I’m a Director, I’m Not Bad - Chapter 552

Chapter 552 550. Drowsy

With mental preparation, at least Xu Xin didn’t feel fluctuating about the attendance rate of the first “Hawthorn Tree”.

Less than half.

This is the number of people from the beginning of admission to the opening of the movie.

Also includes “last minute” sessions.

Not many people came in.

The entire auditorium itself has more seats than ordinary movie theaters, and the space is also larger. And at this moment, the people who have done less than half of it made the sense of emptiness of the space more and more prominent.

And among the less than half of the number, there are about twenty or thirty Asian faces.

There are reporters, and there are people from other crews.

And someone saw Xu Xin and the others.

But everyone didn’t mean to say hello.

Sit in your seat and watch quietly.

After the movie started, everyone’s attention was focused on the screen, but Xu Xin’s eyes were a little empty, and he even yawned lazily.

Tossed on the plane for 15 hours, although I also took a break in the middle.

But jet lag and the fatigue brought by the long-distance flight made him inevitably sleepy.

Not to mention he stuffed a margherita pizza in his belly.

What’s more, he has seen the hawthorn tree many times.

So, after yawning, he suddenly didn’t want to move.

Although the chairs in the auditorium are not the kind of particularly comfortable movie theater seats, it is better to make do with them.

So, at the beginning of the movie, he had already closed his eyes.

The melodious tune of the accordion version of “BELLACIAO” lingers in my ears like weeping.

And when the melody of this song sounded, the ears of many local Italian audiences on the scene suddenly stood up.

Especially the audience who watched the last “Love Triangle”.

Everyone’s exhausted spirit was suddenly lifted up in this famous tune, which was famous in the Yugoslav movie “Bridge”, but it is an Italian guerrilla folk song…

“This is…”

Among the audience, Sun Youcai also showed a look of astonishment.

It’s not that he hasn’t heard this song, but because… this song is really special.

The Italian song became the background song when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

Director Xu, is this… on purpose?

It is calculated that this movie is going to participate in the Venice Film Festival, so this method is used? …Shouldn’t it?

He didn’t know if he was thinking too much.

But after thinking about it, I was still in the dark, and wrote in my diary, “The opening song “Oh, Goodbye, Friend” → flattery is possible.”

He knew that he might not be right to think so, but as a reporter, a piece of news really needs to be hit.

If the movie was good, he wouldn’t have written that.

But for his own work, he does not rule out various possibilities.

It can only be said that he will try his best to calculate all possibilities rationally to evaluate this movie.

But at this moment…he heard Lin Dong next to him say:

“Liu Yifei’s match with this Russian song is really amazing!”

“…”

The corner of Sun Youcai’s mouth twitched…

But he didn’t correct it either.

Compared with correcting Lin Dong’s misunderstanding, watching movies is more important.

So, in the melodious accordion version of “BELLACIAO”, a minibus slowly stopped at the dilapidated coach station.

The figure of Liu Yifei also appeared in front of the bus station for the first time.

Looks dazed, shy and out of place.

For people of Sun Youcai’s age, this kind of scene is all too familiar.

Because the city they grew up in was like that.

Although he doesn’t like Liu Yifei, he still pays attention to her.

After all, she is the main character in this movie.

In all honesty, it may be because of the song “BELLACIAO”.

The familiar melody temporarily pulled Sun Youcai’s spirit from Liu Yifei’s prejudice, and brought back his childhood memories.

At this moment, looking at Liu Yifei in plain clothes, he didn’t even feel that there was any meaning of acting.

On the contrary, like many other viewers, the first reaction when seeing Liu Yifei was…

She found the right way to play!

Sure enough, no one is more suitable for the two adjectives “pure and clean” than her.

Even if she is no longer a girl.

But it was very appropriate for her to wear clothes of an inappropriate size and stand in the scenery of that era…

It’s like the pure white flowers that rarely existed in that pale age.

Even if its white color is so monotonous…but it still can’t hide the fascinating beauty.

And some foreigners present obviously thought so too.

There were at least a lot of people when Liu Yifei appeared among the bus station crowd who were busy getting off the bus, and everyone locked her at a glance.

Even if there are aesthetic differences.

But there is beauty that knows no borders.

The team leader was talking with Captain Zhang played by Li Xuejian. This version of the Italian subtitles was not made by Zhang Mo, but the translator found by Xiying Film Studio is definitely not bad.

The local audience watched without much pressure.

But Sun Youcai’s gaze was always on Liu Yifei during the movie.

As a reporter, he certainly knew that Liu Yifei’s lines were not good.

Not to mention the dubbing of the TV series. Although the original sound is used in “The King of Kung Fu”, it was dubbed in the later stage, and Sun Youcai’s line skills are also very poor.

So, he waited for Liu Yifei to speak.

It’s a pity that I didn’t wait.

In the camera at the coach station, there are only the voices of the team leader teacher and Li Xuejian.

Jing Qiu played by Liu Yifei stood there out of place from the very beginning.

Then with Li Xuejian’s solid voice:

“Since everyone is here, let’s go?”

The crew turned the camera, and a scene of a group of people walking in a snake field appeared.

“The color continues Zhang Yimou’s style.”

After seeing the picture, Sun Youcai quickly wrote in his notebook.

Because of the dark light, his handwriting is generally a bit large and crooked.

After writing two lines, there is no room for a page.

Looking down quickly, he turned the page directly.

After thinking about it, I added another sentence:

“But also has its own style. Not strong.”

With a pack of cigarettes in his pocket anyway, his report will do his best to treat the film as fairly as possible.

In the picture, after the rapeseed field, the camera switches to a close-up view, Li Xuejian takes the lead and has the most luggage on his body. But he performed the powerful demeanor of Kong Wu, the captain of the rural production team, quite vividly.

Then a row of students followed.

In Xu Xin’s camera, these students have different expressions.

Boys generally have more luggage than girls, and girls have sweat on their foreheads and temples even if they carry very little.

Obviously, this road is not close.

Just like that, in the fixed shot, after one, one, and another person walked out of the shot, the whole scene was empty for about a second.

As soon as Sun Youcai’s wondering thoughts appeared, he saw Liu Yifei holding a basin in his left hand and a “triangular cloth bag” in his right hand, which young people basically don’t know what it is. Into the camera.

She has more luggage than all the girls, but less than the boys.

Adding the vacancy just now, all of a sudden, the feeling of being out of place with the whole team came out on her body.

When she passed by the camera, Sun Youcai lowered his head and wrote quickly almost at the exact moment:

“Trackers on the Volga!”

After writing, his interest finally came.

Xu Xin hardly hides that old style in this movie…

Although the scene is still very short and the movie has just begun, it is enough to grab people’s attention.

Liu Yifei, who has been treated unfairly, has continued Zhang Yimou’s thick and colorful style but has his own style of picture composition, as well as the technique of mobilizing the passive “interpretation” of the protagonist’s psychology through the arrangement of the camera…

In less than a minute after the opening of this short movie, everything is mixed into this movie.

Interesting…

It’s normal for a director to want to express something in a movie.

But the difficulty lies in how to not be so high-spirited, this is the difficulty.

Sun Youcai has been a reporter for more than 20 years, and has seen many directors whose works may so clearly express the hidden meaning of the shot…

Xu Xin was the first.

You can’t say he’s shallow… On the contrary, “Trackers on the Volga” is a classic, why can’t others use it? Or use it to make people unable to understand, but others can?

This is the gap in strength… or talent.

In just one minute, with a few shots, the interpersonal relationship of the characters in the group is shown, and the classic painting is paid tribute to.

Expressed clearly and clearly.

But the visual effect is not bad at all.

“Tsk…”

Unconsciously, he also sat up straight.

And there are many people who have the same reaction as him.

The professional filmmakers who can come here are definitely not fools.

Experts will know if there is one as soon as they make a move.

Xu Xin used this one-minute shot to let all of them understand one thing…

That is, regardless of the overall quality of the movie, the movie in front of you, although the producer is Zhang Yimou, but the director…is Xu Xin!

Soon, the picture freezes in front of a crooked tree.

The people who had crossed the mountains stopped to rest.

When Xu Xin took this scene, it actually took a lot of time.

Because he wanted a feeling of ink and landscape painting.

The weather is too good to be clear and cloudless.

The weather is too dark to see the clouds and misty mountains in the distant view.

The crew waited for nearly ten days before they finally found the meaning of fog staining the mountains in the background like ink in the early sunshine after a rain.

In order to meet the shooting schedule, everyone took towels and paired with two huge electric fans to blow it for nearly ten minutes before blowing the green grass under the tree into a “sunny” appearance.

So, the mountains at this moment, in the eyes of everyone, is the feeling of a standard splash-ink landscape painting.

It’s like being in a fairyland.

According to the romantic feelings of the Chinese people, at this moment, no matter whether it is a poem, or a landscape, or even cooking wine with green plums and talking about heroes, it is in line with the environment and mentality at this moment.

After all, this picture is really beautiful… so fairy.

But unfortunately, the whole picture has a layer of brown filter added, which looks a little yellowish.

All of a sudden, the natural harmony of the mountains and rivers in this picture has dropped a bit.

Some people frowned slightly…

Why add a filter at this time?

Wouldn’t it be nice to express this natural feeling of misty clouds deep in the mountains and mountains?

It’s really superfluous.

But the next second, they were stunned…

Because after freezing in this beautiful scene, Captain Zhang played by Li Xuejian pinched his waist, pointed at the hawthorn tree and said:

“This is the hero tree that our hero is famous for.”

This sentence is actually okay, but after hearing Captain Zhang’s words, the team leader stood in the middle of the camera, pointed at the hawthorn tree, opened his mouth, and a “smell” came out:

“I know this hero tree…Students, the reason why this hawthorn tree is called a hero tree is because during the anti-Japanese war in full swing, it witnessed countless heroic martyrs who sacrificed their lives for our motherland and people! An epic scene!”

Following his… almost high-spirited and eager words, many people subconsciously began to look through their backpacks.

Start to record what the leader said.

Although Jingqiu was the last to reach the top of the mountain, she took out her notebook the fastest.

At this time, Captain Zhang said:

“The devil is under this tree…”

Before he finished speaking, the team leader spoke again:

“Since the first anti-Japanese hero was shot and killed by the invaders under this hawthorn tree, countless anti-Japanese fighters have sacrificed here one after another under this tree. Their blood has watered this land… As you all know, the hawthorn tree was originally White flowers, right? But this one is different. Because it was watered by blood, it finally turned into red flowers…”

The team leader is talking, and a group of people are taking notes.

That look… These people who grew up in the Celestial Dynasty are so familiar.

It’s the same reason that when you go out for an outing when you were young, there must always be a link to teach you lessons.

Especially the tone of the team leader and the concentration of the people around him.

In this naturally created Zhong Lingxiuyu, the “craftsmanship” that does not belong here, and the clichéd tone are all washed away.

After dispelling the atmosphere, Sun Youcai discovered that Xu Xin didn’t seem to stop there.

On the contrary, there was another blow, which was like making up a knife.

Captain Zhang, who was interrupted before he finished speaking, opened his mouth… nodded in a tone that is not surprising, but also tacit, and looked at the hawthorn tree, as if he had seen it for the first time and was observing it carefully look like said:

“Yes, that’s what they say…”

It’s a bit of fun.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Sun Youcai understood the purpose of adding filters.

But…a bigger question popped up in my heart:

“What is Director Xu expressing with this scene?”

The confusion expressed by young people about the era they haven’t experienced?

Or…

He was puzzled.

But anyway, in the first few minutes of the movie, everyone who knows Xu Xin has already understood… The reason why this movie can be shortlisted for the main competition is that its “artistic content” is definitely not low.

And it is true.

From moving into Captain Zhang’s house to getting acquainted with the third child.

Throughout the first half of the movie, a sense of separation gradually began to appear in the hearts of domestic and foreign audiences.

For domestic people, the rhythm of this section is a bit flat.

Or… they felt that Xu Xin was showing off his skills more.

Let everyone see “how I trained Liu Yifei”.

Sometimes distant view, sometimes close view.

Sometimes close-up, sometimes horizontal…

It highlights the style and appearance of the entire Qinglong Village and the original ecological beauty of the mountain village.

has become the embellishment of “Quiet Autumn”.

Let everyone see how suitable Liu Yifei is for this kind of play.

It can be said that her every frown, smile, and every move can be beautiful into the appearance of a painting.

She will play with the children in the flowers, wash clothes by the river, and write at the desk, as if she was the class flower in your class who worked **** the questions in that summer…

Beautiful.

Many people are muttering in their hearts… You Shuangwei are really unscrupulous in order to push Liu Yifei to the top…

But for foreigners.

It is completely fresh.

In their cognition, Chinese movies are always equated with bitterness and hatred.

Indeed, even Muhammad said that although knowledge is far away in China, one should seek it.

The sacred place in the heart of Marco Polo, for the Italians, is an ancient civilization that is still active on the stage of the earth under the skin of a country.

They have so much to write on…

But the question is… since you people from the Celestial Dynasty are living that kind of bitter life, how did you survive?

If you guys aren’t living in dire straits every day, why not shoot something… less dark?

We have seen your critique of the marriage system in feudal times.

I have seen how magnificent a male Peking opera actor in your country is on the stage, but how miserable he is off the stage.

I even saw that you can make a film that is as good as ours, discussing gender…but it can also make people blush…

But it is no surprise that each of your works seems to express the pessimism of how miserable the world is and what a difficult time we live in.

But what is this now?

The country life of a beautiful woman!

And the era is still the era when you kept secrets.

Although I don’t know what the story of the movie’s ending is… But this relaxed style really refreshes many foreigners.

It turns out that apart from kung fu movies, you can still make less uncomfortable movies?

And the emotional process of the third child and Jingqiu in the movie, from being ordinary at the beginning to gradually warming up, the feeling that although the age is different but very real, it makes many people unconsciously smiled.

After ten minutes of footage, everyone present began to enjoy the comfort brought by the movie.

But this comfort did not last long.

Jing Qiu is going back to the county because of the school rehearsal.

This pair of young men and women whose relationship is still in its infancy, their relationship has just begun…but it seems to be coming to an end.

According to common sense, the entanglement between the two would definitely not end so simply.

So everyone does not panic, but regards it as the dividing line to enter the second stage.

But before that, Xu Xin also prepared a “gift” for everyone.

“Then… before we go back to the city, let’s go see a movie?”

“Movie?”

“Yes, the projectionist is coming to the village tonight, and is going to show a movie at the south end of the village… Then people from our mine will also come. Haven’t you heard me play the accordion? Let me play for you?”

The blunt invitation did not result in a response from the shy girl.

But at night, she still came as promised.

Next, Xu Xin showed an excellent camera control ability.

In the screen of the movie, the acting skills of the people under each shot are extraordinarily sincere and natural.

Especially those young people who are always hit by the captain’s bamboo pole…

After a young man with short hair was beaten three or four times in a daze, the theater burst into laughter seeing Guo Fan’s innocent expression.

But this is just warming up.

The climax of this gift is in the song sung by the people in the mine after the movie.

On the crude platform.

The third child sat on the bench, holding an accordion, looking at Jingqiu with shy but affectionate eyes.

But Jing Qiu’s response was to dodge her eyes.

And the fingers that kept pinching and tearing the corner of the clothes.

Ambiguity began to spread.

Then…

The familiar melody sounded.

The relaxed and lively accordion once again played the immortal song of the Italian guerrillas against the Communist Party.

“Goodbye my friend, goodbye my friend, goodbye my friend…”

“BELLACIAO, BELLACIAO, BELLACIAOCIAOCIAO~”

I don’t know when, the people on the screen are singing the Chinese version of the song.

But in the theater, the local audience in Venice sang the original Italian version.

The song is more than one minute in total.

was cut to less than 54 seconds in the movie.

In the 54-second shot, Lin Xunxin’s hand shape was completely matched by hard training. With the music dubbed by the teachers of the Xi’an People’s Orchestra in the background music, and the girl’s shy to happy smile, it perfectly blended in took a piece.

And when the 54-second dance shot ended with emotion in the bonfire, the audience who still couldn’t get enough of it didn’t know who took the lead…

“Wow, la la la…”

A burst of small-scale applause just like that.

Next, there is Xu Xin’s textbook-like, montage method of separating the third child and Jing Qiu.

After the full set of interpretation, the screen fell into darkness.

A paragraph of subtitles slowly appeared:

“The third child made an appointment with Jing Qiu, and when she comes back, he will go to the county to pick her up.”

This means that the first phase of the film is over, right?

Hoo…

Sun Youcai let out a long sigh of relief.

Looking at the sentence recorded in the notebook, “Excellent camera mobilization, Liu Yifei, Lin Xunxin, and acting skills are just right-causing the audience to sing together.”

tsk…

He glanced at his watch.

17 minutes.

The movie has only 17 minutes from the beginning to the present.

The 17-minute movie clip aroused the emotions of the audience…

Even if it was motivated by this song…but it’s really amazing.

Besides…

Reviewing the ten-minute movie, he suddenly showed a strange expression.

Because he recalled a very speechless detail.

I don’t know when, watching Liu Yifei…he didn’t act anymore?

She is Jingqiu.

Not Zhao Linger, not Xiaolongnv.

It’s Jingqiu!

this…

Thinking of this, he turned his head and glanced in the direction of Xiying Studio.

Originally, I wanted to see Director Xu’s expression at this time…even though I couldn’t see clearly, I still wanted to see it.

It’s okay if you don’t look at it…

When the subtitles of the movie disappeared, a fixed shot of a stage appeared, and the light on the screen was fed back to the audience… He suddenly saw a person with his head up, leaning on the seat as if sleeping soundly…

And look at that man’s green stubble…

Isn’t it Xu Xin! ?

Brother, you fell asleep at the “premiere” of your movie?

You… why are you so NEWBEE! ?

With a bit of absurdity, and the noise of the singing show on the screen, Sun Youcai thought about it, and wrote a line in the notebook:

“In the middle of the movie screening, everyone else was watching with great interest, and Xu Xin had already fallen asleep.”

After writing this paragraph…he still seemed to be puzzled.

At the end, I added another sentence:

“Also snoring.”

551 went directly to review, I don’t know why, let’s see it tomorrow.

 

 

(end of this chapter)