Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 51 Qualified Director

Many people came to the small screening room of Beijing Film Academy today.

The directing department's old Situ, Xie Fei, Lao Tian and department head Xie Xiaojing, as well as two other senior school leaders except Hou Keming, actually chatted and laughed with a person from Sony Classics.

Hou Keming secretly told Cao Yang, "Didn't we know from the beginning that there was an acquaintance from Sony Classic and MK2, the big-nosed Russian guy? Did you see him?"

Cao Yang looked at the three foreigners, two were from Sony Classics and one was from MK2. Among the people from Sony Classics, there was one with a big nose that was obviously of Slavic descent.

So he nodded, and when he contacted the people from Sony Classics, they introduced him as Mr. Mikhalkov, but he didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

Hou Keming had mixed emotions and looked at Cao Yang, but he was generally happy.

"He is not from Sony Classics, but a professional invited by Sony Classics from a long-term partner. He should be here to evaluate your film so that Sony Classics can refer to it. I didn't expect Sony Classics to invite him. It seems that they value you very much now."

"Who is he?"

Boss, you've been sighing here for so long but haven't mentioned his identity yet. Hurry up and tell me.

"His Burnt by the Sun won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 94 and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 95."

"Burned by the Sun? Oh, let me think, Nikita Mikhalkov, that's his name, it turns out he's the director Mikhalkov. The Sony Classics guy introduced him as Mr. Mikhalkov, but I didn't realize it was him."

Speaking of "Burned by the Sun", Cao Yang wondered who this was. Because of the translation problem, he didn't expect that the foreigner from Sony Classics was the famous Mikhalkov.

No wonder Sony Classics invited him. Mikhalkov also has a movie that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 91.

The name of this movie is "Mongolian Spirit", also translated as "Horse-Catching".

Maybe many people don’t know this movie.

In 91, chaos arose within the Northern Giant Bear.

A Slavic people who wanted to escape the turmoil in their country came to China's Hulunbuir grassland to shoot a movie. The male and female protagonists were both Chinese. The movie won the highest award, the Golden Lion Award, at the 48th Venice International Film Festival.

At this year's Venice Film Festival, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize was the national director's "Raise the Red Lantern."

No wonder Sony Classics invited him, the winner of the Venice Golden Lion. It just so happened that Cao Yang told Sony Classics that he wanted to go to Venice.

This is a way for Sony Classics to express its strength. Look, isn't it Venice? I'll find a director who won the Venice Golden Lion Award to watch your film.

This is not only the director who won the Venice Golden Lion Award, but also won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film under the operation of his company.

How about it, is this sincerity enough?
Naked show-off and seduction.

The Oscars are a sacred place that countless filmmakers around the world yearn for.

But to Cao Yang, the Oscars are just like that, sacred as hell, just like the three major European awards, a place for fame.

The only difference is that by gaining fame from the Oscars, you can also make money in Hollywood, which is an advantage over the three major European countries.

After the greetings, we started watching the movie.

The beginning of "Empty Room" is very dull, and the male lead's acting skills are not apparent until he interacts with the female lead.

However, the film kept using camera language from the beginning, with all kinds of metaphors, contrasts, and foils, which made the directors' eyes light up and they kept staring at the scenes in the film so as not to miss them. These camera languages ​​just hit the spot for several people. This is what a genius director from the directing department should do, and only such filming is meaningful.

In addition to several people from the directing department, Hou Keming and Mikhalkov also paid close attention to the movie pictures. Hou Keming was also promoted from the directing department. Although he did not direct many movies, it was enough for him to understand these.

Needless to say, Mikhalkov will definitely understand it.

It wasn't until the hero met the heroine and the two began to act that everyone's attention was diverted. Even Xie Fei, who was looking at the camera most seriously, let out a soft "eh".

Hou Keming even couldn't help looking at Cao Yang several times. Last time, he could still say that he met Li Xiaoran, who had superb acting skills, and they achieved mutual success. What about this time?

He didn't know who that man was, nor did he know how his acting was in the past.

But the heroine is Yu Feihong, how could Hou Keming not know Yu Feihong.

Anyone who becomes famous after graduating from the school, whether an actor or a director, is almost certainly known to the school leaders.

How is Yu Feihong's acting skills?
Well, she graduated from Beijing Film Academy, that’s enough.

What did Hou Keming see?
Is the actress who played the heroine so vivid and lively a student from Beijing Film Academy? Is she Yu Feihong who can only play cool roles?
Hou Keming took a deep breath. He felt that he had misunderstood Cao Yang. This was not a mutual achievement with Li Xiaoran. This was a big shot who could promote others!

When the scene showed the hero in prison, taking strange steps and playing hide-and-seek with the prison guards, Hou Keming just felt so fucking creepy.

After being beaten twice, the male protagonist waved his hand with an eye drawn on it around. Then the camera no longer followed the male protagonist's sight, but seemed to turn around and use a third-person perspective. Hou Keming couldn't help but think of a sentence in his mind, "It's done, he's done."

Sure enough, the male protagonist became invisible and no one could see him. No matter which direction the camera moved or who he passed by, no one could notice him.

Both thrilling and weird.

When the final plot came to the villa again, Yu Feihong also began her wonderful and thrilling performance. Hou Keming couldn't help but wonder, could it be that he remembered it wrong, and Yu Feihong actually graduated from the Central Academy of Drama?
Can Beijing Film Academy cultivate actors with such acting skills?
As soon as the screening ended, Xie Fei couldn't help but give Cao Yang a thumbs up, and said with emotion: "Compared with the last movie, your movie is simply... simply..."

I originally wanted to give it one praise and one criticism, but after thinking about it, I decided not to. Although the previous movie did not use any filming techniques, if it is classified as a New Wave movie, there is nothing much to say.

What is New Wave Cinema about?
Low cost, fast production cycle, long shots, real-location shooting, natural light, irrational free improvisational narrative, and author films with strong personal colors.

Even as a leading figure of the fourth generation of directors, Xie Fei cannot easily deny the New Wave of films, as this involves more than a simple personal evaluation of a film.

If this gets out, Xie Fei will be accused of not acknowledging the New Wave of films, which will cause endless trouble.

"Good, good, this movie is clever!"

Old Situ patted Cao Yang's arm with satisfaction and said, "Not bad, it's a big improvement over the last movie."

Xie Fei couldn't help but nod, and said with emotion: "The director should speak with the language of the camera, this is what the director should do. Of course, it can't be too much, too much is as bad as too little.

A truly qualified director must not only have a rich enough camera language, but also be able to tell the story clearly.”

Then he asked Xie Xiaojing, "There's something I didn't think through just now, can you read it again?"

"That's great. I also have a lot of doubts, so I'll play it again."

(End of this chapter)