Streep and Coen Discuss Foreign Film in China

It is rare that marquee international film events take place in China. That is in part because of the censorship imposed by the government. Then there are the tight limits on the importing and screening of foreign movies, which cast a shadow on attempts to bring new film experiences to China.

But last week’s arts and culture forum organized by the Asia Society and Aspen Institute sought to broaden the dialogue around films from the United States and China. The directors Joel Coen and Lu Chuan joined other filmmakers on a panel last Thursday at the National Center for the Performing Arts, better known by locals as the Egg. That evening, Mr. Coen answered questions after a screening of “True Grit” at the National Museum. Meryl Streep flew in on a Chinese businessman’s private jet the following day to take part in a panel discussion on acting. Fervent fans showed up to greet her, but she was upstaged by Ge You, the popular Chinese actor whose every utterance was met with laughter from the audience.

On Saturday, the director Robert Kenner showed his film, “Food Inc.,” the documentary on the evils of the American food industry that was an Oscar nominee last year, at a Qing Dynasty temple in central Beijing that has been converted into a restaurant and event space. After that screening, people rushed back to the National Museum to catch Ms. Streep in her latest role, as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.” It was the first time the film had been shown to a mass audience, and Ms. Streep had looked at the print just a half-hour before the start time to ensure that the movie would be shown properly.

But it was that morning that perhaps the most interesting film event of the forum took place. Mr. Coen and Ms. Streep spoke to Chinese film students and reporters about their craft in a movie theater in the basement of a mall. Mark Danner, a writer for The New York Review of Books, moderated the talk.

“For me, filmmaking is a very personal investigation and an attempt to understand something about living and being alive,” Ms. Streep said.

Mr. Coen mused on the existential doubts that befall him and his brother, Ethan, when they are making a film: “There is a point in every production where you say, ‘I want to get into a warm tub and open up my veins.’”

Between the two of them, Mr. Coen and Ms. Streep covered a wide range of subjects: from adapting novels to playing an older woman to the influence of Roman Polanski. Here are some video clips that I shot at the talk. But do not become too enamored of these Hollywood figures. At one point, Mr. Coen cited Margaret Atwood on the dubious allure of artists and celebrities: “I think Margarent Atwood once said, ‘Wanting to meet an author because you like his books is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté.”