Tian Zhuangzhuang (middle), who is nearly 65 years old, is interviewed by every film and television reporter (photographed by every film and television reporter)
In the movie "Love and Affection", Zhang Aijia and Tian Zhuangzhuang play a couple (photo / Courtesy of the organizer)
Every film and television reporter Bai Yun
Edited by Wen Menghua
At more than 6 p.m., when every film and television reporter walked into the interview room, Tian Zhuangzhuang, who had already received 8 or 9 interviews intensively, looked a little tired. The last time such a large amount of exposure was probably traced back to the time when "Wolf Plague" was released 8 years ago. (Click on the link - watch and listen to the original sound of each live dialogue conducted by film and television reporters interviewing Tian Zhuangzhuang.) ）
In fact, in the eight years between here, Tian Zhuangzhuang has not faded from the public eye, and his identity is diverse, he is a teacher of the film school, an actor, a producer, a producer, a judge, but he is no longer a director. Accepting the "bombardment" of the media this time, he is still not a director, but as one of the main actors of the recently released film "Love and Affection" directed by Zhang Aijia.
Does this mean that The nearly 65-year-old Tian Zhuangzhuang is about to make a comeback and direct a film? Tian Zhuangzhuang looked down and thought about it and said: "I don't have a dead heart, but from the current film industry, it is really difficult, and I am not so keen when I am older, after all, I have not filmed for ten years, and now if I am filming, I feel a little nervous."
In today's film industry, which often invests tens of millions and hundreds of millions of yuan, Tian Zhuangzhuang's concern is not too much. Although "Love and Affection", which has the blessing of Zhang Aijia and Tian Zhuangzhuang's "double famous director" and obtained a Douban score of up to 8.6 points, as of November 6, the cumulative box office in the 4 days of release was only 7.56 million yuan, and the total box office of the film was only 3.4%, and the total box office of Maoyan predicted was 11.44 million yuan, and it still did not escape the curse of literary and art films.
[Talking about movies: "My movies are all in my own world"]
Also a representative of the fifth generation of Chinese directors, Tian Zhuangzhuang did not eventually embark on the path of a golden and shining famous director like his peers Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. This may be related to the stubbornness in Tian Zhuangzhuang's own nature, "I have a lot of my own circle, and I don't have much contact with people in the film circle."
Since graduating from the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1982, in more than 30 years of film career, although Tian Zhuangzhuang has directed more than ten films such as "Horse Thief", "Hunting Ground Zasa" and "Wu Qingyuan", he has always maintained a state of alienation from the film industry.
On the one hand, since 2009's "Wolf Disaster", Tian Zhuangzhuang has not independently directed a film for 8 years. On the other hand, he has always been active in all corners of the film and television industry as a film school teacher, producer, producer, actor and judge, guest performing in "The Great Hunt", supervising films such as "Precious Secrets", or co-directing "The Woman of the Dynasty, Yang Guifei" with his old classmate Zhang Yimou for "Saving the Scene".
Among the more than ten films directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang, four works with ethnic minority themes occupy four, from which you may be able to get a glimpse of the "stubbornness" in his nature.
"I like this, I like to go to those places to shoot things, over there, telling stories over here, can make sensitive people a little more dull, and finally express what you want to express in life." 」
In fact, in Tian Zhuangzhuang's works, there is indeed no genre film in the typical sense, but it is more author-oriented, more personal and personal. Even "Wolf Plague", which is declared by the media to be a "work of transforming business", although it has the blessing of stars such as Oda Ceger and Maggie Q, under the cloak of so-called magic, it is still the stubborn Andt Who is unwilling to tell stories step by step.
As he himself said, "I prefer to be a person in my own world, so my films are also in my own world."
After the film was made and copied, he felt that the film had disassociated itself. "In a sense, he is also a very ruthless person, a year, two years, three years with a movie, the emotions can not be deeper, after the shooting, it will be ignored." 」
[Talking about comeback: the film industry is too difficult]
In the "Love and Affection" starring this time, Tian Zhuangzhuang once directed a scene. "That day her (Zhang Aijia) drama was too heavy, there were many people, her health was not very good, I said if I wanted to, I can share a little, such a big scene, a day down, hundreds of dozens of actors, she will be very hard to run at both ends." 」
Although he only directed one scene, he felt that "of course he was very happy." When asked by a reporter from Every Film and Television (WeChat id: meijingyingshi) whether he would direct a movie again, he hesitated, thought about it, and said ambiguously: "Have a chance."
For Tian Zhuangzhuang, there are too many concerns about making a comeback film, "it is a problem in courage."
"I'm in this circle, you say so many people like me to shoot a scene, I shoot one, then what do I shoot, how much money do I shoot, what will it look like when I shoot it, do people who like me still like it, if I have a lot of distractions, then I make a movie, dare I." 」
Regarding the difficulties in film investment, Tian Zhuangzhuang deeply feels that "there will never be an easy time". In 2006, some media reported that the biographical film "Wu Qingyuan", which had been filmed for more than two years, had been delayed in completing the post-production overrun of more than 10 million yuan, and even failed to be released in China. 2009's "Wolf Plague" was called "a magic giant of fifteen years of sharpening the sword" by the media, but after its release, it was repeatedly badly evaluated, the box office was only a dismal 10.81 million yuan, and the overseas response was also quite cold.
In 2009, the "magic giant production of fifteen years of sharpening the sword" was released, and the Douban score was only 4.3 points (photo/Douban)
The current film market is no longer the size of 2009, which means more pressure on creators. "Now making a movie can't move tens of millions of yuan, taking the money of friends or investors, and other people's money is also earned by themselves, and it is not falling from the sky."
"I didn't have a dead heart, and I didn't say I didn't want to shoot." But after all, from the current film industry, it is really difficult, and now I myself, older, is not so keen, so I don't know, after all, I haven't filmed for ten years, and now if I want to shoot, I feel a little nervous" Tian Zhuangzhuang's answer was unexpectedly frank.
Mentioning those masterpieces of that year and talking about a detail in "Horse Thieves" more than 40 years ago, Tian Zhuangzhuang still remembers it vividly, and he feels that he was just "born at that time". "But now it's not necessarily lucky, life, or death?" Tian Zhuangzhuang couldn't help but murmur.
[Talking about the dilemma of literary and art films: the market is not big enough]
"He subverted everything, betrayed all his works, betrayed every time, I think this is particularly remarkable", talking about british director Nolan's film "Dunkirk", Tian Zhuangzhuang praised it, and for the Spanish film "Invisible Guest", which was released some time ago and was popular, he said: "I don't think it's much better, normal genre drama.".
In Tian Zhuangzhuang's view, the film market is like a huge base, and genre films are the vanguard.
"All films must be placed in the film market to recycle and spread, this market is a very large base, this base must be done through genre films, they come to make this market very full, then people have to look for things they have not seen in the film market, the market will become larger, the larger the market, the greater the tolerance, then the literary and artistic films that may enter can come in, this becomes the real market, this market can achieve a lot of good art films, but if it is really a good film, It's not really good films that can't be done."
In May last year, Fang Li, the producer of the movie "A Hundred Birds and a Phoenix", asked for a "shocking kneeling" to arrange the film, which once again brought the problem of the distribution dilemma of art films into people's sights and added a touch of bitterness to it. Since then, all kinds of fancy films have emerged in an endless stream, and it is difficult for art films to find investment and hairstyles, which has almost become a commonplace in the industry.
Talking about how to improve the distribution dilemma of literary and art films, Tian Zhuangzhuang believes that the market still needs to be more mature, "This will take a long time, until Chinese films are really strong, I think it will take 800 to 100 billion yuan."