The deputy director chased after the crew and shouted,
He wants Pan Laowu to wear underpants
In the summer of 1976, the famous writer Ye Weilin ended his 12-year decentralization life and was transferred back to the provincial capital from the Lingling District Cultural Bureau of Hunan Province and was temporarily arranged Worked at the Provincial Opera Research Institute. The novella "On the River Without Navigation Beacon" was published in the newly founded "Furong" magazine in September 1980 and received rave reviews.
In April 1981, "On the River Without Navigation Beacon" won the first prize and second place at the first National Novella Awards Committee sponsored by the Chinese Writers Association. At that time, several film studios were competing for its filming rights, and They all sent out top-notch directors.
The award ceremony was held in Beijing in mid-May, and Ye Weilin stayed at the Jingxi Hotel. The day before the meeting was about to end, the door was suddenly pushed open and a man came in. It was Wu Tianming, the director of Xi'an Film Studio. He introduced himself first, and then went straight to the topic without any polite words. He said that he was going to put "On the River without Navigation Beacon" on the screen, and asked Ye Weilin to write the adaptation of the movie script...
The filming of "On the River without Navigation Beacon" incorporated Wu Tianming's real life experience and poured his deep love into it. emotion. But in the early 1980s, adapting the film was no easy task. At that time, people's minds had not yet been completely liberated, so the subject of reflection on the "Cultural Revolution" was very sensitive.
After a deputy director read the script of "River without Navigation Beacon" that Wu Tianming got back, he made more than a hundred opinions and talked with Wu Tianming for three hours. Among them was this opinion: In the script There is a scene in which the protagonist Pan Laowu swims naked in front of many rural women. The deputy director said to Wu Tianming: "This is not good. This needs to be changed. You need to wear panties for Pan Laowu." However, Wu Tianming believed that this was a kind of catharsis and outburst of the protagonist's suppressed emotions, so it was reasonable. Strive. The deputy director insisted that such a lens would pollute the screen. Later, when the crew set off, the deputy director chased the crew's car and shouted: "Tianming, you must remember to put on Pan Laowu's underwear."
In the end, Wu Tianming thought of a compromise: he I asked the costume designer to take a train to Shanghai and buy a few pairs of nylon pantyhose worn by lesbians that could only be bought in Shanghai at the time, and put them on the male actors during filming. In fact, it's impossible to tell the difference on screen, but at least he followed the leader's instructions to "put Pan Laowu in underpants." This shot also became the first male "nude" shot since the founding of New China.
Floating on the Xiaoshui River day and night,
The actor was tanned into a "black loach"
In order to get a real life experience, Wu Tianming led the film crew to float on the Xiaoshui River day and night, experiencing the wind and sun together with the discharge workers , mosquito bites.
The filming process of the movie was equally difficult. Most of the male actors come from cities and are generally whiter. This effect is not good in movies. After two or three months of training, after being exposed to the sun and water, there was no need to put on makeup. The skin was all tanned and as dark as a loach.
In order to coordinate the form of expression with the simple and unpretentious characters in the film, Wu Tianming agreed with his collaborators to "no tricks" in terms of montage structure, scene scheduling, picture modeling, light and color processing, and sound composition. He also pays special attention to the authenticity of details. In the film, the carefully designed action details such as holding the wire between the toes, fanning himself with the waistband of his trousers, and swimming naked all add to the personality of the characters to a certain extent and enhance the three-dimensional sense of the characters.
"River Without Navigation Beacon" not only won the second prize for outstanding feature film from the Ministry of Culture in 1983, but also won the East-West Center Award at the 4th Hawaii International Film Festival in the United States - the Eastman Kodak Award. This is the first time that a film from Xi'an Film Studio has won an international award, and it has won international reputation for Xi'an Film Studio. At the same time, the greatest significance of winning these two awards to Wu Tianming is that it has further enhanced his self-confidence. As a true example of art, "River without Navigation Beacon" has been forever recorded in history.
The low-budget art film "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix",
Suona Song Farewell to the Revered One
From 2006, he was commissioned by Qujiang Film and Television. After eight years until the end of his life, Wu Tianming painstakingly prepared one script after another, all of which were sold by investors. They denied it for various reasons. Seeing that the eight-year contract was about to expire, Qujiang finally agreed to support Wu Tianming in making a low-cost art film. In the summer of 2010, Wu Tianming fell in love with a novella "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix" published in "Contemporary".
In Wushuang Town, the long-standing folk art of blowing the suona is not just for entertainment. What is more significant is that it is a life evaluation of the deceased who has traveled far away when doing funerals - those with mediocre morals only play two There are four stages for those who are average, and eight stages for those who are superior. Only those with high moral standards are qualified to play "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix". This difficult piece of music can only be played by Mr. Jiao Sanye, the famous leader of the Jiao Family Class in Wushuang Town.
Mr. Jiao San is old and urgently needs to train a successor. Disciple You Tianming was young and immature when he first entered Jiao's class, and was in awe of Mr. Jiao. Although he was unwilling to be "abandoned" by his father to study in Jiao's class, he still had the confidence to strive for the glory of his family and win his master's approval. Students who can enter Jiao's class must have good character, be loyal and moral, and be "never leaving their mouths without suona" from the bottom of their hearts. In the process of testing whether the apprentice meets the standards, the sincere master-apprentice relationship, father-son relationship, and brotherhood between the new and old generations of suona artists for their persistence in faith are also touchingly presented.
The scripts were often changed to the point of crying.
Don’t be a "locust" that harms the people.
In order to film "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix", Wu Tianming specially invited local suona experts to teach the actors step by step suona skills, every position and fingering. It’s all about accuracy. When Wu Tianming was composing "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix", he was already 72 years old. He went through many drafts of the script but was still dissatisfied. In the end, he even went into seclusion for a month and a half to revise it word for word, often to the point of crying.
When filming "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix", Wu Tianming adhered to the tradition he had when filming "Life" and "Old Well": requiring the actors and creators to go deep into their lives and study the script after the set, while he himself absorbed everyone's wisdom to enrich and improve it. He asked the crew to strictly manage the production and not to be a "locust" that harmed the people. He lived with the crew in a poor guest house and ate the same meals without being special; he required the actors to dress up in their characters' clothes as soon as they arrived on the crew. Wear clothes, go to the wheat field to learn to cut wheat, learn to play suona from the suona instructor, tan your skin in the sun, and every move and every move must look like the role you play.
Only by blowing the suona into the seams of the bones,
can we risk our lives to pass on the suona.
In February 2014, the final production of "A Hundred Birds Worship the Phoenix" was completed. Just one month later, Wu Tianming passed away.
Since 2014, Wu Yanyan has been looking for distribution companies with movie copies. She has found more than a dozen companies, and all she has heard is the same answer: The movie is a good movie, but they don’t know how to sell it or make a profit! Wu Yanyan, who was holding her father's legacy, began to feel at a loss. It wasn't until she met the famous producer Fang Li that the situation changed... On May 6, 2016, the movie "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix" was finally released nationwide. , but because most of the screenings are scheduled in the morning or after 10 pm, there is still no way to change the result of this film's low box office.
html On May 13, Fang Li, who was deeply saddened, broadcast live on Weibo the bitterness and insights of the announcement of "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix". He recounted the difficulties of low publicity expenses and uncooperative theaters. When it came to the emotional part, the gray-haired Fang Li knelt on his knees and kowtowed, praying with tears that the theaters would increase the number of films for this late excellent director's last work...
Fang Li's kneeling also quickly triggered a market effect. The closing box office of "A Hundred Birds to the Phoenix" was fixed at 86.9 million yuan... and all profits from "A Hundred Birds to the Phoenix" were donated to the Wu Tianming Youth Film Special Fund for free. This may be This is what Wu Tianming wishes.
Wu Tianming directed his last work "A Hundred Birds Pay Attendance to the Phoenix" with farmer-like diligence, sincerity and sincerity, and what he insisted on was the same as "Life", "Old Well", "Changing Face" and "CEO" The film development path of deepening realism in Chinese style and Chinese style, which is in the same vein and keeps pace with the times.
"Only those who blow the suona into the seams of their bones can work hard to pass on the suona." The movie "A Hundred Birds Pay Attention to the Phoenix" tells not only the story of the suona, but also the "suona craftsman" You Tianming is Wu Tianming. A true portrayal of the director.
Author Zhang Jin (Exclusive manuscript of "Shanghai TV", please contact the "Shanghai TV" editorial department for reprinting)
