Zhenxing Lane is in the bustling downtown area of Beiping, but this alley is very narrow, and three people can't pass through it side by side. Zhong Xinfei's family lived in a cramped bungalow here. Zhong Xinfei is a famous film critic, known as the founder of Chinese film aesthetics, and the father of novelist Ah Cheng.

Zhong Xinfei was branded as a rightist in 1957, and was rehabilitated at the beginning of this year and returned to Beiping. It's a bit funny to say that Zhong Xinfei was beaten as a rightist/faction, and Zhong Xinfei wrote a film review "The Gongs and Drums of Movies" in the 50s. On January 15, 1957, the "Xiangjiang Times" reprinted a newsletter published by the Taiwan Avenue News Agency entitled "Under the Constraints of Heavy Oppression, the Mainland Film Industry is Miserable". This newsletter contains a lot of references to material from "The Gongs and Drums of Cinema". also wrote at the end: "All the film workers trapped in the mainland have been persecuted and suppressed for too long, and now they are actually beating the gong and drum of anti-violence." "The Gongs and Drums of the Movie" has become an "anti-riot gong and drum", and Taiwan still supports it, which is worth it, so Zhong Xianfei was quickly beaten into a right/faction.

Zhang Ke walked into the courtyard and shouted, "Old clock!"

Zhong Xianfei saw Zhang Ke greet him with a smile: "Zhang Ke, what kind of wind blew you here?"

Zhang Ke smiled and said, "Come and see you, what's the matter, you're not welcome?"

Zhong Xianfei laughed and said, "I don't welcome you to come to the door." Come and sit in the house!"

After sitting down, Zhang Ke opened his bag, took out a manuscript and handed it to Zhong Xinfei: "Old Zhong, there is an article here, you can take a look." ”

Zhong Xinfei was slightly stunned, Zhang Ke made a special trip to let him read this article, I am afraid that this article is very unusual, so he immediately took the article. The article was written on Nortel's signature paper, and the title was "On the Audiovisual Language of "Heroes' Children".

""Children of Heroes" was a film many years ago, and the audiovisual language is not particularly prominent, so there is nothing to talk about. Zhong Xinfei shook his head, but he believed that Zhang Ke showed the article to himself, and there must be something unusual about this article, so he followed the title and looked down.

"Children of Heroes" is a war film produced and produced by Changchun Film Studio in 1964. Directed by Wu Zhaodi, starring Liu Shilong, Liu Shangxian, Tian Fang, etc. The film is based on Ba Jin's novel "Reunion". The film tells the story of the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, after the volunteer soldier Wang Cheng was killed, his sister Wang Fang insisted on fighting with the help of political commissar Wang Wenqing, and finally reunited with his adoptive father Wang Wenqing, and his biological father Wang Wenqing reunited on the Korean battlefield......"

After a brief statement of the theme of the film, the article begins to analyze the audiovisual language of the film. The article points out that one of the characteristics of "Children of Heroes" is the combination of a large number of upward and downward shots, and the contrast is very stark. For example, in a scene where Wang Cheng is not afraid of danger and sacrifices heroically, a lot of upward shooting angles are used, while panicked, small and obscene enemies mostly use overhead shooting angles. The article pointed out that not only "Heroes' Children", but most domestic films have this feature.

Based on this, the article points out that the audiovisual language of Chinese films is mainly influenced by the classic narrative techniques of Soviet films and Hollywood, and the pattern is very serious: the panoramic explanation of the environment, the close-up explanation of the characters, the empty shot shows the psychology of the characters, and the segmentation of the picture follows the golden rule, reflecting a sense of balance, symmetry and harmony. The use of various symbols is also in a proper manner, such as the sunrise represents hope and a bright future, and the haze and thunder represent distress and pain......

This is not only the case for ordinary directors, but even for big directors such as Xie Jin and Xie Tieli, their films are different in content, but there is no fundamental difference in film language, no personal style, and lack creativity.

Zhong Xianfei was shocked by the point of view of the article, there is a saying in the Chinese film industry that "South Xie and North Xie", talking about Xie Jin of Magic Film Studio and Xie Tieli of Beijing Film Studio, they are representative figures of Chinese films in this era, and this article actually said that Xie Jin and Xie Tieli Their works are only different from other directors in content, there is not much difference in film language, no personal style, lack of creativity, this is too dare to say!

However, this article is not like other film reviews, which only point out the shortcomings of the film and make a general discussion, the article takes Wang Cheng's sacrifice of a scene as an example, and elaborates on the author's idea of the article, and if he were to shoot this scene, how he would shoot it.

In the movie, Wang Cheng shouted "Shoot me for victory, shoot me for victory" before his sacrifice, and gave a close-up, and a shot was completed. The author of the article thinks that this kind of shooting is too bland and fails to mobilize the emotions of the audience well. If he is asked to shoot, after Wang Cheng shouts the words "for victory", he will immediately cut the camera and give the reaction shot. First, cut Wang Fang's shot, Wang Fang seemed to hear his brother shouting slogans; then cut Wang Wenqing's shots, Wang Wenqing seemed to hear his son Wang Cheng's shouting; then cut the reaction of the Volunteer Army Command when they heard Wang Cheng shouting slogans; and finally cut back to the position and filmed Wang Cheng's sacrifice. In this way, the audience's sense of substitution will be stronger, and the whole plot will be more moving.

Zhong Yanfei thought about it silently, and found that this scene was indeed more shocking and moving according to the author's way. At the same time that Wang Cheng shouted "Shoot at me for victory", the shots of Wang Fang, Wang Wenqing and the headquarters broke the boundaries of time and space, giving people the feeling that Wang Cheng's slogan was spread all over the country. At the same time, when Wang Cheng shouted this sentence, everyone knew that Wang Cheng was going to sacrifice, and at this time, the shots of his sister Wang Fang, father Wang Wenqing and the Volunteer Army Headquarters will make everyone empathize. After adopting this shooting method, the emotional impact is indeed much stronger than that of the original "Children of Heroes".

The person who wrote this article has a very high level, and has a very deep study of the camera and the language of the film, no wonder he dares to say that Xie Jin lacks creativity in audiovisual language, this person's level is really good!

Thinking of this, Zhong Xinfei flipped to the beginning of the article and looked at the author's name, Xu Wangqiu, I haven't heard of this name, it should be a young director! No, the article was brought by Zhang Ke, it should be a young teacher from Nortel, otherwise the article would not have come to him; it seems that Nortel has produced a very powerful young man!

Zhong Xinfei continued to read the article. At the end of the article, the author very clearly pointed out that the distance between today's Chinese films and the world's modern films has been greatly widened, and the expression techniques of Chinese films are backward and outdated, and proposed that Chinese films should learn from the West, especially from Hollywood, so as to realize the modernization of Chinese film language.

After reading the article, Zhong Xinfei's heart was extremely shaken. Although this article is not long, it is like a clever assassin, directly stabbing at the door of Chinese movies, which makes it impossible to refute, and the whole article is full of gold.

Zhang Ke saw that Zhong Xianfei was silent after reading the article, and asked, "How is it, how do you feel after reading this article?"

Zhong Xianfei came back to his senses, tapped his fingers lightly on the manuscript paper, and said unsatisfactorily: "This article can be said to be to the point and to the point. The author has a deep study of film and film language, but unfortunately the article is too short, and many places have not been expanded, and there is no more in-depth analysis and discussion. He said excitedly, "Which of your Nortel teachers wrote this?" I want to talk to him. ”

Zhang Ke thought to himself that he didn't want to discuss in depth, just two hours, that little guy didn't have time to go deeper! A strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "It wasn't written by Nortel's teacher." This year, Nortel resumed enrollment, and I went to the Chang'an examination area to invigilate. One of the questions in the re-examination is watching a movie and writing a video analysis, which is an essay written by one of the candidates. ”

Zhong Xianfei couldn't believe his ears, and stared at Zhang Ke's eyes tightly, wondering if he was joking: "This is an essay written by a candidate? Are you kidding, what kind of students will have such an understanding of movies?"

Zhang Ke thought to himself that if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that it was written by a student, and chuckled: "It was indeed written by a student." ”

Zhong Xinfei knew that Zhang Ke was not a person who joked indiscriminately, and his eyes were full of shock: "This student's observation and thinking skills are extraordinary, it's really incredible." Speaking of this, he said curiously, "What do you mean by showing me this article?"

Zhang Ke said solemnly: "This article points out the long-standing problems of Chinese films, but there is also a problem, that is, too much admiration for Hollywood films, which may lead to great criticism. And the author is just a sixteen-year-old boy, can he handle so much pressure? So, I'm a little hesitant to take it out and publish it, and I want to hear your opinion. ”

Zhong Feifei frowned and said: "Film language is a tool, Hollywood can use it, the Soviets can use it, and of course the Chinese can use it." What's wrong with Hollywood's advanced film language, and we learn from other people's advanced things?"

Zhang Ke sighed and said: "Of course I know what you said, but you forget Jiang Qing, she especially admires Hollywood movies, such as her praise and promotion of "Pigeon", which has had a deep impact on filmmakers. Now that Jiang Qing has been defeated, you admire Hollywood, in the eyes of some people, you have ulterior motives!"

Zhong Xinfei's brows furrowed, yes, this is indeed a problem, and it is very dangerous politically. Zhong Xinfei has experienced the movement, and he was branded as a rightist because of his writing, so he knows that this matter is very troublesome, but he is a very hard-boned person, and he said: "Art belongs to art, politics belongs to politics, it can't be mixed up, Hollywood movies have advanced places in art, of course we can learn." Movies were invented by capitalists, shouldn't we make movies? This article is very good, pointing out the problems of the current Chinese films, and I think such an article should be published!"

Zhang Ke sighed and said: "I understand what you said, but the reality is that politics and art are difficult to separate. After reading this article, many people applauded and felt that it was to the point, but many people said that the article was politically reactionary. Nortel is still like this, if it is sent out, you can imagine how much criticism it will encounter. ”

Zhong Xianfei felt that this was indeed the case, and thought for a while: "Otherwise, the article was published in our Film Association's "Film Art Reference", which is an internal publication and is not for sale. ”

Hearing Zhong Xianfei say this, Zhang Ke immediately smiled. "Film Art Reference Materials" is an internal publication edited by the Research Department of the Film Association, which was founded at the beginning of this year and is published irregularly, commonly known as "small white papers". Zhang Ke looked at Zhong Xinfei and said with a smile: "This idea is good, even if it is controversial, it is an internal matter in our film industry, and it will not be stabbed into society." ”

Zhong Xianfei reacted immediately, laughed and scolded: "Okay, you Zhang Ke, come with me like this, you originally wanted this article to be posted on "Film Art Reference"!"