Chen Kaige's films have always been high and low. "Yellow Earth" begins, "The Great Military Parade", "King of Children", and "Singing While Walking" follow, each of which proposes a major humanistic theme. Chen Kaige examines the living conditions of the Chinese people and the cultural traditions accumulated in this living condition with a critical eye, and conducts rational reflections. His critical edge often embodies complex and multi-meaning meanings in the deliberately created visual modeling and sound modeling, and directly uses the lens or lens paragraphs for philosophical speculation. Some shots or shot passages can only be understood by reading them carefully like a philosophical essay, or even the essentials are still hard to come by. He does not pay attention to storytelling, nor does he focus on characters; he talks freely in a soothing rhythm in his stylized film language, often with ideas rather than emotions and thinking over images. For a popular one-off art like the movie, it is inevitable that it is too high and too low.
The film form of "Farewell My Concubine" can be said to be a change in Chen Kaige's creative process. The camera works closely with the fate of the characters, the plot is ups and downs, and the dramatic emotional conflict of life and death runs through to the end. Characters are the focus, and the proportion of performance elements in the composition of the film language has been greatly increased, so the choice of actors turned to stars. For the first time, a group of prominent stars appeared on the cast list of Chen Kaige's films: Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li, Lu Qi, Ge You, Yingda, Lei Han, etc. The shape is still deliberately crafted, but the meaning of the lens tends to be clear and concise, and it is clear at a glance. The rhythm is also getting tighter. The form of "Farewell My Concubine" marks that Chen Kaige has taken a big step from a humanistic film to a commercial film.
But Chen Kaige was not reborn. "Farewell My Concubine" still bears the deep imprint of Chen Kaige's style. His changed form of film still shows its strength, especially the theme of the film remains the same. "It is a conscious choice of mine to express my thoughts on culture with movies", which is the soul of Chen Kaige's films. His film language was once remarkable, but the human depth was even more intriguing. "Farewell My Concubine" is still his cultural thinking. He is unwilling to give up "Qu Gao", but hopes to obtain "Hezhong".
In the cultural vision of Farewell My Concubine, the first explanation is the eternal contradiction between the ideal of life and reality. On the screen, this pair of contradictions is embodied in the drama ideal and the confusion of life.
"The stage is a small society, the society is a big stage". Whether in China or the West, this generalization of the relationship between drama and social life prevails, because this generalization indeed grasps the essentials of this relationship quite precisely. However, this generalization only focuses on the aspect of art reflecting reality, but does not touch on the fact that art is art, which is not equal to reality. First, it casts the artist's aesthetic ideal. Real life is always imperfect, and drama in a sense makes up for the imperfect life, so it is more or less dreamy. As a kind of artistic realm, the drama ideal enriches people's spiritual life and cultivates people's sentiments, but it does not provide a specific life pattern followed by real life. Because there is always a huge contrast between ideal and reality.
The tragic root of Cheng Dieyi lies in his fascination with Peking Opera, which is almost a religious devotion, trying to arrange his life according to the ideal of drama. In "Farewell My Concubine", a generation of all-powerful heroes who end up in a desperate situation, parted with a generation of famous Ji Sheng and died. Sorrowful, majestic and sublime. Cheng Dieyi is not only on stage but also in reality, he is also intoxicated by such a dramatic situation, so that his life is shrouded in a dreamy atmosphere that is incompatible with reality. Yu Ji's brilliance relies on the overlord. Duan Xiaolou, who plays the overlord, does not ignore the brotherhood of his teachers and understands Cheng Dieyi's obsession, but he clearly distinguishes the boundary between the dramatic situation and the real life, unlike Cheng Dieyi who lives in a dream. The appearance of Juxian made Duan Xiaolou's life more secular. The dramatic entanglement of these three main characters revolves around the axis of idealized life and secular life.
Cheng Dieyi's psychological gender transition and heterosexual love in dramatic situations and the same-sex complex in reality are confusing. The appearance of this theme opens up a new field for the exploration of human nature, endows the works with a certain special meaning, and is very rich in national colors. The highly freehand nature of Chinese opera provides the possibility for the existence of boys and girls. Feudal ethics taught men and women to guard against the precepts, making this possibility an industry norm that must be followed for a long time. Cheng Dieyi did not voluntarily eliminate his male consciousness, he was forced to switch to female consciousness. Once this compulsion is transformed into self-consciousness, women's tenderness lingers in Bawang Duanxiaolou and forms the basic element of his dream world. Therefore, the friendship between brothers and sisters is also attached to the homosexual factor. It is the first time that homosexuality has been shown on the screen in mainland China. Homosexuality is not always premised on the hindrance of heterosexuality, as some emperors with three palaces and six courtyards in Chinese history were enthusiastic about this. Cheng Dieyi's dream life has two basic connotations, one is the confusion between the stage situation and the real life, and the other is the perversion of male consciousness and female consciousness. The uniqueness and richness of the image of Cheng Dieyi depend on this.
In the aesthetic view of the eternal contradiction between ideal and reality, the film obviously leans towards the idealized life. Chen Kaige still has that kind of rational and critical vision, and does not over-idealize the idealized life. The film does not avoid Cheng Dieyi's failure to perform for the Japanese army, nor does it avoid his failure to sink into opium. But Cheng Dieyi's obsession with the art of Peking Opera, the sincerity of the emotion "from the beginning to the end", the self-doing that transcends the secular right and wrong, the wandering in the blur of dream and reality, with a pure and childish heart, constitutes an extraordinary The spiritual realm is filled with a kind of hazy beauty of the mist-lost building and the moon-maze crossing.
The fate of Peking Opera artists is closely related to the decline and prosperity of Peking Opera. The Peking Opera stage is full of flowers, but these gorgeous flowers are watered with blood, tears and sweat. Little Douzi (Cheng Dieyi) was cut off with deformed fingers, and Xiao Shishi (Duan Xiaolou) was spanked by a knife embryo with the heart-pounding sound. The magnificent spiritual civilization is often conditional on being extremely uncivilized. For the young Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou, art is not the objectification of the essence of human freedom, but the painful struggle of human survival instinct. Even after becoming famous, the creators of beauty have not acquired an independent personality, they are just playthings of power. Eunuch Zhang, Yuan Siye, the Japanese army, and the Kuomintang dignitaries are all like this. In China, a land where feudal ideology has permeated for more than two thousand years, history is the biography of power, and art is the vase of power. Peking Opera integrates traditional literature, music, dance, painting, folk art, and acrobatics into one, integrating the quintessence of China's unique freehand aesthetic system. Therefore, the fate of Peking Opera is, to a large extent, a symbol of traditional Chinese culture. This is also the field of Chen Kaige's cultural vision.
The liberation of Beijing brought new life to Peking Opera and Peking Opera artists. The People's Liberation Army's attitude towards Peking Opera artists is in sharp contrast to the wounded soldiers of the Japanese Army and the Kuomintang. However, cultural policies that require art to immediately serve current politics often lead to violations of the laws of art, especially for Peking Opera, a relatively stable ancient art. Cheng Dieyi pointed out the inherent contradiction between realistic modeling and freehand performance in modern Peking Opera in simple language, and touched the crux of the problem. The tragedy of history is that the proposition of correct aesthetics is often transformed into the question of political right and wrong, and even the question of revolution and counter-revolution. The logical development is that criticism of the misuse of weapons evolves into cruel weapons criticism.
The humanistic depth and artistic skills of "Farewell My Concubine" have enabled Chinese films to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time. The film's oriental mystique and adaptability to Westerners' understanding of Chinese culture are of course also a factor.
In Chen Kaige's previous works, time and space are mostly limited to a single moment. This film spans more than half a century, and describes the trajectories of political changes and social transformation in several different eras. The artistic difficulty is even greater. On this subject, the answer of the film is already invaluable. However, the ups and downs of the fate of the characters and the projection of the times have not yet reached a state of harmony. The brushstrokes of some political reforms are still very open-minded, and the characters have a sense of the vicissitudes of the times, or lack of sense, such as Juxian. At the final climax of the film, this sense of division between characters and times is even more evident. Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou in the "Farewell My Concubine" swan song, Yu Concubine killed herself with a sword, with exquisite ideas and strong atmosphere. Without this scene, it is not enough to draw a happy ending to the whole film. It is a pity that Cheng Dieyi did not commit suicide when the right to perform was deprived or human dignity was brutally ravaged during the "Cultural Revolution", so the psychological basis and emotional accumulation of the tragedy cannot be said to be very sufficient.
I would like to share here the text of Director Chen Kaige's own speech on "Farewell My Concubine". This is a sharing he made when he returned to his alma mater, Beijing Film Academy, in November this year. The content of the whole speech is more than 7,000 words, which tells some stories on the stage and behind the scenes of the filming of "Farewell My Concubine", especially the past events of cooperation with actors such as Zhang Guorong and Zhang Fengyi.
Hello everyone. I went back to school again. I am very happy to see so many teachers and students present today. Although it has been 40 years since I entered school, I still have deep personal feelings for this school and this place. Thank you everyone today Come.
Time flies, it has been twenty-five years since the film "Farewell My Concubine" came out. Some of the hundreds of staff members who participated in the filming are no longer there. Still the same as yesterday, very emotional.
My two very close collaborators, Mr. Gu Changwei and Mr. Tao Jing, were both in their thirties when they were in their prime. My classmates from the same school in the same class created such majestic sounds and pictures. very impressive. Zhang Fengyi is the leader of our performance department of grade 7 and 8, and his performance of Duan Xiaolou is very exciting. There is also Mr. Zhao Jiping, we have been working together since "Yellow Earth", and he has always been the composer I respect the most. Who else? There are many more, my assistants, collaborators Zhang Jinzhan, Bai Yu, and artist Yang Zhanjia have all made a lot of contributions to this film.
Our play was basically filmed in the Beiying factory next door, and we also went to many other places in Beijing. Some of the scenes we built in this factory are no longer there. Like those people, some are still there, but they have been Very desolate and shabby. Now that I am at that place, I said to myself, "It's true that the wind is always blown away by the rain", but even so, I have had a lot of emotions about impermanence, and the only thing left is this movie, twenty-five Been here for years.
The origin of "Farewell My Concubine"
The origin of "Farewell My Concubine" started with Ms. Xu Feng, a female producer living in Hong Kong. Ms. Xu Feng turned out to be a very successful actress and worked with director Hu Jinquan to shoot many classic movies. Movies, the most famous of which is "The Heroine". In the 1970s, Xu Feng followed director Hu Jinquan to the Cannes Film Festival competition (winning), which was the only technical award for Chinese films at that time. Since then, Ms. Xu Feng has a special liking for the Cannes Film Festival. go often.
I met her in 1988 when I took the movie "Kid King" to the competition. At that time, the cross-strait relationship hadn't developed like it did later. After we met, we were very nervous when we talked about a place to talk. , it can be seen that time can change many things.
She also came on the day of the premiere of "Kid King" in Cannes. After the film was shown, everyone said hello and left, and the next day she found me and said, "You did a good job, but I I think you can make it better." She said I have a book here, take a look, would you like to make it into a movie. I didn't really take it seriously at the time, because it's normal for a producer to hand over a book to a director, and the book was Farewell My Concubine. I said, "Thank you for your kindness, but I have other films to make." She said, "I can wait for you."
This wait was two years, and she came back when we went to the Cannes Film Festival to participate in the competition after "Walking and Singing" was completed, and it was only at that time that the matter was settled. The so-called sincerity is the golden stone, and Ms. Xu Feng is the first initiator and the first hero of the film "Farewell My Concubine". She kept telling me that she had a wish after "The Heroine", and she very much wanted to go to Cannes with another film and win a bigger prize.
The result of this golden stone was that her long-cherished wish came true. In 1993, two years later, the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. This is something everyone knows. To this day, I still think that Ms. Xu Feng is a very discerning producer.
I think the second major contributor to this film is Ms. Li Bihua, the author of the original novel. When I went to Hong Kong to meet her, I thought she was a talented, whimsical, creative and interesting person. Whether it's her "Rouge Buckle" or her subsequent "Green Snake", I think it's very good, the good thing is that her story follows human feelings rather than a purpose. She wrote The things are light and ingenious, there is no ideological burden, and they do not teach people, but let you taste the stories of the world at will, so her writing is very, very smooth, and we have a very good chat, so we decided to cooperate together like this a play.
Therefore, Ms. Li Bihua is actually the mother of "Farewell My Concubine". She provided a very good foundation for the filming of the film. She is the one who laid the foundation for the film.
From novel to film
In fact, I have also heard some critics, saying that "Farewell My Concubine" is a popular story after all. I'd rather see such a review as a compliment. This reminds me that when Mr. Shen Congwen was alive, Gu Hua, who wrote "Furong Town", once said something to his fellow townsman. He said that if your own creation is too hard, from a certain point of view too deep, You won't be able to express what you really want to express, and the reader will struggle.
After I read this passage, it was very enlightening to me. The film itself is to express the feelings of ordinary people. The emotions in a film should be accepted by the audience. The story lies in how it is told, not in the story itself. Everyone should know that there is nothing new under the sun. I also think of a poem by Wen Tingjun, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, which made me ponder for a long time. I said that the word "white" is a very popular word, and it is generally difficult to put into poetry, but it is good, this word completely writes the moonlight. So I think ordinary words, ordinary emotions, and different personal expressions are some of the very important elements of a movie.
In this movie, you will see two signed screenwriters, one is Ms. Li Bihua, the author of the novel, and the other is Teacher Lu Wei. I usually have a habit of working with writers for a very long time. I usually spend at least two or three months, even five or six months, or a year, to communicate with the screenwriter. In fact, two or three people sit in meditation together to figure out what we should do.
The process of "Farewell My Concubine" probably started after returning to Beijing from the Cannes Film Festival in June and July 1991. The film itself started shooting in mid-February, 1992. In other words, in this In the middle of the process, it took us eight or nine months to complete the script. One of the interesting things is that after the first draft of the script was written, probably at the end of 1991, Mr. Reed gave me a pen and said that if you were satisfied with which play or show, draw a circle, and the first draft was the result. Only a few scenes are circled. Creation is quite hard.
(Screenwriter) I feel that this process is actually quite complicated, and the most important point is that when we are faced with the story structure of "Farewell My Concubine" - the time extension in the film is about fifty years - The first thing we want to determine is whether the story follows the events or the characters of the characters. We all know the saying "plot is the history of character", and what kind of character can have what kind of story, we decided not to take the path of events to promote the plot, let the character become the driving force of the development of this story, from the character's character Get started.
The first thing to determine here is Cheng Dieyi's character, because he is the seed of the whole story, and of course Duan Xiaolou and Juxian, these three people form a very vivid character relationship, two men and one woman or two women and one man. , it all depends on your viewing angle. The story revolves around these three people, and we hope to always follow Cheng Dieyi, because he is the soul of the film.
Here I would like to talk about the central role of the character Cheng Dieyi in the whole movie. In the process from the original novel to the movie, this character has undergone some adjustments. His character is very strong, and many places in the movie also highlight his character. This character, which is also a transformation from text to film drama. After watching the movie, everyone remembered the line "If you don't go crazy, you can't live". In the movie, he repeatedly emphasized his thoughts in many ways and expressed them in a cinematic way, and he still did a lot of them. Work.
Cheng Dieyi's Character Creation
Cheng Dieyi's character is determined by three conditions:
First, he was the son of a prostitute. He grew up in a brothel in Goulan, and was used to seeing the filth in the wind and moon. He hated and disliked such a relationship between men and women.
Second, he spent his childhood in a theatre troupe. At that time, the children of the theatre troupe were not allowed to have contact with the outside world (you can tell the story of Yunhetang), so they were ignorant of worldly affairs and sophistication. In other words, they were naive. It is strange that people who enter society do not die.
Third, he has six fingers, which are not in the original novel of this design. I propose to add them, which has a metaphorical meaning. The sixth finger is the reproductive organs. For Cheng Dieyi, this finger cannot become a horn, nor can she psychologically enter the world of women, and she cannot complete the "I am a female Jiao'e, not a man". Transformation, this is the basis of Cheng Dieyi's "equality".
As for the first two points: first, his hatred of the relationship between men and women in the brothel made him embrace the dream of the overlord and the concubine Yu, but this is a matter of the stage, idealized; second, in the troupe The closed world made him not know how to go with the flow.
The combination of these two points becomes "people and dramas". In real life, he has never been able to separate from the role he plays and become a realistic, greasy Cheng Dieyi, but only who is on stage and who is on stage. Who is next. This is doomed to his tragic fate, doomed to confront him with the secular world, doomed him to suffer hardships, and doomed that he will maintain his true character of always resisting and unwilling to yield.
"The quality is clean and clean, and it is not called dirty and sinking ditches." I think these two lines of Cao Xueqin's poems describing Lin Daiyu are most fully reflected in Cheng Dieyi. Throughout the course of the story, his character continued to ferment in the development of the plot, from being brutally beaten after enduring the pain of severed fingers and unwilling to give up his gender identity, to being loyal to the overlord who would rather run away and then return to the troupe to accept more cruelty The punishment, and then in order to save the overlord can sing for the Japanese and then very naively said in the court "Aoki is not dead, Peking Opera will be spread to Japan", I don't understand human affairs, I am only obsessed with my own stage.
One day after the filming of "Farewell My Concubine", I wondered what the story was about. Later, I felt that it was a story about infatuation and betrayal. Cheng Dieyi, who was only obsessed with her own stage, had nothing to do with everything in the world. Otherwise, Duan Xiaolou would not have said to him, "You don't want to see where the dramas in this world have been sung." Until he finally destroyed the yellow bell, the kettles rang in unison, burned the costumes, don't After taking the stage and keeping the overlord in his heart, the monism of stage and life is finally reflected in the character Cheng Dieyi.
Cheng Dieyi is an extremely resolute, passionate, innocent and fearless person. How many times do you see such a character in the world? When such a character suddenly appears on the screen, it is the time when our Chinese films make progress in the portrayal of characters.
All of Cheng Dieyi's characters are derived from the above three conditions, so Cheng Dieyi's character image is unique and created from the creative method of "this one" mentioned by the three Russian heroes. Creation for the purpose of this kind of appeal is very difficult. It has to go through a process of affirmation, denial, and re-affirmation countless times. There is no routine to be found, and it cannot be classified into a certain type. Today, the creators who aim at "fast" are Most of them are reluctant to adopt this method, but use typed characters to interpret typed stories, which is common sense.
Why do you say this? Big industry can't produce so many "this one", and big industry needs standard components. But at some unknown point in the development of Chinese films, we are delighted that an anti-type character or story jumps out. I have seen it recently.
Therefore, after such a long discussion with the two screenwriters, we only had the first draft of the script in late 1991 and early 1992. I just mentioned that a stroke is drawn in a circle to indicate which one is satisfied or dissatisfied, This script is very precious to me so far. Li Bihua also came to Beijing to participate in our discussion during this process. I would like to add a little bit about the handling of the end of the script.
In the original novel, it was written that Cheng Dieyi ended up living in Hong Kong. After the reform and opening up, Duan Xiaolou went to Hong Kong with the group to perform. The two met in the bathroom. I think Li Bihua’s original intention was to write that they would meet bare-chested, but I don’t think they are strong enough. . The character element will definitely drive Cheng Dieyi to follow Yu Ji's footsteps and finally fulfill herself, so his death is the only logical ending to his personality, and I think this death in this play is artistically justified. Therefore, I suggested that the two should meet again after eleven years, ending the whole situation with Cheng Dieyi's suicide, and Li Bihua agreed.
After the film was made, her reprinted novel also adopted such an ending treatment, and a character like Cheng Dieyi was truly complete. I am very grateful to the two screenwriters for their contributions to the film. During the discussion of the script, I also felt that it contained a certain opportunity for my own enlightenment. Some things grew up in my mind and body, such as The characters, plot, era, rhythm, and even the breath and smell of Beijing are all alive in my mind, so this is a process of clearing the clouds and seeing the sun. By the end of the script discussion, I already know how the film should be made. , but I don't have Cheng Dieyi yet.
"I am Cheng Dieyi"
Actually, I recalled the first time I met Leslie Cheung in the past. I went to Hong Kong when the first draft of the script had not been completed and could only tell him the story orally. The meeting place arranged by Ms. Xu Feng was at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong is the hotel where he jumped down more than ten years later.
Leslie Cheung is very quiet and gentle. I speak very urgently, for fear that we will have language barriers, because I speak Mandarin, and he is an actor who speaks Cantonese. I am afraid that what I say will not impress him. I have said on other occasions that he smoked and his fingers trembled slightly. In the process of speaking, I had a feeling of rejection, and I secretly asked: How do I know that he is the right person to play Cheng Dieyi? I don't even know if he is a good actor, my story happened in China, and he is from Hong Kong, can he understand such a role?
And here I am madly telling a story that may be rejected by him, he has not spoken, has been listening quietly, sometimes looking at me, sometimes not, I kind of don't know what to do .
But when I finished speaking, I suddenly decided that he was Cheng Dieyi, because I thought he was like a person sitting on the bow of the boat, the boat of this story. After the boat started moving, the scenery of the lake and mountains was changing from time to time. , These lights, shadows, and water waves all react on his face. I don't want to say that he is acting. He is chasing after Cheng Dieyi, approaching him in a very subtle way, expressing him, and loving him. Then he stood up and shook hands with me and said, "Thank you for the story you told me, I am Cheng Dieyi".
It was a hair-raising moment, the only time in my long filming career that I was sure of an actor. I've never met such an actor, I've never met an actor who experienced a character so carefully, and he even I don't know if this character is him in the end, I'm very moved, my embarrassment is gone. Everyone is familiar with what happened after that. At that time, there was an actor who also wanted to play this role. Our production was shaken, but we were troubled by many things, such as when pets could enter customs and so on. When an American lawyer called me about the pet entry issue, I was a little unhappy. It could be said that I lost my temper. In fact, I really hoped that this negotiation would be impossible. I I always thought that only Leslie Cheung could play this role.
Later, I went to Hong Kong for the second time, and I met Leslie Cheung again to persuade him not to give up the role because of the twists and turns in the middle. He agreed immediately and said that you tell me when I should go to Beijing to study. I said immediately, immediately, He came to Beijing just a few days later. The process of selecting Leslie Cheung is like this. It can be said that there were twists and turns, but in the end it was very successful.
Our filming started from childhood, and the whole filming lasted about six months. When he came, there were still six months before the filming of his film started, so most of his time was spent on learning, very Thanks to the husband and wife Shi Yansheng and Teacher Zhang, who are no longer there. They were in charge of Guorong's Peking Opera training at that time.
This matter is a bit predestined. During this process, he also came to watch these children's plays, especially when the young Cheng Dieyi escaped from the troupe and returned to listen to Master Guan tell the story of Farewell My Concubine and then In the scene where he slapped himself nineteen times, Leslie Cheung came. This was a very dramatic scene. He was wearing a military coat, his arms were folded, and there was no expression on his face. Because I knew that the scene had to be slapped hard, I could only slap it once, so I was brewing for a long time when I shot this scene. This little actor is called Yin Zhi. In fact, after slapping himself nineteen times, his gums were bleeding. , but Leslie Cheung's face didn't move at all. As soon as I called to stop, he turned around and left without stopping for a second. I thought he was going to comfort the little actor, but he didn't.
A few days later, I saw him calling Yin Zhi in the Chaoshou corridor in the garden and said, "Let me take a picture with you." He put his arms around Yin Zhi and sat on the bench to take a picture. Only then did I realize that he was looking at Yin Zhi as his past life. He just wanted to see what kind of crimes he himself suffered when he was a teenager. I think this person is a caring person. This scene is really unforgettable to me.
After watching this, he probably knew how he should act. He remembered that on the first day of filming, he and Feng Yi took pictures in the photo studio. He also smoothed Feng Yi's clothes. Then he went outside and met the students in the anti-Japanese demonstration. , the students scolded them passionately, but he hid behind Feng Yi, I felt that it was really not like the first day of filming. This is his first play, and he's already deep into it.
Then one thing that impressed me was that he became more and more silent during filming, less and less talking. He was once photographed in Prince Gong's mansion wearing an old Zhongshan suit, a pair of plastic-rimmed glasses, a leatherette bag, and a pair of sandals. At this time, he proposed to change to a pair of white socks. After putting on the boot, he was about to walk through a corridor full of cinders, and he stopped, lifted his feet and shook. This scene brought tears to the eyes of all the people present. It is strange that a person like Cheng Dieyi, who he plays, has a mental cleanliness.
People all over the world have the same suspicion of cleanliness, and people all over the world hate him, but he showed this character with such an action. At that time, I thought that such a dilapidated courtyard with a corridor full of cinders could not be hidden. Living in the peerless elegance of such an actor, this scene is not worth watching, but our attention is all on this character.
About Zhang Fengyi
I also want to talk about Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Fengyi is a famous tough guy, and that's his personality. He said that I could do any other drama, but it was hard to cry, and then when Juxian had a miscarriage and wanted to arrest Leslie Cheung, the police all came to the door. I said, when you don't cry now, when will you cry, he said you Can you tell me something that will make me cry? I said yes, so I left everyone next to me, leaving only the two of us. At that time, he was standing a step away from the camera to be shot. I said a little about our parents and he listened to him. I turned around and stood there with tears in my eyes.
There is also a scene of opening the hall. Mr. Lu Qi, who plays Master Guan, has a heavy hand. I think that Feng Yi is such a big player. I am afraid that it is not suitable to play. I was thinking about how to make protective gear. Feng Yi came over. , Zhang Fengyi said: "Not only to fight, but also to really fight, not only to really fight, but also to show flesh." He lay down on the bench himself, and when his trousers fell, even Ms. Xu Feng couldn't bear it.
Ten years after the filming, Feng Yi saw me once and told me that in Farewell My Concubine, he and Cheng Dieyi said that when he went to visit the kiln another day, there was a movement of rubbing his hands that I told him. , He said that someone told him that this action was not good, and he himself felt that it was a bit too much. At the time, I didn't care to say whether the move was good or bad, but ten years later, he was still thinking about it, and he still felt that he was not doing well enough. This kind of person is also a joke. So it can be said that "Farewell My Concubine" is the representative work of Teacher Zhang Fengyi.
Personal feelings about the director
When it comes to what I said to Zhang Fengyi, I mentioned our parents, the elders, the unbearable things we had more than 40 years ago, and Feng Yi's father, Feng Yi shed tears, in fact, at that time That is their situation, including my father's situation.
Since the filming of "Farewell My Concubine", I have been in a state of extreme apprehension, because my father was diagnosed with lung cancer a month before the filming. During the six months of intense filming, I have been There was no chance to visit him. My production director Bai Yu and my sister Chen Kaiyan went to take care of my father. My heart was in a state of extreme anxiety. My father's generation has really experienced great vicissitudes, but he also taught me a lot of things, I think my personal tragic feelings may also be mixed into the middle of this movie.
I also tried to comfort myself at the time. I said, "Don't sigh in plain clothes, it's like Qingming, you can go home." My father may be healed and come back by Qingming, but in the end his illness is still It's getting heavier and heavier, and I still left after two years, so the film "Farewell My Concubine" will always be integrated with my family. I came home with the trophy after I won the award in Cannes. At that time, it was only a few months before he left. He said that I took a picture and smiled like a child when I took it.
I also had the opportunity to walk around the city of Beijing where I was born and grew up by filming "Farewell My Concubine". There are various places such as palaces, Forbidden City, parks, Taoist temples, temples, etc. In fact, there is also a deep sigh, It is this old Beijing that has disappeared. In a story like "Farewell My Concubine", the characters in "Farewell My Concubine" are all attached to the city. When the city is no longer what it used to be, such people will never appear again. This is a very strong feeling.
Shortly after the movie stopped, I ate at the Qingqing Banquet. After Yu Ji committed suicide, I fell asleep. Suddenly, I dreamed that Leslie Cheung was wearing a snow-white gown, walked in and said to me with a smile, "Farewell from now on." I woke up, Tears were shed for some reason, and later, when the tears were hazy, I recalled that it was ten years before his death, but it seemed that this dream foreshadowed his final outcome.
I always feel that Leslie Cheung is the Cheng Dieyi in real life, and it is his destiny to play Cheng Dieyi. Every time I think of this place, I have a strong feeling that fate is real, so in the end, "Farewell My Concubine" is not about society, not about the times, not about the collective, but about one person. From my own experience, art is always about the individual.
After Farewell My Concubine
There is a writer Wang Zengqi who is no longer there. His father is a painter, and he himself writes novels. He said that he learned something from his father. After reading it, I think it is very good. He said that his father stood in front of the table for a long time before painting, and said that there was a lot of emotion first, and then he talked about how to write and how to conceive.
In fact, whether it is "Farewell My Concubine" or "The Yellow Earth", it all comes from this group of affection, but it's hard to say what this affection is. My biggest weakness is that I don't If I can, I feel that since I want to be a film director, I can just follow my own thoughts. That's why I think about the film festival. Everyone knows that in 1993, this film won the Cannes Award, and then won two Oscar nominations the following year, and later won the Golden Globe Award and so on. It should be Said this movie gave me a lot.
The reason why a film festival like Cannes is full of charm and has become a movie hall that many film people of different ages yearn for is because it is unknowable, you don't know which movie will be successful or won awards, and you don't know what In what new ways will such new trends pop up suddenly. I have personally experienced such a moment. In 1995, there was a film genre called "Dogma" in northern Europe. I watched three or four films made by them, and I really felt that it was indeed changing the film. direction. Sometimes you may fail, but you still want to move forward, we know that Cannes is not just a promised land for movies, but an inspirational place for youth and hope.
When I heard the news that a young director committed suicide because of his film, I was very sad. I suggested to the China Film Directors Association that the China Directors Association should focus on those who are happy and confused about the film. On the young people who are in pain and give up everything, face up to those young people who are determined to go away for their dim dreams and weak lives, face up to those young people who are ridiculed for their failures and refuse to bow their heads, let them stand Go to the podium of the China Directors Association! I hope things like this will become the new normal for Chinese cinema in the future. Thank you.
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