chen kaige shares his experience as a director over the past 40 years: nothing is better than true love
2024-09-27
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"i am neither a master nor a teacher, you are your own teachers." on the evening of september 24, the 8th pingyao international film festival welcomed chen kaige's film master class. facing the young students who came to "worship" the director, chen kaige recalled his directorial debut "yellow earth" 40 years ago, and encouraged young people to maintain a free heart and engage in creation with a serious attitude.
this year marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of the chinese film classic "yellow earth". this film exhibition has specially set the theme as "this handful of soil". it not only awarded chen kaige the "honor for contribution to east-west exchange", but also invited "yellow earth" starring wang xueqi communicated together. at the opening ceremony of the film festival that night, singer wei wei also sang the film's theme song "daughter's song".
"yellow earth" expresses the relationship between land and people
at 9 o'clock that night, there was a queue of nearly 50 meters at the entrance of the "small town spring" theater at the pingyao film palace. most of the people in the queue were young people who love movies. the ticket price for this screening was 80 yuan, and many students came from out of town just to see chen kaige.
"i see that most of the people here are young students. i salute you! the future of chinese film belongs to you." at the beginning of the master class, chen kaige greeted the audience and then talked about the background of his filming of "yellow earth". he lamented that it was an era of advocating art. chen kaige recalled that he led several of the main creators to huangling county to collect the scenery. it was almost dusk when they arrived at the mausoleum of the yellow emperor. they were shocked to see a stone tablet that read, "civilians will dismount here, and military officers will dismount here." he felt fearful and lowered his head. walking step by step to the yellow emperor's mausoleum, he fell to his knees. i also saw the broad yellow river flowing peacefully, and the local people who were poor but had strong vitality. i deeply felt the relationship between land and people: land nurtures and nourishes people, but at the same time it suppresses and restrains people. this is the theme of "yellow earth".
wang xueqi danced and recalled the past
""yellow earth" was filmed 40 years ago, but when i think back, it's like it was yesterday." at the master class, wang xueqi was dancing happily as he recalled interesting stories from the filming and chen kaige in his eyes. he laughed and said that even chen kaige himself could not remember many details, but he still remembered them.
at that time, wang xueqi was still an actor in a drama troupe, and he was very excited when he thought of making a movie. he remembers that on the first day he joined the group, he arrived in yan'an at 10 o'clock in the evening. after eating and taking a shower, the whole group held a meeting. the director, photographer, art, etc. took turns to explain, and the discussion continued until about two o'clock in the middle of the night. go up the mountain to film. "i was very happy. i held the red flag and went up when told to go up, and went down when told to go down. the mountain was still so far away, and i ran for a long time. when i reached the top of the mountain, i was covered in sweat and felt sick when the wind blew. i thought to myself, i i will never make a movie again, it’s too hard! after the filming, i walked down the mountain and was very unhappy. i saw director chen kaige shaking hands with everyone and saying thank you. when he saw me in the first scene, he ran over and said, "study!" "qi, thank you. i thought, it's okay to make a movie, it's quite an honor." wang xueqi said.
at that time, film was precious and every shot had to be "scaled". wang xueqi said while demonstrating the painting: "at that time, kaige always said that you would help me draw the scale. he took a stopwatch and asked me to carry water in from the door, pour it into the water tank, see how many seconds it would take, and then convert it into how many feet and how much it would take. film, and then calculate how many times each shot can be shot. if you shoot more, you will have to count hundreds of shots! "wang xueqi also revealed that at the end of the film, cuiqiao went out on a boat and wore a headscarf. it was chen kaige’s face towel because i couldn’t find a suitable prop at the time.
"when we shot "yellow earth", we did it for fun. we didn't treat it purely as a job. we were full of interest in many things. that state was rare, but it was also fleeting." chen kaige said that at that time, the whole the crew only had two cars, one for photography, and everyone else got into the other. "it cost 350,000 yuan to shoot. i thought it was very expensive at the time. 350,000 yuan to make a movie was incredible. watching it today is nothing."
you must keep your innocence when making a movie
as a work that marked the true rise of the fifth generation of directors, "yellow earth" was truly groundbreaking when it was released that year. the film's modern film language shocked the world's film industry: i didn't expect that after a long period of isolation, mainland china could still produce a film with such profound expressions and such a breakthrough style. as a representative of the sixth generation of directors, jia zhangke said that "yellow earth" has brought fond memories to many chinese directors, including him.
when asked where such creations come from, chen kaige said frankly that the so-called modernity and poetry are difficult to describe and can be encountered but not found. "i believe that all directors are the same. there are many painful and hesitant moments in creation. in fact, they are moments when you can't live with yourself. this makes your work unique. it takes a lot of time to refine the language of the film. i want to understand it in my heart. it may not be possible to say it, but it is possible to shoot it. so we must let our hearts be free and imaginative. without imagination, we will never be able to break through. "
inspiration may not come at any time, but a serious attitude can always be maintained. chen kaige said that while filming a scene in which an actress carried water, he heard someone shouting from behind to stop. "who but the director can shout to stop? but he did. he said that there was not enough water in the bucket, and it was true or false. so we poured water again and started shooting again." he said that after so many years of making movies, the biggest the experience is that there is nothing more than true love. "those who are engaged in film creation must not lose their innocence. once they start making calculations, someone must be able to see it. how to maintain our innocence is something that every film maker, especially young people who are just beginning to study film, should always think about. remember." he said frankly that the director can judge in his heart whether his work is truly sincere.
chen kaige laughed and said that he was 32 years old when he made "yellow earth". he felt that he could make a particularly good movie when he was relatively young. then he asked jia zhangke next to him how old he was when he was filming "xiao wu". when the 27-year-old responded, chen kaige smiled: "look, he is 5 years younger than me."
when taking a group photo at the scene, chen kaige's slightly bent legs were already staggering when he walked. at the age of 72, he is still active on the creative front, and he is still moving forward on the road of film.
(source: beijing daily client)
