Tenth feature film by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, Wild lights (Feng Liu Yi Dai) was revealed in competition at Cannes last year under the title Caught by the Tides. It is a meditative, experimental, cerebral work. We follow, each on his side, and in three stages, disunited lovers against the backdrop of new infrastructures and engulfed cities. Exclusively, we talked about Jia Zhangke.
“I was wondering how to give meaning to my existence with, in the background, the spectacular transformations that China has experienced in the past 20 years. I felt lost, both in society and in my life, ”says the director of Still Life (Sānxiá hǎorén) et A Touch of Sin. The thirst for sin (Taān zhùng), during a Cannes meeting.
“If we look at what’s going on in China today, with robots and artificial intelligence, to name a few examples … I really felt distraught and I needed to find a way to find myself there. »»
And how to get rid of this growing disarray? “One of the ways I found was to use time as a narrative tool: to examine our beginnings, then understand slowly, but clearly, how we got there. »»
Hence the construction of the film, camped in 2001, in 2006 and in 2022. “This structure allowed me to see more clearly and not to feel lost. »»
Things have changed
Regarding these precise three years, it must be understood that the film began to take shape in full Covidian confinement.
“I conceptualized it and made during the pandemic, yes. In 2001, we were full of hope, excitement, with this new millennium. The opening, the novelty … which contrasts strongly with the atmosphere of the pandemic of Covid-19, a period when everything stopped. For me, it was very important to use these two distinct periods, the new millennium and the pandemic, so as to really show how things have changed; To really show how we went from excitement to a sudden break. »»
In the meantime, that is to say in 2006 in the film, we are witnessing a transitional period. In this narrative in-between, a woman, Qiao Qiao, joined by river Guao Bin, the lover who abandoned her five years earlier. Guao bin then ignores everything from the designs of Qiao Qiao…
“I had already raised many images: the first scenes in the film were shot in 2001,” reveals Zhangke. I had started to accumulate all this material for a specific purpose. Indeed, in 2001, I had this provisional title for a potential film: Man with digital camera. I am a great admirer of Man on camerafrom Dziga Vertov, to whom I paid tribute. And so, in 2001, it was the dawn of digital cinema, and I used a digital camera to spontaneously capture my reality, on the fringes of my cinematographic production. This parallel process has lasted for twenty years. »»
-In short, the film tribute to Vertov was not made, but this “parallel process” will continue.
“It has become a large -scale, non -linear project, and I wanted to take my time to capture a maximum of equipment. And then, the pandemic arrived, and suddenly, it gave meaning, a purpose, to all this material that I had amassed. »»
Clear a story
By dint of reflection, Jia Zhangke managed to identify a story of these hundreds of filmed hours, also pigeon in unused scenes from some of his previous films. We suspect, given the disparate nature of the sources, the assembly stage was crucial.
It was also in the assembly that the director decided to delete as much dialogue as possible, especially that of heroin.
“At the start, Qiao Qiao spoke, but when I edited, I decided to delete his aftershocks, because I found that they simplified much too much. It was like trying to transform, halfway through its execution, an abstract painting into a figurative painting: it was a simplification of something much more complex. »»
The analogy is in this case excellent to describe a film as demanding as it is fascinating.
