the breeze blows her trademark white hair. This is the last screen image she left for the audience, and she solemnly bids farewell to the filmmakers of this world and all the audiences who love her with a calm and elegant attitude.
Pan Yilin, the director of "Actor", remembers that near the end of the first day of shooting for Lan, he asked her what her current wishes were. She replied crisply: I was quietly waiting for death to come.
Therefore, when she learned the news of Yu Lan's death, Pan Yilin did not feel particularly sad: "I know that she is going to heaven to meet her lover Tian Fang, who has walked for decades, and she has also completed all the missions of life." ”
In 2014, Pan Yilin hosted the program "Flowing Golden Years" for eighteen years and stopped broadcasting. This is a program that promotes and guides the classics of Chinese film history, and usually invites the film's creators to reunite and review with the audience the little-known behind-the-scenes stories. After the program was suspended, Pan Yilin's contact with the old actors at the working level was abruptly stopped. A year later, he saw these artists on various occasions and found that they were getting older.
Pan Yilin decided to do something. To give back to these elderly people who are getting older. "If 'Golden Years' carries more memories, then when I see them again in that moment, I want to record their moments, and the best way is through movies. I want to keep their current images on the big screen for a long time, because they are filmmakers. ”
In the past five years, Pan Yilin completed the filming of "Actor". The protagonist of the film is a star of the early years of New China, including Yu Lan. In 1961, Zhou Enlai proposed the selection of his own stars in the Chinese film industry, and finally identified 22 people, including Zhao Dan, Bai Yang, Zhang Ruifang, Shangguan Yunzhu, Sun Daolin, Qin Yi, Wang Danfeng, Xie Tian, Cui Wei, Chen Qiang, Zhang Ping, Yu Lan, Yu Yang, Xie Fang, Li Yalin, Zhang Yuan, Pang Xueqin, Jin Di, Tian Hua, Wang Xingang, Wang Xiaotang, Zhu Xijuan, etc., who were named "New Chinese Actors", commonly known as "Twenty-two Movie Stars".
Through interviews with "Twenty-two Movie Stars" Yu Lan, Qin Yi, Tian Hua, Yu Yang, Jin Di, Xie Fang, Wang Xiaotang, Zhu Xijuan and other outstanding actors Niu Ben, Zhang Liang and other outstanding actors, the film "Actors" looks back at the initial hardships and glory of new Chinese films, and also records their simple lives and rich spiritual world in their later years.
The memories of these actors are also a review of the film creation process in the early days of New China, and those who have really witnessed life and death and deeply experienced the life of the characters have shaken today's audiences. Sixty-five years ago, the film "Shangganling" with the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea caused a fierce response, and the theme song "My Motherland" became an immortal melody. Revisiting this film, which was born in the early days of the founding of New China, will still be infected by its true portrayal of the military crowd and the national spirit it shows. In "Actor", the memories of "Shangganling" actors Zhang Liang and Zhang Jianyou are tear-inducing.
Three years after the war, the film crew of "Shangganling" arrived at the original site for filming. Zhang Liang remembered that In April, North Korea was very beautiful, full of Jindalai flowers, and when they climbed several mountains to reach the Shangganling area, everyone was shocked. "The mountain was split, not a single rock intact, not a single tree coming back to life. Because the five square kilometers of land in wartime had to withstand tens of thousands of shells every day. Zhang Jianyou recalled that during the filming, military adviser Zhao Maochen followed the whole process, he was one of the three soldiers who insisted on returning alive for twenty-four days, and when talking about this detail, Zhang Jianyou choked up at one point and could not hide his excitement: "We went down to that tunnel, and we were indeed very moved." It is true that we are not acting with the skills of actors, but with our hearts. ”
History and the times have chosen them, and they have composed the history of light and shadow with enthusiasm in their own different ways in the youth of life, and in the long years of their lives, they have demanded their virtues as literary and artistic workers, and have the same enthusiasm and reverence for their profession. Zhu Xijuan, played by Wu Qionghua in "The Red Detachment of Women", recalled that the first lesson they attended that year was the morality of the actors: "Don't love yourself, but love the art of performing." As the opera predecessors said, being innocent and acting seriously is probably the motto of our generation of actors. ”
In "Actor", the classic characters that shone half a century ago and the image of twilight but calmly reflected, forming a retrospective of the peak of new Chinese film creation. Those classic screen images, although with a distinct brand of the times, have not lost their luster because of the passage of time, and those steaming characters who come from life convey the uplifting spiritual temperament that belongs to that era and remain in the hearts of the audience.
Today, these actors are gradually disappearing from the public eye, different from the world. But when the classic characters they portray reappear on the big screen, they will see their youthful faces. "They were so handsome, so vibrant, so beautiful, so magnificent." Pan Yilin said. At the moment when they become more and more old day by day, the whole presents a well-trained and calm posture. In Pan Yilin's view, this is because they have a love in their hearts, and this love makes them fearless.
Interview with "Actor" director Pan Yilin: They are not acting with technology, they are careful
CBN: Is the sophistication and calmness shown by these old actors in their later years related to the profession of actors they are engaged in?
Pan Yilin: Actors, or movie stars, they first think of themselves as literary and artistic workers, artists of the people. Perhaps because of such a sense of mission, they will unconsciously be more strict with themselves. In a holistic form, they tell us that the original ninety years old can still be like this, as long as there is love in the heart, then the heart is fearless, and life is calm and calm. In Qin Yi's autobiography, she said that she just wanted to die in front of the camera, and when the 96-year-old was recuperating in the hospital due to a fracture, the script was still on the bedside, and she loved acting so much. Yu Yang's legs and feet have been very inconvenient in the past two years, but he is still watching movies through television, understanding the development of literature and art and movies, and still caring for his younger generations. For movies, they really poured their lives into it.
CBN: Is their love for film art also created by the times?
Pan Yilin: They embarked on the path of art, and each one is different. When Yu Lan went to Yan'an, because she could speak Mandarin, others asked her to shoot dramas, she refused at first, saying that I had come to study, to participate in the revolution, but fate and history chose her; Qin Yi was born in Shikumen Lane in Shanghai, and Shanghai was a place where the Chinese film industry developed very well, she embarked on the road of art, she was the four famous people in the drama industry in Chongqing, and became an actor in New China after the founding of New China; Tian Hua joined the army at the age of twelve or thirteen, came from a poor background, looked simple, and starred as a white-haired woman when she was 21 years old. Since then, she has been loved by the people of the whole country, and later acted in "Daughter of the Party", which is the sense of mission brought to her by her real experience.
When the fate of the times came to them, they seized such an opportunity. Whether at that time or in the long years to come, I never dared to take it lightly, and I always had a reverence for the performance career and the literary and artistic career. This sense of mission, responsibility and professionalism will be particularly evident in their generation of actors.
CBN: How do we evaluate the artistic value of the films born in the 1950s and 1960s and the performances of the actors today?
Pan Yilin: I chose the passages of those classic films. In "Song of Youth", The clip of Lin Hong, played by Qin Yi, calmly and righteously crushed many current domestic and foreign films. It is no exaggeration to say that its shooting methods, artistic achievements, aesthetic values, and performance systems can still shock us today when they appear on the big screen.
When I edit these footage in the computer room, I feel very emotional. It turns out that our films have reached such heights in the fifties and sixties of the last century. When I revisit these classic pieces, my eyes still red from time to time. This is the charm of the movie, and it is also the charm of the actor's performance.
CBN: In the case of relatively backward technology and conditions at that time, why was it possible to give birth to works with such a long vitality?
Pan Yilin: China has never lacked film talents. The main components of new Chinese cinema are partly from the Shanghai film era, and at the same time, the film system represented by changchun film studio, the cradle of people's films, is also relatively sound.
The times have changed every performer, they have a good performance foundation, and when the new era comes, they are also well integrated into the new society. At that time, as an important cultural way of life, film was highly valued. The actor has a sense of awe for the profession. Having faith in your heart to perform, just to survive or to make money to act, may be different.
At that time, China's film production was very small, and they all cherished film very much. If you say that you have NG, you will inadvertently destroy the film, let the national property suffer, and the actor will have great pressure in the performance, so you must be dedicated, you must be prepared, otherwise you will be blamed. There are too many NGs, and the whole film crew, including the workers, will look at you differently.
Now in the digital age, it doesn't matter if you come over and over again. Some old artists and photographers especially miss the film era, and they like to hear the sound of the film turning after the director shouts to start, but that era has passed. So in the film, we specially left a film turning sound to pay tribute to time, to film, to the film.
CBN: Several actors invariably mentioned that they want to experience life and ask for truth.
Pan Yilin: Actually, they don't think that experiencing life is a great thing, and they even experience life when they are fine, in case he is going to shoot some kind of scene one day in the future. Teacher Jindi said that if you want to act and then experience it, you feel that it is too late. She works at the Changchun Film Studio. At that time, the actors would be arranged to go to various places to do experiences, go to factories, go to the countryside, and go to the forest farm. This is also unique to that era. At that time, the number of films produced in the country every year could still be counted, and everyone who got a role would be very happy, cherished, and dedicated.
The two actors of "Shangganling", whether it is Zhang Liang or Zhang Jianyou, their roles in the film are really only a few minutes. The character played by Zhang Jianyou does not even have a name, but is called a walking crew. But he said he had no regrets and was honored to have participated in the filming of such a film for the rest of his life. Although he later changed careers and did not become an actor again, the years of filming are vividly remembered. Compared with those heroes, those people are dead, they are sacrificed, and the kind of performance that really experiences life and death is not the same, which is also his famous saying, we are not acting with technology, we are acting with our hearts.