Written in the stars
Updated: 2007-11-21 09:36
As a young girl, Jiang Wenli dreamed of being a writer. The Best Actress at this October's Rome Film Festival recalls that her engineer father, who was always at his happiest in a bookstore, would buy her a classic novel for her birthday.
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Although she grew up on Romain Rolland and Honore de Balzac, she barely knew anyone who worked in the world of art, in small-town Bengbu, East China's Anhui Province. She never thought she would end up as an actress.
But, like many other young, small-town Chinese, she was determined to make it to the big city. When she failed her national college entrance examination in 1987, the best opportunity that came up was a job at the local waterworks. Even so, Jiang kept alive her hopes of a bigger stage.
"There was a fire burning in my heart, getting stronger every day, just like the heroine in the award-winning And the Spring Comes, in which a small-town girl has dreams of art. I knew I wanted to get out of town, but I didn't really know where to go. Leaving was the first priority," Jiang says.
Judges at the Rome Film Festival said her performance in And the Spring Comes (Li Chun) vividly brought to life the character of a woman who does not compromise. In real life, Jiang began her acting life by enrolling at Beijing Film Academy's performance department in 1988, after seeing an advert in a magazine.
She persuaded her father, who was going to Beijing on a business trip, to take her along and try out for an audition. There were thousands of applicants, but just 20 would make the grade. Jiang, who was not a trained actress, treated the trip as a fun outing.
She says she was surprised to make it through to the final rounds. The topic for the deciding acting piece was set out as follows: When the Tangshan earthquake (in 1976, which killed about 240,000 people) occurred, you were out of town. You heard your hometown was destroyed and all your family members had died - but you could not go back to the city for a month. Later, you see the wreck that was your home. Now, act.
While the other applicants wailed, Jiang recalled French painter Eugene Delacroix's Orphan Girl at the Cemetery. The painting moved her to tears as a young girl. She went into a corner and thought of her grandmother, who had recently passed away. When her tears started falling, she raised her head.
All the judges were moved by her "zero performance". Lin Hongtong, one of those judges and a professor at the academy, says her performance revealed her understanding of human nature.
For four years at the academy, Jiang was a favored student and in demand from film crews. Teacher Zhang Hua recalls she was a quiet student but would show amazing energy when she acted. Her first film role, as a student, was memorable.
In Chen Kaige's Golden Palm Award-winning Farewell My Concubine (Bawang Bieji), she played a prostitute. The 10-minute appearance was so impressive it is still talked about by cinephiles today.
In order to be authentic as possible, Jiang talked to an old prostitute, who told her a typical "professional" would look out of the corners of their eyes and shake their head slightly. The film was a huge success, but Jiang was trapped by self-doubt.
"I was a small-town girl who could barely speak putonghua. Well, when I was thrown suddenly into film academy, I was stunned. For a long time I thought actors should be extrovert, vigorous people who could forget themselves in front of other people and become the role they play. But I am quiet, educated to be modest, yet with a strong ego. I often thought I was not suitable for the industry."
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