Chapter 146 What is the movie like?
Jiang Wen's house is an old house, and Chen An asked him why he didn't renovate said he just liked it. He liked staying at home alone and looking at the yard and it felt the same as before.
After Chen An bought the courtyard house, he repainted and renovated it. Although it looks rustic on the outside, it is relatively new inside.
The wall in front of Jiang Wen's house was peeling off a little.
Although it is not overgrown with weeds, it has an old and simple feeling, as if it is still in its past era.
It's still a sunny day.
When Chen An walked in, he was familiar with the place as he had been here many times before.
The other man was alone at home, his wife was in France.
When they appeared hand in hand at the Cannes awards ceremony, they were full of excitement, but now they feel lonely.
The other party had been waiting for Chen An to come over and had set up a table in the yard. The yard was lush and full of vitality, but the person sitting in the middle looked a little disappointed.
"Now I regret drinking so much." When Chen An came over, half of the wine on the table had been drunk.
Drinking to drown your sorrows only makes you more sorrowful. Jiang Wen, who was smoking a cigarette, said and smoked at the same time, "I can't say I regret it, I just can't figure it out."
"I can't figure out why it's like this. I just want to shoot something that should be shot, but why can't it be shot? Why did the movie become like this?"
He never regretted it, but he just couldn't understand what happened to the movie.
Sadness is like thin threads, one by one, they will slowly accumulate until they become more and more and become a ball, densely entangled together in circles. When it becomes serious, it will be impossible to untie it.
Jiang Wen is a pure filmmaker who has his own ideas and is imaginative. He puts everything he wants to say and express into his films. He never minds people saying that his films contain personal opinions.
He also said that movies are his own things, and there is no point in making a movie without any personal agenda.
But he had a lot of words he wanted to say to the world, but he found that it was useless.
He knew it a long time ago, but he still did it. He originally thought that he could accept the ending calmly, but he didn't expect that the result would make him a little confused.
He feels that his film is a warning, an appeal, and a resistance, showing his full sincerity, but people turn a blind eye to it.
It felt like the sun had set, something he had thought would never happen.
Although Chen An had known Jiang Wen for such a long time, this was the first time he saw him like this. He picked up the glass bottle and poured himself a glass of clear liquid. The smell of wine rushed straight to his nose.
The other person has a rough appearance, but his heart is more delicate than anyone else.
"It's still the same old thing, but at least it's a little newer and better than before. It's not as dirty, right?" Chen An did not raise the cup with the other party, but took a sip on his own.
The transparent wine is not as smooth as it looks. It is like a knife stabbing straight down the throat, flowing down the throat like a burning flame, until it reaches the deep of the stomach, and then it disappears, but the feeling of the road it has traveled is still there.
"It's all old wine in new bottles, so let it be as it is."
"That's better than a broken bottle full of rust and leaking wine, which is filled with a lot of muddy dirty water and iron stains."
Chen An is the same as the other person to some extent, but also a little different. He has not experienced that era, but that person's photo has always been hung in the most open place in the house.
Whether in the courtyard or in my hometown, this life or the previous life.
He was also the first one to attend the New Year's Eve dinner to worship his ancestors.
The other person picked up the glass beside him and drank the remaining wine in one gulp. His rough face was wrinkled, and a hot stream like fire slid down his throat. "It's not much better. It used to be better."
He swallowed the wine with all his strength, suppressing the smell of alcohol rushing up from his stomach, and slammed the wine glass on the table with a "clang!"
Chen An picked up the bottle of wine on the table and examined it carefully. He poured a glass for the other person and refilled his cigarette, then lit one for himself. "You know, you gave me a bottle of this wine before. I brought it home for the New Year in 95. This is the most expensive wine my father has ever drunk, but he only drank one glass and gave me the rest."
"I used to drink homemade wine at the vegetable market recommended by the school security guard. This year, when I won the Best Director Award in Berlin, I went back to school and the security guard also drank your wine."
"The price is still the same. You can see it in stores all over the street, and many people buy it. As for whether the taste is different or not, only those who drink it regularly know."
"When did you start drinking?"
Jiang Wen was stunned when he heard this question. He picked up the bottle and looked at it. It seemed like he had been drinking since he first started drinking, for many years.
"That's not how you calculate movie matters." Jiang Wen spoke after being silent for a long time.
"That's your business."
Chen An emptied the bottle and refilled his glass. He blew away the wine that overflowed from the glass, took a sip from the edge of the glass, and then spoke without raising his head.
Jiang Wen is a pure person who has a pure love for movies. Unlike Chen An, who has climbed up from the humble beginnings, Jiang Wen has the so-called common problem of artists and is extremely persistent.
For Chen An, movies are just a way to bring him success. He also has a passion for it, but not as pure as the other.
"We have known each other for five years. I admire you very much. You haven't changed in five years, but I have come this far from being a small handyman in the crew. At the beginning, I just wanted to find a way out."
"After I won an award at Cannes, I just wanted to make money. You said my Sassy Girl wasn't as good as before, of course I knew that but I still did it."
The wine entered my heart and I blurted out all my sorrow.
Then he looked at the other person and said with a smile, "They said I irritated you. After winning the Oscar, you will take the movie to Cannes. Instead of thinking about these things here, you should think about how to make money in five years. Otherwise, I have won the Oscar for Best Director and you are still here thinking about it."
"I find you are much crazier than me."
"I work so hard to earn money, but I can't win a few awards, otherwise my hard work will be in vain."
Chen An does not have so many pursuits in movies, nor does he have anything he wants to say in them, nor does he have any art to show. He makes art films to win awards, and makes commercial films naturally to make money.
Movies are not a necessity, and the so-called seventh art is all bullshit in Chen An's opinion.
From its initial accidental birth to its popularity, it was also because of the money it could make.
After drinking this little bit of wine, Jiang Wen went into the house and took out another bottle, and also took out a box of cigars. Chen An didn't smoke these things, so he just held a cigarette in his mouth.
Although this blow was huge for him, he was only concerned with one question: what happened to the movie?
What's wrong with movies? Movies are always movies. This is Chen An's answer.
It is just a flowing image, which may contain the hard work of a creator, or it may just be a funny story.
Chen An left after drinking almost enough. Before leaving, he said that he planned to recruit some new directors into the company and asked him if he was interested in giving them some guidance.
The meaning is very clear. Since you can't direct, let someone else do it. As a new director, what's the difference between you being an actor and being a director?
Just don't put your name on it.
(End of this chapter)
