4月17日下午，张艺谋和斯匹尔伯格在北京国际俱乐部进行了将近两个小时的“聊天”，聊的都是他们的本行——电影。这是央视六频道的“大手笔”。我应邀参与了策划这次“高峰会”，花了比普通高端采访多几倍的时间。可见，人多、时间长，无谓的消耗也就越多。

所幸的是，两位大牌影人基本上以诚相待，没有采用什么外交辞令。其中有些句子可说是相当精彩。比如：

斯匹尔伯格从《拯救大兵瑞恩》和《英雄》中看到的不是东西方对于生命价值的反差，而是内在的相同性，因为他把瑞恩诠释为国家、民主、理念的象征。

斯匹尔伯格不同意“电影的历史是技术革新的历史”，而主张“电影的历史是讲故事的历史”。

两人都把人类的相互沟通视为重大命题。斯氏说：“沟通是人类需要征服的下一条战线。”

张艺谋：批评我为外国人拍电影，我连外语都不懂，更不知道外国人喜欢看怎样的电影。

张最希望看到的，是一个能客观、准确调查电影观众反应的公司。

他对国内那50－80家发表影评的媒体流露出潜在的不屑，怀疑他们是否真的能代表观众的喜好。他也承认高票房不等于喜欢。

他平时观看的外国片数量超过国产片。

观看外国片的影碟时，为低劣的字幕感到头痛不已。

央视本月底播出这场对话足本时，会采用我的翻译。希望我会比D商做得更地道些:-))

Titanic challenge for Spielberg, Zhang

Two of the titans of the film world sat down yesterday afternoon in Beijing and discussed the meaning of films and the goals they want to achieve with the medium.

Steven Spielberg, who was on Sunday named the artistic adviser for the 2008 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, and Zhang Yimou, who has been appointed chief director for the same events, revealed their mutual admiration in a special programme taped by CCTV's Movie Channel.

China Daily helped design the questions as well as set parameters for the conversation.

"I've seen all your movies," enthused Zhang. He started with the "Indiana Jones" series and graduated to "E.T." and "Jaws"; and said "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" touched a deep chord with "their depictions of human suffering."

"Raise the Red Lantern" was the first Chinese film Spielberg happened to see. "It exposed me to a culture I didn't know anything about and I felt drawn to the characters." And yesterday, he bought a DVD set of Zhang's works and asked him for an autograph. Zhang inscribed: "To my favourite film director and an old friend."

Talking about Zhang's movies, he said that he could completely understand what is going on even if he does not look at the English subtitles.

Both Spielberg and Zhang agreed that films are fundamentally about human emotions, which transcend languages and cultures.

In "Munich," Spielberg approached the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a sense of mission: to encourage both sides to communicate with each other. Zhang's "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles" is also about the importance of communication between generations, languages and nations.

"Munich" has more depth than "Riding," noted Zhang, who is saddened by the hostilities between different cultures.

"When can human beings stop physically annihilating each other and reach a phase of harmony?" he asked.

"Communication is the next important frontier to conquer. We have to communicate and understand each other," added Spielberg.

He also saw environmental degradation as the crisis of our time. "We're at the tipping point environmentally," he said. "We harvest the environment and it's going to come back to haunt us." As "powerful countries," the US and China can play a role to save the environment and films could be a "good medium."

"Movies and other arts can change the way people see the world and move people to act," he elaborated.

On cultural differences embodied in their work, such as the individual vs the collective, Zhang commented that the Chinese culture and education have always emphasized the importance of the group. For all the recent changes, "collective" is always given priority, especially in martial arts films.

"It's a glorious thing to die for and my film 'Hero' highlights that concept," he explained.

Contrary to popular belief, Spielberg does not see "Saving Private Ryan" as a group of people trying to save one person; he believes Ryan is a symbol which stands for all the things that people fought and sacrificed their lives for during World War II, "the last great war."

He admitted that he didn't expect films like "Ryan" to click with the masses but was confident that cultural barriers would not prevent Chinese movies to resonate with American audiences. "I'm fascinated how some movies are bigger in one market than another."

But the underlying power of human emotions goes beyond borders. "The worst thing is apathy," he asserted.

Zhang has been accused of pandering to foreign taste, but he was perplexed because "I don't speak a foreign language and I honestly don't know what foreign film-goers want."

But sometimes he approaches the question by putting himself in a similar position: "Why do I like certain foreign fare? It's not the exotica, the history or the locale. It's the shared emotions that touch me."

When it came to Hollywood's hegemony, Zhang said there are many people in the Chinese industry who are angry with Hollywood but at the same time desperately want its recognition. The right approach, he said, is to "absorb its experience and use it to enrich our national cinema."

Spielberg readily acknowledged Hollywood's "domination" of the world market. He cited an instance 13 years earlier in Italy and France. The local press accused his "Jurassic Park" of squeezing out local releases. "I felt terrible and guilty. But it turned out to be not exactly true."

The situation has been addressed since then when more movie theatres were built in Europe and more opportunities arose for domestic output to be screened along with Hollywood blockbusters, he said.

For all the technological breakthroughs he spearheaded with his digital dinosaurs, Spielberg did not concur with the statement that "the history of filmmaking is the history of technological advances." "It is the history of good story telling," he offered.

New technologies only make it easier for filmmakers to tell stories. They are tools. And "that's why movies will be with us forever," he said.

Zhang shared his opinion: "Whether a movie is intended to be entertaining, thought-provoking or educational, the story is the basis of everything. Everyone, from small kids to older people, loves a good yarn."