[Approach the artist]
Guangming Daily reporter Han Yeting
Recent photos of Xie Fei Photo by Guangming Daily reporter Han Yeting/Guangming Picture
The 79-year-old is the son of Xie Juezai, one of the “Five Olds of Yan’an”, and the leader of the fourth generation of directors. He directed and filmed “Our Field”, “Xiang Girl Xiaoxiao”, “Borning Year”, “Fragrant Soul Girl”, “Black Horse” “Excellent works such as “Yixi Zhuoma”, which are well-known at home and abroad, have successively won the “Golden Panda Award” at the Montpellier Film Festival in France, the “Silver Bear Award” for outstanding personal achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival “Golden Bear Award” and many other international awards.
In October of this year, at the Fifth Pingyao International Film Festival, Xie Fei, the son of Xie Juezai, one of the “Five Lao in Yan’an” and the leader of the fourth generation of directors, was awarded the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, East-West Exchange Contribution Honor”. From November 12 to 21, a retrospective of Xie Fei’s film works hosted by Smart Cinema was held in the United States and Canada.
The 79-year-old director, although he has only made 9 films, is an important figure in spreading Chinese film culture to the world. Among the film directors of New China, his work was not only the first to be released and screened in American cinemas, but also won a number of international film awards. 》Won the “Silver Bear Award” for Outstanding Individual Achievement at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, “Scented Soul Girl” won the “Golden Bear Award” for Best Picture at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival, and “Black Steed” won the 19th Berlin International Film Festival Montreal Film Festival Best Director Award, Best Music Award.
In 1965, Xie Fei stayed on to teach after graduating from the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy, but he was not a “learning school” who confined himself to the ivory tower. For decades, he has been teaching while making films, and has also actively participated in cultural exchanges between Chinese and foreign films, opening a door for Chinese films to “go out”, many of which are rarely known. One winter afternoon, Xie Fei told reporters those stories in the office of Beijing Film Academy.
In May 1987, Xie Fei came to the Cannes Film Festival in France with two iron boxes. The box contains the film of the movie “Xiao Xiao”. The film participated in the largest screening event of the film festival. Unexpectedly, the audience burst into laughter when the movie was on. In the movie, the heroine and heroine in the previous scene just started to fall in love, and the heroine in the next scene is pregnant. It turned out that the projectionist regarded the “6” in the sixth film as a “9” and skipped a lot of content in the middle. Although “Xiang Girl Xiaoxiao” did not enter the main competition unit, it attracted the interest of an American publisher. He hopes to release the film in the United States and also invites Xie Fei to go to the United States to promote the film. On March 4, 1988, “Xiao Xiao from Hunan” was screened in American theaters. The poster read: “The first film from the People’s Republic of China to be released and screened in the United States.” Later, the American distributor released Xie Fei’s “Black Steed”.
That trip to Cannes made Xie Fei realize that with Hollywood monopolizing the world film market, Chinese films “going out” can adopt the strategy of “cultural exchanges to open the way, commercial release later”. After “Xiao Xiao”, “Red Sorghum”, “Raise the Red Lantern”, “A Lawsuit in Qiu Ju”, “Farewell My Concubine” and many other Chinese films, basically follow the principle of “first win awards at international film festivals, and then The common path of “foreign release and screening”.
In Xie Fei’s view, in addition to platforms such as the International Film Festival, film classes and textbooks in foreign universities can serve as bridges for Chinese films to “go global.”
A few years ago, Xie Fei gave a lecture at a university in Brazil, and Xie Fei asked the students which Chinese filmmakers and works they knew. To his surprise, the students actually knew Jia Zhangke’s movies “Xiao Wu” and “Platform”. It turned out that one of the students’ teachers once filmed a documentary called “Fenyang Kid Jia Zhangke” with director Walter Sellers. He also went to Jia Zhangke’s hometown and interviewed Jia Zhangke’s family, friends, and long-term co-actors. . After returning to China, the teacher opened a course for students to study Jia Zhangke’s films.
Xie Fei had a similar experience. Once he was invited to give a lecture at the University of California, and gave a detailed introduction to “Xiao Xiao from Hunan” to the students. From characters to stories, from costumes to props, from the customs and habits of western Hunan to the old China’s child bride-to-law system, Xie Fei took “Xiao Xiao, a Xiang Girl” as the starting point, and gave a comprehensive introduction to China’s social life and culture. The University of California recorded Xie Fei’s lecture into a video. One of the professors said, “This is a very good textbook for students to teach Chinese culture.”
In Xie Fei’s view, compared to entering the theater and being directly watched by foreign audiences, Chinese films entering the classrooms and teaching materials of foreign students may seem less lively, but they can exert a lasting influence. The teacher influences the students, and the students influence his family and friends. If it goes on from generation to generation, it will imperceptibly promote the spread of Chinese culture around the world. It is precisely with this kind of communication awareness that Xie Fei took his movies wherever he went in the past 20 to 30 years, and used his movies as an example to tell where the Chinese culture is.
In order to facilitate film screenings and exchanges, as early as the mid-1990s, Xie Fei carried out digital restoration of his films at his own expense, and signed a use agreement with the film copyright owner. Facts have proved that Xie Fei’s vision is very advanced. It only cost 50,000 yuan to restore a movie back then, but now it needs at least 300,000 yuan, and 700,000 yuan if it is restored to a 4k version. With the digital version of the film and the authorization to use it, Xie Fei was able to show his films at any time during various film cultural exchange activities. Not only that, he also authorized some online platforms to carry out free charity screenings.
Xie Fei said that classic film and television works embodying Chinese culture are important carriers for the external communication of Chinese culture. But now an embarrassing reality is that many high-quality old movies are lying in the warehouse and have not been digitally restored and cannot be disseminated in the digital age. Some of the restored works cannot be used by the society because the restoration unit is not a production unit and does not own the copyright of the film. However, many old film producers, such as some old state-owned film studios, either closed down a long time ago or carried out restructuring, resulting in unclear copyrights of many old domestic films. He called on relevant state departments to coordinate as soon as possible to promote the resolution of the copyright, digital restoration and use of domestic old movies.
In addition, Xie Fei believes that the “going out” of Chinese films cannot just focus on the outlet of physical cinema chains. With the advancement of Internet technology and the advent of the era of integrated media, Chinese films should try more external channels such as online theaters, and the state should also encourage and promote the market integration and integration of cinema movies, TV movies, and online movies. develop.
“Guangming Daily” (December 01, 2021, version 13)
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责编：曾震宇 ]
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