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Today", "The First Incense" was released,
This film adapted from Zhang Ailing's novel,
When it started, it triggered a tsunami of public opinion,
The stems of the "first furnace steel" and "Camel Shoko" are flying all over the sky,
The publicity copywriter is also spat out like a youth pain quote.
Ge Weilong (Ma Sichun) and aunt (Yu Feihong)
Decadent prince Qiao Qiqiao (Peng Yuyan)
The behind-the-scenes configuration of "First Incense" is top-notch,
Director Xu Anhua won the Venice Lifetime Achievement Award last year,
The screenwriter is Wang Anyi, and the photographer is Du Kefeng,
The composer is Ryuichi Sakamoto, the costume is Emi Wada...
The master creators are diligently working on every detail.
The maid of the aunt's house, Guan Wei (Zhang Jianning) and Wei Er (Zhang Junning)
Why did you choose Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan as male and female protagonists?
How does Xu Anhua understand the world in Zhang Ailing's novels?
How does she herself face this storm of public opinion?
In mid-October, Xu Anhua gave an interview in Beijing.
The above questions were answered frankly and sincerely.
Self-description Xu Anhua
Written by Liu Yameng, editor-in-charge ni Chujiao
On May 22, 2019, the first day of the start of "First Incense", negative reviews surged in, xu Anhua filmed for more than forty years, the first time she encountered this situation, she was a little caught off guard.
There was no media arrangement at the boot scene, and the flow of the photo did not go through her consent, Xu Anhua recalled a little self-blame: "I was too ignorant to know that every time I appeared in the media was so important, nor did I know that the power of netizens was so strong." ”
Xu Anhua won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival
Xu Anhua is 74 years old this year. She won the Hong Kong Academy Award for Best Director for the first time at the age of 33, and since then she has won a total of six times, and last year she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the world's first female director to win the award.
She could have laid down in such a seniority book to point out the country, but she still stood on the front line of the set with her back hunched over.
Zhang Ailing's novels have always been difficult to shoot, and Xu Anhua has previously made two films: "Love in the City" in 1984 and "Half Life" in 1997, because the box office was cold, and she once vowed that "even if there is a chance, she will not shoot Zhang Ailing.".
However, she could not resist the "temptation" and "wanted to do what she found difficult", and took over "The First Burning Incense".
The aunt's rich mansion in the movie
Published in 1943, this novel is one of Zhang Ailing's masterpieces, telling the story of a female high school student from a middle-class family, seduced by the decadent life of high society, falling in love with a prodigal son, and finally becoming a social flower.
The relationship between men and women, young and old, is intricate, and Xu Anhua shows these unruly and pickled things very bluntly in the movie, and the shots are fragrant and bold.
Compared with the first two films, Xu Anhua believes that he has made a lot of progress in "The First Burning Incense". Nowadays, the voice of the outside world is of little importance to herself, but she still wants to say a few words for the actor.
The following is director Xu Anhua's self-statement:
Famous film star Xia Meng founded Blue Bird Film Production Co., Ltd. in 1979, and his pioneering work was Xu Anhua's "To the Fury Sea"
One reason why I took over "The First Burning Incense" was because I liked Zhang Ailing very much, and her work was a huge temptation for me; another reason was that Blue Bird Pictures came to me, they were very enthusiastic, Blue Bird is the name of Xia Meng' company.
Xia Meng later passed the company over to Liu Ren and told him to film well, and Liu Ren has been rushing to buy the copyright of "First Burning Incense" since 2014.
Originally, they asked me to be a producer, and at about the end of 2017, I decided to be the director of "The First Burning Incense", asked Wang Anyi to write the script, and then looked for the main scene and the actors, and I got busy.
Georgie Joe came to Ge Weilong's room at night
It's a story of love and depravity
I think "First Incense" first of course tells a love story, Ge Weilong fell in love with Ge QiqiQiao, she is very aware that the other party is a scumbag, cheating everywhere, but she still lied to herself that he loves me very much, which is the most cruel and profound place in "First Incense".
My aunt had many lovers
In addition, it talks about hypocrisy in high-end society, so the aunt represents this thing. She has an affair with many men, marries for money, and when her husband dies, she has many lovers, old and young, and she and Situ Xie are lovers but help him find other little girls, this is all depraved, but she has made this corruption and depravity very decent.
The allure of the glamorous life of high society is obvious, so it is difficult for Ge Weilong to escape from such a network.
Veron came to her aunt's house for the first time
Wei Long married Georgie, and was secretly promised to Situ Xie, and finally resembled a high-level prostitute.
We continued to write about the life of Wei Long and Georgie after marriage, because in the original book, they jumped from marriage to the end of the thirty markets, in the end, what is the taste of their depravity, that kind of unruly relationship, we will use a few scenes to prompt it.
I didn't expect it to cause such a big controversy
We invited Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan to be the male and female protagonists, I did not expect to cause such a big controversy, nor did I expect that the power of netizens is so strong, I am too ignorant.
I didn't care about myself, but Ma Sichun was so miserable, she was scolded for two years because of this.
In fact, unfortunately, when we started the camera, there was no reporter, everyone was dressed very casually, we didn't know that someone had taken it, and we didn't know how the photo was leaked.
Then Ma Sichun was scolded, she was under a lot of pressure and couldn't sleep, but she had to continue acting, because we couldn't stop and wait for this matter to pass, and the filming behind was more or less affected.
Stills from "July and Ansheng"
At the beginning of 2019, I decided ma Sichun, why did I choose her, because after watching "July and Ansheng", I felt that her love drama was very good. Some people can act in love dramas, some people can't, such as seeing a boy she was stunned, some people can put that "stunned" performance, but there is no real feeling of love, but Ma Si pure.
So when filming "The First Incense", I think several love scenes she played were still in place.
Georgie Joe is a handsome mixed-race man with a feminine affinity
Peng Yuyan, we have worked together before in "When is the Bright Moon", and he is a very serious actor. He plays Georgie Joe, a Mixed Chinese-Portuguese, his mother is driven away, he lacks maternal love, his father is not good to him, and then he himself is lazy and has nothing to do.
Peng Yuyan has always had a feeling of uneasiness when acting, which has become the characteristic of our version of Georgie Joe.
My aunt was good at weaving a web of relationships
Yu Feihong played the aunt, I think she acted particularly well.
The aunt and Lu Zhaolin have some erotic scenes, and there is also a shot of a vague nudity in it. In that shot, at first glance you think it is one person, look closely at two people, you think that your aunt is not wearing clothes, and then look at the naked man behind you, this feeling of staggering, itself is dramatic.
Please come to Du Kefeng and Emi Wada for photography and clothing
Top luxury behind the scenes
Our screenwriter is Wang Anyi, the cinematographer is Du Kefeng, the costume is Emi Wada, and the composer is Ryuichi Sakamoto. ... The team behind the scenes is very strong, but we are not deliberately asking so many big names to come.
In 2018, I went to see Teacher Wang Anyi, who was teaching in hong Kong Chinese, started writing the script in June, handed it in in August, and then we changed the script in the next six months.
Du Kefeng I want to cooperate with him for a long time, I looked for him twice in the past eight years, he just didn't pick up, and then there was a drama that was picked up, but it was not filmed, this time I told him, if you don't cooperate anymore, everyone will die, there is no chance, so he came.
I really admire her, the first time we met was not to talk about clothes, but to talk about novels, because she read Zhang Ailing's novels translated into Japanese, and she also liked the story of "First Burning Incense".
The costumes in the film are very bold in color
Our clothing design does not specifically refer to the style of rich families in the 30s or 40s, but grasps a feeling.
Wada Emi's colors are very bold, such as evening dresses, some green, and some lake blue. Her materials are very elaborate, and Ma Sichun's yellow skirt is a piece of cloth that Emi Wada has collected for a long time.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was found by Liu Ren, he had watched the film before the soundtrack, and I marked out the places in the play that I felt needed music and gave him a reference, and he was very happy. He wrote the music from those places on time and gave more options.
The film was mainly filmed on Gulangyu Island
Our main filming location was at Gulangyu Island, and the feeling of this place is very right.
There are a lot of old buildings on the island, there are about 20 old villas in a protected area, the more dilapidated, we chose 2 of them, put them up, and did a big renovation on the basis of the original.
The artists have redoed the garden and the fountain, and the whole pattern is very similar to the Hong Kong mansion I saw when I was a child, with green grass coconut trees and banana trees, the mountain road is particularly long, and the slow steep slope is particularly good.
I shot three zhang Ailing and did not see her face
I filmed three love stories of Zhang Ailing, "Love in the City", "Half Life" and "The First Burning Incense", but I never saw Zhang Ailing's face.
Stills from 1984's "Allure of Love"
"Love in the City" is the copyright bought by Shaw, which has a certain economic relief for Zhang Ailing at that time.
We originally wanted to visit Zhang Ailing, but at that time she was constantly moving, and it was inconvenient to meet. However, before the shooting began, Zhang Ailing sent a fax to Song Qi, and Song Qi forwarded it to me, and she said that she was very happy and congratulated her on starting the shooting.
In 1984, "Love in the City" was released, and all aspects were not ideal. I understood the love in it as "Gone with the Wind", took the wrong route, and I had never been to Shanghai at that time, and all kinds of details were wrong.
I don't think there is any need to argue, it's all over, and I hope that the bad places I shot can be adjusted later.
Stills from 1997's Half-Life
"Half Life" has always wanted to shoot, eight years ago, I went to Shanghai for the first time, the alley is all in front of your eyes, there is little air conditioning, you can shoot real scenes.
It dragged on until 1996, when many of the old houses on the streets were demolished, and I felt that it would be too late if I didn't shoot at that time.
Now they all say that the casting is good, but they didn't think of it at all.
Gu Manlu, played by Mei Yanfang
Investors told me that if you find Li Ming and Wu Qianlian, you can shoot, then I will find, my sister Gu Manlu is played by Mei Yanfang, in addition to Ge You, Wang Zhiwen and so on.
Because we hired these stars, we didn't have enough money, and we were worried about the shutdown. In the later stage of "Half Life", there was basically no money, only a hundred thousand, not a lot, but the money could not be paid. I ran to borrow money to finish the later stage.
Now it is said that "Half Life" was filmed well, but when it was released in Hong Kong in 1997, the box office was very bad, and our total investment was 12 million to 13 million Hong Kong dollars, and the box office was six or seven million Hong Kong dollars.
The whole process is more difficult, but anyway, it has passed, it doesn't matter, now everyone likes it is the best.
To "The First Incense", I think the art, technology, music and other aspects are better than the first two, and the actors are also better, but there are still some gaps from my ideal.
"I'm not someone, but I have a lot of ambitions"
I will listen to what people say about my play, but I am not very angry, but I want to say two fair words for Ma Sichun and Peng Yuyan, I know that I may not be useful in this way, it may have the opposite effect, but I still have to say, because I am the director, I have the responsibility to protect them.
I really don't care myself, especially people my age, it's already happy to survive, isn't it? Because many of my friends are sick or die.
Xu Anhua gave Fan Wei a play on the set
You are now asking me to shoot any novel of Zhang Ailing, I still want to shoot, maybe my personality is a bit masochistic, knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, biased towards the tiger mountain line. However, I also hope that other directors will shoot and have more different perspectives.
If you make a movie and the requirements are getting higher and higher, you must be creative in the structure and the way you tell the story, which can be called a movie, not simply telling a story.
The Japanese film Floating Clouds was released in 1955 and directed by Kio Naruse
"Floating Clouds" is a film that I think has a perfect cinematic feel, and its script structure is the structure of the experience of the two protagonists, and the form and story match perfectly, like music.
Being able to turn an archetypal story into a work of art is of course an ultimate pursuit of mine, of course, people will say "who are you, such a big ambition", I am not a person, but I am very ambitious, oh, I hope to be the best.