After thousands of years of development, mankind finally has today’s civilized society, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato in the West, Laozi, Confucius, and Mencius in the East, these great thinkers and philosophy in human history Home, for the development of mankind for thousands of years, draws blueprints that make people full of yearning. However, in the process of civilization, human beings have a function that degenerates in inverse proportion. This function is called "wildness". The so-called "wildness" refers to the instinct and nature of the individual displayed in the posture of a life after removing all moral and legal packaging. To a certain extent, the display of this primitive humanity is like an unclothed body, like the act of sleeping on the ground in the wilderness.
For modern civilized society, this kind of behavior is naturally a kind of abrupt, degraded, even ugly and vulgar performance. But "wildness" is to the civilization in society, to the appearance and personality of each person, it is like the frame part of the building, like the flesh wrapped in clothes, although under the frame of civilization, we almost I can't see its true appearance, but it still exists in the depths of our souls, and is still the driving force of life that drives us all the way forward. From this perspective, "wildness" is objective and real, just like many instinctive behaviors of people. Although not beautiful and decent, it is the "necessity" of our life.
Under normal circumstances, people naturally do not regard "wildness" as a code of conduct in society, just as we would not just take off our clothes and run wild on the street to show the beauty of the flesh. But if you put this task in the category of art, it seems natural. For example, in the history of Western art, the "Venus with the Broken Arm" created by the ancient Greek sculptor Alexandros, and the "David" created by the famous sculptor Michelangelo during the Renaissance, although they both Naked, but no one would say that art is uncivilized. Art comes from life and is higher than life. This is the truth. While art appreciates the world, it also analyzes the world. If thinkers are theoretical researchers of human nature, artists and writers are more like makeup artists and anatomists of human nature. Through the reconstruction of human nature, they find moments and stories full of inner tension.
Film is called the seventh art in human history, because the art form of film includes many previous types of artistic methods. Therefore, film, like other art forms, also shoulders the responsibility of reconstructing human nature and finding self for mankind. In 1987, a very important domestic film was released in China. This film is "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou, the outstanding representative of the fifth generation of directors in China. This film is starring Jiang Wen and Gong Li. The story of the film Adapted from Mo Yan's novel of the same name, who had not yet won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The film "Red Sorghum" was exhibited at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the three major European film festivals, on behalf of domestic films before it was released, and won the "Golden Bear Award", the highest award at the Berlin Film Festival. ". "Red Sorghum" is not only the first domestic film to win such a high international award, but also Zhang Yimou's debut as a legendary director. Zhang Yimou was 37 years old when he directed "Red Sorghum". Before that, Zhang Yimou was a photographer and actor.
As the first college student who resumed the college entrance examination, Zhang Yimou’s student and professional career are quite legendary. Originally, Zhang Yimou’s dream was to be a photography officer in a factory, but As the college entrance examination resumed, Zhang Yimou was lucky enough to be admitted to the Beijing Film Academy. At that time, Zhang Yimou almost missed Nortel because of his age, but Zhang Yimou, who was easy-going in appearance and persistent in his heart, had a spirit of unwillingness to admit defeat. He wrote to a certain leader at that time and was eventually recruited into the photography department of Beijing Film Academy. At the same level as Zhang Yimou, there is another outstanding representative of the fifth generation director Chen Kaige.
Chen Kaige, who is both a classmate and a colleague, once told Zhang Yimou when two people were cooperating on "Yellow Earth": "Yimou, among our 153 classmates in the 82nd class, there is a bit of belongingYou are the strongest-the heart is higher than the sky. " Later, Zhang Yimou recalled what Chen Kaige said to him when he was content. He believed that this sentence spoke the "wildness" deep in his heart. The kind of naturalness belongs to the nature, even if it is more civilized measures The "wildness" that can't be concealed. It is with this wildness that Zhang Yimou step by step from factory worker, photographer, Nortel University student, cinematographer, actor, to the director profession that he could not even imagine before. , But even so, he is still "higher than the sky." And finally with "Red Sorghum", let people see the film ability and "movie ambition" of "director" Zhang Yimou.
"I admit that "Red Sorghum" is a hybrid. It belongs to a wild way. There are no rules and no rules for the art, and there is no way to make the movie. For my own creation, I don't want to be limited to a fixed model, and the critics should not place only one expectation on our fifth generation. "Regarding the work of Red Sorghum, Zhang Yimou said.
Indeed, the reason why the work "Red Sorghum" can cause such a sensation at home and abroad is that a large part of this work is the film language. A certain characteristic has been brought into full play. When he got the final script of the film, Mo Yan, the author of the original novel, recalled his thoughts when he got the final script and said: "Zhang Yimou gave me his final script Look, the finalized script is completely different from our original script. Zhang Yimou actually did a lot of streamlining. I was surprised when I saw it. With this little thing, dozens of scenes and dozens of details can be made into a movie? Later, I realized that the movie does not need much. For example, in a scene of "Bianjiao", a few words in the script, in the movie, "bumping" for 5 minutes. ”
From Mo Yan’s words, we can clearly feel the big gap between film language and literary language. And the film "Red Sorghum" shows it again. It is extremely prominent. In fact, in "Red Sorghum", Zhang Yimou cleverly omitted details that he didn't need, and what he wanted to show to the audience was not in the story details shown in the film. On the contrary, "Red Sorghum" The storyline of this film was almost simplified by Zhang Yimou to the point where it could not be added. At the same time, the film is full of primitives that are delivered to the audience with the cooperation of visual language and auditory language. The wildness and power of hormones. But this sense of power is artistically controlled by Zhang Yimou in a sense of beauty.
This film begins in Jiang Wen’s powerful and story-like monologue: "Let me tell you about my grandpa and my grandma. This story is still often mentioned in my hometown. As time goes by, some people believe it, and some people don't...", is the beginning of the film. It is full of mystery and gives the author a lot of creative space. This sentence still carries the skills of literary creation in general. The biggest difference between literary creation and film creation is that literary creation is that the author leads the audience to imagine through words , And film creation is the director’s omni-directional language to bring the audience into that imaginative scene.
In order to find this "imaginative" scene, Zhang Yimou It can be described as painstakingly. In order to reproduce the hundred acres of wild sorghum, Zhang Yimou took the crew to Mo Yan’s hometown Gaomi and planted sorghum. In order to find the actors of "My Grandpa" and "My Grandma" that match the movie, they went to sea Selection. All actors are treated the same, and the only criterion is to look like the characters in the film. According to this criterion, the biggest controversy in the film "Red Sorghum" is the actor Gong Li who plays "My Grandma" Jiuer. Because before the filming of this film, many people thought that Gong Li's appearance conditions did not meet the image of Jiu'er in everyone's mind. This also included the film director Zhang Yimou, and the original author of the novel Mo Yan.
was later chosen. Gong Li played the role of Jiuer because after several auditions, the feeling that Gong Li performed was very consistent with the inner feelings in everyone's mind. The first thing that was impressed was the director Zhang Yimou, who recalled the process of choosing the cast. Shi Zhang Yimou commented on Gong Li like this: "The first impression is that she is delicate and smart. At that time, she was wearing a large dress to audition, and she was not in line with the heroine in my imagination. After further contact, she found that her character is exactly what the character needs, and her appearance is very pure. , It’s not the kind that looks very aggressive. The appearance is unassuming and exaggerated, but the character can be conveyed well.” So after the film was released, Mo Yan himself said, “I was wrong.”
and this is exactly the success of the film "Red Sorghum". After all the details are simplified, the most intuitive reflection to the audience is that This kind of national, primitive, full of sprouting and "wild" power, especially in the scene where the last setting sun is like blood, the sculpture-like shape of Yu Zhanao played by Jiang Wen shows the stubbornness and unyielding of a nation, showing the life of life The attitude of fighting endlessly with this world.
As a photographer, Zhang Yimou has his own views on the color of the film. He thinks that his favorite in "Red Sorghum" is the big red, whether it is Jiu'er on the way back to the door, and Yu Zhanao The red cotton-padded jacket worn in the sorghum field, or the red sorghum wine that can cure all kinds of diseases, or the blood-stained setting sun at the end of the film. Under this red color, there is the lonely openness of Shibali Po, and the vast expanse of a hundred acres of wild sorghum in Qingshakou. Through these unique film languages, Zhang Yimou intuitively makes the audience feel the primitive vitality under civilization.
In addition to the visual language, the film’s soundtrack is also very unique and rich in original nationality. These music are based on traditional folk tunes. The main instrument is the suona gongs and drums that are widely popular in Shandong. Whether it is the sedan chair at the beginning of the film, or the sacrifice to the god of wine, and the ritual combination of the hero and heroine in the red sorghum field, Zhang Yimou is very rich. "Seditious" music, and what is incited by music is the original wildness of the audience from the bottom of their hearts.
Although many scenes in the film do not conform to the development rules of modern society, such as the love of the hero and the protagonist, such as the survival rules of the characters in the film. But after Zhang Yimou peeled off the cocoon of the story, only a few key scenes evoked the primitive wildness buried deep in the soul of the audience, letting the audience throw the original vitality in the red carnival on the screen. Red Hydrangea". Under the influence of the colors and "inflammatory" music on the screen, the audience saw the driving force of life deep in their hearts. Movies have never been a guide to behavior in the real world, but they are a good mirror of human nature. From this point of view, the film "Red Sorghum" is a success.
