Reflections on ‘Youth’ and Freedom—A Conversation with Feng Xiaogang and Yan Geling

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The movie Youth, which opened in December in the U.S. and China, and is still in theaters in both countries, is the first collaboration between Feng Xiaogang, the celebrated Chinese director, and prolific novelist Yan Geling. The film is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about the time both Feng and Yan spent in the People’s Liberation Army during the Sino-Vietnam war of 1979, immediately after the Cultural Revolution. The film, whose planned opening in September was abruptly delayed ahead of the Communist Party Congress, later screened in Los Angeles during the 8th annual Asia Society U.S.-China Film Summit in November, where Feng and Yan spoke about the difficulties they face trying to tell authentic contemporary stories of China. A video of their conversation, moderated by Jonah Greenberg, the head of the Beijing office of the Creative Artists Agency, is published above with English and Chinese subtitles, and transcripts in English and in Chinese are below. —Jonathan Landreth

Jonah Greenberg: Everyone, we only have about 20 minutes. We’re going to try and get to questions, but in the interest of time, I will speak Chinese and hope that everyone has the simultaneous translators.

Geling, you’ve published 23 books, including long, medium, and short novels. Some of them were adapted for the screen and have won a total of 50 awards, including the Golden Globe (Hollywood) and the Golden Bear (Berlin)—and, by the way, not only those that were adapted by director Feng, but also by Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, and Sylvia Chang.

There have been 23 adaptations, and meanwhile director Feng has been making films for 23 years. There’s no doubt that you two are of the same generation. This year, 2017, you two made the film “Youth” together. It’s about the Cultural Revolution in China, 40 years ago. You two have both been working in the creative field for several decades. From my understanding, this is your first formal collaboration. I’m quite curious how you two met.

Yan Geling: The first time I met Feng Xiaogang was at Zhao Baogang’s home, right? We were telling stories about Ai Weiwei making a TV show or something in New York. That was our first meeting. We started talking about making a film together. At first, he said, “Look, we both worked in the army’s arts troupe, let’s work together to tell a story about the experience of what that was like. The experience was indeed quite special.

At the time he told me, “I’ll wait for you to write it, because I think you’re the only one who can turn the story into a screenplay.” He actually waited patiently for three to four years. And now the movie is out. . . It captures all the rare experiences of our youth as artists coming of age in the troupe. No one in any other country could have had it, nor will ever have it. We dropped out of school. I, for example, joined the army dance troupe when I was 12 and didn’t get much education. Some might call this experience challenging—a youth without a normal family environment to grow up in—and a pretty bad situation, but we gained a lot of what other kids, other young people, didn’t have. So when I finished writing, both Xiaogang and I felt ecstatic, because youth is a very unforgettable and important time of life for everyone. And our youth seemed especially precious.

Feng Xiaogang: You speak so fast. Can the translators keep up?

Greenberg: Did I speak too quickly? It’s okay, right? I don’t speak too quickly.

Feng: Why was Geling the best choice to write this film we just made? You see, I talk very slowly. . . Because when we were young, in our 20s, we were both soldiers in the army. And at that time, the military had lots of performing groups. Their job was to entertain the troops. We both were in one of these groups; we wore soldiers’ uniforms, and were an official part of the army. This experience was very different, one that’s unlikely to be repeated for young people of the future. Of course, that was during the Cultural Revolution. Our generation, we went through the Cultural Revolution, then reform and opening-up, then landed in this current era of massive change. So when we think back, think of the stories and experiences of when we were young, it’s very interesting to make a film about it.

The person who introduced this panel said we must study what the young generation wants to watch, but for me, it’s important to serve my own generation. It shouldn’t be that movies are made just for the younger generation. There are a lot of people our age. They need to watch movies too. There’s a strong desire among many people aged 40 and up to watch movies. But of all the movies in the market, there are few that interest them, so they just stop going to the theaters.

I think this part of the audience should not be abandoned. You can’t just think that the average age of moviegoers is under 20. As a director, I think there should be young directors, who can communicate well with young audiences, know them well. And then there are directors like me, who can communicate well with our generation. We know what they think and what they want to watch. So I don’t agree that all directors should chase after the young audience. You may not be able to keep up anyway.

So this movie, “Youth,” is in fact about our youth and its stories. Today’s youth don’t face the same environment or the same stresses. I’m proud of the experiences I had when we were young. When we were young, in the ’70s, not only had China fallen behind, but we also had to face that it was an awful time during the Cultural Revolution—a lot of things were bad. But that was our youth. That was the environment we grew up in, the one that tempered us. I think it is worth recalling, and worth making a movie about it. This movie is completely different from what’s in the Chinese film market nowadays. Nowadays, every film company is looking for intellectual property rights like a chicken with its head cut off, instead of trying to make good original films of their own. But this is taking a shortcut. It’s lazy and gutless.

Culture

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I think a film first needs good characters and a good story. It’s not something made by computers—it can’t be calculated. A lot of films get rejected right at the outset, at the screenwriting stage. What kills them? Big data. A great screenplay can’t get past data that shows it’s not worth making. Yet, who really knows what will happen if you put a movie into the market? Nobody knows. If everybody could use big data to accurately predict a film’s performance, then the six major American studios would earn money indefinitely. But it’s simply not true. It’s possible that the data is positive, but the film is a failure. This is the beauty of film. Do you have anything else to say?

Yan: My creative experience is that, as a novelist, I only write what touches me. I keep my distance from big data, keep away from the market. I live far away, I don’t even dare to live in the U.S. because you hear a lot about the commercial side of things in the U.S. It’s even worse in China, where everybody talks about it and it distracts me. I think what I’m afraid of the most is distractions.

All I do is what I want to do, but meanwhile I may doubt myself, like, “Will there be an audience after my work comes out?” “Will this novel be censored?” I think about all these things. Yet, it’s impossible to suppress what I most desire to write; I feel like I would die if I didn’t write this book. I moved to Germany, where I don’t even understand the language, but I feel like the isolation is good for me. I don’t hear anything and I don’t know what movies have the best ticket sales or which novel is the most popular. I don’t care. So I think isolation is good, for us to focus on making art. So I’m afraid to stay in China for too long. After 10 days, I have to run away, because everybody is talking about what’s the most popular and trendy. This is just terrible.

Greenberg: Director Feng, in the past 23 years you’ve made 17 films, wrote seven of them, and received more than 30 domestic and international awards including awards for best actor, best script, best director, and best film. There’s an obvious turning point in these 17 films. To some extent they appeal to both refined and popular tastes. You’re among the most commercially successful directors, yet in recent years you’ve started to collaborate with artists like Geling to make these kinds of films. Was the transition influenced by the past 40 years of China’s social development, or was it something you came to on your own?

Feng: My work can be separated into the first 10 years and the last 10 years. In the first decade, I made a lot of commercial films, and I topped the box office many times. I gained audience trust. They would buy a ticket if they knew it was a Feng Xiaogang film. But I think you can’t be a slave to the box office, you can’t be consumed by it. In later years, I’ve been using the influence I gained because of my commercial films, including the resources—better conditions, better bargaining power with the studios—and a track record at the box office to start making things I really love.

So I made films like “1942,” “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” “Youth,” and “Assembly.” It might not seem like these films would have an obvious appeal to the market, but I think it’s meaningful to make them, and I have a personal need to make them. And I’m lucky that I made a lot of popular films in the past so that now I am in the position to enjoy the luxury of being able to do this. . In the past 10 years, making these films, it has given me comfort as a director that I am doing something valuable.

Greenberg: “Youth” shows us characters living almost 40 years ago. Now, in 2017, when the box office is making billions of renminbi, and about to become the largest in the world in 2020, the world you show in “Youth” might seem strange to today’s moviegoers. How do you get them to connect to the film?

Feng: We can’t guess what the audience wants to see, because “audience” is an abstract concept. The audience is made up of one individual after another. Here, today, we have many friends in this theater, and their tastes in film can be very different from one another’s. You can’t guess what an audience wants. Only if the script and its characters move you will you be able to move the audience.

Greenberg: I know people came to this forum today to hear about film, and it’s a forum about Chinese and American films. I always think that the thing that’s most lacking between China and the U.S. is communication and understanding. People are here to talk about films, the kind of films like “Youth,” in particular, and I hope we can briefly talk about changes in society in the past 40 years. We have so many Chinese friends here today—there aren’t as many Americans in the audience, but there are some. This is a great opportunity to learn about China, or to know what China is like nowadays and what the film industry in China looks like. So, have there been real changes over the past 40 years? Over the past 40 years, a period of time that could be considered both long and short, has there been real societal change?

Culture

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Feng: Of course there have been huge changes over the past 40 years. Very huge. American society might have been stable, and there might not be such big changes. Like if you go to L.A. or New York—20 years ago, I was filming “Beijinger in New York”—New York still looks the same now, hasn’t changed much. In China, in Beijing, if you go abroad for several years and come back you might not even be able to find your way home. It might have been demolished. China is now in the midst of a rapid development process, and it’s disorganized. Of course it shows that it has some kind of vitality. So the change is huge. The film industry should pay attention to social changes. Filmmaking should be a part of this social change. But judging from what we have in the current film market, this isn’t happening. Filmmakers are avoiding so-called realism, they are avoiding it and making things unrelated to the realities of society. I think this is what we lack. Directors should pay more attention to the changes in life.

Greenberg: Geling, you’ve lived in Berlin in recent years, and more and more directors want to adapt your novels into screenplays. Living abroad, have you sensed that there have been changes in China in recent years?

Yan: Of course the changes are huge. In recent years, skyscrapers continue going up. Every time I go back to Beijing, I say, “Wow, I’ve never seen this building before.” Now I want to live in a place without so many tall buildings, with more grass and trees. There are so many people in Beijing, and it’s terrible. I think I am lucky that I can choose where I want to live. Come to think of it, Chinese live everywhere now, they live freely and in many places. For example, I’ve lived abroad for almost 30 years, and there are actually a lot of stories about Chinese and Western people, many stories that take place between them. For example, during the 10 years I was in the U.S., I wrote a lot of stories about immigrants and the West, immigrants and Americans, and the stories that take place among them. These stories are actually very interesting. But now I’ve lived in Germany for a while, and I don’t have the courage to write about it. I’ve realized that the older you get, the more honest you are. I wonder if I really understand Westerners. Even though I married an American, I still find a lot of misplacement and misunderstanding of emotions. Words can be understood, but not their connotations and implications. Now I think I was very brave to write something like “The Lost Daughter of Happiness,” which is about Americans, from the perspective of Americans. It’s not until now that I’ve realized that we can only write about our own people well, not people from other nations. So now I’ve gone back to writing something like “Youth.” I demand more authenticity and honesty.

[Audience applause]

Don’t clap for me. I’m not lecturing you. We’re just chatting.

Greenberg: We’re nearly out of time. Friends in the audience, we’ve left a little time for your questions.

Audience Member: I’m a big fan of Ms. Yan. I heard the filmmakers of “Youth” were going to be here but I didn’t know that Yan would come too, so I feel lucky. I studied performance. I did my undergraduate study in England and now study at the New York Film Academy. Last year, I saw that “Sojourners” was recruiting actors. I’ve been anticipating that film and it doesn’t matter if I can be part of it or not, I just really want to see all of Yan’s books turned into movies or TV series. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard anything about it lately. What’s the reason for that?

Yan: It seems like they are doing location scouting in the south, maybe. I don’t know exactly when they are going to film it since I didn’t write the script. So I didn’t communicate with them much. Ask Jonah, he might know better than I.

Greenberg: It’s in pre-production.

Audience Member: This question is for director Feng. Like you said, your first 10 years mainly focused on commercial films, and the latter 10 years you made what you wanted to make, so-called art films. When you’re making movies on topics of your choice, do you disregard the market entirely? Or do you still think about it, and, if so, how do you balance the relationship between art and the market?

Feng: First, one needs to decide if a topic is interesting enough from a creative standpoint. Then, taking “Youth” as an example, the cast is made up of all newcomers instead of stars. If you make considerations from a market perspective, then you probably should cast stars. And if I reached out to them, there’d be no problem, they would be willing. Yet I think this film, “Youth,” required fresh faces, so that after 10 minutes the audience doesn’t have trouble seeing past the actor to the character. Stars don’t guarantee ticket sales. I don’t think fame equals commercial success. Sometimes success at the box office is because a film is beautifully shot and has a great script that gives actors room to perform. Moviegoers build up stars’ success, but success comes from every part of the film.

Greenberg: Thank you everybody, our time is up.

思考《芳华》和自由——冯小刚对话严歌苓

乔青山 Jonah GREENBERG (创新艺人经纪公司): 歌苓,你写过23本书,包括长篇短篇中篇小说,其中这些书改编的影视作品累积获过50个奖,包括金球奖,金熊奖。顺便提一句,不仅是被冯导改编的,包括被李安导演被陈凯歌导演,甚至于张艾嘉导演,都改编过。贯穿的数字是23部,导演拍过23年的电影。你们俩无疑是一个年代的。今年2017年拍过一部电影叫《芳华》,是讲中国的40年前的文革。你们俩过来这几十年一直是创意、创作。据我所知这次是你们第一次合作,正式合作。我特别好奇你们俩怎么认识的?

严歌苓: 我第一次看见冯导实在赵宝刚家,是吧。那天在讲艾未未,在纽约怎么着的,拍电视剧的故事,那是第一天见他。后来就,咱们俩就弄这电影吧,就是最开始他就说,哎呀你看这个,我们俩都部队文工团出来的,咱们一块儿弄一个写部队文工团的经历。这个经历确实也是特别独特的,他当时跟我说,那我就等你写,因为我觉得你是个唯一可以把这个故事写成电影的。那好,其实这话说完,他真的就是等了3、4年吧,然后现在电影出来了,确实也是我们两个人的所有的对于文工团的这段特别独特的这种青春经验,我们的成长的这种经验,我觉得在任何一个国家都没有,也不会再有了。就是我们失学,我们小的时候,像我12岁也没怎么上学就跑到部队跳舞去了。这样的经历确实是按说是非常—一个锻炼的教育、一个没有正常家庭成长的一个环境,按说是一个挺糟糕的,但是我们又从这个里面得到了很多别的孩子,别的年轻人没有的一些经验。所以呢我就觉得写出来以后我和小刚都觉得是过了一把瘾,挺好的。因为每个人的青春对他的一生来说都是一个非常非常难忘的,一个非常重要的一个成长阶段。我们的青春呢又是格外的,显得非常独特和宝贵吧。

冯小刚: 说这么快他们翻译得过来吗?

乔青山: 我说得快吗?还好吧。我讲话速度不快的。

冯小刚: 我那个,我们新拍的这个电影,就是为什么一定是歌苓来写才是最好的,你看我说得很慢,因为这个我们俩年轻的时候,20岁出头的时候,都在军队,都是当兵的。然后那个时候军队呢,有很多演出的团体,这些团体是专门为军队去慰问,军队去演出的。我们俩人就在这样的演出团体里。我们那时候也都穿着军装,也是正式的军人。这个经历是特别独特的,是今后的年轻人也不太会有的一个经历。当然那个时候又是文革。然后呢我们这一代人呢,经历了文革,然后又经历了改革开放,然后又经历了到现在,这个时代的变化特别的巨大。所以到今天回想,回忆起自己年轻时代的故事,经历拍成电影是特别有意思。现在,刚才在台上发言的人他在说这个一定要研究年轻人爱看什么。在我看来,就是一代人服务一代人,我们不能够就是把,好像拍电影只为了年轻人在拍电影,有很多我们的同龄人,他们也需要看电影,但是他们现在,很多跟我年纪一样的,或者就是说从40岁以上的很多的观众其实他们对看电影的这种愿望还是很强烈的,但是现在市场上正在演的那些电影,没有什么是他们真正感兴趣的电影,所以他们就放弃走进电影院。我觉得这一部分观众是不能够被抛弃的。你不能只想着这个现在说看电影的平均年龄是20岁以下,我觉得这个作为导演,我觉得应该有年轻的导演,他们更和年轻的观众能够产生很好的一种沟通,他们也很了解他们,然后还有一部分导演,我们和我们同龄的这些观众,比较好的能够沟通,我们知道他们在想什么,知道他们想看什么。所以我是不同意所有的导演都要去追年轻人的,你可能也追不上。

冯小刚: 所以这个《芳华》这个电影,实际上是拍了我们年轻的时候的故事,他和今天的年轻人的这个面对的环境,压力都是不一样的。但是我为我们年轻的时候能够有那样的经历而感到特别的骄傲和自豪。这里头也许我们在年轻的时候,在70年代,那个时候中国也很落后,又赶上文化大革命那样一个糟糕的年代,很多都是不好的,但是那个时候我们年轻,我们从那成长过来了,所以我觉得它是值得去回忆的,去把它拍成电影的。这个电影肯定和现在中国电影市场上放映的这些电影是截然不同的。现在每一个公司,电影公司都在去像一个没头的苍蝇一样去找IP,而不注意自己去做一个好的原创,这都是,其实是一种走捷径的一种偷懒的一种方式,是没有出息的。我觉得电影首先其实它还是需要有好的人物好的故事,它不是从一开始就在摁计算机,不是通过摁计算机能够算出来的。现在经常有的电影在一开始的时候,在一个剧本阶段就被无情地否掉了。拿什么否的呢,拿大数据,各方面的大数据,就是以往的一些经验来把一个很好的剧本否掉了,因为它的数据可能未见都是好看的。但是谁又知道真正把这个电影放到市场上去是什么结果呢?其实没有人能知道。如果大家都能够提前用大数据能够知道这电影是什么样的话,那美国的这六大公司就可以永远地赚钱。事实不是这样的。很有可能是大数据看都是好看的,但是它是失败的。所以这也是电影的魅力。你还有什么要说的?

严歌苓: 我说我的创作经验就是,其实我作为一个小说家来说只写自己感动的,让我感动的东西。所以我离大数据什么的,我离商场,所以我住得特别远,美国都不敢住。因为在美国也会听见很多商业上的东西,在中国更会听到,每个人都会议论这些东西,让我弄得杂念很多。我觉得我最怕的就是杂念,我要做的就是,我自己想做,当然做的当中也会有自我怀疑,比如这个作品出来以后有人看吗?小说出来会被禁掉吗?对吧。所以这些都会想到。但是最最不能压制的就是你真的想写,你觉得这辈子这本书不写出来你会死,就是这样。所以我能够,我搬到德国去,我甚至不懂那的语言,但是我觉得这种闭塞对我来说是非常有好处的。我什么也不听见,我也不知道现在什么,哪个电影很卖钱,哪一本小说很走红,我都不去管它。所以我觉得这对我们来讲这样的一种闭塞可能是一种很好的状态,使自己能够非常心地单纯去做艺术。所以在国内我不敢呆久,呆了个十来天我就要逃走了,这是大家都在讲的就是,什么东西特别好卖什么东西特别火,这个很可怕。

乔青山: 导演这个23年以来你们拍过17部电影,其中有7部是自己写的,获过30几个奖,国际奖,包括演员、影帝,当过影帝,当过最佳编剧、最佳导演、最佳电影,特别多。这17部电影有一个很明显的一个转折,某种程度也可以算是雅俗共享的代名词。拍过最有商业收获的很多电影的导演,然后今年这几年开始跟像歌苓老师这种艺术家合作,拍这种电影。这个转折是这40年以来中国这个社会发展的一个结果,还是自身的一些决定?

冯小刚: 我的创作可以分前边10年,后边10年。前十年我拍了很多商业电影,我也拿过很多次的年度票房冠军。然后观众对我也有很大的信任。听说冯小刚的电影大家都去买电影票看。但是我觉得这个就是你不能成为一个票房的奴隶,你不能被这个事绑架了。我觉得我后十年的电影就是在利用前十年拍商业电影形成的这个影响,包括对资源的这个占有,因为我比别人条件更好,制片公司我的话语权更大,在创作上,因为我也有好的票房,连续有好的票房,从那开始我就觉得要拍一些我真正自己特别喜欢的东西。所以就拍了这个比如说这个《1942》、《我不是潘金莲》,还有就是比如说《芳华》,这中间还拍了这个《集结号》这样的电影。这些电影显而易见,泛泛地说它都不是会好像感觉是市场是好的,但是我觉得把它拍出来是很有意义的,对我个人来说我有这样的需要,然后我也非常幸运就是因为过去拍了很多票房好的电影,所以我现在能够有这样的一个,可以挥霍地这个条件。所以这十年做了这些电影我觉得是我作为一个导演我觉得是让我心里头觉得很舒服的,我做着一些有价值的事。

乔青山: 那这个40年以来,观众,因为像《芳华》里面的这些人物,这个事件,短短的40年以前,但是跟现在的2017年的,快好几十亿人民币票房的这个,中国在2020年就成为第一大票房市场了,跟《芳华》里面的世界那么不一样的一个环境,观众你怎么理解?或者你怎么跟他们有一种关系?

冯小刚: 我们其实没办法去猜观众到底要看什么。因为观众是一个特别抽象的一个概念,观众是由一个一个一个具体的人组成的。我们场下坐了这么多朋友,他们每一个人都爱看什么样的电影可能都是非常不同的,所以你没办法去猜观众,你只能是你自己认为这个剧本能够打动你,能够感动你,你爱这个剧本里的人物,你才有可能去打动观众。

乔青山: 我知道大家今天来这主要是听电影有关的,不过我觉得也毕竟是中、美电影论坛,总觉得中国美国最缺的是沟通和了解,那么其实我觉得大家都来这听或者聊电影,我还是希望可以简短地,尤其是拍的《芳华》这样的电影,聊聊社会,这40年的变化。中国这个社会,我觉得是,我发现今天来听很多都是中国朋友,美国,或者就是没那么多,但我觉得还是有一部分是,这个可能是一个机会学习中国现在,或者了解中国现在是什么样子的,中国电影行业是什么样子的。有真正,这40年有一个真正的变化吗?这40年,说长也长,说长不长,说短不短,有真正的社会的一个变化吗这40年。

冯小刚: 那当然这40年的社会的变化太大了。非常大。这个像美国这个社会可能长期处在一个稳定的,变化不那么大,你到洛杉矶,你到纽约你看,我在20多年前拍这个北京人在纽约的时候,纽约你到现在去看还那样,没有什么变化。在中国,在北京,你经常你就,你出国了几年你回去你就找不着家了。它可能全拆了,它处在一个高速的发展的过程中,而且是无序的。当然它也显示出来了它有某种朝气,所以这个变化是非常大的。其实电影应该关注这个社会的变化,电影的创作应该参与到这个社会的变化里头去。但是从目前我们电影市场上看的电影来说,都没有。其实都在回避所谓的现实主义,其实都是在回避的。都拍了一些和这个现实社会其实没有什么太大关系的。这个是我觉得缺少的东西。这个导演应该更多地去关注这个现实生活的变化。

乔青山: 歌苓这几年住在柏林,有越来越多的导演都想改编你的小说。你长年在国外生活觉得中国有变化吗最近?最近几年。

严歌苓: 我觉得那个,变化这当然是,最近几年不断地还在起高楼,这高楼,每次回北京就哎哟,好像上次没见着啊这楼,就出来了这样子的。现在我也觉得我希望选择一个没有那么高楼的地方住,那个草地大一点树林多一点吧。我觉得北京这个地方已经这么多的人,哎哟这么多的这个太可怕了。因为我觉得我还是很幸运的,我可以选择在哪里,自己想在哪里住就在哪里住是吧,对而且我现在也想到就是,其实中国人现在到处都在住,住得也很自由很多地方比如说我在国外已经生活快三十年了,其实中国人和西方人的故事,在一起发生的故事很多,比如说我在美国那十年我写了很多很多就是移民的故事,移民和西方,和美国人的这种共同发生的一些故事,其实是非常有意思的这些故事。所以我觉得我在德国住到现在还没有敢写。现在就发现啊,人这个年纪越来越大吧就越来越诚实。我想我真的了解西方人吗,虽然我嫁的是个美国人对吧,但我现在还是经常发现会有很多那个情感上的错位,就是你说话,话是懂的,但是真正的那种言外之意的东西是不懂的。所以呢现在就还在想,我当年很勇敢,去写《扶桑》这样的这个长篇小说,写美国人,站在美国人内心里面去写,现在才发现,自己民族其实写自己的民族是最最像的,写别的民族都不像。所以现在倒反而会去写《芳华》这样的作品,就是这样的。就是对自己的诚实的和这种 authenticity 的这种要求是越来越高。

[听众鼓掌]

别给我拍手,咱们就在这瞎聊吧

乔青山: 我现在深深地感受到为什么叫压轴,是因为压你的时间,我们真的是快没时间了。如果大家有问题可以把最后的时间留给观众朋友们。这位。

听众: 老师们好,其实我是严老师的书迷,最开始只知道《芳华》过来,但是没有想到严老师也过来所以觉得非常地幸运。我在去年的时候,因为我是学表演的,本科在英国读现在在纽约电影学院,然后看到了《寄居者的组讯》在招演员,然后我一直都非常期待那部电影,无论我能不能去我都非常期待,因为我真的很愿意看到严老师所有书都被改变成电影或电视剧。但后来很遗憾没有看到寄居者的任何的消息,不知道您知不知道这个其中的原因。

严歌苓: 《寄居者》好像他们正在南方看景,在江南,应该,我也不知道他们什么时候拍。那不是我编剧,所以我的这个沟通也比较少。问他吧,他好像知道得比我多一点。

乔青山: 在筹备

听众: 我这个问题是给冯导的,就是冯导,我想问的是就是像您说的前十年您主要是拍商业电影,后十年是拍您想拍的题材或者叫艺术片,那么您在拍您想拍题材的时候是一点都没有考虑到市场吗?还是也有考虑。那如果有考虑的话是怎么平衡这个艺术和市场之间的关系的,谢谢。

冯小刚: 其实还是要,还是首先要想从创作的角度去想这个东西有没有意思。然后你看比如说《芳华》,我用的全部都是新演员,没有去找一大堆明星,没有这样。如果你要从市场的角度考虑你可能应该全都是明星来演,而且如果我去找这些明星的话他们也都没有问题,都会愿意来,但是我觉得这个电影,芳华这部电影它就适合一些新的面孔出现,而不需要电影开演了,十分钟了大家还是在认为还没有把这个演员套到这个角色上去,还在想他是明星,他是明星。而且其实也没有说真的就哪个明星就一定有票房,我觉得这个也不划等号。其实你赶上这个明星有票房的时候很可能是因为那个剧本非常好,跟他提供了这样的一个能够发挥的角色,然后那个拍得也非常棒。但是往往社会会容易把这个功劳都记在明星的头上,其实电影是一个整体。

乔青山: 谢谢大家,对不起时间到了。