- 赌博app
- GOLDEN GOBLET
AWARDS - FILM
PANORAMA - FORUM
- MARKET
- NEWS
- NOTICES
- REGISTRATION
SUBMISSION - 中
- /
- EN
A Better Work Should Move the Director
□By Chen Hong
Leviathan that made its Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev keep his great fame in the international community also led the world to overly interpret him. This time, Andrey Zvyagintsev participates in the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival (赌博app) as the Jury President of the Golden Goblet Award ceremony with invitation. How does he interpret this film, himself and the 赌博app? Here is an exclusive interview by the reporter of Daily News yesterday.
>>About the 赌博app
Directors shouldn’t try to please the audience intentionally
The 赌博app’s influence in the western world is gradually growing. When showing up at the 赌博app, all members of the Golden Goblet Award ceremony’s jury reached a consensus that the competition films were of the highest quality in the 赌博app’s history. Zvyagintsev provided his understandings about the Golden Goblet Award, Chinese filmmakers and the balance between the art and market.
Daily News: As of now, what do you think after watching the films? As the Jury President, do you especially like any film?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: Now, we’ve finished watching five films, and there are still nine waiting for us. Generally speaking, we’ll select the award-winners in a democratic way, that is, through fair voting, and I’d like to leave this question until we get the result.
Daily News: The Return, your maiden film work, was typically a film that cost a little, and it was a great success. Was it because this kind of family-themed film could interpret the human nature very well? What do you think of the relation between the cost and the box office?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: Frankly speaking, the cost is the last thing that I may consider when I’m to shoot a film. I think a filmmaker should think more about what kind of film can move himself. Besides, I really don’t like the saying of picking a theme or topic, because during the creation, at most times, I would come up with an idea and then I want to realize it.
If a director tries to please the audience and cater to the market, the audience and market may not pay him back well, because such films lack the director’s opinions. So I think most often, it’s the theme that finds me.
>>About his experience
Take your time when you’re young before you become a director
As of today, Zvyagintsev has won too many important awards, and his works always convey something of significance. But when looking through the film market, we see many young celebrities achieved box office hits with their maiden film works after becoming directors, though their films often didn’t get good responses from the public. Zvyagintsev recalled his experiences and provided some suggestions to young directors.
Daily News: Before working as a director, you had been doing acting for over 10 years. Was this experience of any help to your directing work now?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: I was admitted to an acting school at the age of 16. Before graduation, I had acted various characters, but I wasn’t satisfied, and hoped to achieve more in the art. Then I watched Al Pacino’s films, and was shocked by his performance. So I wanted to achieve his level, but obviously, I couldn’t learn it in the acting school then. So I left for Moscow.
I studied for four more years in National Moscow Acting College. During this period, I watched the Italian director Antonioni’s L’Avventura. It should be said this film made me love the film art, because at that time, I still dreamed of becoming an excellent actor. I really hoped that I could meet a great director like Antonioni to guide me to act.
But I didn’t find any one. OK. I could be a great director. Ha-ha, just joking. During the 10 to 12 years after graduation from National Moscow Acting College, I kept waiting, and for me, this was a process for self-adjustment and a period for self-positioning. Later in 2003, I directed my first film The Return.
Daily News: Is there any advantage in changing yourself from an actor to a director?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: Of course. Since I had been an actor, I know acting better, and have deeper understandings of the creation system. Maybe in terms of this, I have an advantage over other directors that don’t have acting experiences.
Daily News: Since many young directors gained quite good achievements now, there is a saying that people should be directors when they’re young, if they want. What do you think?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: I had been 39 years old when I made The Return. You may have lost nothing, don’t know how to forgive, and have very simple understandings of the society if you’re too young. But to a director, experience is very important. So here is a piece of advice, take your time when you’re young before you become a director. Accumulate your experience, even if you start working as a film editor, and then you can be a director.
>>About Leviathan
I’m not interested in politics actually
Leviathan won large numbers of awards, and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. But in the meantime, this film was interpreted by its fans and even all walks of life to be with numerous meanings. But Zvyagintsev talked quite calmly about this yesterday.
Daily News: All of your films reflect various social problems in Russia. So, do you choose a theme or make a story first?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: This is a good question, but also a complicated one. It’s like the question “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” It’s hard to answer. For example, about Leviathan, as a matter of fact, I heard that many years ago an American guy, in his fifties, had conflicts with the government, and at last he protested by hurting himself. He drove a tractor to run into a building. I was greatly shocked then. This was just a social problem that I was thinking about.
So as we often say, a drop of water can reflect the Pacific Ocean, and a man’s story a problem that we all face and that exists around the world, and it’s not a problem to just two or three people.
Daily News: Leviathan was funded by the government. But after its release, it was criticized by the Russian Minister of Culture. Will it affect the investment in the future?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: I still don’t know what influences it’ll have on my future work. What I want to say is that the governmental investment and the minister’s criticism are two different matters. I don’t know he did that for himself or for the government. He and I have the right to express our own opinions, and at present, we’re just even.
As for whether my next film will get funds from the government, I don’t care, because it’s the producer’s job to get funds. In addition, I’m not a politician, and I’m not interested in politics. So my next film may not be about politics. What I can say is that I’ll start shooting another film in July to August this year.
Daily News: Will the film be in disfavor in the Russian market? Do you feel pressured for its box office?
Andrey Zvyagintsev: I feel no pressure. If an artistic or independent film can be affected by box office, such a film wouldn’t exist in the film industry.
图说
Andrey Zvyagintsev is stating his thingking of film. Pic by Shi Peiqi