伊文思---中國人民的老朋友

本片讲述了荷兰电影导演尤里斯•伊文思（1898-1989）的故事和他在中国所拍的电影。这是一部关于友谊、忠心和诚实的纪录片。它还反映了每个外国人试图拍摄和中国有关的电影时遭遇的不信任，甚至今天还会这样。
1966年，中国向外国人关上大门。一场无产阶级文化大革命爆发了，革命的领袖不想让任何外国人看见中国发生的事情。直到1971年，两位电影导演被邀请来拍摄中国并把作品展示给世界。一位是米开朗基罗•安东尼奥尼，另一位是尤里斯•伊文思——中国人民的老朋友。
两年中，伊文思在中国拍电影，并把资料剪辑成总长达12小时的分为12个片段的纪录片。这个系列于1976年首次在巴黎的电影院放映，吸引了至少140，000个观众。后来，它在全世界的电视上播放，收看者超过一百万人。人们对中国正在发生的事情非常好奇。
20世纪80年代初，关于文革严重错误的信息慢慢解禁了。伊文思本人和他对毛泽东及四人帮时代中国的态度受到严厉批评。一些人控诉他为独裁者进行宣传。另有人发现他被文革中好的倾向给蒙蔽了。
但是事实上发生了什么？
对于伊文思来说，拍摄纪录片是为了探求事实。在《愚公移山》一片中，他试图把中国真实的画面传递出来并把文革时期中国的变化公之于众。据伊文思说，他的电影传达了文革时期真实的日常生活画面。实际上，这是中国电影局给他选择的画面，是他相信为事实的画面。
《中国人民的老朋友》访谈了那些在《愚公移山》拍摄过程中活跃在幕前幕后的当事人，因而给观众留下印象。它还反映伊文思如何成为中国人民的老朋友，并且访谈了一位新朋友——作家白桦，他最后把无产阶级文化大革命期间中国发生的真相告诉给了伊文思。
《中国人民的老朋友》入围2009年比亚利兹FIPA节的原创纪录片和小品组
《中国人民的老朋友》于2009年在南京举办的中国科学和历史题材制片人国际大会上获得历史与人文组的一等奖。


Synopsis：
It tells the story of Dutch filmmaker, Joris Ivens (1898-1989) and the films he made in China. It is a documentary about friendship, loyalty and truthfulness. This documentary also deals with the distrust that each foreigner encounters – even today - when he tries to make a film about China.
In 1966 China closed its doors for foreigners. A Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution took place and the leaders of this revolution did not want any foreigners to observe while this was happening. It lasted until 1971 before two filmmakers were invited to film China and show it to the world. One was Michelangelo Antonioni and the other was Joris Ivens, an old friend of the Chinese people.`
For almost two years Ivens filmed in China and edited the material into a documentary of 12 episodes which lasted altogether 12 hours. The series was first shown in Parisian cinemas in 1976 and was seen by at least 140.000 visitors. Later it was shown on television worldwide and it reached over one million viewers. People were very curious about was going on in China.
When in the beginning of the 1980’s the information slowly became available about the atrocities that happened during the Cultural Revolution, Ivens became the victim of severe criticism about his role and attitude towards China under the dictatorship of Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four. Some accused him of making propaganda for the dictators. Others found him naïf, blinded by his belief in the good intentions of the Cultural Revolution.
But what happened actually ?
For Ivens documentary filmmaking was a search for truth. In HOW YUKONG MOVED THE MOUNTAINS he tries to deliver a truthful image of China and how it has changed under Mao’s Cultural Revolution. According to Ivens his film give a true image of the daily life during the Cultural Revolution. In fact it was an image that was selected for him by the Chinese Film Buro, an image which he wanted it to believe to be true.
AN OLD FRIEND OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE gives an impression by talking to the people that were involved – in front of and behind the camera – in the making of HOW YUKONG MOVED THE MOUNTAINS. It also shows how Ivens became an old friend of the Chinese people and it talks to a new friend, the writer Bai Hua, who in the end told him what really happened in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
© 2008 René Seegers
AN OLD FRIEND OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE was selected in the competition of the FIPA Festival in Biarritz in 2009 in the section Creative Documentary and Essay.
AN OLD FRIEND OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE won the First Price in the section History and Humanities at the China International Conference of Science and History Producers 2009 in Nanjing.

对于身为纪录电影导演的我来说，事实是令人困惑的问题。尽管视频机或电影录像机真实地捕捉面前的现实存在，但捕捉到的图像不一定就等同于事实。构图、角度、图像甚至加上现场声音，仅仅反映了当时那个现实存在的一部分意思，因此也仅仅反映了一部分事实。
尤里斯•伊文思（1898-1989）不仅是荷兰伟大的纪录片导演，也可以说是全世界伟大的纪录片导演。他于1972至1973年文化大革命期间在中国拍摄电影《愚公移山》，因此受到很多批评。
虽然伊文思坚持说他拍到的是真实情况，但这些反映文化大革命的纪录片（对中国人有积极的借鉴意义）与中国经历的事实不完全吻合。
1978年，毛泽东死后，中国政府宣布文化大革命是国家的灾难，伊文思几乎失去了大部分崇拜者的信任。
他怎么会犯这么大的错误？
电影《中国人民的老朋友》不是评判伊文思的纪录片，而是要探寻伊文思与中国的友谊，探寻他拍摄文革电影的动机，探寻他对共产主义特别是毛泽东思想的信仰。伊文思把毛泽东思想看作解决世界上不公正问题的方法。这部电影还要寻求一种解释，即为什么伊文思这样一位大师用大半个世纪（伊文思1938年第一次来到中国）教他的中国朋友们如何拍摄真实纪录片，却被自己的期望给误导了，也被中国人（包括他的朋友们，比如周恩来）给他展示的由毛泽东无产阶级文化大革命创造的“新人”给误导了。
伊文思被自己的思维方式蒙蔽了么？他对手扶电影摄像机和能够捕捉现场事实的同期声等新技术过度自信了么？他的中国朋友们怎么样？他们试图告诫过他拍摄的现实仅仅是一种意识形态的外表么？
为了进行这种探寻，我用了一位演员（Jeroen Willems）代表我在电影中担当作者一角。为了给质疑伊文思动机创造可能性，为了怀疑受访者的回答，为了猜测文化差异的影响，我需要这样一个人在画面中扮演调查者，观众会和他取得共鸣。身为电影导演，我不能在摄像机前出现，所以我请一位专业演员来替我扮演电影作者的角色。
何重生

Director’s Statement:
To me as a documentary filmmaker the truth is an enigma. Although a video or film camera registers truthfully the reality in front of a camera, the registered image is not necessarily equivalent with the truth. The framing, the angle, the image a such, even with direct sound, reflects only partly the full meaning of the reality of the moment, and thereby reflects only partly the truth.
Joris Ivens (1898-1989), the great master of documentary filmmaking – not only in the Netherlands, but almost in whole world – was much criticized for his film cycle “How Yukong moved the Mountains” which he shot between 1972-1973 in China during the Cultural Revolution.
Although Ivens always maintained that he filmed the truth, the way these documentaries represented the Cultural Revolution - as a positive experience for the Chinese people - was not according to the reality as the Chinese had experienced it completely.
In 1978, after Mao’s death, the Chinese government declared that the Cultural Revolution as a national disaster, Ivens lost his credibility among most of his admirers.
How could a such a great master be mistaken ?
The film AN OLD FRIEND OF HE CHINESE PEOPLE is not a documentary to judge Ivens, it is a search for his friendship with China, a search for his motives to make a film about the Cultural revolution and a search for his belief in Communism, especially Maoism, which he saw as a solution for the injustice in the world. It is a search for an explanation how a great master like Ivens, who taught his Chinese friends for more than half a century (Ivens came to China for the first time in 1938) how to make truthful documentaries, could be mislead by his own expectations and the way the Chinese (including his friends, like Zhou Enlai) presented to him the New Man that was created by Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Was Ivens blinded by his ideology ? Did he have too much confidence in the new technology of handheld film camera’s with synchronous sound that captured the reality of the moment ? And what about his Chinese friends ? Did they try to warn him that the reality he filmed was only the outside appearance of an ideology ?
To do this search I made use of an actor (Jeroen Willems) who represents me as the author in the film. To create the possibility to question motives of Ivens, to doubt the answers of interviewees, to guess about the influences of cultural differences I needed a person who ‘acts’ this in the picture as the investigating author, a person with whom the audience can identify with. As a filmmaker I was not capable to do this acting in front of the camera, therefore I asked a professional actor to interpret my role as the author of this film.
René Seegers

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