Admiring Gong Li

[cocoa]

Can't wait to hear what Webber has to say about Li.

[sailormars]

You think it will top Micheal Mann's worship in the MV dvd?

[cocoa]

[NewPath]

Yeah, both Michael Mann and Rob Marshall gushed over her performances in the commentary. That's amazing. Now it is Peter Webber's turn. LOL.

[cocoa]

Anybody pre-ordered yet?

[Marla]

The folks at CHUD are running a contest to win a DVD:

[Marla]

Two ads that are running on various entertainment web sites - it's nice that GL's image is included:




_________________
"A 'star' sounds crazy. It is only the work of everyone around a star that makes it shine. One should not overrate oneself; otherwise, the light goes out very fast." ~Gong Li

[cocoa]

http://www.realmovienews.com/dvd/reviews/1458

Extras sound pretty good.

[Marla]

There's actually a favorable review of the movie and DVD:

[cocoa]

Found this post at IMDB. List of deleted scenes. No sex scene

[NewPath]

Is the DVD available today? I know the official release date is tomorrow, but sometimes they may arrive the stores one or two days earlier. If it is available today, I am really tempted to get one now...

[cocoa]

[Marla]

I transcribed the commentary from many of Gong Li's scenes:


Peter Webber: The first appearance of Gong Li in all her radiance. Once again, another recommendation made to anyone listening to this commentary track is to go out and find some of the films that she did with Zhang Yimou, the great Chinese director, any of them, any of them. You'll see, I think, he's made more masterpieces than any different filmmaker, for my money. And, you know, frankly, I could just sit and watch her all day long.

Martha De Laurentiis: I've always been in love with Gong Li movies. Oh, I think she's the most beautiful actress on the screen and is able to carry at the same time such a wonderful emotion with her face and her eyes and her body language. That for me there is no question of the way she could play the role of Lady Murasaki and the different dynamic that this role meant to the life of Hannibal Lecter.

Martha: We had several postponements of the picture. It was not an easy picture to mount. Finding the ideal cast of Hannibal Lecter, young and teenage years, as well as the role of Lady Murasaki with Gong Li. We actually wanted her to do it from the beginning, and she also, too, wanted to do it. But she had committed to do Michael Mann's 'Miami Vice'. So, we basically made the decision to put things on hold. Meanwhile, it took us time to finish the script, get the locations, and wait for Gong Li. That turned into the theme song of the movie, "Waiting for Gong Li". She had a lot of time in preparation with Michael Mann, there were postponements also with their picture, and then there were some things along the way of their shooting that also further postponed their picture. It took almost a year, it seemed, for us to get Gong Li. And we kept pushing our schedule back, and pushing it back, dangerously into the point where we had to start shooting in Prague, the Czech Republic, starting in October. And, again, we weren't to have Gong Li until Christmastime. And that was very scary because we made a choice not to film this movie in the dead cold of winter staring in January in Prague where everything would be without leaves, without the beautiful autumn that you see in the beginning, without the color palette of going from idyllic world in to cold of the war. Sure, we could use the winter season for that, but for the rest of the picture, having France in the freezing rain and cold and snow. So we said no, no, no. We have to start the picture in October. We will work everything around the schedule of Gong Li.

Peter: [museum sequence] And Gong Li in another one of Anna's stunning designs here. I think every time she appears she looks more gorgeous than before.

Martha: With Gong Li's English being a distant second language, it was a challenge, but never ever questionable that she couldn't do the role, just because of such a wonderful actress that she is. She's professional, she definitely shows up knowing the lines. And you have to let the director and the actress have enough time together to develop the trust and to rehearse. Not that Peter had to spend a lot of time with her, but definitely had to get Peter's take on things. She needed to absorb that.

Peter: Gong Li in yet another stunning costume. I like to do up the fashion parade aspect of her wardrobe. I have to say, she wears it well.

Martha: Gong Li was filming in Miami, and Thomas Harris lives in Miami. So, Gong Li and Thomas had a chance to meet each other because there was a lot of going back and forth of some questions of Gong's about motivation. And the best person to answer that would have been, of course, Thomas, along with Peter. But Peter was over on our side of the woods in the Czech Republic. And so Thomas wrote to us, telling us that they discussed the different scenes, particularly for Gong Li’s character, the way she changes and grows once they’re back in Paris. You know, he is of a certain age and it was interesting for her to get more of an emotional progression because that’s when things start to really heat up in the sense of the love for him, the realization that he has gone to an edge, he's in definite trouble. I mean, he is the monster she feared, that she thought she had some part in encouraging, and needs to bring back and try to save. So, there's a lot going on that was really kind of wonderful for Thomas to also understand, too, because it helped in some of the choices that we revised some of the scenes from the book.

Peter: Now, I've been following some stuff in chat rooms on the internet recently, and there's a lot of discussion about the so-called missing sex scene. Now, it is true that originally in the script there was a sequence with Lady Murasaki in the bath. We had actually run out of time, so we weren't able - sadly - weren't able to film Gong Li in the bath. But just to be clear, there was never a sex scene between the two of them. I think the reason this confusion has come about is because in the trailers for the film that were shown on TV, the Weinstein Company actually shot some footage themselves. And the footage they shot was kind of both more violent and more sexual than anything that was in the film. And I think that started up a whirlwind of rumors that there were some deleted sex scenes, but we never filmed any such thing. So, Hannibal rejects Lady Murasaki, something that surely no sane man would do.

Peter: [end sequence] This is a sequence that took many, many days to film. And this is where we almost killed Rhys. You'll see shortly Gaspard's gonna be brandishing the knife over the top of him, and Gong Li runs in and tries to pull Gaspard away. In doing so, she managed to plunge the tip of the knife into Rhys' chest, and he leapt up, screaming. A subsequent examination of the wound showed it to be very, very small, but I can see it was quite unnerving if you're laying on the ground and someone's plunging a knife into you accidentally. And so we rigged him up after that with a nice fiberglass fake chest to prevent that happening again. And that evening I seem to remember we all went out for a drink and Daniel Craig, who was shooting Bond in the studio next door was also there, and they were comparing injuries, Daniel, of course, having had a couple of his teeth just knocked out by a Czech stuntman. It's a hard life being an actor.

Martha: It's always difficult when English is not your first tongue when making an English-speaking movie because you yourself, if you're the actress or the actor, you have such insecurities. She’s such a professional and so confident in who she is. And she understands the language. It's just to have the emotion come out with her body and her being, and also getting the lines right, maybe you have to give her more time. Sure, it took more time with Gong Li, but she was worth the wait - "Waiting for Gong Li" - and the time on set, which we knew going in. But she was worth every single beat of this movie. I mean, look, she comes into the room and she doesn't have to say anything. I mean, you know what she's feeling. And so you know what makes a real star is they come off the screen. They don't have to be talking heads and deliver things. You get it, and the audience is moved into it.

Martha: Lady Murasaki, in the Paris scenes, she feels that she already knows Hannibal's nature, and she knows that he's killed before. And that she thought it would be interesting - Gong Li - to see her defend him against Popil and try to use her influence on Popil to help Hannibal. She wanted a more active role in stopping him. At one point, she thought that she would give herself up. There's such a strong emotional tie in Gong Li and her character development to bring to the role. And that's where it kind of helped in the end sequence when she’s on the boat. She wanted a much more proactive female Aristotle role than what was on the page.
_________________
"A 'star' sounds crazy. It is only the work of everyone around a star that makes it shine. One should not overrate oneself; otherwise, the light goes out very fast." ~Gong Li

[cocoa]

Thank You so much Marla. I have yet to recieve it. They have many nice things to say. VERY flattering to have an entire film going around your schedule. Martha D had a lot to say about her. LOL

Is she in any of the featurettes?

[NewPath]

Thank you so much Marla!! It seems Martha LOVES her, LOL.