THIS IS A TRANSLATION I DID OF APRIL’S LAST WORD WITH DIRECTOR WANG QUAN’AN. AFTER MAY’S ISSUE IS OUT FOR A FEW WEEKS, I WILL PUT UP MY LAST WORD INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR WANG SHUO. FORTUNATELY, WANG QUAN’AN IS A TAD MORE CONSTRUCTIVE THAN WANG SHUO, THOUGH BOTH MEN FASCINATE ME.
好电影要有力量
Good Movies Need Strength
今年大年初一，中国导演王全安的《图雅的婚事》获得了柏林国际电影节金熊奖。王全安的作品都是反映当前的中国社会现实，重视真实感和纪实性。这次得奖，实现了他部份追求观众认同的理想。在他工作地点附近一家他喜爱流连的咖啡厅，王全安与《新闻周刊 中文月刊》的周敏见了面，谈到他对电影的取材、人物塑造和未来目标。
On Chinese New Year’s Day, Chinese director Wang Quan’an’s “Tuya’s Wedding” won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear. Wang’s films focus on contemporary Chinese society and use a reportage style to survey current sentiment. Winning the award fulfills a portion of his quest to achieve audience recognition. At a coffeehouse close to his workplace, Wang joins Newsweek Select’s Zhou Min to speak about story concepts, character creation and his next goal. Excerpts:
周敏：你如何决定拍哪一个故事？
Zhou Min: How do you determine the stories you want to film?
王全安：我关注人物的故事，当下生活环境的描述，现在这种电影实在太少了。如果一个场景，一个细节中有很复杂的情绪，我就想在此基础上把它变成电影。电影不可能真实，因为在取舍的时候已经有筛选了，电影中的“真正”是情感的“真实”。拍电影一定要尊重影像的讲述习惯和特点，不能漠视它，否则没法看。
Wang Quan’an: I follow stories about people who depict a way of life. In China, there are too few of this type of film. If within a scene, within a detail, there is a complex sentiment, I want to build on that to create a film. Films can’t be real because as soon as you take up the story it’s already been filtered. A film’s “trueness” is the reality of its feeling. To shoot films, you must respect the image’s narrative custom and characteristics. You can’t overlook it or you won’t have any chance of really viewing it.
你拍电影时，最关注什么问题？
What aspects do you focus on when filming?
电影的核心是人物形象，我们记住一个好的电影是因为我们记住其中的人物。我很喜欢《教父》中迈克从马桶的水箱里面拿到手枪以后，从洗手间里走出来直到杀人那个场景，这太经典了。人物刻画得如此到位精彩，一个男人的成长瞬时被淋漓尽致的表现出来。我在拍摄的时候总是以人物为第一位的，演员的视觉内不允许有其他不相干的人干扰他/她的表演。我之前学表演，很多人以为我会指导演员如何做，其实质感的表象取决于审美。
The core of a film is the character’s image. We remember a good movie because we remember its characters. I really like the scene in the Godfather when Michael grabs the pistol from the toilet tank and goes out of the washroom to murder everyone. This is really a classic scene – the character so splendidly enters the scene and his growth is instant via that incisive performance. When I’m filming, my characters always come first. I don’t want anything distracting to get in the line of my actor’s vision. I used to study acting, and many people think that due to this fact I can lead the characters in their acting, but it’s actually also due to an aesthetic appreciation.
你的电影都是以女性为主角，有什么特殊意义？
Your movies are all told from a female point of view. Is there any particular significance behind this?
我认为女性比较容易切中实质，她们的角色和社会定位相对男性比较单一，而男性有着比较复杂的社会角色，所以他们的话语和举动有时候不能直接反映他们的思维。选择女性作为叙述的主体，使得电影能够节约空间和时间，更直接切入主题。我下一部电影《纺织女工》也是女性题材的。其实我写了一些男性为主题的剧本，比如说一个成功中年男性如何寻找他想像中的爱情的故事，希望有机会可以拍成电影。
I consider it relatively easy to nail down the female essence. Their societal role and position is more unified than those of men, and men have comparatively more complex social roles. Men’s words and actions often don’t directly reflect their thinking. To use a woman protagonist saves enough time and space to penetrate the main idea. My next film “Textile Worker Woman (no official English title yet)” also takes on a woman’s subject matter. Actually, I’ve written some men’s stories as well, including a story about how a middle-aged man can find the love of his dreams. I hope I have the opportunity to film it.
拿奖是你一直以来的目标吗，有想过拿奥斯卡吗？
Was winning an award always your objective? Have you ever thought about winning an Oscar?
欧洲追求艺术公平的电影奖对中国电影帮助巨大，其实从中国第五代导演（指崛起自1980年代的导演群）开始，我们就一直在遵循这种模式。拿奥斯卡是中国有志向导演的梦想。不过，当我在国际上走动了两年，当我看到电影节运作的痕迹越来越重时候，我自己对这件事情太琢磨的时候，我就有点厌倦，清晰之后就有点烦了。事实上，我现在有点挣脱，但是意味着失去这个市场。这里面充满争夺、诱惑、限制，所以我拍的很慢，我在了解为什么会这样。
To Chinese film, European Awards that allow the pursuit of artistic equality have been a tremendous help. We have followed this pattern since the fifth generation of Chinese directors (the group of directors who rose in the 80s). It’s Chinese directors’ collective dream to win an Oscar. However, during my two years of moving around in the world of international cinema, when I see the vestiges of these film festival operations becoming increasingly obvious, I feel dreary when I mull on it and aggravated when I see it clearly. In reality, I’ve already sort of put off the idea, but this means I would lose out on that market. That industry is so full of competition, enticement and limitation. Because I get so caught up pondering all of it and trying to understand the why of it, I end up shooting all of my films really slowly.
你是否会去拍商业电影？
Would you shoot a commercial film?
我拍的是文化表述的艺术电影。商业电影讲述故事的技巧是不一样的，需要不同的专业的训练和知识。事实上，商业片的要求才华一点不比艺术片少。娱乐是电影的本质，文化和艺术是娱乐的最高表现形式。事实上，当时中国商业片兴起的时候，中国没有专门学习拍商业片的导演。一方面市场形成了，而另一方面人才和心智的培植还需要时间。我们很难背离自己的教育和环境，我的价值取向不是商业，没有受过商业片的教育，我也拍不好。
I make art films that represent culture. The narrative ability of commercial films is not the same. The two require dissimilar knowledge and practices to create. To make a commercial film requires no less literary and artistic talent than it does to make an art film. The essence of film is entertainment. Art and culture are the highest form of entertainment’s expression. Actually, when China first started raising interest in commercial film, there were no expert directors who had studied it. The market was forming, and talent and the cultivation of talent required time. It’s difficult for people to depart from their background and education. My worth is not in shooting commercial film. I wouldn’t be able to do it well.
为了艺术电影的发展，你能做点什么？
What can you do to further develop Chinese art films?
中国目前的电影环境确实很躁动，也很有活动，滋生生机的时候到了，我们不能躺在那里昏昏欲睡。我想最终要的任务就是把电影拍得真的很吸引人，拍有生命力的电影。我欣赏黑泽明和克博拉。他们是对电影真正的热爱。电影是很“现世”的，有的导演觉得影片悲悯了边缘的人、底层的人，但这些人不喜欢看的时候，他又显示出非常傲慢，这一下就能检验出他当初拍电影的动机，是想为自己获得些什么。其实一回到电影本身，事情就简单了，就是做好电影，但这是最难得的。艺术性，思想性附着着的电影才真正有价值。我们的价值观是实用的价值观，问题是在艺术上我们不能这样，艺术是付出多少，得到多少。必须在电影中建立力量。
Currently, the Chinese film environment is quite impetuous, but it’s also full of life and vitality, so we shouldn’t nap through it. I think the most important task is to film in a way that attracts people, to film with vigor. I appreciate Akira Kurosawa and Francis Ford Coppola. They passionately love film. Their movies are deeply oriented in the present world. Some directors don’t feel that anyone will have any interest in topics that explore people on the edge of grief or people from the lower classes, but it demonstrates the arrogance of these directors. Examining the director’s feelings towards these topics, we can understand the director’s motive–what did he or she wish to accomplish for him or herself? Actually, if we just return to the idea of film, the situation can be simplified: make a good film. But this is most difficult—only movies that adhere to art and philosophy are valuable. Our perspective on value is a practical one, but the problem is that, in regards to art, we shouldn’t think this way. With art, what you put into it is what you take away. You must expend real strength to create a film.
你希望你的电影能被哪种观众欣赏？
What audiences do you hope will appreciate your film?
我拍完第一部电影时，我妈妈明确表示不喜欢，我当时特别高兴，觉得她不喜欢就对了，艺术片不是给普通观众看的。拍摄的时候已经把普通观众排出在外了，甚至以普通观众看不懂为荣。随着年龄和阅历的增长，我逐步理解电影最终还是要回到电影院接受考验，当导演完全否定观众的时候，我们就犯了常识性的错误。我希望更多人能通过我的电影，获得一次看电影的乐趣。《图雅的婚事》最高目的是在电影院被接受。好的导演就像恋爱高手，让观众主动喜欢上你的电影。如果观众不喜欢，那就是导演的问题了，他没有拍出好片子，不能埋怨观众。如果观众觉得不好看，只有一个办法，就是我只能拍得更好，让电影更有力量。
After I finished my first movie, my mother unequivocally expressed she didn’t like it. At that time, I was quite happy. I thought if she didn’t like it, I had done it right. Art films weren’t for common people. While I filmed my picture, I dismissed the common person. To render such people unable to understand my film, then, was an honor. But as my age and understanding matured, I slowly came to understand that in the end the movie still goes to the theater for inspection. To be a director and completely deny the audience is to commit a commonsensical error. I hope as many people as possible can see my movies and derive pleasure from them. My biggest goal for Tuya’s Wedding is for it to be accepted and played at the theaters. The greatest directors are like great lovers. They let the audiences take the initiative to like what the director is offering — these movies. If the audiences don’t like it, it’s because the director didn’t make a good movie. A director can’t bitch at the audience for it. If the audience didn’t like it, there’s only one solution — shoot a better movie next time. Make the film with as much power as possible.
除了拍电影，你有什么其他爱好?
In addition to making movies, what else do you enjoy?
如果有空，我喜欢到陌生的地方走走，待个二三天。北京路上的马车提醒我其实还有另外的时空，它并不遥远，只有20%的人过着处处都是咖啡店、商店的生活。在陌生的地方，我就像一个隐形人一样关注着80%的人最真实的生活。我的电影故事发生的场景从城市到从农村，再到少数民族，我喜欢到远的地方观察描述真实的生活。
If I have free time, I like to travel to a place new and unknown to me and stay for two to three days and go for long walks. In Beijing, the horse-drawn carriages remind me of another space and time, but it’s not really distant. Only 20 percent of Chinese people live their lives like this surrounded by coffee shops and shopping malls. In remote places where I am a stranger, I am just another invisible member of that other 80 percent of the countryside population. My movies happen from the city to the countryside, from the countryside to minority populations. I like going to faraway remote places to observe those realities.
Leave a Reply