While in Beijing, Mark Muller watched Zhang Yimou's new film, the Beijing-style comedy starring Jiang Wen.

This is Zhang Yimou's transformational work. He gave up his previous formalism in photography and adopted the method of shaking the camera. The pace is very fast, and he wants to express the anxiety and restlessness of people in the city today.

After the filming, Zhang Yimou invited people from the circle to watch it, and the reviews received mixed reviews.

Some people think that Zhang Yimou's attempts in the film are refreshing. As an international director, he dares to innovate, which is something worth encouraging in itself.

Some directors only make one style of film throughout their lives, and cannot escape their own constraints.

Some people think this is a failed transformation work. Zhang Yimou abandoned his strengths and deliberately imitated other directors. The result was not satisfactory. The film was absurd and funny, and the connotation was insufficient.

This is actually a very normal thing. A video cannot satisfy everyone.

Since the filming was released, Zhang Yimou still wants to be recognized and he is preparing to participate in the Venice International Film Festival in September this year.

Mark Muller promised Zhang Yimou to recommend his video to be shortlisted, but Italians are not optimistic about Zhang Yimou's video.

The Venice International Film Festival has always advocated art films. This comedy film is probably not in line with the judges' tastes. He suggested that Zhang Yimou participate in other international film festivals more.

During the half month in Beijing, Mark Muller watched about thirty movies.

There are both films of famous directors and films of young directors, and there are various themes. This is the job of being a member of the International Film Excerpts Committee.

The Venice Film Festival’s film selection committee usually has six people, including film critics and university film professors.

The candidates change almost every year, so the criteria for choosing a film are not fixed.

Some people may value the director's fame, or the film's scenes, or the storytelling method.

Mark Muller likes to sit in the last row when watching the movie, so that he can see both the video and the audience in front. If during the movie, the audience in front keeps twisting or chatting in a low voice.

This shows that this film does not attract the audience. If the audience is really attracted by the film, they will continue to watch it with concentration.

He will select several films from them to recommend to the film festival organizing committee and write his own comments. As for whether he can enter the main competition unit, it depends on the opinions of the film festival judges.

In addition to watching movies, he also had an exchange with students at the Beijing Film Academy and introduced the situation of European films.

Under the impact of Hollywood movies, the European film market is also not optimistic. Some European filmmakers turned to Hollywood and went to Hollywood to make movies, while the other part stayed in Europe to continue making literary and artistic movies.

Especially in the mid-to-late 1990s, famous European directors and actors went to Hollywood to develop.

Although the slogan of the Venice International Film Festival is "film serves serious art", Mark Muller is not a loyal art film lover, and he himself does not reject commercial films.

If he was the chairman of the Venetian Film Festival, he would introduce commercial elements into the festival.

He felt that an international film festival could not only promote a certain type of film, but should achieve a balance between business and art.

Commercial films can attract the attention of the public and enhance the influence of the film festival, while art films can enhance the level of the film festival.

Half a month later, Mark Muller went to Sucheng in the south, and Lin Zixuan, Jiang Wen and Zhang Yimou were accompanied by him.

Zhang Yimou is very interested in "Spring in a Small Town". He wants to see how the field is in the film.

"Spring in a Small Town" started filming at the end of February. It has been filmed for more than a month. The shooting plan is about halfway through. The actors have already been working together and are in the best performance state.

There are two locations for the crew to shoot, one is the Dai family's house and the other is the old city wall.

In the script, these two places are not far away. The heroine will walk on the city wall when she comes back from buying vegetables every day, and then walk home.

When the actual shooting was taken, the house was very far away from the old city wall, one outside the city and the other in the city.

The weather is good these days, and the crew is filming scenes on the city wall.

That is, the plot of the heroine wandering alone and dating her lover. Yu Feihong is wearing a cheongsam and standing on the mottled city wall with a lonely face, giving people a sense of loneliness that the beauty is independent of the world.

The field is a bold shooting method, with one scene at a time.

That is, the so-called long shots, when the actor performs, the camera does not switch between the shots, and waits for the actor to finish all the scene before entering the next shot.

This shooting method relies heavily on the actors' performance, or makes the actors' performance coherent and complete in one go.

Fortunately, the actors in this crew are all excellent and can adapt to this way of filming.

Of course, this shooting greatly reduces the director's presence. It seems that there are any directors or not. Just place the camera and watch the actors perform.

"You are a bit too extreme. You are a professional director, so you are not afraid of people in the circle." Jiang Wen said strangely.

Neither Jiang Wen nor Zhang Yimou were from the director major, and only Tian Zhixiao graduated from the Film Academy's Director Department.

"I think whether it is dependent on actors or not, it actually depends on the director's trust in actors and the position of the actors in your film. You are sure that they are not." Tian Zhuanzhang replied, "After you determine these, you will not have those psychological concerns. In this drama, the position of these three people has been determined, and the rest depends on how they act. The less director intervenes, the better."

"This feels natural. The director stood aside and watched the story develop, just like the audience, objective and calm, which is a bit interesting." Zhang Yimou thought.

"It seems that this movie is only possible for Director Tian to come to lead, but I can't be so calm." Jiang Wen shook his head and said.

"This is a good book. You should shoot this kind of thing. There are some things about family and country. If you don't express it in a singular way, you will lose your artistic conception if you express it too much." Zhang Yimou analyzed.

Zhang Yimou looked at Lin Zixuan who was talking to his sister not far away, and felt quite moved.

If he was filmed by "Spring in a Small Town", it should be his representative work in his directorial career. The field shape is well handled, and the effect of the filming should be good.

There is also "The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", which is also a good script that fell into Jiang Wen's hands.

Zhang Yimou is still looking for scripts by adapting novels, but there are not many good novels in China. Lin Zixuan is now taking out the scripts directly and is no longer publishing novels in magazines.

At this time, Lin Zixuan was talking to Lin Xiaoling, and Xu Jinglei stood aside.

In the spring of the south of the Yangtze River, the grass grows and the warblers fly, and the east wind is coming. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!