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Starting: Graphite Society (smshe 189)

1934 Three things happened:

1, Ai Xia, a 22-year-old talented woman in film, committed suicide by taking poison, which was widely reported by entertainment reporters.

2. The Goddess directed by Wu Yonggang was released.

3. Ruan and Tang Jishan were brought to court on the grounds of "stealing property, encroaching on clothes and ornaments, with a value of more than 3,000 yuan, and privately carving seals".

Ai Xia is the first movie star who committed suicide in the history of China movies.

Known as a "talented woman in film", she was not only able to make movies at that time, but also often published novels and poems. In addition, she has a director friend named Cai Chusheng.

Ai Xia's death was not peaceful. Because of the rough road of love, she chose to die when she was lovelorn. However, after her death, there were unscrupulous tabloids reporting and slandering her.

This made Cai Chusheng very angry.

1934, based on this, Sun Shiyi, the film screenwriter, wrote the play "New Woman", in which Wei Ming took Ai Xia as the prototype.

In the eyes of director Cai Chusheng, Ruan is the most suitable person to play.

Ruan readily agreed to Cai Chusheng's request, because she shed tears after reading the script, and she felt that the heroine was herself.

"New Woman" was very successful until the then "Shanghai Journalists Association" intervened and boycotted the film because of the negative image of tabloid reporters in the film, and strongly demanded an apology and deleted the pictures.

Behind this dispute, Ruan was innocently involved.

Some newspapers began to slander Ruan and spread rumors around her "chaotic private life".

Ruan 1934 has made many films in Lianhua Film Industry. From 193 1, Ruan and many left-wing film directors at that time made progressive films to save the country and encourage ideological emancipation.

New Women is one of them.

What Cai Chusheng wants to convey is not only the anatomy of Wei Ming's tragedy as a "new woman", but also the unfair and cruel side of society to these new women who want to seek a new life.

Seek freedom of marriage, get rid of cruel fate and avoid slander and persecution by villains. ...

New women struggled to find a breakthrough in the social environment at that time. Ruan feels that the protagonist of this movie is very similar to himself, precisely because Ruan was in an emotional dispute at that time.

On the one hand, when the ex-boyfriend and Ruan agreed to break up (at that time, there was actually no legal marriage relationship between them), the condition of breaking up was to sign the deed of divorce with the cohabitant in Ruan, and the second paragraph clearly stipulated that Ruan would pay 100 yuan per month for two years.

Zhang Damin was a rich boy, the fourth son of the Zhang family, and was raised by his mother. Ruan was captured by 15 years old. Zhang Damin even fell out with his family, lived with Ruan and moved out to live with Ruan.

However, Zhang Damin is a lazy and enterprising person. Without the support of the Zhang family, he has no skills to make a living and lives in poverty. Later, the property he got from his father's death was also used up by his going in and out of the ballroom, and it didn't take long to run out.

Ruan's life has improved since she entered the film and television circle, but basically she is supporting this family.

On the other hand, Ruan moved into the house bought by Tang Jishan, a wealthy businessman, after divorcing the agreement.

However, Tang Jishan was also abandoned emotionally. He has been married in his hometown. Before meeting Ruan, he had a cohabitation relationship with Ruan's former actor.

In order to pursue Ruan, Tang Jishan used some means. Compared with Zhang Damin, Tang Jishan, who is rich, powerful, talented and understands women's hearts (at least for now), seems to be a partner who meets his expectations.

However, Tang Jishan, who successfully captured Ruan, began to change. He not only beat Ruan in front of the film industry, but also used violence against Ruan at home. In addition, Tang Jishan moved on.

It seems that Ruan has no chance to meet new women. But what happened to her shaped her character to a great extent.

First of all, Ruan is a man who longs for his father's love and family.

When Ruan was six years old, his father died and his mother worked as a servant in the Zhang family, leaving him to live alone. The servant's living conditions can't give the warmth of her home, but she lacks her father's love since she was a child, so she is very eager for a man to take care of her and make him feel at home.

Therefore, Ruan is easily moved by men's care and consideration. Zhang Damin used to be like this, and so did Tang Jishan. But they all just gave Ruan the illusion of a home, and then brought endless pain.

Second, Ruan actually has a living desire.

Ruan's attachment to movies is fate. Ruan likes movies and TV plays very much. She is really talented. Success as an actress is the first step to get rid of her unbearable life.

Ruan loves life and longs to live like a family. Just as she adopted Xiaoyu, she hopes to compensate Xiaoyu for all the care she lost because of her family conditions.

For herself, it is a breakthrough for her to make a movie seriously and complete every role. In life, getting rid of bad factors is her persistent efforts to life.

Come out from the Zhang family and enter the film circle. From Zhang Damin's side, I came to Tang Jishan. She thought that through repeated changes, she could find the future she wanted.

However, you can't.

There is a famous clip in New Woman in which Wei Ming wants to commit suicide. Inspired by his good friend Li Aying, he shouted with his last strength in bed: "You save me, I want to live, I want revenge!" "

This passage is Wei Ming's cry as a new woman, and it is also Cai Chusheng's pity for the new women in society at that time. It's hard to imagine that revenge is the driving force for a woman to live.

After filming this clip, Ruan, who has always been able to get out of the character's emotions quickly, buried himself in the quilt and cried bitterly.

Zheng (director, also starring in "New Woman") once said:

Ruan can act so freely, besides her talent, there is also a very important reason-the role she plays is always inextricably linked with her own life experience: a weak woman crushed by feudal forces; A prostitute played by a rich man; Women who break the traditional concept of marriage ...

Unfortunately, Ruan, who came into life from the movie, couldn't shout out the slogan "I want to live, I want revenge" like Wei Ming. 1in the early morning of March 8, 935, she chose to die, and there was a sentence in the suicide note:

Thinking and thinking, I can only die. Alas, I have no regrets when I die, but I am still afraid of what others say, and everything they say is awesome. (Tang Jishan provided the version, which was later found to be written by Liang Saishan, the younger sister of Liang Saizhen, a dancer directed by Tang Jishan. )

Actually, I have nothing to fear. I just regret that I shouldn't be your two competitors, but it's too late! Stop crying! I'm not alive! There is no need to repent, because things have come to this. ("Siming Business Daily" edition, pointing out that Liang Saishan gave it to the newspaper out of conscience)

The authenticity of the suicide note has become a cloud of smoke, but in both versions of the text, Ruan took the initiative to commit suicide. can

Sigh that life can't be like a movie, and some rhetoric inspires the audience. On March 8th 1935 alone, five girls committed suicide in Shanghai, and many members of idolize in other places also committed suicide.

Ruan inspired most new women at that time, but she didn't succeed.

It was released in the same year as "New Woman is Goddess". This film is praised by the international film industry as one of the best silent films in the golden age of China film.

The plot is not complicated. This 78-minute short film describes a prostitute standing on the street at night to attract customers in order to live and raise her son.

During a police street patrol, she strayed into a local ruffian's house to escape arrest. Although the rascal covered for her, she also stayed overnight on the grounds of "rewarding". But she didn't expect that this was just the beginning of a tragic life.

Later, the local ruffians followed her to her residence and began a parasitic life for her. Gambling trolls always ask her for money, but they are ignorant. She also tried to escape, but was found by the local ruffians and threatened to obey with her son.

In order to give her son a good education, she secretly saved money to send him to school. However, because her identity was exposed by many parents, she unanimously asked her son to drop out of school on the grounds of "maintaining the reputation of the school". Desperate, she wanted to leave here with her children with the money she had saved, only to find that the cash had already been stolen by the local ruffians to gamble.

Defeat the local ruffians. In a rage, she accidentally killed the local ruffian with a wine bottle and was sentenced to prison.

This is the first time that director Wu Yonggang has written a script. He has no confidence to ask Ruan to play a prostitute.

However, after reading the script, Ruan readily accepted the role invitation.

After reading the whole story of Goddess, think carefully. In fact, this role really has a lot of Ruan's shadow.

After Ruan's father died, her mother was forced to become a prostitute by life. Although Ruan is young, she knows about it. Therefore, playing this role, for Ruan, is to expose his true inner scars.

At the same time, the woman in the film fell into the hands of local ruffians and was helpless, so it is hard not to remind people of Ruan's two emotional experiences.

Those who have accomplished nothing even ask Ruan to pay the monthly living expenses 100 yuan after breaking up. Before that, Zhang Damin was an uneducated rich boy, not to mention earning money to support his family, and even his share of the inheritance was instantly squandered.

Later, she lived with Tang Jishan. Although Ruan was materially satisfied, she was forgotten in the wilderness in her spiritual life. Tang Jishan's domestic violence and empathy made Ruan unable to find a home to rely on.

The son in Goddess is the driving force for her to live and choose to resist. Of course, this is a tribute to the supreme maternal love. In fact, it is exactly the same as Ruan's real life.

Ruan spent her childhood alone with her mother. As far as she is concerned, she has never enjoyed the feeling of a beautiful home. Therefore, after she was able, she adopted an adopted daughter Xiaoyu, who can be said to bear Ruan's hope and sustenance to get rid of her tragic fate.

In the movie, even if you are a prostitute and risk being caught and hurt, you should work hard to make money and provide a good living condition for your son, especially after realizing that his son lacks a good education, you will resolutely send his child to school.

Ruan was sent to school by an enlightened mother. In order to give Ruan a better education, her mother found Grandpa Zhang (the headmaster of Chongde Girls' School) who served her, and won Ruan a chance to enter school at half price.

As a representative of left-wing movies at that time, Goddess naturally has a deeper social significance.

On the one hand, it emphasizes that all people are born equal, and even prostitutes have opportunities for children to learn. On the other hand, it also appeals to people to change their ideas, throw away their persistent class thoughts, tear up the scum like parasites in society, and trigger people's active discussion on freedom.

Of course, this is only one aspect. The success of Goddess is inseparable from Ruan's superb acting skills.

If the script is too close to his own life, so that Ruan can deeply understand the inner world of the "goddess", then with Ruan's exquisite performance skills accumulated over the years, this role will come to the fore.

The women in Goddess clearly show their identities as mothers and prostitutes.

The mother's identity is mainly the maternity she shows around her children's growth, study and life. For example, when she was doing homework with her children at home, her eyes were full of love and warmth, and she never left her children for a moment.

For example, at her son's request, she plays games with him. When her son fell into his arms, she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. At that moment, she was happy and satisfied.

For example, she went to school to attend the parent-teacher conference, and her son sang a song on the stage. Under the stage, her face was full of pride and joy.

Facing the fact that her child was going to be expelled from school, she heard that after the local ruffian sold her son, her inner grievances and anger broke out in an instant, which fully showed a mother's hardness and softness in caring for her child.

The identity of private prostitutes is mainly reflected in their work experience. In fact, what is more here is her mentality of not being knocked down by life and despising everything as a mother.

When entertaining guests in the street at night, her every move was full of charm and restrained her debauchery.

When she strayed into the local ruffian's house for the first time and realized that she might not escape that night, she began to become calm.

There is a classic action: she walks from the door to the bed, sits on the table, and then asks the local ruffian for a cigarette.

Perhaps this is her resistance from her bones, and she can only make such efforts with her weak body. Then the local ruffians moved into her house and threatened the children, and she finally had to compromise.

This picture was rated as a classic by the film textbook, which vividly showed the situation that the goddess and the child were bullied by the local ruffians. (PS was later used for reference by many domestic films.)

Director Sun Yu commented like this:

"Making movies with Ruan is the greatest pleasure for any director. With a little guidance before shooting, she soon understood the director's intention. After a try, it is always successful in most cases, and there are few remakes. Her scenes in "Shooting in front of the camera" are often much better than the director imagined before entering the studio. "

Indeed, Ruan's performance in Goddess is enough to hang a bunch of traffic stars even now.

The goddess' emotions are well grasped by her. Although it is a silent film, I can feel her emotional outburst from the bottom of my heart and infect me through the screen.

Ruan was only 24 when he made this film. Compared with her acting skills honed in many popular movies, the image of the mother and her relationship with her son in Goddess are very convincing. She is a real mother.

In fact, Ruan had no children at that time, but adopted an adopted daughter Xiaoyu.

Ruan probably dedicated all her maternal love to Xiaoyu. Maybe she really expects to have a child and a stable and warm home.

But no.

1934 12.27, Tang Jishan received a letter from a lawyer, accusing Ruan and Tang Jishan of stealing property, encroaching on clothes, ornaments, etc. totaling more than 3,000 yuan, and privately carving a seal.

As a businessman and social elite, Tang Jishan naturally won't let Zhang Damin run amok. He insisted on counterclaiming Zhang Damin's fictional facts.

However, Ruan chose silence.

This silence is the disappointment and helplessness in her bones. Zhang Damin and Tang Jishan just regard her as a tool for competing interests. In front of these two men, Ruan seems to have lost himself.

1935 65438+1October 10 The second court of Shanghai Special Economic Zone opened, but Ruan refused to attend the court due to illness.

While insisting that Ruan was his "wife" in court, Tang Jishan's lawsuit of "fabricating facts and damaging reputation" was pale and empty. After winning the case, Zhang Damin added a new charge to the court, "disturbing the family, adultery and bigamy".

Two months later, Ruan took three bottles of sleeping pills at his residence and died at 6: 38 pm on March 8. 1935.

Before taking the medicine, Ruan told her mother that she was hungry, and her mother cooked a bowl of noodles and accompanied her through the last journey of her life.

Ruan's story was filmed many times later, but all of them reinterpreted her life in the form of biographies.

199 1 The director who can shoot women best closed a film that looks different.

Ruan, 199 1 year, 8.5 points.

The special feature of this film is that it does not regard Ruan as a person who has fallen into the dust, but relies on the plot to show us her life.

Guan broke the boundary between the film and the audience. He invited movie stars, such as Tony Leung Ka Fai, as if to recreate Ruan's past life. However, in the film, we can see the discussion with the actors and each actor's views on his role. In addition, the film also edited many interviews with people who knew or had contact with Ruan at that time.

Therefore, the closed version of Ruan is a documentary biographical film.

Guan just wants us to be closer to Ruan, not to be a spectator and enjoy her life.

At that time, it was always called a vase, and Ruan was also regarded as a vase by the audience before 1930 filmed "Dream of Spring in the Old Capital".

From an actress's point of view, it is closer to the role of Ruan. Sometimes she can't get rid of Ruan's role, and sometimes she talks with Guan and other actors to express her views. Guan's technique really perfectly presented Ruan's mentality at that time.

Because Ruan is not only a star in the movie we know, her inner world is very depressed after she stepped out of the screen.

The official version of Ruan has shaped three characteristics of Ruan:

First, I love acting. I am very talented.

Ruan is a talented person, as director Sun Yu also said. Ruan, played by Maggie Cheung, can understand what the director wants to express, and his emotions and actions are in place.

In the film, when she was filming "Dream of Spring in the Old Capital", on a snowy night in Beiping, she took off her coat and only wore a cheongsam to feel the role in the snow, and repeatedly adjusted her movements and postures.

This is an actor's greatest respect for himself and his role.

In the process of filming, Ruan will also ask the director to let him shoot again because his mood is not in place.

This seems to be the sense of responsibility that an actor should have now. However, in today's entertainment circle, not many people are really willing to abide by this sense of responsibility.

Second, be willing to work hard and dare to chase.

Ruan is willing to accept the challenge in performance, just as she is willing to accept the roles in New Women and Goddess.

There is a scene in the movie in which she takes the initiative to find Wancang Bu, the director who is about to shoot three modern women, and wants to play one of the roles named Zhou Shuzhen.

Director Wancang Bu's answer is that this role is neither noble nor brilliant, much worse than your previous image, and it is not suitable for you.

Ruan's answer is that I can play well, and if I can't play well, I will pay for it.

In order to show that he is suitable for this role, he took off his expensive coat and wiped off his lipstick on the spot.

Third, lose yourself in feelings.

Ruan is a person who dares to chase, especially for movies. However, in life, she is always powerless.

Throughout the film, Guan has been creating a situation that Ruan wants to resist but can never resist.

From Three Modern Women, director Wancang Bu told her that the role of Zhou Shuzhen represents a strong, simple and rebellious woman, and she represents a revolution.

In Goddess, Wu Yonggang told Ruan that although prostitutes were stopped at home by local ruffians, they still lit cigarettes to show their resistance and contempt.

Finally, in The New Woman, Cai Chusheng tells her that the emotion of Wei Ming's role is "to sue and fight back".

The filming of these three films coincided with the entanglement between Ruan Zai and Tang Jishan. Although the characters in the movie loudly resist, Ruan in reality can never do it.

When "Modern Three Girls" was filmed, Tang Jishan was still pursuing her, trying to get rid of her control, so Ruan at that time took the initiative.

However, when it came to Goddess and New Woman, Ruan was tortured by Tang Jishan's domestic violence and empathy, and at the same time was blackmailed. Ruan can't escape from the whirlpool of feelings.

So although she still has a sense of resistance, these two roles are expressed by actions in Goddess, but in New Woman, she can only bear it silently, and it is this movie that keeps her from coming out of the roles for a while.

Generally speaking, this film expresses Guan's sympathy for Ruan, and also shows Ruan's tragic life as a bystander and participant.

From time to time, we see discussing the characters' plots with the actors, and the actors say that they are hopeless, and from time to time we follow them to recreate Ruan and sentient beings in the 1930s.

Just like the last funeral scene, when we were performing with the actors' emotions, the camera suddenly switched to the closed shooting scene. After being on camera, watching the funeral, the actors were laughing and chatting, and everything seemed very dull.

The most impressive scene was that the photographer aimed the camera at the body of Ruan, who was lying among the flowers. Because Maggie Cheung has been breathing, this scene can't be used. In order to finish the filming, Maggie Cheung held her breath and waited for the director to shout.

It's like a still photo. The audience finally realized with Maggie Cheung the feeling of Ruan holding her breath until she died.

This world of mortals is so boring.

-End-

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