中英雙語話中國影視演藝圈 第1期:中國電影史

Chinese Film History

中國電影史

The film of China underwent its hard and long pioneering period. In nearly thirty years (1905 ~ 1931) it suffered hard and bitter transformation from projecting foreign motion pictures to making its own films and from parasitizing on foreign resources to producing independently.

中國電影的拓荒期是漫長的。在將近30年（1905 ~ 1931 )的時間裏，中國電影從放映外國影片起步到開始攝製自己的影片，從寄生於外國資本到開始自己獨立自主地製片,經歷了艱難而痛苦的蛻變。

On August 11, 1896, motion pictures arrived in China from the West and the first recorded screening of a foreign film in China was held in Shanghai. Since then, the French, the English, Italians and Russians exported their films to China in succession.

1896年8月11日，電影傳人中國，當天,在中國的上海上映了第一部外國電 影。從此，法國人、英國人、意大利人、俄國人紛紛把自己國家的影片輸人中國。

As the first Chinese film, The Battle of Mount Dingjun which started to shoot on July 9th, 1905 was made by Ren Qintai in November 1905. It was adapted from a Beijing opera of the same title by a notable performer of Beijing Opera Tan Xinpei and shot at the Feng Tai Photo Studio in Beijing, The shooting of the film marked the official birth of Chinese film. The producer of the film, Ren Qingtai, had studieyoung. He himself bought a manual camera and 14 sets of films from a German merchant and hired Liu Zhonglun who worked in his photo studio as his cameraman. The film was produced outdoors in the daylight for three days without any transcript or background. Although it seemed that The Battle of Dingjunshan was rough and ordinary，it was of great significance then—it inaugurated the pioneering beginning to make films for Chinese people. It was the infrequent and rare material not only for the history of Chinese film, but also for the history of Chinese Beijing 1913, as the first film company set up Chinese people, Xinmin Film Company was founded. And the first Chinese short feature film The Couple in Hard Times ( or Die for Marriage OT the Difficult Couple) ( Dong Fang Hua Zhu) came out then.

1905年7月9日，中國第一部電影《定軍山》開拍。此部影片改編自京劇，由著名京劇藝術家譚鑫培在北京豐泰照相館拍攝完成的，標誌着中國電影的誕生。 由年輕時曾在日本學習攝影的任慶泰擔任製作人。他從德國商人那裏購買了一部手動攝像機和14盤膠捲，僱他照相館裏的照相師劉仲倫擔任攝影師。本片在戶外日光下拍攝了三天，沒有任何腳本和佈景。現在看起來，《定軍山》的製作是粗糙而 普通的，但在當時其意義卻非同小可:它開創了中國人拍電影的歷史先河。不對於中國電影史還是中國京劇史，這部影片都是罕見而珍貴的資料。

In those days some styles of film had appeared, such as story film, martial art film, newsreel, scenery film and animation which were still at their exploring stage. Most of the films then were poor in art and contents. However, these films had positive meaning, for example, The Couple in Hard Times reflected the irrationality of the arranged marriage to some degree.

1913年，中國人自己組建的電影公司新民公司在上海成立，中國第一部短故事片《難夫難妻》（又名《洞房花燭》）問世。

In the following several years, the production companies were mainly owned by foreigners and the domestic film industry actually started in Shanghai since 1916. Film technicians from America began to train Chinese technicians in Shanghai in the 1920s, thus, American influence continued to be felt for the next two decades. This was the rudimentary times for the film of China. During this period some production companies were first set up in Shanghai, such as Star Film Company founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan and the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi Film Company (“Unique”）. In 1917 China had its own first film corporation—the Film Section of the Commercial Press. Among these companies, Star Company produced Orphan Rescues Grandfather in 1923 and arounsed a stir then.

那時，一些影片的類型，如故事片、武打片、紀錄片、風光片，動畫片都出現了， 但基本上都還處於探索階段。那時拍出的影片，無論內容上還是藝術上，大多很低 劣粗糖。不過也確有一些影片具有積極意義，如《難夫難妻》，在一定程度上反映了包辦婚姻的合理性。

As a milestone of early Chinese film, Orphan Rescues Grandfather made by Zhang Shichuan and Zheng Zhengqiu with its successful box-office appealing to Chinese audiences of the time not only aid a foundation for the prosperity of Star Film Studio, it attracted more investment capital and talent into filmmaking, allowing a upsurge of founding film companies. According to the statistics, 175 film companies had been founded successively in every corner of the country, among which 145 were in Shanghai along. The emergence of numerous film companies led to the fact that the number of films increased and the domestic films were received a tremendous ovation on the market. Chinese film began to bottom out since then，entered its first unprecedentedly flourishing period.

隨之而來的幾年間，製片公司主要由外國人所擁有。1916年，中國的電影業才真正以上海爲中心開始起步。20世紀20年代，美國電影專家開始在上海爲中國培訓技術人員。此後的二十年間依然能夠感覺到美國對中國電影的影響。這個時 期是中國電影事業的萌芽時期。也是在此期間，中國首批電影製作公司，如張石川和鄭正秋的明星影片公司，邵醉翁等兄弟四人的“天一”影片公司開始在上海創辦。 1917年，中國有了第一家自己的電影企業——商務印書館影片部。1923年由明星影片公司拍攝的《孤兒救祖記》引起了轟動。作爲早期中國電影里程碑式的作品，張石川、鄭正秋合作的《孤兒救祖記》票房上的成功不僅爲“明星”公司的繁榮奠定了基礎，而且吸引了衆多資金和人才來投資影視製作，引發了創辦電影公司的熱潮。據統計，1922年到1926年間，全國 各地先後開辦的電影公司有175家，單上海一地就有145家。衆多電影公司的出現，導致了電影產量激增，國產電影受到市場的熱烈歡迎。中國電影從此開始走出低谷，進人第一個空前繁榮期。

In 1931 the first Chinese wax disc dubbing film, Singing Girl was ough it did not bring the expected sensational effect in its public performance, the fearless experiment and struggling practice of the producers opened the new page of the history of Chinese film after all.

1931，《歌女紅牡丹》是中國第一部蠟盤配音有聲片，雖然有聲片在公演時，並未產生所期望的轟動效應，但是製作者們的大膽嘗試和努力實踐，畢竟揭開了中國電影歷 史新的一頁。

In 1932, Chinese Education Film Association was established in respond to the suggestion of enthusiastic people from Chinese educational and film field. Next year, Conscienceness by Bu Wancang and The Flower of Freedom, by Zheng Zhengqiu were selected as excellent films for the first time by the society. Hereafter, everal film selections were held. This was the earliest governmental film award for some leaders of the association acted as senior government officials.

1932年，中國教育界和電影界熱心人士共同倡議，在南京建立中國教育電影 協會。次年，中國教育電影協會舉行了第一次影片評選活動，卜萬蒼導演的《人道》 和鄭正秋導演的《自由之花》被評爲優秀影片。此後又舉行了幾次評選。由於當時 協會的領導者中有不少具有政府髙層官員身份，因此可以說這是中國電影史上最 早的具有政府色彩的電影獎。

At the beginning of 1930s, with the foundation of the progressive Chinese Leftist Writers' League, Japanese invasion of China and the Chinese people's awake-ness, the first truly important Chinese film was produced starting from the 1930s. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the progressive film workers made many good films bearing positive social effects at a quite high artistic level,like Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933) , Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (1934), and Sun Yu's The Big Road (1935), etc. These progressive films were famous for their emphasis on social struggles and external threats (nese invasion),as well as on common people such as a family of silk farmers in Spring Silkworms and a prostitute in The Goddess. In 1933, the first Cantonese film, The White-golden Dragon aded by Xue Juexian and produced by Tianyi Film Company, aroused an unexpected stir. In 1934, Song of the fishermen produced by Cai Chusheng drew much attention of a large audience, and it became the firstChinese film awarded the international prize in the next year. In 193，the premiere of Children of TroubleTimes was held in Shanghai whose theme song, March of the Volunteer, was later confirmed to be the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.

20世紀30年代初，中國真正重要的電影隨着進步的中國左翼作家聯盟的成 立、日本帝國主義對中國的侵略和中國人民的覺醒而開始產生。在中國共產黨的領導下，進步的電影作者拍出了許多具有積極社會意義又有相當藝術水準的影片，如程步高的《春蠶》（1933 )、吳永剛的《神女》（1934)和孫瑜的《大路》（1935) 等。這些進步影片因強調當時國內的階級鬥爭、國外的威脅（即日本的侵略）以及 注重普通民衆的生活而出名，像《春蠶》中的蠶農家庭和《神女》中的歌女。1933 年，由上海天一電影公司製作、薛覺先主演的首部粵語電影《白金龍》引起轟動。 1934年,蔡楚生執導的《漁光曲》，非常賣座，並於次年成爲中國首部獲國際獎項的影片。1935年,《風雲兒女》在上海首映,影片的主題歌《義勇軍進行曲》後來被定爲中華人民共和國國歌。

In 1930s, Chinese film entered an unprecedented flourishing period and film style was gradually rich. In 1935, Diantong Film Company produced the first Chinese musical comedy City Scenery directed by Yuan Muzhi, whose artistic style was fresh and lively as well as bitter and harsh, occupying an important position in the film history. In 1937 the newly-established Xinhua Film Studio produced the first Chinese horror film The Phantom Lover directed by Maxu Weibang, starred Jin Shan and Hu Ping, etc. . The film not only made cinematic sensation then, its worth and charm could still be verified through half century.

20世紀30年代，中國電影進人了一個空前繁榮期，電影的樣式也日漸豐富。 1935年，電通公司推出了袁牧之導演的中國第一部音樂喜劇故事片《都市風光》。 影片以清新活潑同時又辛辣尖銳的藝術風格在電影史上佔據着重要地位。1937 年，新成立的新華影片公司推出了中國銀幕第一部由馬徐維邦導演、金山和胡萍等 主演的恐怖電影《夜半歌聲》。影片不但在當時製造了轟動效應，歷經半個多世紀 的歲月後，其價值和魅力依然能夠得到驗證。

After 1937, Chinese film workers produced many notable films which inspired Chinese people's fighting against Japanese invasion in the Anti-Japanese War, like Ding Shanxi's The Eight Hundred Heroes (1938) , Bu Wancang^S Mulan Joins the Army or Maiden in Armour (1939), with its story of a young Chinese peasant fighting against a foreign invasion, etc. In this stage Chinese film artists became more skillful in film language and their shooting methods reached the rather high level. In 1937, Street Angel produced by Yuan Muzhi made the main actress, Zhou Xuan, a great coup. Accordingly, this post-1930s is now often referred to as the first “golden period” of the Chinese film to some extent.

1937年以後，我國的電影藝術工作者在抗日戰爭中拍攝了不少鼓舞了中國人民鬥志的抗戰影片，例如丁善璽《八百壯士》（1938)、卜萬蒼的《木蘭從軍》（1939) 等。這一時期,我國電影藝術家對於電影語言的運用更加純熟了，拍攝方法和手段 的運用，也都達到了比較高的水平。1937年，袁牧之導演的《馬路天使》上映，女主 角周璇一鳴驚人。鑑於此，20世紀30年代後期，從某種程度上來說，常被認爲是中國電影的第一個“黃金時期”。