Huang Jianzhong. Nanfang Daily reporter photo
Nearly 80 years old, director Huang Jianzhong still looks hale and hearty. After nearly 60 years of filming, he still has no plans to retire. He has created something in his life and lived a full life. During the interview, he talked about the upcoming and planned new works Kublai Khan and Zhuangzi, both of which are great historical dramas. Kublai Khan alone has a script of 1.63 million words, which is equivalent to four novels.
Huang Jianzhong is a name that can’t be avoided in the history of China movies. Together with Dongtian Zheng, Xie Fei, Wu Yigong, Yinnan Ding and Teng Wenji, he is classified as "the fourth generation director of China movies". Among his film works, the ones that are well known to fans include Little Flower, Ruyi, Good Woman, Chinese New Year, My 1919 and so on.
In 2001, Huang Jianzhong retired from the Beijing Film Studio and turned to film and television dramas. From the legendary swordsman, The Woman at the Gunpoint of the Gestapo to Gou Jian, The King of Yue and The Empire of Daqin, all his works have a good reputation, and his name has almost become synonymous with quality dramas.
There seems to be no word "serving the elderly" in Huang Jianzhong’s world. "Someone asked, Huang Dao, are you still filming at the scene? I said, where is my pleasure if I don’t shoot on the spot? " When filming Kublai Khan, Huang Jianzhong enjoyed it in the environment of MINUS 30 degrees Celsius. The younger generation is often moved by such professionalism, but in Huang Jianzhong’s view, professional dignity is like a self-evident duty, which is observed by peers.
Huang Jianzhong’s dreams are surging like yesterday, and there are always new fields to attract him to explore.
"I regard Beijing Film Factory as a university."
Huang Jianzhong was 19 years old in 1960. After studying in the film school affiliated to the Beijing Film Factory for half a year, he entered the Beijing Film Factory and started from the scene. The peers in the crew are basically trained. Comparatively speaking, he graduated from high school and has no advantage. He described himself as a blank sheet of paper at that time, with the advantage of absorbing nutrients and digesting them more fully.
Huang Jianzhong’s growth benefited from his love of reading and his emphasis on theory. The habit of reading originated from his childhood. His second brother Huang Houxing was a graduate student of the First Approval Department of Peking University after the founding of New China. Influenced by his second brother, Huang Jianzhong systematically studied the history of Chinese and foreign literature when he was young. "So my knowledge structure is better than that of young directors of the same generation."
Huang Jianzhong said that he was just an ordinary seed, which was fortunate enough to be sown in the fertile soil of the North Film Factory. "I regard the North Film Factory as a university, and at that time, the director of the North Film Factory ‘ Four handsome men ’ Shuihua, Cui Wei, Ling Zifeng, Chengyin, and Xie Tieli are filming, and I am at the scene. " Huang Jianzhong said that his first teacher was these famous directors, and his school was the studio. "I often tell my wife that my greatest luck is that I have experienced the tempering of movie master."
Art can be as shallow as it is deep, and Cui Wei is the movie master that keeps Huang Jianzhong down.
Huang Jianzhong shared a short story behind the filming of the anti-Japanese film Private Zhang Ga in 1963. The film was decided to be directed by Cui Wei when it was prepared for shooting for half a year. After scanning the script for a few minutes, Cui Wei bluntly put forward several serious injuries. "In the novel, it is written to dig a tunnel, but Baiyangdian can’t dig a tunnel. If you dig a foot, you will see water. Shooting children’s films must also stand the test of life. "
It was not until Huang Jianzhong retired that he really understood Cui Wei. "Read two words, ‘ Self-confidence ’ Where does the confidence of art come from? Knowledge and cultivation. "
The film "Little Flower", which was born in 1979, is somewhat born. This iconic film, known as the birth of the new wave of China movies, is a war theme, but it adopts a very new film language at that time, such as the ingenious use of colorful forward narrative and black-and-white flashback pictures. What is more special is that it highlights the human feelings in the war, rather than simple heroism.
Xie Fei, a contemporary director, also said with surprise that this work not only brought fire to the film industry, but also produced three stars.
Huang Jianzhong, as an assistant director, once told Zheng Zhang, the director of Little Flower, that the original novel Hero of Tongbai was about war stories. However, since the founding of New China, a large number of excellent war films have emerged from "Fighting in the South and Fighting in the North" to "Red Sun" and "Shangganling", and the artistic peak is hard to surpass, so it is better to find another way.
In preparation for filming, Huang Jianzhong has repeatedly associated with the French new wave films such as Love in Hiroshima and Long Separation, which are "completely different from all our previous film experiences". China’s films pay attention to the beginning and the end, with distinct layers. Huang Jianzhong changed the script of Little Flower according to the creative way of stream of consciousness instead of the traditional way.
"At that time ‘ Young and crazy ’ I put all my past accumulation in Little Flower. " Looking back, Huang Jianzhong felt confident and fearless. He said that, unlike the works of the predecessors of the "third generation directors", which pay more attention to stories, he wanted to show the uniqueness of the art of film from "Little Flower".
Creation is most afraid of "aristocratic spirit"
This is an exploratory story. Ruyi, released in 1982, is Huang Jianzhong’s famous work, which has the inherent temperament in China’s traditional poetics — — Rich connotation beauty. The simplicity, calmness, joy and sadness of the characters are mixed, and the environment and the spiritual realm of the characters are integrated, which has strong artistic appeal.
After that, a series of works, Huang Jianzhong always runs through the distinctive personality of seeking depth in thought and novelty in art, and The Good Woman and the Virgin all reflect his unique aesthetic and artistic pursuit of "exploration films".
Huang Jianzhong has his own insistence: "Even if only one of the 100 viewers understands my film, I will shoot it for him."
After gaining fame and status, we have to face the commercial tide of China film market. He was once in a state of confusion. According to his summary at that time, his past films may be considered very exquisite and intriguing by artists, but in the eyes of many audiences, they are elusive.
Huang Jianzhong began to get to know himself again, and gradually realized that "there are ninety-nine other audiences to win".
In 1990, when filming "Police Officer in the Year of the Dragon", he began to pursue both refined and popular tastes. In 1991, the Chinese New Year, which gathered actors from Zhao Lirong, Ge You, Li Baotian and six-year-old children, was made more interesting. Huang Jianzhong attributed "Chinese New Year" to "cultural entertainment film".
People have gradually discovered that his works are no longer the existence of spring snow, but as simple and natural as "just like an ordinary song".
After receiving his retirement certificate at the age of 60, Huang Jianzhong’s creation turned to TV series. He described making a movie as writing a short story, while TV series is like a novel, which has more room for display. In terms of movies, "everything that should be shot has been shot, and everything that should be tried has been tried".
His concern for history and reality and his concern for human nature are consistent. If we sort out his images, especially his retired works, we can obviously feel a kind of solidity. No matter "Mother Instrument in the World", "Song of the Wind" or "Gou Jian, the King of Yue" and "Kublai Khan", they are mostly adapted from literary works with rich cultural atmosphere and rich connotations, and the stories are very national and legendary.
Starting from directing "Empire of Daqin" in 2006, on the basis of previous written records, Huang Jianzhong added a seemingly relaxed but actually heavy weight to his work. After intense and hard shooting, he began to keep a "director’s diary" and later published it in a collection.
"Artistic creation is most afraid of ‘ Aristocratic spirit ’ The nobility is divorced from life, but artistic creation should participate in life and find beauty in people’s common life. " Huang Jianzhong said.
There is a saying that the best actor should always enter the inner state of the character. Huang Jianzhong also said that in making historical dramas, he must touch the souls of historical figures.
This is what he realized when he filmed Gou Jian, the King of Yue. This time he filmed Kublai Khan. From the beginning of reading the script, he put Kublai Khan’s portrait in the hotel and took it with him when he went out. "I have been watching and thinking."
Huang Jianzhong doesn’t necessarily use famous actors. One of the major features of Kublai Khan is that Mongolian actors account for the majority of the 217 characters in the play.
"Han people play Mongols, more in ‘ Play ’ It’s hard to find a feeling. Mongolians living on horseback have different behaviors, voices and smiles from the Han people under the influence of farming civilization. "
He always remembers a sentence said by his teacher Cui Wei: "Choose actors and temperament. If the temperament is right, you can succeed. "
Shoot the taste between the lines
In 2011, at the symposium on the 50th anniversary of Huang Jianzhong’s filming, Director Xie Fei said: "It is very rare for Huang Jianzhong to constantly absorb new things and keep moving forward."
In Huang Jianzhong’s view, people’s vitality is reflected in their thirst for knowledge. "People have the highest thirst for knowledge in youth and middle age, but when they are old, they are still curious and curious about everything, which is the key to a young mind."
Many people say that Huang Jianzhong is a real scholar-oriented director, and he exudes a strong bookish spirit.
"I can basically remember reading." He said that it is not that he has a good memory, but that he has always had three habits: taking notes, sharing experiences with others, and "talking" with writers. "Reading until the end is a dialogue with the author. I often tell my students that filming is not a story, but a taste between the lines. So is reading, and reading is a taste. "
Huang Jianzhong is immersed in the identity of a director, which brings him unparalleled satisfaction.
Investors who asked him to film in these years often hesitated at first. "Will Huang Dao be older?" It was the same before Kublai Khan. However, the investor took the producer and others to Huang Jianzhong’s home for an hour and then made a decision to sign the contract.
The script of Kublai Khan has 1.63 million words, the rough cut version is 104 episodes, and there are 76 episodes after streamlining. Younger editors will be amazed at Huang Jianzhong’s memory. "I said that this scene must be off camera, and then it was really. 516 scenes and 217 characters are all in my mind. "
In his view, a very important factor that determines physical fitness is the breadth of mind. "We are filming. I won’t say that we want to shoot in an environment of MINUS 30 degrees Celsius. I will call the deputy director. I must shoot it myself."
During his decades as a director, he was never late and had a strong sense of time. "I’m filming fast. I’ll tell them how to set the scene immediately when I get to the scene. No matter how big the wrist is, the actors must recite their lines and enter the scene. You can’t check the lines when you get to the scene. Even if we shoot ten pages of paper a day, our TV series still leaves work at 6 o’clock in the morning and closes at 6 o’clock in the afternoon. "
"Little Flower" was filmed in Huangshan Mountain, which was forty years ago. In the film, Liu Xiaoqing plays the role of He Cuigu, but the most beautiful scene in the film belongs to her. On the steep cliff, Cuigu shouldered a stretcher and knelt down, climbing step by step, even though her knees were bleeding.
In many interviews, Huang Jianzhong mentioned Huangshan Mountain. For example, he once said that he hoped to climb Huangshan again at the age of 80. In an exclusive interview with Nanfang Daily reporter, he said with emotion that being a director should not only strive for intelligence and physical strength, but also have a spirit of never giving up and never giving up.
"Huangshan pine grows from a crack in the stone. It is attractive and tenacious. The same is true of being a man. " Huang Jianzhong said. (Nanfang Daily reporter in Beijing Liu Changxin, intern Lin Keyi)