When everyone present heard the words "People's Film Movement", they all laughed and applauded: "Our films are made for the people, and there is no better name than people's films." "Taizu said that literary and artistic works should serve the people, called the people's film movement, and politically, we are in an undefeated position. "I think it's a good name, people know what our philosophy is when they hear it, unlike the New Wave, or the German New Cinema, where the professionals don't know what they're trying to do. ”

Xia Gang stood up, put his hands behind his back, and said in the tone of Mr. Peng: "From today on, the era when a few elites controlled the right to speak in movies is gone. ”

Everyone looked up and laughed, and they had the pride of "the dung was the marquis of ten thousand households back then".

Xu Wangqiu was also laughing, but he was not as optimistic as Xia Gang. He knows that in the next 30 years, the elite will still have the right to speak. It is not until the advent of the mobile Internet era that the public will truly gain the right to speak, and the monopoly of the elite on truth and truth will be truly broken.

Wu Zhiliu is the oldest among all the people present, except for Zhang Yimou, who is also mature. After laughing, he looked at Xu Wangqiu and said worriedly: "We are mainly anti-elitist, and European films are typical elitists, if we go to West Berlin to issue such a declaration, will it be boycotted by the European film industry." If the media didn't report on our declaration, it wouldn't have been able to move and wouldn't have served our purpose. ”

Xu Wangqiu smiled and said, "No." After we withdrew from the Venice Film Festival, there was a lot of media coverage around the world, and these media certainly paid more attention to our trip to West Berlin than ever before. When the time comes for us to make a manifesto in West Berlin, the media will certainly rush to cover it. This is a question that does not need to be worried. ”

Wu Zhiliu said: "But in this way, we still offend the European film industry, and your "Unfinished Chess" may be difficult to win awards in West Berlin." If our film can win awards at the film festival, it is the best response to those experts and professors in China who despise commercial films and think that commercial films have no artistry. ”

Xu Wangqiu said confidently: "This is not a big problem, Werner Fassbender of the new German film also played that kind of obscure pure art film at the beginning, but then he realized that criticizing reality should make the audience understand it, if the audience doesn't have it, others don't know what you're talking about, it's pure self-esteem, and then his film style changed, integrating criticism in popular stories, claiming to be a German director in Hollywood." His philosophy is almost the same as ours, he has had great success in Germany and Europe, he has won a lot of awards at the three major film festivals, and what he can do, of course we can do. ”

Everyone in the room nodded heavily, if Fassbinder can do it, then of course we can do it too.

Liu Lin rubbed his hands and said excitedly: "Since we are going to release a film declaration in West Berlin, let's hurry up and get our film declaration out." Damn, if you can do this, even if you die, you won't go to the world in vain!"

Gu Changwei said excitedly: "What are you waiting for, hurry up and get our declaration out!"

Zhao Ban also said loudly: "Yes, the most important thing now is to get the movie manifesto out." ”

Many of the world's well-known film movements are always preceded by some important theoretical works or manifestos, such as the "German New Cinema" originated from the Oberhausen Declaration of 1962, and the "Manifesto of the New Cinema of Bend" was issued in January 1987 and drafted by Zhan Hongzhi, and the Dogma 95 Movement was marked by the signing of the "Dogma Oath" by Danish directors led by Lars von Trier on March 13, 1995.

Xu Wangqiu nodded slightly: "I called you together to prepare to make the declaration." Let's talk about how we should write this manifesto and what we should write. ”

Wu Zhiliu said: "We must clearly explain why we are carrying out this movement, and we must point out the problems we are facing. ”

Zhang Yimou said: "From last year to this year, I have stayed in Dongying for nearly a year, and I have a new understanding of Dongying movies. Toei Films started by studying Hollywood, Yasujiro Ozu studied Hollywood in his early films, and Akira Kurosawa studied John Ford, but on the basis of learning Hollywood, they integrated their own national cultural traditions and developed their own film aesthetics. I think we should take Dongying movies as an example, not to learn for the sake of learning, and not to lose our own national cultural traditions. We should develop our own national film aesthetics on the basis of learning from the West. ”

Gu Changwei said: "The lens of the movie should be alive, not dead. The camera lens is the human eye, we are the camera to see the world, and the camera should be moving, not fixed. ”

……

During the movement, due to political leadership, a large number of film workers were impacted, and the film industry was basically paralyzed. After the movement, the elites took control of Chinese films, but they did almost the same thing, wielding the stick of art and attacking commercial films that did not suit their appetite. As long as it is a commercial film, there is almost no one who is not scolded. A director's movie is a box office hit, but he will become a street rat, and he will hide when he sees other directors, as if he has done something embarrassing.

Under the dominance of this kind of thinking, Chinese films look beautiful on the surface, but in fact the foundation has been destroyed. The obscurity of the art-house films promoted by the elite has led audiences to flee the cinemas, the cinemas have to be converted into dance halls and video halls because they are not profitable, and the film studios are burdened with heavy debts because the films do not make money, and they cannot even pay the heating bills.

But the elites never think that all this is caused by themselves, and blame the problem on censorship, saying that censorship has led to the dilemma of Chinese films, pushing the problem on policy, saying that the government does not take money to support them in art, and putting the problem on the audience, saying that "Chinese film garbage is garbage, and there are too many audiences", saying that they are "making dumplings and feeding pigs".

Mr. Lu once said: "If an iron house is windowless and indestructible, and there are many sleeping people in it, they will soon suffocate to death, but they will die from slumber, and they will not feel the sorrow of death." Now that thou hast cried out, and hast stirred up some of the more sober men, and brought this unfortunate few to the irremediable agony of death, do you think that thou art worthy of them? ”

Xu Wangqiu is the one who jumped out and shouted, since the publication of "On the Modernization of Chinese Film Language" in 78, he has been trying to rewrite the future of Chinese cinema through his articles and films. But he failed to turn the situation around, and the elites still controlled the discourse of Chinese films as they did in the previous life, with commercial films being despised and commercial film directors being attacked. The only thing to be thankful for is that his shout woke up Zhang Yimou and Wu Zhiliu.

Now Xu Wangqiu and this group of people who are also awake are ready to make a bigger noise, to make a sound to the world through the stage of the West Berlin Film Festival, and want to wake up more future generations. A spark can start a prairie fire. They hope that their little sparks will ignite the overgrown wasteland of Chinese films.

Zhang Yimou and Wu Zhiliu were deeply influenced by Xu Wangqiu, but they are adults after all, and their different life experiences make their thoughts and concepts different. Zhang Yimou believes that films should be nationalized and should look for national aesthetics; Wu Zhiliu believes that films should pursue documentary nature and should pay attention to current life; Liu Lin believes that films should pursue visual effects and firmly grasp the audience's ...... In the process of discussion, everyone had disagreements, arguments, and even quarrels, but everyone knew that in the face of the dilemma of Chinese films, they had to huddle together in order to break the "iron house".

The discussion lasted from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., culminating in ten basic principles for the movement. Even though it was already two o'clock in the morning, they were not sleepy at all, and there was a fire burning in their hearts. They are all dissatisfied with the current situation of Chinese films, full of worries about the future of Chinese films, and they hope to use their own fire to illuminate the cloudy future of Chinese films.

Everyone in the room was able to write, write scripts, and write reviews, and many of them published in newspapers and magazines. However, the most able to write is undoubtedly Xu Wangqiu, and he is the leading brother, everyone recommended him to write, and others supplemented him.

Xia Gang suggested that in order to celebrate the stage victory, everyone should have a toast. His proposal was met with a positive response from everyone, who agreed that it should be celebrated. Xia Gang picked up the wine bottle and was about to pour the wine, but found that the wine bottle was empty, got up and said, "You wait for me a little." I'm going to get a good bottle of wine. ”

Xia Gang ran out with a bang, and quickly ran back with a bang. He put the wine bottle in his hand on the table, and said triumphantly: "I have a good bottle of wine here, and I am happy today, we drank this bottle of wine." ”

Liu Lin saw the wine bottle and shouted "Moutai", and snatched the wine bottle from Xia Gang's hand. He looked at the wine bottle in his hand and found that it was not quite the same as the Moutai sold outside, the wine bottle was a jute glazed sauce bottle with ephedra glaze on the outside, the color was stable, transparent and beautiful; the bottom of the bottle was closed and exposed, the bottle body was slightly thin, and he said curiously: "This Moutai is different from what you sell in the store, it looks like it is very expensive." ”

Liu Lin shouted like this, and Wu Zhiliu and the others also noticed that this wine bottle was not quite the same as the Moutai they usually saw.

Zhao Ban is Zhao Dan's son, he is well-informed, he has seen this kind of wine bottle, and said in surprise: "This is not a special Moutai, it is drunk by the central leaders during the state banquet, and it is not sold to the public." Xia Gang, where did you get that?"

Xia Gang said triumphantly: "Others gave my dad a few bottles, but my dad has never been willing to drink them." I stole a bottle and prepared it to be used as a celebration wine after the official release of "Bloody Demon Capture". I think what we're doing now is more worthy of celebration than the release of "Bloody Demon", so I took out the wine. ”

Everyone was excited when they heard that this was a special Moutai, after all, it is a wine that leaders can drink, and ordinary people want to drink it, even if they have money, there is nowhere to buy it. They snatched the wine bottle from Liu Lin and took turns playing with it, as if admiring a rare treasure.

The wine bottle turned around and turned into Xu Wangqiu's hand. He played with the wine bottle, looked at Xia Gang, and said with a smile: "Then I'll open the wine?"

Xia Gang waved his hand proudly: "Open! I'll take it for everyone to drink." ”

Xu Wangqiu unscrewed the lid of the wine bottle and poured wine into the seven glasses in front of him. He raised his wine glass, slowly moved his gaze to Zhang Yimou's face, and said in a slightly excited voice: "No matter whether our campaign can succeed or not, no matter what the final result will be, but at least we have fought for it, I believe that history will remember this night, and will remember that there is a group of people who fought hard for this." For the sake of Chinese films, for the future of Chinese films, let's cheer!"

Zhang Yimou and the others all picked up their cups, and their eyes burned with blazing fire. Just like Xu Wangqiu said, no matter whether this movement succeeds or not, no matter what the outcome of this movement is, as the initiators of this movement, they will be remembered by history. They held their wine glasses and shouted excitedly: "For Chinese films, for the future of Chinese films, cheers!"