China News Service, Beijing, October 23 (Reporter Gao Kai) Directed by Xu Anhua, written by Wang Anyi, starring Ma Sichun, Yu Feihong, and Peng Yuyan, adapted from Zhang Ailing’s novel, "The First Incense" was released here on the 22nd. The reputation is yet to be reviewed. And the heat has exploded.
Xu Anhua is one of the directors with the most adaptations of Zhang Ailing's works, 1984's "Love in the Allure", 1997's "Half Life", this time, it is "The First Incense".
On the 22nd, this innately topical film was released here, and during heated discussions inside and outside the theater, director Xu Anhua accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency a few days ago.
From my own thinking on "The First Incense", the various creations in the film version, to the future of the film in the post-epidemic and new technologies, I can talk about it, or you can get a glimpse of the director of the Venice Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award The "shape" of the movie that has been formed in my heart over the years.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee of the movie "The First Incense"
About Zhang Ailing
As one of the most prestigious novelists in the Chinese literary world, Zhang Ailing's novels have some very unique qualities in narrative, imagery and style. This temperament has fascinated countless readers and caused more difficulties in their film and television adaptation.
Regarding her choice this time, Xu Anhua said, “Zhang Ailing has many readers who have very high expectations for the work. The things described in the book are all different when they are photographed. Everyone knows this.”
"This time I am challenging myself, that is, to make this story written by Zhang Ailing into the "shape" of the movie. The so-called "shape" includes many things. Various color music narrative characters, when it is aggregated and formed on the big screen, the audience How will you feel from it."
"I don't want the audience to see a lot of profound truths after watching them. I think Zhang Ailing is good because she is very profound, but at the same time she can understand it at a glance. You can see her works after you finish reading them. Yes,'Ah! I'm in (I)', instead of doing a logical proof in it, this person reacted from A to B to C to D, and then added up, she didn't write it like this, but suddenly came to a very complicated, A feeling that people didn't expect but can understand and experience very well."
Xu Anhua believes that the "shape" of the resulting film should also be the same. "I also hope that in my film, people will feel some overall relationship in the cooperation of some pictures, people, etc., rather than a single certain A line, or a single relationship between two people."
Photo courtesy of the interviewee of the movie "The First Incense"
About "The First Incense"
"For me, "The First Incense" is definitely not a moral understanding. For me, it is a good story, with good pictures and colors in it, and it is a bit like a painting in itself. I hope to use the form of a movie. Show what I feel."
Xu Anhua said bluntly, "Zhang Ailing never tags characters, nor do I, so the focus is on how to express it."
Talking about the interpretation of the story of "The First Incense", Xu Anhua said, "It is a so-called depraved network. I think what the film has to do is to present it, but I did not adopt a dramatic expression because of this. It is the norm in their (protagonist) society."
"So in the movie "The First Incense" I hope to present the protagonist’s living conditions, each person’s different background, each person’s different reactions to the things happening around them. They are in a dangerous and deformed situation. In the network of relationships without knowing it, for example, aunt, many of her practices, she herself needs to do that in order to get the kind of satisfaction she needs."
"For all this, I don't make judgments in the movie, right or wrong, this is not what the movie needs to do, what I want to do is to show everyone's state." Xu Anhua said.
The background of the novel of "The First Incense" is set in the complex field of Hong Kong, and the background of the times is diverse and complicated, which in turn makes "The First Incense" an extremely rich interpretation.
Although Hong Kong has been shown in front of the camera many times, Xu Anhua said that in order to show the background in the story, he still did a lot of data collection. "Hong Kong in the 1940s and Hong Kong in the 1930s were actually divided into two districts. One area is green and white, with a lot of trees and white colonial buildings, one side is brown, such as slums such as the wharf and Wan Chai. In "The First Incense", the wharf is a bit like another world. , The (poor) class information is mentioned in these places. The story itself is mainly from the high-level society. The Chinese and Western cultures are concentrated in the Qiao family. Their two brothers and sisters have their own blood and mixed traces, which represent the city itself. history."
Photo courtesy of Xu Anhua interviewee
About the protagonists
The movie "The First Incense" adds some first-view memories in the role of the aunt, which makes the whole life experience more clear and perceptual. Regarding the cooperation with Yu Feihong, Xu Anhua said with a smile, "Yu Feihong herself really wants to play this. The character, I was shocked at the time because I thought she looked too young, she was too dignified, and too sensible. But then in our conversation, I felt that the strength in her bones is actually connected to her aunt, she He also has acting skills, and his lines are very good. When I put on that dress, I feel like an aunt."
Speaking of Ma Sichun, Xu Anhua said that her profile is very similar to "a girl in a foreign film in the 1940s", "I admired her acting skills very much in "July and Ansheng" and also liked her look. She is a very A perceptual actor doesn’t like to say, she likes acting alone, and she feels very much during acting.”
Regarding Peng Yuyan, Xu Anhua bluntly felt that "he is a very dedicated actor" when filming "When Will the Moon Be", "His appearance is a bit of mixed blood, which is just right for Qiao Qiqiao." Xu Anhua revealed that he played such a role for the first time. At one point, Peng Yuyan was quite disturbed, "In fact, he has not been able to overcome that anxiety, but that kind of anxiety has been brought into this role by him, and it has become the dominant character of this character."
"Every actor who comes to our play is not in a delivery mentality. I feel very sorry for them. They have paid a lot for this play, and I am very grateful to them." Xu Anhua said.
Photo courtesy of Xu Anhua interviewee
The "shape" of the movie
Xu Anhua once expressed his opposition to concept first, against the "learning" function of the film, emphasizing the form and content of the film, and Xu Anhua bluntly said that he was very curious about the audience's feelings and imagination of the film, "How the audience will watch this movie."
In Xu Anhua’s films, there are very few strong emotional expressions. There have been comments that the emotional presentation is often calm and gentle. Therefore, for Xu Anhua, there is a kind of interpretation of "reconciliation". Since there is no criticism, this calm presentation Whether it means some kind of reconciliation, Xu Anhua does not agree with this, "Reconciliation or not, whether from the perspective of the characters in the film or from the perspective of each viewer, it should be an individual experience. Everyone is different. , I think it should be like this. Light and shadow present what I want to show, whether it is on the screen or off the screen. Everyone is different. If there is too much consistency, they will all become robots."
Looking back on her career in filming, Xu Anhua said that her biggest change now is that she "knows more and more about the nature of the film." "I am very confident about this. I don't think it is necessary to say how to shoot and how to perform. There is energy, the energy in the creation, this is what the movie needs most. Every part needs this energy. Take the actor, even if he is acting a dying person, the actor himself cannot perform without that kind of energy. So When I see an actor, I also see if he has energy. I think it’s more important than appearance."
"The movie itself is something different from literature and music. The movie is not just a story, but a variety of ways to get you involved." Xu Anhua agrees with the film's pursuit of "immersion" in the future. "I think the film should be Going over there, on the one hand, technically, what Ang Lee has tried in recent years is also to pursue a more immersive experience in watching movies; there should be such a pursuit in content, which is to make the audience feel that'that is us' ."(over)