Stills from the movie Titanium (2021). (Infographic/Figure)
On October 22, 2021, the film "First Incense" adapted by the famous Chinese female director Xu Anhua based on Zhang Ailing's debut novel "Agarwood Crumbs • First Burning Incense" was officially released. In 2020, the 77th Venice International Film Festival awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Xu Anhua, who has been in film for more than 40 years to become the world's first female director to win the award.
Looking at the world film world, 2021 can be called the year when female directors shine. At the Cannes International Film Festival in July, French female director Giulia di Cuño won the Palme d'Or for her second film, Titanium, becoming the second female director to win the Palme d'Or after 1993's Jane Campion's Piano Lessons. In September, the female director once again shined at the Venice International Film Festival, with Audrey Divan winning the Golden Lion for Best Picture for "Happening" and Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog" winning the Silver Lion for Best Director. Immediately after, Romanian female director Alina Gregor also received good news, "Blue Moon" won the Golden Shell Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and Tia Lindbergh won the Silver Shell Award for Best Director for "You in Paradise". Female directors frequently spread good news at A-category film festivals, becoming a world film trend that cannot be underestimated, is this just some kind of political correctness at present, or does it represent the arrival of the era of female directors?
To answer this question, it is necessary to look at the film itself through the appearance of the female director's award, and look for the answer. "Titanium", which shines in Cannes and has a bipolar reputation, is a raw taste. From the film, you can't see the softness and delicacy of traditional female creators, similar to the heavy metal feeling of the title, more of a mixture of metal, engine oil, flame and blood. The heroine's rebellion comes directly and extremely, resisting all external shocks. Adapted from the autobiographical work of French writer Anne Aynow, "What's Happening" tells the story of Anne, who was a student in the 1960s, and was caused by the psychological and physical tests caused by abortion. In this story about abortion, the female director boldly uses handheld photography and documentary long shots to show the audience the reality of "happening". Blue Moon, about a young woman trying to escape from her mentally controlled rural family, was highlighted by the San Sebastian Film Festival jury as "an uncompromising commitment to cinematic language that explores the state of youth and women." In his acceptance speech, Director Gregor said: "On behalf of all my female colleagues, directors and producers, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have provided us with the opportunity to maximize the dissemination of our message. "You in Heaven" focuses on the day when Lisa was 14 years old at the end of the 19th century, when she became the woman in the family.
In summary, whether it is fierce confrontation or silent heartbreak, the struggles and pains that women may face around the world are truly perceived by judges and audiences under the lens of female directors. The accolades they receive represent at least one kind of concern.
In art films, female directors continue to explore the dilemma of survival and the troubles of growing up; in Hollywood's most concerned A-grade large-scale films, there are now a number of female directors. Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, Anna Bolton's Captain Marvel, Kate Sautlland's Black Widow, Yan Yuxi's Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn, and the unreleased Nia da Costa's Captain Marvel 2, as well as China's superhero, Nikki Carroll's 2020 live-action Mulan. It seems that Hollywood has formed a consensus to put movies about superheroes in the hands of female directors who really understand "them", even though the movies are not all satisfactory. When Catherine Bigelow defeated her ex-husband James Cameron's "Avatar" at the Oscars with "Bomb Disposal Unit", it may be a prediction: female directors will bid farewell to a single, fixed female film genre, war films, superhero movies and other types of previously exclusive male directors, and female directors can also be competent.
The camp of female directors is indispensable to the "actor crossover director" as a high-profile team, Angelina Jolie as early as 2011 filmed the directorial debut, the war romance "Land of Blood and Honey", and then completed The Biopic "Indestructible" by Zamperini. Natalie Portman's directorial debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness, is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by renowned author Amos Oz, who has confirmed that she has self-directed an untitled biopic that focuses on columnist twin sisters Abby Gayle Van Buren and Ayn Landers, who will also play the twin sisters. Greta Gerweger, who has twice been nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture with "Miss Bird" and "Little Women", is also a leader in crossover female directors, and "Miss Bird" has also won her an Oscar nomination for best director, from youth films to famous film adaptations, Gerweger has used independent growth themes and layered structures to annotate the film, and has set off a wide range of discussions.
"My Sister" director Yin Ruoxin has a calm understanding when looking at the rise of female directors. "In my opinion, this trend is due to a change in the way women directors are perceived and looked at. Female practitioners in directors have always been in the minority. Of course this is the case in many fields. This is a big structural issue that cannot be changed in a short period of time by a few people. I feel even more like the long-standing fact that female directors have always existed. They have been using their own strength to insist on making movies. Therefore, there is today, so that the public can see the 'rise'. ”
Perhaps it is the accumulation of quantitative changes that has formed a qualitative change, from award recognition, running blockbusters to successful cross-borders, the three waves set off by female directors have helped each other and pushed the female power of the film industry to the peak. If you move your gaze from Hollywood to the domestic film industry, it is not difficult to find that female directors are also riding the wind and waves in the film world.
Stills from the movie "My Father and Me" (2021), in which Zhang Ziyi self-directed and acted in a unit called "Poetry". (Infographic/Figure)
In the Spring Festival of 2021, comedian Jia Ling's film directorial debut "Hello, Li Huanying" earned a lot of tears from the audience, and also made the theme of family affection rise to a well-deserved screen nugget key, with a small and broad, pry high box office, second only to "Wolf Warrior 2", sitting on the throne of China's film history list. "Everything About My Mother", which broke through 100 million yuan at the Box Office in the Mid-Autumn Festival, can be seen as a continuation of the demand for movies inspired by "Hello, Li Huanying".
Also surprising is "My Sister" in April, the film director Yin Ruoxin, screenwriter You Xiaoying, starring Zhang Zifeng and Zhu Yuanyuan jointly released the pressure of "born to be a woman" in real life with a female theme film, which not only triggered a wide discussion of public opinion, but also became a well-deserved dark horse film in 2021 with a high box office of 860 million. "There are some storms happening all over the world. In our country, in recent years, the constant dialectical representation of women's abilities in various fields is also happening rapidly. I'm in it and I'm constantly experiencing it. I think the special focus on female directors, most of the time, is a good thing, a good effect, an effective exploration of promoting gender equality in the industry. But there are also times when I worry that over-reinforcing the female perspective, female power, and even writing a 'women's film' will narrow the creation and expression of female directors. Director Yin Ruoxin said.
The audience can not feel the director's hidden worries for the time being, what they have seen with their own eyes is that Zhang Ziyi, the first director of the National Day file, interpreted the gentle and tenacious indomitable power of women with "Poems" full of affection and tribute to aerospace heroes in "My Father and Me". Zhang Ziyi once said at the premiere ceremony: "Female directors are really too difficult, this circle down, I think directing is really not a suitable profession for women, but at the same time found that if the audience is moved, it is actually worth it no matter how difficult it is." ”
Among the female director works that can be seen on the big screen in 2021 are Xue Xiaolu's "Embracing You Through the Cold Winter", which will be released in the Lunar New Year file, which is an anti-epidemic theme film, and it is also Xue Xiaolu's second challenge to a new narrative genre after the series of love movies "Beijing Meets Seattle" and the suspense action film "Whistleblower". Another anti-epidemic movie "There is her in the world" is told by three female directors with three different perspectives, Chen Chong, Zhang Aijia, Li Shaohong are all senior female directors, and their entry angles of family, love and friendship under the influence of the epidemic are different from "Embracing You Through the Cold Winter", which requires the audience to go to the theater to find out.
Next year, there are still many works of female directors worth looking forward to. After being shortlisted for "Spring Tide" at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Yang Li Na once again focused on the relationship between mother and daughter, using the "Spring Song" of the 85-year-old mother taking care of her 65-year-old daughter with Alzheimer's disease to explore the temperature of family affection, compared with the tit-for-tat confrontation between mother and daughter in "Spring Tide", it seems that "Spring Song" will take the touching route of each other. Chen Chong's "Ingles" is adapted from the novel of the same name by famous writer Wang Gang, who was shortlisted for the Mao Dun Literature Prize, and tells the story of the life and growth of a group of Shanghai intellectuals and "Xinjiang second generation" children, but it has not been released since 2017 in Xinjiang. Suren's "Living Together in Time" was once the dark horse in the 2018 film market, and next year she will also bring "Exchange Life" starring Lei Jiayin and Zhang Xiaofei to continue to fight on the film track of fantasy comedy. After Knocking on the door of the film world with the alternative youth film "Over Spring", Bai Xue, who is the same age as Suren, is brewing his second work, "Mother's Gift", which tells the story of a 40-year-old terminally ill mother who "accompanies" her children in a special way.
In 2020, hao Lei revealed when promoting "Spring Tide" that she was preparing for herself as a director, and the script had been written for four years. Among the film works of female directors, there are also Zhang Aijia's "Lin Huiyin", Xu Anhua's "Forever Yin Xueyan", Liu Ruoying's "Yi Adjutant", Li Fangfang's "Shi" and "Sword Coming", which have been passed down for a long time and have no news of filming. All of them are literary and artistic masterpieces with a female perspective and a heavy background that fans are looking forward to.
Teng Congcong, a female director who boldly explored female lust in "Send Me to Qingyun", said: "I am very eager to express the theme of the film, which is a woman in the present. Her real life is no longer a supporting role for a superstar, nor is it the symbolic woman that many men tell about their midlife crisis, but a real, vivid, even pathetic, pathetic, hateful but lovely female character. In the past two years, the market has slowly improved, and we can also see many films from the perspective of women, although the number is still not much every year, but the response has been very good. ”
Director Yin Ruoxin does not think that female directors will show typical common characteristics in their creation: "When creating, the first thing I see is people, different individual dilemmas. Some of them are familiar to me, and I can get there faster; some of them are unfamiliar to me, and I will make some effort to find some way to get closer. The individuals in these difficult situations are men and women, and their identities are different. I often even find that although I am a woman and have a conscious understanding of women, I cannot grasp and comprehend all the secrets of women. In recent years, I have watched the works of many female directors, and I have known them through their works and found that they are different. I believe that when there are more female directors, we will also capture more 'differences' more vividly. ”
According to a research report released by the Center for Women in Film and Television Studies at San Diego State University, the number of female directors accounted for 16% of the top 100 high-grossing Hollywood films in 2020, reaching an all-time high, compared with 12% in 2019 and only 4% in 2018. It can be seen that even if the rise of female directors is an unstoppable trend, the road ahead is still long.
Southern Weekend contributed to Zhang Fangfang