Ok, Let’s Go!

Hi Art, September 2007

Many famous people have kicked the bucket recently: Ingmar Bergman,  

Recently, many people kicked the bucket: Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Yang Dechang, Hou Yaowen, Wen Xingyu, Jorg Immendorff, and others. Please forgive my blunt choice of words: I use these words when my own kith and kin died as well.  

In general, I try to avoid euphemisms like “pass away” for the dead, or “immortal” for the gone, unless someone pushes a gun against my throat. If someone dies, then they are merely dead. And no matter how terrific the bloody wording is, you can’t bring a dead man back to life.  

I salute Ingmar Bergman for the master film director that he was. It is he who brought the rational ideas of philosophy into his works, using a free and unbridled style when shooting his films just as if he were writing a book. Yang Dechang was also a famous film director, who believed that wonderful films could be completed by a small team, without tremendous investment behind them.   

Aside from Legal Report, the only TV show I can watch is the sit-com where I came to know Wen Xingyu, an actor who played the role of an awkward cadre to perfection. His character was recently retired from a leading post; not content with the ongoing status quo, they continue to push to make a contribution that is nevertheless misunderstood by other people.  

Hou Yaowen, my old neighbor, was a very kind person. He would routinely crack daily jokes during the SARS crisis in 2003, and when people dare not go out, he stayed at home in his courtyard drinking. My liking for him doubled when I discovered that he had been Guo Degang’s teacher.  

Hou once asked me to give him a catalogue of mine. That evening, I sought out a nice thick volume, signed it, and put it out to send to him. To my eternal shame, I then drank too much, and forgot to send it across to him. Now, the album still lies on the shelf, bearing the inscription: “In great appreciation of Mr. Hou Yaowen’s comments, May 5, 2003”.  

Jorg Immendorff was a famous German painter who held a successful exhibition in China. It is said that he not only painted very well, but was respected among Germany’s political elite, and even had a knack for running restaurants.  

It was on the pages of the People’s Daily newspaper that decorated the walls of my grandmother’s house that I first saw the name of Antonioni. I was in primary school, and the yellowed papers were filled with critical articles. There was not one advertisement. Banner headlines to the left proclaimed: “Down With the Russian Revisionist Socialist Imperialism and its Running Dogs”. On the right, “Down with the US Imperialists and their Running Dogs”. In the middle sat an article criticizing Antonioni. I remember wondering at the time why the entire newspaper was concerned with running dogs, and the only person written about in the center still anti-China.  

It was many years later, as a college student, that I started to watch Antonioni’s films, and began to understand that he was one of the “three -ini’s” of Italian neo-realist films (namely, Roberto Rossellini, Frederico Fellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni). Antonioni’s film Red Desertwas reputed to be the first real color film in the history of motion pictures. The film Blowup still stands as representative of art house excellence. He won awards at all the major international film festivals, including sweeping the Venice Film Festival title on five occasions. He was awarded an Honorary Oscar and Honorary Venice prize in 1995 and 2000 respectively.

 Antonioni’s films were characterized by few words, long scenes, and implied narrative, from which China’s six generation of film makers learned a lot. In addition, the influence of France’s New Wave upon young Chinese film directors is responsible for their success at various European film festivals.  

Some people say that Antonioni was down on his luck in that he came to China at just the wrong time. Just look at how cocky Bernardo Brtolucci was when he arrived here to shoot the film The Last Emperor. He was raised high to the sky by everyone who could speak. The Summer Palace and Great Wall were offered to him. He could shoot anywhere he wanted to. Actor Ying Ruocheng had a glass fo the finest wine placed by his bed every day.

As the artistic creator, I think Antonioni should have chosen that moment to come to China. I also think that it was right that the Chinese people should criticize him. Over the century following the birth of motion pictures in 1895, there have been many genres and styles in the world’s film industry: Italian Poetic Realism of the ‘30s, Neo-Realism of 1945-50, French New wave of 1958-62, new German film of the early 1960s, new Hollywood film of the 1970s, globalization of the Hollywood studios in the 1980s, followed by the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Abbas Kiarostami in the 90s and the EDV and digitalized films in the 21st century.  

So far, Chinese directors have not directly involved themselves in the major genres and movements, and no world class film directing masters or decent films with international appeal have emerged from China.

 Indeed, of all the world class film directors, Anonioni was the only one who came to China to shoot a film. He is also the only one whose film - a three-hour documentary called China - was criticized and condemned by nearly a billion Chinese people in theaters around the country for defacing the New China.

 More than 200 pages of critical articles about China were generated in the first two months of 1974, as published by the People’s Literature Press. Authors came from all walks of life, including many revolutionary cadres, as well as ordinary folk from the places where Antonioni shot the film.

 There is no prior precedent in the history of motion pictures around the world that such a large scale critical movement can be triggered by film. This neo-realistic film abandoned all luxury and glamour, emphasizing a reflection of social reality. An artistic choice to focus on the working people, and offer no easy answers to the audiences was a familiar mark of Antonioni’s work. The closed, culturally destitute monotony of China in the later years of the Cultural Revolution therefore provided excellent shooting conditions for Antonioni in his ongoing search to “reveal the potential meanings with implied and empty visual effects”.   

China was released at the 37th Venice Biennale in 1974, and the sensation spread across Europe, bringing Antonioni greater degrees of fame. Chinese people had never imagined that an exchange of thoughts and ideas with the Italian master director could become a shared memory of a generation in an isolated era. The death of Antonioni spurred many people - especially those who had suffered most in the Cultural Revolution - to remember that time. Some scene continued to be vivid in their memories, and the name of Antonioni was not unfamiliar to them.  

In 1985, Antonioni was paralyzed, and lost the ability to speak. He suffered an added loss of his vision in September 2006. Despite this, Antonioni maintained an affection for China, and never believed that his film had besmirched the nation. In his later years, friends would suggest a repeat visit to China, to which he would answer “OK, lets go!” Ill health stopped him repeating his 1972 journey to China. Many Chinese people, however, hoped to see him return. If he had done, they would have asked just one question: “How did you feel to suffer the condemnation of the Chinese nation all those years ago?”

Zhu Wei

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

走，这就走

《Hi艺术》2007年9月号

最近死了不少人：伯格曼、安东尼奥尼、杨德昌、侯耀文、文兴宇、伊门道夫……。请原谅我这么说，因为家里有亲人离开的时候我也用死这个词，除非有人拿枪逼着我，或是施加什么淫威，我一般不用逝世、永垂不朽这类死了还要比活着的人强的词汇。人死了就死了，用他妈多好的词也救不活。 

伯格曼是我尊敬的世界电影艺术大师，是他把哲学的理性思考带到作品当中，是他可以自由地像作家一样直接拍摄电影，我始终抬头看着他。杨德昌，华人著名导演，是他证明了精彩的电影可以一个人做，而不必依赖巨大的投资。平时在家看电视，除了法制进行时，就爱看情景喜剧，从那认识了文兴宇，他把从领导岗位上退下来的老同志不甘寂寞总想发挥余热又不被理解的尴尬劲儿拿捏得相当准确。侯耀文是我的老邻居，人好，非典的时候大家都不敢出门，就在院子里喝酒，他天天都给大家说几个笑话。后来听说他还是郭德纲的师傅，就更加喜爱有加了。他曾和我要本画册，当晚回家就找了本厚的签了名准备给他，可惜当晚喝得多了点，第二天给忘了。现在那本画册还在，上写“侯先生耀文兄批评，2003年5月9日”。伊门道夫，德国当代著名画家，来中国办过展览，听说他不仅画画的好，在德国政界要人都给面子，餐厅也开得不错。 

最早看到安东尼奥尼的名字，是上小学的时候在奶奶家糊墙的报纸上，人民日报。满墙发黄的旧报纸全是批判文章，没广告。大黑字标题，左边一片是打倒苏修社会帝国主义及其一切走狗，右边一片是打倒美帝国主义及其一切走狗，中间是批判安东尼奥尼。我当时就觉得满世界怎么全是狗，就中间是个人还反华？ 

多年后，上大学看了他的不少电影，才知道安东尼奥尼是一牛逼的世界级大导演，是意大利新现实主义电影“三尼”之一（罗伯特·罗西里尼，费德里科·费里尼，米开朗基罗·安东尼奥尼）。他拍的《红色沙漠》被誉为电影史上第一部真正意义上的彩色电影，《放大》被誉为世界电影史上艺术电影的代表作之一。他一生获得过全世界所有电影节的奖项，光威尼斯电影节就拿了5次，1995年、2002年分别获得奥斯卡终身成就奖和威尼斯终身成就奖。安东尼奥尼的电影，语言少，镜头长，叙事含蓄，这一点被中国的第六代导演们学了不少，再加上后来出现的法国新浪潮的影响，使这些年轻的中国导演还在欧洲获了不少奖。 

有人说安东尼奥尼背，来中国来的不是时候，晚几年像贝尔托鲁奇来拍《末代皇帝》的时候多神气，都拿头顶着。故宫、长城敞开拍，想去哪去哪，前呼后拥，连一起拍片的英若诚住的酒店床头每天都有最好的葡萄酒。作为一个艺术创作者，我觉得他就该那时来，中国人民也该批他。自打1895年有电影这一百多年来，世界电影出现了很多流派和样式：30年代的意大利诗意现实主义，45-50年的新现实主义，58-62年的法国新浪潮，60年代初的新德国电影，70年代的新好莱坞电影，80年代的好莱坞电影全球化，90年代的基耶斯洛夫斯基、阿巴斯的作者电影，二十一世纪的EDV、数字电影等等，没有一个运动与流派和中国人有关，中国至今没有出现过一位世界级的电影大师和像样的有世界影响的电影。 

在众多的世界电影大师中，唯独安东尼奥尼和中国有点关系、唯独安东尼奥尼来中国拍过电影、唯独安东尼奥尼这三个小时的纪录片《中国》因被视为丑化新中国而遭到全中国人民近十亿观众长达3年多的批判。仅1974年头两个月发表的批判文章就厚达200页，由当时的人民文学出版社出版，作者来自全国各条战线，其中很多是安东尼奥尼拍摄过的地方的革命干部和群众。 

因一部电影而引发的在一个国家如此持久的大规模的全国性的批判运动在世界电影史上至今没听说过有第二个。意大利新现实主义电影摈弃奢华，强调反映社会真实，将镜头对准劳动人民、普通百姓，不重情节，不给观众提供答案，这些特征在安东尼奥尼的《中国》里得到淋漓尽致的表现。文革后期极度封闭、空虚盲从、色彩单调的中国，也为安东尼奥尼提倡用含蓄空寂的视觉效果来揭示潜在涵义的理论提供了极佳的拍摄条件。这部电影在74年第37届威尼斯双年展以及随后全欧洲的放映引起了极大轰动，为安东尼奥尼带来了更大的声誉。中国人民也没想到，在与世隔绝文化空乏的年代，能和世界级电影大师有了一次思想上的交流，成为一代人的集体记忆。安东尼奥尼的死，勾起了很多人的回想，特别是有过文革经历的人，有些情景还历历在目，安东尼奥尼这个名字，他们不陌生。 

安东尼奥尼1985年中风瘫痪失语，2006年9月双目失明，他对中国始终有感情，并不觉得他的影片给中国抹了黑。在他晚年每当有人去看他，对他说：“怎么样，去中国吧。”都能听到他回答：“走，这就走。”尽管由于身体原因，他自1972年以来，再也没来过中国，没“走”成，但很多中国人都希望他再来中国“走”一趟。人们很想问问，当年全中国人民口诛笔伐您的时候，您在想什么？

——朱伟

2007年8月15日星期三

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