——Sean Penn on the award-winning "Palladium" film "Lesson"
Laurent Gangtai: Fiction is more real than documentary.
With his debut "Human Resources" (also translated: "Humanity Struggle"), the blockbuster French director Laurent Gangtai is regarded as one of the five most important new directors in the French film industry. . "Human Resources" won Gangtai the best film debut award at the French Film Caesar Awards in 2001. At the end of the same year, his second work "Sequential Time" was released, and he also won the Don Quixote Award at the Venice Film Festival in recognition of the outstanding film of that year. After the 2005 work "Paradise Lost in the South" participated in the Venice Film Festival, the name of Laurent Gantai became the focus of discussion for a while.
As a young director who has only three films on his resume and has never been involved in the three major film festival awards, he won the Palme d’Or with his fourth film. Gangtai’s success came a little too smoothly. Even now, in China, the media does not have a unified translation method for his surname. Kang Dai, Candit...there are many different kinds of things. After all, compared to French director Arnault de Palacin, who was also shortlisted in the competition, Laurent Gante’s name appears to be lighter in terms of qualifications and fame. However, although De Palacin's "Christmas Story" is exquisite, delicate, vivid, and full of sparks of wisdom, it is only French film critics represented by Jean-Michel Fudong, editor-in-chief of the "Cinema Manual". As the last film to be unveiled, Laurent Guntai's "Lesson" was post-production, and at the same time captured the hearts of ordinary audiences and film critics.
The style of this film is quite "documentary", and the shooting method is not traditional. "Before I was preparing for the production of "The Lost Paradise in the South", I wanted to make a movie about campus and education." Gangtai revealed, "Nowadays, the scenes and dialogues in the school in the TV documentary are very fake, or they exaggerate the violence in the school. And juvenile delinquency, or whitewashing peace, I hope it can be different, not to mention the clichés about schools and the education system, and to put aside people’s stereotypes about traditional schools.” The film took more than a year to prepare before shooting. A studio was established in a real school, and a group of 13 to 16-year-old students were recruited to live and attend classes together. The filmmakers studied their behaviors and reactions while getting along with these children, prepared the material, and improved the movie little by little. frame.
At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, many competing films adopted the narrative approach that wanted to be closer to the documentary, and selected non-professional actors to star, including Jia Zhangke’s Twenty-Four Cities, Walter Salles and the female director Danielle La Thomas co-directed "Cross the Line", Turkish celebrity director Ceylon's "Three Monkeys", Italian film "Omora City" and so on.
Talking about the tone of the film "documentary-style drama", Gangtai said that before filming started, he had been thinking about whether the film should be presented in documentary or fictional methods. "Later I thought it was actually difficult to make a documentary. I didn't want to take risks, and I didn't want to wait for something to happen." Gangtai added, "Actually, fiction is sometimes more real than documentary. In documentaries, the characters are exactly the same. Insincere, because when facing the camera, people will unconsciously choose what they want to say. On the contrary, under the protection of the fictional character, the performance of the actor is more real, because there is the excuse that it’s not about yourself. People are most honest.”
Unlike most French filmmakers today who only like to focus on French society, Guntai’s films often have an international and cosmopolitan perspective. "My film has an eternal theme, which is to show the situation and feelings of individuals in a complex world, and to explore how individuals view the real world." As the first Frenchman to be awarded the "Palm of Gold" in 21 years, Guntai strives for the contemporary French film defense, "In fact, French films are still diverse."
François Bergado: the director's "messenger"
François Begaud, who has just turned 37, worked as a French teacher in a high school in Paris for a long time. In his spare time, he often publishes articles, such as "Cinema Manual", "Le Monde", France The film critics and columnists of the "Playboy" magazine often appear on TV commentary shows and host a football commentary column in Le Monde. In 2003, the novel "Fair Play" made him stand out in the French literary world. In 2006, he wrote his personal experience of being a teacher into the novel "Between the Walls", which became a bestseller, and was awarded by the director Laurent Gunte. Attention, I hope to be adapted into a movie, and finally I just ask him to act himself.
From film critics to novel writers to screenwriters to actors, Begodeau’s path to film is unusual and interesting. Begodeau said that the appearance on the big screen this time was entirely due to his "responsibility". "I have to take this role." He said, "Laurent found me to talk to me about the adaptation of the script and said that every role in this movie should be played by a'real person', and this is what I am. "A real person." Although the role of the teacher François Maran in the film is a fictional character, many of the problems he encounters come from the personal experience of Begodeau when he was a teacher. "This is a real fictional character." Bergado said.
In such a film that uses fiction to represent reality, Begodeau’s identity is different from the traditional screenwriter or starring role. "He actually assumed part of the responsibility of the'director'." Gangtai said, "or, he is the director's'ambassador' and the'ambassador' sent by the director to the classroom in this society."
After the winners' media meeting In an interview with a reporter from the Zaobao, Bergado replied when he talked about the different feelings of being a film critic and an actor: "I am not a star, or even an actor, I am this role."
Although from Truffer and Godard Since the era, the film critics of the "Cinema Manual" have had a "tradition" of filmmaking, but Bergado has not yet picked up the title of "director". The trust is given to others. In this regard, Bergado explained: "It is not difficult to trust Laurent. I like his movies. We have many similar views. For my novel, I did not'let go'. This movie is in both of us. It was born from the collaboration of ”, we think and create together.”
So, when do you make your own movie? Begodeau smiled: "We'll see."
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above were written when I just watched the film in Cannes in May this year. Now I can't remember many of the plots, so I won't write another film review.
I just remember that later in Paris, I saw that many schools were about to close, but banners hung at the door calling for the schools to be saved. A banner was impressive, "Every time a school is closed, a new prison will be opened.-Victor Hugo"
Later, even when I met some ordinary people in France, they would take the initiative to talk to me about this movie and French education. The relationship between the status quo of the system. It seems that the issues discussed in the film actually happen to be the focus of contradictions in French society at the moment. Everyone pays attention to it. The original author and Laurent Cantet have seen this. This is one of the most important qualities of a good film.
I also like this pseudo-documentary model. Cantet’s own words are very interesting, "Fiction is more real than documentary." At that time, I immediately thought of Wilde’s famous saying: Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
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