Like
when Gong Li, through her interpreter, replies to
a question about the power she has within the Chinese
film industry.
"It
is the director who decides," says the interpreter.
"She's just actress. It is not she who chooses the
subject."
'She's
just actress' really really doesn't do justice to
Gong Li. Not in terms of her career. Not in terms
of her presence, transforming this tiny underground
room with its ridiculous black plastic sofa and
the vase of flowers that long ago gave up their
struggle against the lack of air and daylight.
And
certainly not in terms of the entourage with which
she has swept into the Berlinale Palast's VIP Centre
(sponsored, appropriately enough, by L'Oréal,
whose products she endorses), through a secret door
I hadn't even noticed was there.
A
few months ago, I talked to the producer of Notting
Hill about his first meeting with that movie's star,
who simply walked into the restaurant and said,
"Hi, I'm Julia Roberts".
In
Gong Li's case, the same information is conveyed
by the forward movement of a compact little posse
that comes powering into the lobby. There's the
two festival representatives, the Chinese minder
who is too well-dressed to be a mere bodyguard,
the interpreter and Alexandra Sun from The Film
Library, which is selling Piao Liang Ma Ma
(Breaking The Silence), the Gong Li film
which gets a special tribute screening today in
honour of the star's presence here as President
of the Jury.
In
the centre of this fast-moving protective whirlwind
is Gong Li herself,
in worker's cap, tinted glasses (which she is persuaded
to take off for photographs) and a high-collared
jacket with blue silk cuffs and lapel-trimmings
which become almost luminous when the light catches
them. Gong Li, one suspects, knows all about catching
the light.
Breaking
The Silence is a contemporary story about
a single mother with a deaf child whom she works
hard to convince is just like any other boy. But
the reality turns out to be different: the boy is
teased because of his deaf-aid, which gets smashed
in a schoolyard fight. His mother doesn't have the
money to buy a new one and men begin to prey on
her.
Somewhat
untypically for Gong Li, the film is set in contemporary
China.
"I
seldom play in movies which are set in modern
society," she admits. "Breaking The Silence
started in 1998 and was inspired by the Asian
economic crisis, because there is a lot of unemployment
in China."
There
is a moment's interruption in the flow here, because
the interpreter says 'Taiwan' instead of 'China'
and is swiftly corrected by Gong Li, suggesting
that her English may not be as non-existent as
she would have us believe.
"I
knew the director, Sun Zhou," she continues, once
this has been sorted out. "We were both in Chen
Kaige's film The Assassin And The Emperor.
He played the prince's son. We were talking about
unemployment in China and that's how it all started.
"To
begin with, we had an idea that we wanted a child
and also a single mother, because the divorce
rate in China is also very high and there are
a lot of women living alone with a child. And
it was the director who suggested that we let
the child be deaf, because this would make the
story even more convincing."
"Does
Gong Li always get this involved
in the genesis of her movies?" I ask the interpreter.
This
seems to be a more difficult question than I thought,
because they converse for some time before the
interpreter finally answers.
"First
of all, she says that she prefers to work with
a director who knows very well what he wants to
say, but not a director who is so egocentric that
you only see the director's mind in the film and
not the actors. But in this case, it was very
necessary for her to know every detail of her
own role in the movie. She wanted to be involved
in the whole process, even the writing of the
script."
"Is
that always the case?" I ask.
"I
don't know if that is always the case because
she didn't answer that," says the interpreter.
What
Gong Li does answer, with surprising frankness,
is a question about censorship.
"As
you know, scripts need to be seen first in China,"
she says. "In order to get through the censorship,
it is often easier to have subjects which are
not that contemporary. That is why most directors
who work with me have worked on subjects set in
the twenties, thirties, forties or even a few
thousand years ago.
"With
Breaking The Silence, there were
some ridiculous remarks from the censors. There
was some dialogue about 'working class' which
they thought would remind people of the Cultural
Revolution and sometimes they say, 'Why did the
woman take this money to buy this machine?' and
things like that. We had to make more than 10
changes in the movie.
"Sometimes,"
she concludes, indicating that there is a surprising
similarity between the People's Republic and Tinseltown,
"it's very difficult to make movies in China. There's
no problem with action movies, but social criticism
and contemporary subjects are difficult."
