"There are students and young people who want to be directors here today. I want to say something that will be useful to you." At the Golden Goblet Judges Chairman Master Class held on June 22, French director Chen Yingxiong interrupted the host. Interview outline of "Experiences of participating as a judge at two film festivals". The hour and a half was limited, and he wanted to use it to tell the story of the movie rather than himself.
should make the audience feel "worth it", just like Chen Yingxiong's precise thinking on film creation: "When I was a director, I didn't care about what the audience wanted to see, what they liked to watch, or the box office. For me, the most important thing as a director is Give the audience a gift. This gift must exceed the audience's expectations and gain far more than the face value. Only by mastering the essence of film language can we give this gift to the audience."
Photo by Chen Yingxiong Master Class Zhong Han
He gushed. Absolutely, he imparts his 20 years of directing experience, from which we can also get a glimpse of the "heroes who have the same vision" behind the film master.
Train yourself and learn to express
Chen Yingxiong was born in Vietnam and settled in France in 1975. His first feature film " The Taste of Green Papaya" released in 1992 won honors at international film festivals such as Cannes. After that, he created "Tricycle Driver", " The Taste of Summer", "Walking with the Rain", "Norwegian Forest", "Love is Eternal", etc.
In 2011, Chen Yingxiong served as a judge for the main competition unit of the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival, and held a press conference for his work " Norwegian Forest " during the film festival. Thirteen years later, he came to the Shanghai International Film Festival with his new film "Fondue" and served as the chairman of the jury for the main competition unit of the Golden Goblet Award.
Stills from the movie "The Taste of Green Papaya"
In the master class, Chen Yingxiong wore a black suit jacket, white shirt, light blue striped silk scarf and dark blue trousers, full of artist atmosphere, and many foreign audiences came to the scene.
"Film is an artistic language that transcends countries and nations, and has its particularity that is different from other artistic languages." Chen Yingxiong believes that directors must create products that are unique to movies and arouse emotional resonance from the audience. Although the director cannot do daily exercises like a violinist, he has found an effective self-training method and generously shared: "Keep training like this, and you will become a brand new person in two years."
This kind of training The method was inspired by my father as a child. "My father taught me two things. First, be honest with yourself, and second, be patient." He introduced in detail the training method his father gave him when he was 10 years old: number the small pieces of paper from 1 to 100. Put it in the matchbox and stuff it under the pillow. Open it the next day, blow on it, rearrange the pieces of paper in order, and put them into the matchbox. "After training for a period of time, you can find the qualities of calmness and patience and improve your concentration."
Stills from the movie "Love is Eternal"
After 20 years, Chen Yingxiong extended his own movie training method. Before every movie, he would prepare an envelope, put a pencil and some small notes, and hide it in his pocket. After watching the movie, he would find a place to sit down and write down what he found good and imperfect about the movie he just watched, as well as what he learned from the movie. Then he would put the note into an envelope and throw it away. "The reason why you don't use a notebook is to train to refine and express your ideas in a small space; the reason why you throw it away is because you have to have confidence that what you have expressed will be remembered in your heart and become a muscle memory that will last forever. These will be the foundation for you as a director. "
Stills from the movie "Tricycle Driver"
After watching, write down your feelings and then throw them away. This daily training has been maintained for many years and has become a part of life. Chen Yingxiong suggested that filmmakers should find ways to express in words what they feel in daily life. "If you can practice daily according to my suggestions, you can have a deeper understanding of movies, enrich your sensibility, and slowly ferment into the sixth level." However, it is not enough to rely too much on the sixth sense. You also need to sort out your own knowledge system and have a deep understanding and long-term accumulation of art."
As he said at the Golden Goblet Ceremony on June 15, "Good movies can help us understand ourselves, remind us why we are human, and enrich our perceptual world. " Chen Yingxiong believes that the audience should also have an open mind, accept the emotions in the movie, and ask themselves: What do I feel, and how can I enrich my perceptual world? "Please try to express your feelings in words like me. Come out, even if the feeling is wrong. Maybe being shy about expressing yourself is an Asian trait and that's not good. If you love someone, you should say it instead of tossing and turning and torturing yourself. Words are the only reality, and anything that is not expressed in words does not exist. "
Simple story, secret structure
It's like training yourself to constantly write down your feelings about a movie on small pieces of paper. Chen Yingxiong believes that a good movie story should be simple, so simple that it can be written on a piece of paper the size of a cigarette box. Finished. “The script is just a tool, and you should forget about it once the movie starts shooting. Only when you are confident that you have mastered the entire story can you focus on the filming itself. "His work "Fondue", which was screened at the Shanghai Film Festival this time, is a simple story. The film was shortlisted for the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Director Award.
Stills from the movie "Fondue"
"Fondue" It is a movie about love and food. The heroine Eugenie, played by Juliette Binoche, is an excellent chef who has been working for the gourmet Dodan for 20 years. Dodan loves Eugenie deeply and proposes to her. The independence of her career has never been promised. One day, she discovered that something was wrong with her body, and she might die soon. "In "Fondue", the hero and heroine who are in love are not husband and wife, but have an employment relationship. Whether they want to get married or not is their conflict. point. "He reminded the audience that there was a little girl with culinary talent at the beginning of the movie. Eugenie wanted to accept her as her apprentice and pass on her cooking skills, but the matter was put aside for the time being. Until Eugenie's death, the little girl disappeared for a long time
"When Eugenie, Dodan and the little girl cook together, it's like a family atmosphere. This is my secret structure in the script. When the little girl reappears, careful viewers will realize that before her death, Eugenie agreed to Dodan's proposal and gave him a 'daughter', allowing him to finally overcome his grief. " Chen Yingxiong believes that directors need a secret structure to refine themes beyond the story in order to stimulate other sensory experiences and convey the characters' deep emotions. "When watching movies, you must find this structure. This is what distinguishes movies from other art forms. specialty. "
Chen Yingxiong
Nowadays, many movies are trying their best to induce tears and sensationalism, and rely on magnifying the life and death in life to move the audience. Chen Yingxiong does not like this method of expression. "Many movies are dead. The picture looks like a clip taken with a mobile phone, confusing daily life and art. Life is experience and art is expression. Directors should use film language and art to express what life is, rather than simply presenting or imitating life experience. When we watch movies, we don’t watch life itself. He is also disgusted with the misuse of music in some movies. "The movie itself should be musical. Only when the emotions are in place and mature can music be added to the movie." Music is meant to tell the audience that the emotion they feel in a certain place is correct, not to guide the audience to feel the emotion here. "
The master class ended, and many film festival volunteers took photos with Chen Yingxiong. Photo by Zhong Han
For him, a good movie is about simplicity. There are no fancy techniques, but it allows the audience to clearly understand the director's intention and create a deep feeling. Level resonance. Therefore, he repeatedly emphasized the study of film language, “The meaning of a director’s existence lies in the connection process from one picture to the next. The technical details are not important. The director should focus on how to connect the pictures with contrast or harmony, so as to master one of the most beautiful languages in the world and make it into a gift to the audience. "
