Text|Linghu Boguang.
Today, let's talk about China's great directors, here are mainly the fifth and sixth generations of mainland directors, after all, when it comes to Wu Jing, Guo Fan's generation is obviously different. The movies they shoot have indeed won awards in the West for a long time, and the so-called flattering "West" in various expressions is very strong, which is also the point of more and more criticism from netizens now.
So why is this happening? There are objective reasons for the answer, and this is a fact that cannot be denied.
Now many netizens are going to criticize when they talk about the fifth generation and the sixth generation of big directors, when it comes to Zhang Yimou is to please the West, when it comes to Jia Zhangke, etc., just to give an example: "An old grandmother next to her told her that China is not like this, why do you want to shoot these."
Haven't you ever thought that the China in the eyes of the grandmother is the China in the eyes of everyone? She didn't think about the general environment of the national root-seeking cultural trend that began in the 80s, and directly used this sentence as an argument, so she probably didn't see the real life scenes of the vast number of Chinese peasants, nor did she analyze the characters at that time in the specific historical environment?
This is just like the content of the movie filmed by Jia Zhangke, in fact, it is the same as the historical background behind Wanqing Youth Hostel's "Kill That Shijiazhuang Man", it has the background of the times, this is an objective fact, in the final analysis, it is the general environment that shapes the concept of a group of people, so that kind of culture is born, and culture is inseparable from the social background.
And their biggest problem is that they have formed a path dependence, and they are getting farther and farther away from today's young Chinese audiences.
Zhang Yimou, after all, is still a literary film director
In recent years, all kinds of art have become more and more abstract, and the art of film, which is highly integrated with capital, may not be obvious, but it is obvious in painting, driven by the times, and the people's aesthetic level has also continued to improve on the whole (capital and practical interests cause a temporary illusion).
Art does not produce any physical value, and art is just a carrier tool for transmitting emotions between people.
The artist is the initiator, so who is the recipient?
The so-called chaotic phenomenon in the art world can be seen clearly at a glance when we return to this essential issue.
Art is the same as all academic research, divided into ends and means, some artists are engaged in means research, that is, the so-called avant-garde artists, they will try some strange and innovative research, but that is like an academic salon, it belongs to the internal communication of the art circle, in that small circle they casually study the 'deliberate nine turns of the large intestine' is fine, but if it is to be served to the public, then it must be cleaned.
Art is art, popular art is popular art, and real art is something that goes ahead of popular art, and it is something that may become popular art with the precipitation of time, even if it is incomprehensible now. Don't talk so badly about people who are trying to be at the forefront, because no one can predict the future.
Art is not a castle in the air, but a carrier that carries human emotions, which is also an important premise for evaluating art. There is also a classical perspective in the composition of art: ends, means.
The highest level of art, the most ruthless worship of the West? Why do we need "Zhang Yimou".
Culture is inseparable from the environment, and the environment is inseparable from history, and the major historical stages of the mainland are said to be divided into the first 30 years and the last 30 years.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the teachers gave clear instructions on this issue -- to write works that the people liked to see. At that time, we defined the people's artists, and the right to define them was in the hands of the public, and as an art worker, it was natural that they had to withstand the test of the public—in this case, everyone catered to the market and the public, and the artist produced works that the people liked and brought returns to capital; This is the ideal win-win-win situation.
After 78 years of opening up, we have not rapidly commercialized and marketized, but we have left behind the previous institutional environment.
At the cultural level, this performance is the work of the fifth generation of directors represented by Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang, following the macro narrative of "Armageddon Trilogy" (which had been declining under liberalism at that time) and reflecting the craze of the times at that time.
In fact, I don't think it makes sense for today's young audiences to criticize the expression of the works of the past. Because those ** were filmed for the post-50s and post-60s audiences, was their environment the same back then as it is now?
The more everyone scolded, the more it proved that "gold always shines", because these works have passed thirty or even forty years. What does that represent, that means that they have become the works of the era, the artistic representative, the cultural representative, which is itself an affirmation.
Just like Van Gogh, he doesn't need to be an art leader and an art tycoon when he was alive to make his work great, the kind of truly great work that will stick to its own direction no matter what the artist's situation is. The elegance pursued by the artist himself, just do it in his own circle, just like the underground ** death metal, there is no doubt that some people like it and have depth, just play it in their own niche circle.
If you want to give it to the public, you must give priority to the acceptance of the public, and no matter how popular the public is, it must be popular and modern, so that it is possible to achieve both elegance and vulgarity. Zhang Yimou: They obviously did it, right, just like Cui Jian's rock music, it is very successful in every aspect.
The current audience criticizes Zhang Yimou for their worship of the West, but there is no reason for it. And to a certain extent, Jia Zhangke, who rose in the late 90s, still continued to follow some eras of the mainland environment at that time, and expressed literature and art, in contrast, our literature and art are the saddest now. The ban is more serious, the sketches must be positive, and they scold the dumplings now every day, but they turn their heads to scold the expression of thirty years ago.
And this kind of expression is the literary and artistic works that the audience is clamoring for every day, which is quite interesting.
Success is also business, failure is also business? The "fall" of Zhang Yimou and the fifth generation of directors
What is the biggest problem for Zhang Yimou and the fifth generation of directors? That is, after 2000, our historical environment has actually changed, after joining the WTO, further commercialization, the market box office grew rapidly, but because of the problem of the transformation of our market economy, but in the cultural industry is not mature, the transformation took 20 years.
This is like the decline of the art factory in animation, and Chinese animation has not risen immediately, but has been plagued for more than ten years.
Like Chinese films, at that time, the mainland did not cultivate a new generation of commercial film directors who adapted to the times, but were promoted by Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers who went north, as well as the fifth generation themselves, and opened a new market myth with "Hero" and "Assembly Number".
The problem is that in the end, path dependence was formed (the relationship between China and the United States was good at that time), and at the same time, in the general environment at that time, there was a desire to use commercial films to win awards abroad, from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to the Oscar, to "Hero" almost won the award, and then in the next ten years, Chinese commercial blockbusters wanted to win awards, be recognized by foreigners, and go out and succeed in foreign markets.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has a box office of more than $100 million in North America, and "Hero" has a box office of more than $50 million).
You see, this is path dependence, if there are still remarkable places in the decade from 2000 to 2010 (the general environment is the friendship between China and the United States, China's rapid economic growth, the literary films represented by Jia Zhangke reflect the death of reality, and the commercial blockbusters represented by Zhang Yimou conquer the city).
After 2010, these people not only did not retreat, but on the contrary, they formed a monopoly and began to affect the entire film industry and cultural industry.
In fact, there is no place for the audience in this process, so naturally there is no power to define good and bad.
If you want to say that "Man Jianghong" is too new, you see that Feng Xiaogang scolded the traffic before, Guan Hu's "Lao Pao'er", Zhang Yimou's "The Great Wall", etc., in fact, they are still being used overwhelmingly, that is, they are converging. In fact, at this stage they were completely commercialized, and they didn't think about any problems to please the West.
Because after the first ten years, the great Chinese directors found that they couldn't win the award anyway, and the films sent by the state also deviated from the experience of sending films in the previous ten years.
10 years? Or 20 years? Zhang Yimou and other big directors should really retire
The question of why an artist should flatter capital is very similar to the profession of a teacher. The question of being a high-income wage earner or wanting to be a soul engineer for some people in a mountain village is unsolvable. However, what the public can do is to at least honor and praise the great soul engineers, try to ignore those who use education as a means of making money, and carefully screen and rebuke those who have already received financial benefits when they buy the public to sing their praises to them.
It would be nice if it was traditional capital, but in fact, the logic of "capital catering to the public" is valid; Now the strongest fighting power is financial capital, and it is also the most evil, and the way of profit of financial capital really has nothing to do with all our consumers, and it belongs to capital itself as a continuous and operational way of plundering the wealth of the masses.
The great contradiction in the world today is the contradiction between financial capital and the real economy – this is the most effective means for a few people to exploit the wealth of the vast majority, and the investment is very low. For example, why does "Man Jianghong" buy the box office, if you look at the income, isn't this a matter of losing money, how can capital do such a thing?
In fact, people don't need real box office income at all, as long as a box office figure will make a lot of money through their own shell company's ** - in this profit model, the public's preference is not important at all, and the operable link is to buy most of the ** channels, and they can just send praises.
In any case, China's cultural industry has indeed been unhealthy for a long time, and it is really time for China's great directors to retreat.