My personal enthusiasm in Chinese film will never fade out as Chinese cinema can stand on its head for a moment and kick strongly upward, thus bringing new proposals to the world's cinema.
Marco Muller, director of Venice Film Festival, told Xinhua News Agency at the ongoing International Forum for the Centennial Anniversary of Chinese Cinema, adding his personal aesthetic research in the Chinese cinema never ceased since late 1970s.
In 1960, Muller said, well-known Italian scholar Ugo Casiraghi, after several months' study in China, published an essay The Uncharted Chinese Cinema. In the essay, he directly identifies the importance of Chinese directors and their works, which even till today still gave modern researchers much insight to cinema in transformation both in China and the world at large.
In June, 1978, a number of Chinese films were shown on the festival of new cinema in Pesaro. "It was the first time the Chinese films stepped on the west European stage after the Chinese Cultural Revolution," Muller said, "and from then on, I myself started my study in Chinese cinema."
Muller also witnessed the development of the Chinese cinema since 1980 when he became consultant of the Venezia International Film Festival. In 1956, the old masters Situ Huimin and Cai Chusheng brought to the festival the first overview of the then Chinese Cinema. And in 1971, a ballet opera adapted on the basis of the Red Detachment of Women, a masterpiece of Chinese director Xie Jin was staged in the festival. In 1980, the Wasteland directed by Ling Zifeng attended the festival as the first semi-independent film, ever since then, the cinema of the New China began to regularly appear in the competition.
"The opening-up policy of China made us direct contact with new product and close communication with the younger generation directors in China," Muller said. Ever since 1982, he has made concrete efforts to introduce Chinese cinema to Europe.
In 1991, Muller brought Silver Lion to Zhang Yimou for Raise the red Lanterns and the year after Golden Lion for The Story of Qiu Ju. "I fell honored to bring top awards to so many excellent Chinese directors, and to see the great achievements China has made in cinema."
In 1994, the Chinese cinema was celebrated with triple acknowledgements going to, respectively, the films of the Taiwanese Cai Mingliang, Jiang Wen from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong's Wong Kai-wai.
In the past 25 years, Muller said, the Venice Film Festival has offered Chinese cinema visibility and penetration into the market previously unprecedented, partly thanks to the numerous prizes won by Chinese films over the past 15 years.
However, Muller noted that the Chinese cinema is still lack of retrospection into the traditional stories and culture. Taking Liaozhai Zhiyi, a ghost story collection of ancient China, as an example, Muller said the Chinese cinema staff could adapt the stories and make them into films.
According to him, the study and reflection on the national cinema has manifested itself in China in ever-increasingly ambitious ways. In the West, the research on Chinese cinema hinges on the universities of the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Many scholars in Europe not only speak quite good Chinese, but also actively participated in protecting old Chinese films.
He revealed that copies of ten Chinese films produced in between 1934 and 1949 have been restored with joint efforts of Italy and China, and will soon be distributed and put on show in Italy, France and other European countries.
"This is the gift of Venice Film Festival to the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema," Muller said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2005)
