Huayu: Reborn in 97, transferring to the Central Academy of Drama's star-studded class

After that night's chat, Jiang Lai felt as if his Ren and Du meridians had been opened, and he suddenly understood everything.

He studied at school, receiving guidance from Uncle Ge, and was taught by Uncle Panshan and Song Dandan, but he only learned one word: truth.

Authentic experience, careful consideration, and then the creation of a realistic character.

There is nothing wrong with this in itself. Every action a person takes has a reason. It is impossible for an honest person to become a ruthless executioner without any reason. There must be a fundamental logic behind it.

But he overlooked one thing: movies are ultimately fictional, and acting serves the plot.

Some directors like visuals, wanting every shot to be beautiful, so actors have to express that beauty in a realistic and believable way.

Some directors prefer logically rigorous narratives, which means actors have to consider whether their every line and every action is accurate and consistent with the character's logic.

Some directors emphasize the atmosphere of the story, so the actors can only try their best to enter that atmosphere and integrate into it.

There are many directors with different focuses, but Lou Ye clearly belongs to the third category. What he values ​​more is an abstract concept, which is feeling.

The feeling of love, the feeling of loneliness, the feeling of desire.

In short, no matter what kind of movie a director wants to create, the performances of good actors must fit the tone of the film.

For example, doesn't the character Qiu Xiang in "Flirting Scholar" feel a bit out of place?

Gong Li's performance wasn't bad, but it seemed a little out of place in that atmosphere of everyone being crazy and nonsensical. Even she herself expressed regret in a later interview, saying that it would have been better if she could have been more uninhibited.

Let's talk about Xia Zhu from "Hello Mr. Billionaire". I believe it goes without saying that everyone will find this character very strange. Inserting a character who looks like a Taiwanese idol drama into a highly recognizable comedic rhythm is too easy for the audience to lose focus.

But can we say that Song Yunhua is bad? Not necessarily. She was able to fully portray Lin Zhenxin's girlishness in "Our Times" and has delivered outstanding performances in many other works, which is enough to prove that she has acting skills.

Putting aside the casting issue, the actors themselves must first understand that they must immerse themselves in the film.

Returning to "Suzhou River," it is a love story, which may seem a bit illogical from a rational perspective, but do human emotions need to be rational?

Jiang Lai lacks that little bit of faith—faith in the character, faith in the opponent, faith in the story.

Having figured all this out, Jiang Lai stopped worrying about whether Mada loved him or not. He only needed to understand Mada thoroughly, starting from his heart. The rest was up to Mada and Mudan's every smile and interaction, letting their emotions flow naturally.

Whether it works or not, that's up to the director to decide.

Lou Ye also understood that he could no longer demand how Jiang Lai acted, so he began to continuously shoot those scattered scenes of Mada and Mudan interacting, without saying or not saying anything, just shooting them constantly, and shooting them in different ways.

The goal was to help Jiang Lai and Zhou Xun develop feelings for each other.

Anyway, the script only says this: "After that, Mada picked up and dropped off Mudan every day and spent some time with her, but maybe the story wasn't so romantic, maybe something else happened behind the scenes."

How many scenes of picking someone up and dropping them off are filmed, and how they interact, are all decided by him, the director.

Lou Ye gave himself a thumbs up for his cleverness.

He just watched the two people in the camera, their expressions constantly changing, sparking ambiguous feelings, but the two people involved were unaware of it.

Jiang Lai would naturally put a helmet on Zhou Xun, carefully zip up her clothes, and even squat down to tie her shoelaces, impatiently reminding her to remember things.

Zhou Xun would unconsciously smile whenever she saw Jiang Lai, and when he rode his motorcycle, she would hug his strong arms and help him adjust his helmet as it slipped down.

She asked with concern, "Why don't you get a proper helmet?"

He answered casually, "Because I don't have any money."

The next day, Zhou Xun bought him a suitable helmet.

These were all performances outside the script, and the two had already blurred the lines between their real selves and their roles.

When Lou Ye watched the two people, one big and one small, walk into the bar, the big one ordered himself a beer but ordered the small one a juice.

The older child thanked the waiter, and the younger child followed suit.

Then, the big and small ones all propped their heads up and watched the bar's TV together, then switched arms in perfect unison to continue propping their heads up.

These images made Lou Ye realize that the time was ripe.

They were no longer Jiang Lai and Zhou Xun, but Ma Da and Mudan.

It's time for what happened behind the story to happen, to shatter this beauty until it's completely destroyed.

......

Berlin, a city that is reviving.

Since the wall collapsed, the residents of the two areas have gradually integrated, but this process has been full of contradictions and has never been able to be well reconciled.

What's most obvious is that the western part of the city is bustling with activity and traffic, while the eastern part is dilapidated.

Fortunately, the people living here do not want to go back to the past, and everyone is hoping to rebuild their homes.

The 48th Berlin International Film Festival, which is currently being held, is located on the west side.

It's well known that Berlin has a penchant for political films, and perhaps this can be gleaned from the city's past experiences.

Unlike the other two major film festivals, it insists on and stubbornly selects films that are realistic and focus on marginalized groups in society, which makes it unpopular with the market and very low-key.

So what do the other two major film festivals prefer?

Venice loves experimentation, Cannes loves red carpets.

When Jia Kezhang and Yu Liwei arrived in this city, they felt very uncomfortable, but they could only endure their discomfort and find the venue for the forum.

The Forum section is separate from the main competition section. Its awards are not official Berlin Film Festival awards, but are judged by film critics outside the festival. It is also bolder and more daring in its selection of films.

It can be said that the main competition section is the face of the Berlin Film Festival, while the Forum section is the cradle, from which directors like Wang Jiawei and Johnnie To have gone on to achieve international fame.

Jia Kezhang's film "Xiao Wu" was also shortlisted for the forum section. By the way, for convenience, he shortened the original long title to just two characters and gave it a nice English title, "Pickpocket".

Yu Liwei was the cinematographer for this film and also the one who brought in Hong Kong investment for Jia Kezhang.

"Are you sure it was the forum chairman who told us to go find him?" the man asked in a Hong Kong-accented Mandarin.

"Didn't you translate that? I can't understand English anyway," Jia Kezhang retorted impatiently.

Yu Liwei kept asking questions along the way, which annoyed him.

"OK, OK, we need to stay calm and not get agitated." Yu Liwei took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Jia Kezhang gave him a strange look. "It seems like you're the only one here who's excited."

Despite the complaints, Yu Liwei's nervous and excited demeanor did give Jia Kezhang a glimmer of hope. He had never heard of anyone being received directly by the forum chairman upon arrival.

Perhaps it will be a surprise?