The 77th Cannes International Film Festival is in full swing in France. Jia Zhangke's new film "The Romance", which was shortlisted for the main competition, has attracted much attention and held its world premiere locally.
"The Romantic Generation" is Jia Zhangke's follow-up to 2002's "Ren Xiaoyao", 2008's " Twenty-Four Cities ", 2013 "Destined", 2015 " Mountains and Rivers Old Friends ", 2018 " Jianghu Children " "After that, this is the sixth work to be shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes.
"The Romantic Generation" starring Jia Zhangke's heroine Zhao Tao tells the story of a Chinese woman who silently experienced the hustle and bustle of life in the first twenty-one years of the 21st century, spanning more than twenty years of ups and downs in the world.
Qiaoqiao, played by Zhao Tao, and her lover Bin Ge (acted by Li Zhubin) staged a love experience of on-off and re-union during the long journey through time and space. From 2001 to 2023, the filming cycle of the film also spans 22 years, truly recording the changes in Chinese society in the past 20 years from Jia Zhangke's perspective.
After the premiere, the film received praise from the audience and the media. The film's "Screen" rating is currently 2.4 points, leading the way with "The Kind Kind" and " Emilia ".
"The Merry Generation" is not only called the "Odyssey" that has run through China since the beginning of the new century, but some film critics commented: "Jia Zhangke's bold experiment was so successful that after watching "The Merry Generation", people There will be a wonderful impression, as if this is the final work that he has been accumulating, and all those acclaimed previous works are just the raw materials accumulated for this movie. "
Morning News reporter interviewed Jia Zhangke online and asked him to talk about ". What kind of movie is "The Romantic Generation"?
Jia Zhangke: It is a kind of disaster that human beings generally experience, a kind of great external change. It always ends one stage of art and begins another. So under such objective conditions, because you have a lot of time, you can process the images of the past and look back at the past at such a turning point of the era. It's what we should do at this point in time. It's not our choice, it's arranged. You said I won't cut it sooner or later. It's true that I haven't even thought about cutting out those materials before. To do something is actually Let God's will, I think it's a bit like "heaven comes" to a certain extent.
Jia Zhangke: For each specific movie, it is a specific movie and an individual. It depends on how you describe it. For example, if we tell a story about lost love, if we tell a story and say this is a movie about lost love, is it a story about lost love in an era without telephones, a story about lost love in the Internet age, or a story about lost love in an age of artificial intelligence? When you hear the story, it sounds like lovelorn, but the era behind it, the feeling and content of our lives are completely different.
So from this perspective, we determined from the beginning that it should be based on a clear storyline to carry rich information about the times and the feelings of the characters. Just like a river, the river is more complicated with twists and turns. Of course, the river is a natural flow of human life. Only the stability of the river can carry its sparkling waves and fleeting feelings. , is such a narrative principle.
But at the same time when I was writing the play, I also thought about whether to use a method of staggering time and space, or a retrospective flashback. Each method has its narrative advantages, such as a flashback. The emotional efficiency of the return method may be very high and the audience will be infected immediately, but I finally decided to use a purely linear narrative method, because I feel that throughout more than 20 years of shooting, it is a purely linear shooting material that has formed The rhythm of change in the purely linear clues. So this movie has been in development for a long time and was still being edited at the beginning of this year.
Jia Zhangke: The 1970s are very important, because I remember that it was when I was seven or eight years old, that is, in the late 1970s and 1980s, the term "Merry Generation" suddenly became popular, and he specifically referred to that generation of young people.The so-called "Wind Generation" means that in the early stage of reform and opening up, we must move firmly towards modernization and embrace the world with an open mind. It corresponds to a kind of instability. We must get out of the system and break the tradition. , so it is such a concept.
If you pay attention, there is now a youth magazine called "The Romantic Generation". We had this magazine when we were young. So this is consistent with the growth time of these characters in the movie. Of course, our English name is "caught by the tides". In fact, there is no way to translate it accurately. It is a concept of romance. My own English name and Chinese name are also The differences are huge. It is difficult to find something in English that better represents the theme of the movie. It is difficult to understand Feng Liu across cultures.
I think it refers to the vitality and vitality of this generation of young people who have just begun to change a society and are in an exploratory stage. So with the passage of time, the changes of the times, and the changes of people's age, this generation has also experienced a lot of costs, paid a lot of costs and setbacks. I think it is about how Chinese society has come to be step by step in an era full of energy and passion. Today, its inherent technological changes include the impact of technological changes such as robots. When we look back on our lives, what I describe is such a parabolic curve.
Jia Zhangke: She is a very good actor, an actor I admire very much. I think any director who faces his own work hopes for an actor who can present his work well. I think her performance over the years has been Her talent and ability make our entire team want to continue working with her.
On the other hand, it is true that in the past 20 years, no one else took pictures since 2001, and she just kept taking pictures.
I think when it comes to creation, you must first be responsible for the work, and secondly, you must find characters that you think are really appealing and people who really have the ability to perform. Teacher Zhao is such an excellent actor.
