Jean-Jacques Annaud
French film director Jean-Jacques Annaud gave a lecture to Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) students on Friday for the MUST International Film Exhibition Lecture. The lecture focused on Mr Annaud’s latest film, “Wolf Totem,” a Franco-Chinese production released earlier this month in Hong Kong.
Mr Annaud, the director of films such as Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and The Name of the Rose (1986), spoke before a packed room of students eager to know more details about the techniques he used when filming “Wolf Totem.”
The film features student Chen Zhen, who is sent from Beijing to Inner Mongolia to teach shepherds, and ends up learning about their special bond with the wolf population.
The 2015 Chinese drama is based on a novel of the same name by Lu Jiamin.
Jean-Jacques Annaud told students how he managed to film “Wolf Totem” with real wolves and how it took about three years to train them.
Mr Annaud and his crew filmed “Wolf Totem” in Inner Mongolia over the course of one year, but he travelled there regularly for the past three years, since starting pre-production on the film.
The celebrated director’s interest for photography and cinema started at a very young age, he told the students. He stressed his good fortune in being afforded opportunities to, “do movies with absolute freedom, including the one I just did.”
He advised students pursuing cinema to focus on original storylines and films, which would give them a better chance at achieving fame. However, he also said when it comes to cinema, one needs to bear in mind that “the beauty of this industry is that a lot of it is unpredictable” and that even a small production film could become a blockbuster.
His 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet” was banned in China, and the director was also reportedly banned from entering the country alongside starring actors Brad Pitt and David Thewlis. Nevertheless, he was still invited to chair the jury at the Shanghai Film Festival in 2012 and was later hired to direct “Wolf Totem.”
According to the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, “Wolf Totem” was a huge success in mainland China, with more than 18 million spectators.
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