The famous Israeli writer Amos Oz is her favorite writer!

Natalie Portman (English: Natalie Portman, Hebrew: , June 9, 1981 -), whose real name is Natalie Hershlag, started as a child star Israeli-American actress, winner of the 83rd Academy Award for Best Actress, and Harvard University alumnus.

She made her acting debut in the 1994 independent film The Killer, and later became more popular for her role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars trilogy. Well known. While filming the Star Wars movies, Portman simultaneously completed a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard University. She once said: "I prefer to be a smart person than a movie star."

In 2001, Portman and Meryl Streep, Kevin Klein, Philip ·Collaborated with Seymour Hoffman and others to perform Chekhov's play "The Seagull" produced by the New York Public Theater. In 2005, Portman successfully won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for "Stealing Hearts". In May 2008, at the age of 27, she became the youngest jury member of the 61st Cannes Film Festival. Portman also challenged the position of director in 2008. Her directorial debut "Eve" served as the opening film of the 65th Venice Film Festival short film project.

From 2010 to 2011, for her role as a ballet dancer with a split personality in the movie "Black Swan", she swept the Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Film Critics' Choice Awards and British Academy Film Awards, and won the 1st 83rd Academy Award for Best Actress.

Of all the new works, perhaps the most anticipated is Natalie Portman's debut feature film as director, "A Tale of Love and Darkness." The story is adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same name by the famous Israeli writer Amos Oz. Portman herself also co-wrote the screenplay and also plays the role of Oz's mother.

At the beginning of this year, she posted several landscape photos of Palestine and Israel on her Instagram, adding the "earlybird" filter with a hazy texture, which gave her a sense of historical vicissitudes. Her inscription at the time was "Preparing first movie as Director. Big challenge." ("Preparing first movie as Director. Big challenge.") Now, the filming has basically ended.

"A Story of Love and Darkness" was published in 2002 and has always been regarded as Amos Oz's best work. The author starts from Jerusalem in the late 1940s and uses nearly 600 pages to tell readers the story of a Jewish family amid the historical changes of the entire Jewish nation over the past few decades. Oz recalls his childhood and describes the psychological uneasiness of family members from the perspective of a little boy. As the story progresses, you can read between the lines a larger sense of loneliness and wandering involving the entire Jewish community. feel.

"This is a fantastic book, beautifully written and touched my heart. When I found myself immersed in its fantasy for a long time, I knew I had to make it into a movie." "Israel is a place where you put your finger on the window sill and you get a good story," Portman said. "I'm from Israel and I'm part of this country, but at the same time I feel like a stranger. It's a delicate feeling. "

In a poem called "Israel is", she wrote affectionately: "It was the place where I was born, where I ate popsicles for the first time and went to the toilet for the first time. It’s a place where some of my 18-year-old friends sleep in coal bunkers wearing helmets, and guarding is the only occupation there that’s oversupplied…”, “It’s a place that will one day be peaceful, but it won’t be peaceful. "The place where I was born and raised is the place in my heart that I don't want to give up." "The Story of Love and Darkness" can also be seen as Natalie Portman's repayment and return to Israeli culture. .

Actually, strictly speaking, this is not Portman’s first time as a director. In 2008, she contributed a short segment to "New York, I Love You." Her other 17-minute short film "Eve" (also translated as "Eve") was shortlisted for the 65th Venice Film Festival. It tells the story of a girl (Olivia Thirlby) who intrudes into her grandmother's private life one evening.

"Eve" was inspired by the relationships between Portman's female friends and elders. Starting from a female perspective adds a touch of delicacy and smoothness to the film. Although it is only ten minutes long, from the dialogue, camerawork, and use of music (the short film uses Sufjan Stevens' piano score), we can get a glimpse of Portman's style and preferences as a director.

At that time, Portman felt that the time had not yet come for him to make a feature film, "because before that, he needed to accumulate and study hard." Since her debut at the age of 13, she has absorbed a lot of nutrients from great directors such as Luc Besson, Darren Aronofsky, George Lucas, and Stan Lee.

And of course, there's Anthony Minghella (director of "Cold Mountain"), one of Portman's favorite directors.

However, just one day before the filming of "Eve" began, Anthony Minghella passed away. At the press conference, Portman gave a special speech to express his condolences to Minghella. She said that although she felt sad, she believed that the director's love for movies and the strength he found in making movies had been learned and passed on. "I hope I can become a director like him."

With A Tale of Love and Darkness, we will soon see whether she achieves her wish.