On April 24, the 14th Beijing International Film Festival Xu Anhua Film Master Class was held, with the famous director and producer of Hong Kong, China Xu Anhua as the keynote speaker, and the director Wen Yan had a dialogue, and Professor Dai Jinhua of Peking University served as a special guest host. The three guests had a dialogue and shared their views on the theme of "The Long Road of Female Independent Filmmakers".
The promotion of feminism is one of the manifestations of social progress
Hui Anhua, known as half of Hong Kong's film history, is not only Professor Tai Kam-wah's opening remarks, but also a highly concise and summary of Hui's creative career. Since her debut film "Crazy Robbery" in 1979, Ann Hui has always captured social changes and life from a delicate female perspective, showing the audience a Hong Kong, China that is hidden under the surface of the bustling city, full of fireworks and the image of "ordinary people" living here.
"Women's perspective" and "gender thinking" are the natural themes of director Xu Anhua's works, but when it comes to these, director Xu Anhua is very indifferent: "When you reach a certain age, your views will change, I used to shoot something more dramatic and impactful, but in middle age, under the influence of Hou Xiaoxian and Yang Dechang, I began to directly 'talk about life'." ”
"Thinking about gender is something I didn't think about until I was in my 70s. In the past, I didn't deliberately think from a woman's point of view when filming, but it just so happened that the protagonist of this story was a woman, so I knew her better. Now I find that when you look at a problem from a higher perspective, you will understand the ins and outs of it better, so thinking is necessary. I feel that the film industry did not pay so much attention to 'female perspective' or 'gender thinking' in the past, but after reading a lot of relevant materials and books, I feel that this kind of thinking must and must be there after broadening my horizons, and the promotion of feminism is also one of the manifestations of social progress. ”
Director Wen Yan, who also focuses on women-themed films, also gave his own opinions when talking about "female perspective" and "gender thinking": "When I create films, I start more from myself, our perspective on the world must be limited, there are too many puzzles and unknowns, I will bring such a perspective to my film shooting, inviting the audience to participate in the film narrative and interact with the film." ”
Wen Yan said: "When I first created the work, I was also ignorant of the concept of gender, and I was gradually exploring. But because I have a lot of questions, I triggered the thinking in the movie, and then put these questions and thoughts in my own work. For example, the presentation of female characters in the film narrative is something that I have gradually formed a clear understanding through reading and watching the film while creating, asking questions, and thinking at the same time. ”
A film is not just a narrative, but also a director's perception and feelings
"Cinema is not just a narrative, cinema is also the director's perception and feeling. This is the answer given by director Xu Anhua.
Referring to the fact that she never wrote scripts, Hui Anhua humbly said that she is not good at writing scripts: "I have always respected literature and am used to working with screenwriters. I don't think everybody can write a screenplay, because it may be a story to write out, but it's not a screenplay, because the script has a rhythm. I want to learn, but I'm afraid I can't write well. ”
Wen Yan admitted frankly that there was no other source of scripts at the beginning of creation, so he could only rely on his own creation. For Wen Yan, writing a script is "the happiest part of the whole creative process", and she can freely and whimsically create a world, create the characters in this world and the environment in which they live. In the process of writing, it is constantly examined, and finally it is presented in the form of images in the mind, like a dream. "I think your script will be complete when you can really dream like that. ”
When talking about the need to read a lot of relevant books and documents to adapt literary works, director Hui Anhua said that reading materials is a necessary process, but she is more concerned and pays more attention to the feeling of entering the shooting space. "In fact, today, I feel more and more that these 'feelings' are movies, not just real stories. Movies are actually about your opinions and your feelings, and if you have very good opinions and things that are different from others, your movie will become. ”
It takes some frustration to tell these stories well
As a female independent director, director Hui's film career has not been smooth sailing. She had been away from the Hong Kong film industry for more than a decade, and during this period of creative stagnation, she taught at a university. The financial pressure caused hardship in her life, but she never gave up the pursuit of the film career and never diminished her love for the art of film.
Speaking of that time, Hui said: "Looking back now, that experience is of course also an important part of life experience. You have to go through some frustration before you can understand how good others are to you, and you can tell these stories well, and if you don't experience it, many things are more difficult to shoot. ”
In his half-century-long film art career, director Xu Anhua has been creating as an "independent director", and was nicknamed "the lone wanderer" by Professor Dai Jinhua. In this regard, Xu Anhua jokingly said that he did not deliberately choose to become an independent director, but because he prefers to cooperate with familiar people, he has always had his own persistence in creation.
Director Tsui Hark once commented that director Ann Hui's works have expanded the creative space and consciousness of Hong Kong films, and changed the original path of Hong Kong films. In this regard, Xu Anhua was very humble. In her opinion, what opens up this new field is the persistence of the older generation of filmmakers and the ingenuity of filmmakers of the same generation. "If one day a movie that tells a real-life story walks above the world film industry, then it will be Chinese films that stand up. ”
At the 77th Venice International Film Festival in 2020, director Ann Hui won the "Lifetime Achievement Award", and she is also the first female director in the world to receive this honor. But she did not stop because of this, about the future, Xu Anhua said: "In the past few years, I have had more time to think, and I am not so anxious when I watch movies, and I am more thinking about the aesthetics of movies. I think I'm getting a little bit better, so I still want to film. There are a lot of things that make me want to give it a try, and I hope to have the opportunity to make another one. ”
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang
Editor/Cui Wei