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Jacques Behan – Let the dream fly a little longer
March 2, 2002, is the day of the César Awards ceremony for French cinema. The name César Awards may be unfamiliar to Chinese audiences, but its importance in the world of cinema is extraordinary.
You know, the movie thing was born in France, and France is also a country that has given birth to countless film masters. The César Award is the highest honor in the French film industry, known as the "French Oscar".
At the César Awards ceremony the previous year, Chinese director Wong Kar-wai won the CÉSAR Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his film "Fancy Years". We will not dwell on the Praise and Love of the French for Wong Kar-wai here, because our protagonist this time is not him.
The story we're going to tell today is about this year's César Award for Best Emerging Director.
When it comes to the word cutting-edge, we may naturally think of it: young and energetic. For example, Damien Chazere, who just won the Oscar for best director for the film "Philharmonic City" this year. A 32-year-old young director, very much in line with the word new.
However, at the 2002 César Awards in France, the best new director was awarded to a white-haired old man.
When we associate white hair with cutting-edge, a series of associations may come to mind. Maybe it's about dreams, maybe it's about pursuit, or maybe it's about persistence. Is this another story like the big director Ang Lee who has been silent for many years but finally made his dream come true?
The protagonist of our story is him, Jacques Behan. Born on July 13, 1941 in Paris, France. However, at this time, he is not an unknown person, but an actor who has become famous all over the world, a fruitful filmmaker.
In 2002, Jacques Behan was named César Award for Best New Director that year for his documentary film Migrating Birds.
At that time, the new director who took the stage to receive the award was already an old man with silver hair and old flower armor. This year, Jacques Behan was 61 years old.
The film "Migrating Birds" caused a sensation in France. In just three weeks of its release, more than 2.5 million French people went to theaters, and it became popular in Europe, the United States and Japan. And this film is not only loved by the audience, but also unanimously recognized in the film industry. In 2001, Jacques Behan appeared in Cannes with a documentary he had just produced. Although the industry had already given Jacques Behan high expectations for this documentary at that time, his achievements still surprised everyone. The documentary "Migrating Birds" broke the record number of documentary awards at the Cannes Film Festival, a feat that brought Jacques Behan to the pinnacle of honor. The following year's César Awards for French cinema were further recognized by the industry.
At the beginning of the documentary, there is a saying that the migration of birds is a story of commitment, a promise of return. Through the lens, Jacques Behan constructed a lyric poem about flight with the poetic feeling of "dream", combined with the life habits of birds such as foraging, courtship, and migration.
And from this poetic film, can we find Jacques Behan's commitment to himself?
There is a saying in the film industry that what a director chooses to shoot in his first work often represents the strongest desire to talk in his heart.
And Jacques Behan chose his first feature film as "Migrating Birds", which undoubtedly represents his yearning for the sky and freedom in his heart.
In this documentary, Jacques Behan is a writer, director and producer. And this highest-grossing documentary in the history of cinema, this documentary that holds the dream of director Jacques Behan, did not go well during the production period, and even nearly aborted.
In order to truly show the life habits of birds, Jacques Behan set up a large-scale film crew with more than 600 people participating in the filming, including 15 professional pilots and a professional scientific expedition. The entire documentary took more than 3 years to shoot and cost more than $40 million. The film crew and the birds endured countless hardships, from the South Pole to the Arctic, across five continents, through more than 50 countries, and in 175 locations. With an investment of more than $40 million, it ranked second in the amount of investment in the films produced in France that year. It is such a huge investment that allows the audience to get so close to the birds soaring in the sky.
After the filming of the film, Jacques Behan made a statistic that in order to shoot the documentary, the entire crew used more than 460 kilometers of film. What is the concept of this number?
Generally speaking, the film used for shooting documentaries is 16 mm film, which requires about 11 meters of film for one minute. We did a quick calculation that "Migratory Birds" shot almost 700 hours of footage over a three-plus filming cycle.
And how long is this film that ends up being edited? 98 minutes.
But the sheer volume of footage alone wasn't jacques Behan's biggest difficulty. I don't know if you've ever taken a picture of a small animal or your own pet in front of the TV. It is estimated that friends who have taken pictures know that even if they want to take a satisfactory photo, they have to work hard.
There is no doubt that Migrating Birds redefines the standard of "getting real" in the world's top documentaries. It featured 17 of the world's finest pilots and two professional scientific expeditions. It is with the support of this spirit of excellence that "Migratory Birds" perfectly records the feats of life. The giant swan who flies over 1200 kilometers insists on life, the sand dune crane who seeks a way out in the wind and sand, and the penguin that fights the crows to the end under the ice and snow. Although there are also failure discouragement in the film, there are also wooden brains on the edge of the cliff, and there are also peeps from human greed, what is finally presented to the audience is the magnificence of life, the dream of flying, and the small and broad power of nature.
In the film, we can often see such a shot, birds flying next to the camera, as if they can touch them as soon as they reach out. You may find it strange, how can these birds not be afraid of people?
According to Jacques Behan in a later interview, they were filmed at a distance of only 1 meter from the bird in flight. In order to achieve this effect, in order to capture the bird migration process at a closer range, the film crew even needed to start cultivating bird eggs to reduce their fear of machines and humans.
In order to achieve the best shooting results, the film crew used all the heavenly equipment they could find and prepared everything they could think of. Despite this, the progress of the shooting is still very worrying. Because people and birds are obviously unable to communicate, it is impossible to control when birds take off and where they fly. Sometimes even photographers have just taken off on a glider, and before they can start photographing birds, they suddenly begin to descend and prepare to land. Unexpected situations often frustrated Jacques Behan.
During the filming of Migrating Birds, there was a scene that Jacques Behan will never forget. In order to shoot the footage of migratory birds flying over the ocean during migration, Jacques Behan won the consent of the French Navy through many efforts, and borrowed a large boat from the Navy for use in the sea shooting.
The ship was 120 meters long and was a warship. Jacques Behan and his crew had just put all the birdcages, shooting equipment, and so on, when curious naval officers and men came up and asked, "What are you going to do?"
After the warship left the harbor, it looked almost at a distance. The film crew opened all the bird cages that were brought to the boat. At first, the birds were a little frightened and did not dare to come out. But with the encouragement of the breeders, they gradually flew out of the bird cage.
In this way, the warships sped forward at sea, and the birds that flew around the warships were lined up in a glyph, flying on both sides of the ship. It was as if the warship had also become a bird, as if they were flying together.
In the face of such a scene, the language will seem a little pale. And in the process of filming, these birds brought to Jacques Behan's touch, and there are many more.
In the movie "Migrating Birds", the lives of as many as 30 different birds are recorded. In addition to the migratory birds raised by the film crew themselves, they also needed to go to various bird habitats around the world to shoot in the field. The hard work of shooting in the wild is self-evident, and the film crew is not only facing the hardships of shooting conditions. In order to be able to capture more realistic shots, they had to learn how to get along with birds, often lying on the ground for hours. At the same time, they must ensure that they will not disturb the lives of the birds and absolutely avoid harm to wild birds. To protect wild birds, Jacques Behan set a near-harsh rule for the film crew: Whenever someone is found to have disrespected or even abused animals, he must leave.
From an honor point of view, "Migrating Birds" has undoubtedly been a great success, but we must know that filmmaking as a commercial act has another dimension: revenue. At the very least, the costs need to be recovered. Unfortunately, documentary films are often the most difficult category to recover costs.
After the release of "Migrating Birds", almost every interview with the media Jacques Behan will be asked this question: Can the cost of such a huge investment be recovered?
In the face of such a question, Jacques Behan would always be silent for half a moment, and then firmly replied: "It is more difficult to recover the cost than you think." Using film film to film and record the life and survival of birds is inconceivable to ordinary people. But I came to shoot it out of interest, it's not an industrialized product, it's a dream of fulfilling my childhood, my dream of flying. Do you think people's dreams are expensive? It is definitely expensive. ”
Dream, speaking of the word may be a trance for everyone. This kind of initial desire that we had as children under the stars, in the fields to face the unknown world, is almost the most beautiful memory in everyone's heart.
Jacques Behan, on the other hand, never forgot his dream for a moment, and he practiced his dream step by step. There may be some misdirections on the way, but his childhood dream has always been like the North Star hanging high in the dark night sky, guiding him all the way.
So where did his dream come from?
Probably many Chinese audiences have known Jacques Behan from this film, which tells the story of a young boy and a film projectionist, who develop a sense of mentorship and friendship.
The little boy's dream is to grow up to be a film projectionist, but many years later, he became a film director by mistake.
In this film, Jacques Behan plays the director who grew up with the little boy. But what you may not know is that the story depicted in this film is also very similar to the experience of Jacques Behan himself, but slightly different from the little boy in the movie, his childhood was spent in a theater.
50 years ago, Jacques Behan's father was a stage supervisor at the French National Theatre, while his mother was an actress. In order to facilitate the care of their sons, but also to let their sons feel the breath of art, parents often brought Jacques Behan to the place where they worked. The theatre in Paris was the beginning of his theatrical career. To this day, every time he returns here, Jacques Behan recalls the lively scene of the theater. The colorful costumes in the dressing room, the bustling crowds in the theater corridors, and the thousands of performances on the theater stage have left a profound impact on him. In an interview with a reporter, Jacques Behan said: "For me, the study of theater performance is not the most important, my love of acting comes from my family, when I was a child, my mother often read me poems and plays, so I was full of interest in theater from an early age.
It was the fondest memory of Jacques Behan's childhood, however, it didn't last long, and at the age of six, Jacques Behan was sent to a boarding school.
At that time, shortly after the end of World War II, France was devastated after the invasion of Nazi Germany, and all kinds of living materials were extremely scarce. In order to enable their children to grow up healthily, many parents choose to send their children to boarding schools, because there, their children can eat more than they can stay at home.
Voice-over: Years later, Jacques Behan plays a musician from boarding school in the film Spring of the Cattle Herding Class, a role that bears many resemblance to Jacques Behan's childhood, and in this film, in addition to Jacques Behan's own role, there is also a small actor who is also very special.
In the film, Jacques Behan's character is associated with music because of boarding school, and in real life, Jacques Behan's film career also begins with boarding school.
When recalling this childhood past, the white-haired old man's tone was full of pride, and a smile would appear on his face from time to time. After graduating from boarding school, Behan did not enter the university because of his poor grades, but went straight into society.
But at the age of 14, he obviously had no plans for the future, and he tried many careers without understanding, and in the end, he chose his childhood dream and became a theater actor.
In a small theater in Paris, Jacques Behan starred in a play that recorded more than 400 performances. During one performance, Italian director Valerio Surini happened to sit in the audience, and he was impressed by Jacques Behan's acting skills. Soon after, Sorini invited the young man to star in his love movie "The Girl with the Suitcase". After the film's release, overnight, Jacques Behan became a household name. Film actor, also became his profession.
Soon, Jacques Behan ushered in the first peak of his acting career, in the movie "Half a Man", he played the male lead. The film was a huge success, and Jacques Behan also won the Golden Lion Award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his outstanding performance in the film. This year, he was just 25 years old.
On the way back to Paris from Venice, Jacques Behan encountered a trouble. Although he became a movie emperor, Jacques Behan's income at that time was not high at all. So after winning the prize, he had to take a hard-seat train from Venice to Paris.
In the carriage, his trophy for best actor was too big to fit in the suitcase, so he had to hold it in his hand. People in the same car have never seen such a trophy, nor will they think that there is a movie emperor sitting next to him, and they think that he has just won the football World Cup, and they applaud him.
Jacques Behan couldn't explain it either, but smiled helplessly and then had to wave his thanks to the people in the car.
After winning the venice award, jacques Behan and Alain Deron were called the most famous actors in France. Unlike Alain Deron's handsomeness, the young Jacques Behan's slightly curly blond hair and innocent and childish smile made him a popular icon.
But jacques Behan didn't care much about the title of movie emperor, and he rarely even talked about the experience.
In 1970, at the age of 29, Jacques Behan's acting career was in full swing. He suddenly made the amazing decision to say goodbye to acting and become a filmmaker.
Jacques Behan's decision caused an uproar in France, and as one of the most popular actors in France at the time, his retirement made countless fans regret it. But for Jacques Behan himself, this change of career seemed to him to be extraordinary. And the motivation for changing careers seems to be very simple, he feels that there are many movie genres that no one has to shoot, so he plans to try it himself to realize some of his dream movies. Through his life experience, it is not difficult to see that Jacques Behan has been trying to expand the extension of his life, and he has never stuck himself to a certain job or an identity. As the saying is now very popular on the Internet: the world is big, he wants to go and see.
In 1970, Jacques Behan was preparing to cast his first film, Z. Just when he was excited to shake off his arms and do a big job, he ushered in a huge challenge.
At the time, the film's producers, distributors, and co-producers weren't optimistic about the project, and you might be a little confused about these terms, but you might understand it if we put it another way. Halfway through the film's preparation, all the investors withdrew.
The occurrence of this situation is undoubtedly a fatal blow for a movie. Especially at this time, Jacques Behan had just changed careers and had no experience in how to be a good producer. It is said that in this case, the average person may give up, after all, you can go back to being an actor.
However, Jacques Behan did not intend to give up, he raised funds again in a very short time, and with his own efforts, he made the film. Let's enjoy this monumental film together.
Z is the starting point of Jacques Behan's career as a filmmaker, but as you might not imagine, Jacques Behan's career as a producer is a bit scary. The following year, the film "Z" won two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Editing, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. Since then, Jacques Behan's production path has been out of control. In 1975, Jacques Behan's film "Special Zone" won the French Cinema Award. In the same year, he produced "Victory Song" and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again.
But the producer's profession was risky, and a subsequent error of judgment cost Jacques Behan enormous financial losses and even had to stop his work as a producer.
But just when everyone thought he was going to collapse, in 1995 Jacques Behan reappeared in the public eye, this time bringing a documentary.
In 1995, Jacques Behan attended the annual Cannes Film Festival as usual. But what he brought this time was indeed a documentary film. At the time, Hollywood commercial films were encroaching on the European box office, and French films were facing new choices. Some filmmakers chose to make commercial films, and Jacques Behan also faced a difficult transition.
After 20 years of grinding a sword, the emergence of "Microcosm" has brought endless shocks and new audiovisual enjoyment to the audience. The film uses extraordinary shooting techniques to lead us into the world of insects. One flower is one world, one leaf is one bodhi. In the world of insects, the smallest stones can also be turned into mountains, and the smallest puddles are as vast as the ocean. But even if they are small, they still live seriously. Unexpectedly, here, the usually "terrifying" bug gate shows a different kind of beauty. When you look closely at the world, you will find that the hair of the caterpillars turns out to be so smooth; the snails that snuggle up to each other are warm enough to earn tears; the hard-working shell langs are serious about dealing with their dung balls every day; the spiders will use a small bubble underwater as their own restaurant; and the celestial bulls are fighting each other like bulls. Through the lens, we are surprised to find that in the corners that we have not noticed, their world is so colorful. Jacques Behan's 20 years of hard work also paid off, and at that year's Cannes Film Festival, "Microcosm" won the Grand Jury Technical Award, and won five awards from Caesars for Best Producer, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound, making it the most awarded documentary in history.
After such a brilliant achievement, Jacques Behan once again made the decision to change careers. This time, he successfully crossed from a filmmaker to a documentary filmmaker. And what he is really known to fans all over the world is also this identity.
Six years later, Jacques Behan came to the Cannes Film Festival again with his work, and this time, what can he gain?
As you may have guessed, this time Jacques Behan brought the work of "Migrating Birds" that we talked about at the beginning of the story. The film broke jacques Behan's own record, winning six awards at the Festival de Cannes. Jacques Behan's path to directing, like that of his predecessors as an actor and producer, was particularly dazzling from the start.
Migrating Birds, along with Jacques Behan's other two documentary works, Microscopic And the Himalayas, became a trilogy of heaven and earth. Jacques Behan worked as a producer in the first two films, and by the time of "Migrating Birds", he was a director, screenwriter and producer. These three films have spread Jacques Behan's unique charm around the world. But like countless previous choices, success never stopped Jacques Behan. In 2011, Jacques Behan continued his nature documentary series and broke the record for the largest investment in his previous filming of Migrating Birds. "Ocean" took five years, cost 50 million euros, used 12 film crews, 70 ships, 50 filming locations around the world, more than 100 species were filmed, more than 500 hours of underwater world and ocean-related material. This is a heart-warming and breathtaking ecological documentary with the theme of environmental protection. The film focuses on the "Blue Territory" that covers three-quarters of the Earth's surface. The director deeply explores this deep and rich mysterious world, fully presenting the magnificent vastness of the ocean. The adventures of the real animal world are far more exciting than the stories in the cartoons.
The celebration of life may be the common voice of Jacques Behan's nature series. It is also the greatest miracle on our blue planet. What could be more intoxicating than witnessing a young life falling to the ground?
Whether this life is a small insect or a chick that has just broken out of its shell, they also breathe soft air and look at this magical and beautiful world with unworldly eyes.
Those who record the birth of life are happy because they touch the pulse of the earth. And Jacques Behan is probably the happiest of these people because what he's done is what he's always dreamed of.
For Chinese moviegoers, what we're going to talk about next is outright good news.
Invitation letter to the 7th Beijing Film Festival this year. This invitation was given to director Jacques Behan.
And according to the news given by the organizer of the film festival, Jacques Behan, a film master who won the Venice Film Emperor at the age of 6 and the Venetian Film Emperor at the age of 25, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film twice as a producer, and shocked film fans around the world with many masterpieces such as "Spring of the Cattle Herding Class", "Ocean" and "Migratory Birds", has accepted the invitation and will come to Beijing during the film festival from April 16 to April 23 this year.
This time, he brought with him his new work, The Four Seasons of the Earth. And this documentary will be the opening film of the documentary unit of the Beijing Film Festival to meet with the majority of film fans.
We can all hope for what kind of shock the legendary name of Jacques Behan will bring us this time.
Migrating Birds is a story of promise, a promise of return. Oceans is an eco-themed ecological documentary that focuses on the "blue" territory that covers three-quarters of the Earth's surface. "Four Seasons of the Earth" tells the story of the difference between the real life of animals and the natural habitat of human imagination in the 20,000-year-old primitive world of the earth.
In all three of these works, Jacques Behan proclaims the theme of environmental protection to mankind — when migratory birds are trapped in the quagmire of oil spills; when dolphins are trapped in fishing nets, sharks are cut off their fins and thrown into the sea, and polar bears can't find food; when small animals lose their forests, elk are helpless in the deforested forests, and even wolves have to hide in the mountains and never come out. Have human beings ever reflected on what they have done in the face of this situation? In "Four Seasons of the Earth", Jacques Behan no longer focuses on a region or a certain group, but uses the perspective of time flow to look at the changes in the entire animal living environment. In the first half, starting from the primitive world, the lush forest is a refuge and playground for animals, and animals run up and down, take trees as their home, and drink water from rivers, which is the golden age of animals. In the second half, with the passage of time, the progress of human society, human beings from relying on nature to thinking that they can defeat nature, and then really change nature. The animals became unlovable and displaced. Although the director will meaningfully condemn the destruction and pollution of the natural environment by human beings in each work, and the indifference to the destruction of ecological richness, this time it is more direct in "Four Seasons of the Earth".
Jacques Behan disagreed with the idea that the noble human emotions were deliberately projected into the natural world. "Instead, I always wonder, what can we learn from them?
For example, when we do something and have difficulties, we should think about birds. Humans are used to complaining and taking the time to say instead of doing, and birds never say anything, but they insist on flying. It seems to me that their persistence, their courage, their attachment to life, even higher than our humanity, is our arrogance that loses the opportunity to see it all.
The "Jacques Behanian" perspective that has remained the same for 20 years. In his shots, the tentacles of two worker ants can be full of affection, just as when they drag a grain of wheat that is several times larger than their own body, the footsteps are also sonorous; and the love brewed by the two bright red ladybugs is as sweet as honey, and the entanglement of two snails can be so compassionate. As for the father and son on the Himalayas, the moment their foreheads touched, the father's face was full of deep love, and in the arms of the beautiful Tibetan men and women, there was a love that was even more magnificent and holy than the snowy mountains.
Today, 75-year-old Jacques Behan still appears in full spirits. Because he has been filming in the harsh conditions of the wild for a long time, his legs and feet are no longer very flexible.
With Microcosm, Himalayas and Migratory Birds, documentary master Jacques Behan became famous around the world and gained a large number of loyal fans. Since then, he has persistently carried out the creation of nature series, and "Ocean" and "Four Seasons of the Earth" have expanded their creative fields to "heaven, earth, people, sea, time and space", forming a more complete and harmonious view of natural ecology. The five works are divided into five dimensions, covering Jacques Behan's in-depth thinking on the full range of natural ecology in horizontal and vertical coordinates. "Microscopic World" presents the magical world between millimeters with a delicate and unique perspective; "Himalayas" takes an indigenous caravan in the Nepalese plateau as the protagonist to tell the story of a village in the Himalayas; "Migrating Birds" brings the audience into thousands of migratory birds to experience the joy and hardship of flying together; "Ocean" uses 12 film crews and 50 shooting locations to shoot, including more than 100 species, showing a shocking marine wonder. As the finale of the "Man and Nature" five-part series, the filming of "Four Seasons of the Earth" lasted for 5 years, pushing this reflection on natural life to the peak.
Whenever someone asks him if he wants to continue making movies, his eyes will always flash with excitement, and he will decisively say that he still wants to shoot. However, due to physical reasons, nature movies can no longer be made, and "Four Seasons of the Earth" will be the finale of his nature movie series.
On April 16, 2017, the 7th Beijing International Film Festival has kicked off. The 7th Beijing International Film Festival will hold more than 300 activities including the "Temple of Heaven Award" award, the opening ceremony, the Beijing screening, the Beijing Planning • Theme Forum, the film market, the film carnival, the closing ceremony and the award ceremony, as well as the "Focus on the Future" unit, the documentary unit, the "Classic Peking Opera Film" unit, the online film unit, the film concert, the film salon and industry dialogue, and the release of new films. As the honorary chairman of the "Master Masterpiece Project" of the documentary unit, Jacques Behan will bring his new work "Four Seasons of the Earth" to the opening screening of the documentary unit, and hold the "Jacques Behan International Symposium on Natural Documentary Films" and a series of activities. For a respected film master like Jacques Behan, it is undoubtedly a fortunate thing to be able to communicate with him face to face. As an ordinary moviegoer, our only wish is that he can consistently adhere to his dreams and bring us more shock and enlightenment.
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