The awards for the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival have been finalized. However, the value of a film festival has never been limited to the awarding of awards. Appreciating works that are not usually seen in the cinema, or listening to rare filmmakers share their creati

The awards for the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival have been finalized. However, the value of a film festival has never been limited to the awarding of awards. Appreciating works that are not usually seen in the cinema, or listening to rare filmmakers share their creative insights, are irreplaceable and belong to the film festival. Unique experience.

Speaking of the latter, many foreign filmmakers who came to serve as judges or guests this year held master classes at the Golden Goblet Film Forum, imparting their knowledge to many young people who are aspiring to devote themselves to creation. Among them is Chen Yingxiong, chairman of the Golden Goblet Award jury and French-Vietnamese director.

Chen Yingxiong held a master class at the Jinjue Film Forum

Chen Yingxiong, 61, was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, and settled in Paris, France with his family when he was 14 years old. In 1993, his debut feature film "The Taste of Green Papaya" became a blockbuster. It not only won the Cannes Golden Camera Award, the César Award for Best First Feature Film and other awards, but also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film on behalf of France. Nominated. His second feature film "Tricycle Driver" won the Golden Lion Award, the highest honor at the Venice Film Festival. After that, he has successively adapted Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's famous work "Norwegian Wood" and French writer Alice Ferney's "Love is Eternal" onto the screen, and his latest work "Fondue" is also on the screen. It won the Best Director Award at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

"French Pot" poster

In the master class held on June 22, the seemingly gentle and elegant Chen Yingxiong revealed his somewhat surprising straightforward character. He said at the beginning: "I know there are some young people in the audience today who want to be directors, so I want to say something useful that will help you make better movies in the future. Film is a language, which means it is It can be learned. No matter which country you are from, you use the same language when making movies. I often hear people say that movies are a collision between painting, drama, literature, music and other art forms, but I cannot agree with it. This statement. Film is a unique art form. I hope that after this one-and-a-half-hour master class, when everyone walks out of the door, they will feel that they know how to make movies."

Then, when the host mentioned. Chen Yingxiong came to the Shanghai International Film Festival 13 years ago with " Norwegian Forest " and planned to ask about his feelings about coming to Shanghai twice. Chen Yingxiong interrupted her question: "Sorry, I have to call Stop, in my opinion, these topics are meaningless at all. We must use this limited time to really talk about movies. My personal experience has no value. Please let me directly talk about how to understand movies. What I say here can bring inspiration, which is the value of the master class." Chen Yingxiong's unceremonious speech won applause from the audience, and he started talking out of control.

Chen Yingxiong signed a signature for fans

The essence of a movie lies in the switching between pictures

Chen Yingxiong did not hesitate to share with the audience his own practical methods of improving the understanding of movies. "A film director is completely different from...for example, a violinist. He does not have an instrument and cannot improve his skills through daily practice. I would like to share a method of my own here. If you stick to this method for two years, I believe you will have a better understanding of the film. There will be a qualitative leap in understanding. I always carry an envelope with some pieces of paper and a short pencil in it. Whenever I watch a movie, I will sit down somewhere and put some paper in it. Write down what I can learn from the movie just now, and what I think is not good enough - don’t use a notebook, just use pieces of paper, because you have to express your insights in the most concise way in a limited space. Express it in words. Next, I will throw away this piece of paper. You have to have confidence in yourself and believe that what you get from this movie has been engraved in your mind. This is a daily training and a way to cultivate your own sensitivity. Sexual method. "

" Another suggestion is that if you like a movie very much, you might as well watch it a few times and then go through it in your own mind, the more details, the better.After that, you can cut off the sound and watch it again; cut off the picture again and listen to it again. Especially for some film history classics, if you use this method to practice, I believe it will enrich your sensibility. This kind of sensitivity will gradually turn into a sixth sense, which will benefit you a lot at the shooting scene in the future, and can help you judge which shooting content is worth keeping in a short period of time. Truffaut once said that making a movie is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. When and what kind of scenes should appear often depends on the director's careful calculations. And this ability is based on the accumulation of film literacy gained through daily training. "

So, in Chen Yingxiong's view, what exactly is a movie? He said, "I think movies are a cross-level art form based on storytelling. Movies should be emotionally resonant, but resonance alone is not enough. For example, if you film a pair of parents who have lost their child, no matter how you present it, it will make the audience feel sad. However, with some formal and stylistic exploration, you can create work that evokes deeper emotions, and that’s the value of film as an art form. ”

He continued: “The essence of movies is actually the switching between pictures. What the director should pay most attention to is not the theme, the script, or the actors, but how to connect the previous scene with the next scene. There are only two ways: to transfer pictures through contrast and to make a smooth transition. For example, your father has passed away. This is just a fact in itself. Only through careful design of screen switching can it be given emotional meaning. So, life is experience, and art is expression. When you're making a movie, you're not trying to imitate the experience, but you're trying to express the experience in the language of film. "

This transition scene in "French Pot" is praised as

" Specifically, the comparison method means that the previous scene uses a panoramic view, then the next scene uses a close-up shot; or the previous scene is very quiet. , then the next picture will be very noisy; or the previous picture will be in cold tones, and the next picture will be in warm tones, and so on. Only when there is contrast can there be dramatic conflict. And when you want to keep a certain emotion in the audience, you can use a smooth picture connection. There is both contrasting picture connection and smooth picture connection, so that the image has fluidity. " Chen Yingxiong added, "I don't mean that the content itself is not important, but I want to tell you how to better present the content. "

" Let's talk about the script. As a director, I don't need a very complicated story with three or four twists. What I admire is a simple story, and the important thing is the hidden structure contained in it. Only when the structure transcends the content itself can it stimulate multiple sensory experiences. For example, in my latest work "French Pot", there is a plot in which the hero and heroine discover that there is a young girl who is very talented in cooking, so they discuss whether to hire her to inherit their cooking skills, and then this The little girl never appears in the movie until after the death of the heroine, when she reappears. The implicit meaning here is that the heroine who left due to illness finally left a child for the hero to help him overcome his grief. Although they are not family members, the audience can feel the family relationship formed between the three of them. "

Chen Yingxiong on the set of "Fondue"

As for how to choose the theme of the work, Chen Yingxiong said frankly: "I think the current film industry places too much emphasis on themes, but in fact many themes that are in line with the spirit of the times have poor results. As a director, I don’t care about what the audience wants to see or like to see. Instead, I feel that I should give the audience a gift, a gift that exceeds their expectations, can awaken their dormant emotions, and make them feel that they have spent money to buy it. It's worth the ticket to see this movie. It's like the money we spend to buy a 19th-century classic in a bookstore is ridiculously insignificant compared to its own value. I think the same should be true of the films I make."

Some people may think that my works are drowsy, but that doesn't matter to me.

As for what kind of movies are good works, Chen Yingxiong said: "I think that movies with rich musicality are better than other movies. The movie has to be better. The musicality here does not refer to the use of soundtrack, but to the rhythm of the work itself. For example, in "Fondue," it didn't have a score because I thought the film itself had enough fluidity. As for the soundtrack, I personally think it should only be used when the emotions are expressed in place. The soundtrack should give additional emotional value to specific scenes. "

Whether it is the many collaborations with his wife Chen Nu Yanxi, or Tony Leung in "Tricycle Driver", Audrey Tautou in "Love Is Eternal", or Juliette... Binoche and Benoit Magimel, Chen Yingxiong often gives people the impression that he is good at selecting actors, but he does not think that he is the kind of director who can train actors

Stills of "Love Is Eternal"

" I don't ask the actors to act realistically, but rather focus on capturing their expressiveness. For example, when I was working with Audrey Tautou on "Love Is Eternal", there was a scene where she expressed that she wanted to express herself freely, and I said no problem, and then turned on the camera. As she continued to act, I shouted "Ka". She said, hey, I haven't finished the performance yet. I had to say, 'Okay, let's turn the machine back on'. She said, ‘Don’t take me for a fool. Since this has been passed, let’s pass it. ’ Indeed, for me, the expressiveness of that section showed the fluidity of emotion, and that was enough. "

Regarding his personal style, Chen Yingxiong said, "I hope that the movie will keep a slow pace as much as possible, so that the details it presents can be better conveyed to the audience, allowing them to feel the beauty of every moment in the film. Some may find a piece like this soporific, but that doesn't matter to me. This is how I see the world. "

"Barry Lyndon" poster

When talking about his favorite filmmakers and works, Chen Yingxiong's mood immediately rose. "I like the works of Martin Scorsese very much. He can create a very exciting rhythm. "He also praised Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" and thought that the sad tone expressed through music in this movie was irresistible. However, when it comes to the movie he admires the most, it must be Tyronne. Malik's " New World " "I watched about 45 minutes into this movie, and I started crying, thinking, 'What the hell! How can we achieve this overwhelming sense of resonance? ! ’ This is the natural effect of the film’s musicality, and it is also the most difficult state for a director to reach. Even Terrence Malick, who created a unique style, has not reached such heights in his previous and subsequent works. "

"New World" poster

In Chen Yingxiong's director career of more than 30 years, he has completed a total of seven feature films so far. In terms of quantity, compared to Terrence Malick's degree of sparing ink, it is not far behind. . In this regard, he said, “I would also like to complete a project in one or two years, but due to practical conditions such as investment costs, it may often take five years to complete a film. As much as I would like to vainly reply that I gravitate towards challenging subject matter, many times it is actually others who choose me. "

Regarding the next work, Chen Yingxiong revealed that he will return to Vietnam to shoot. The story is "about the year when the Buddha received enlightenment in his life." He explained, "The spirit of Buddhism has lasted for 25 centuries, which is very important. Some people get spiritual comfort from it. I hope this work can explore the understanding of this spirit with the audience. "