When people (including practitioners in the entertainment industry and even some experts and scholars in academia) talk about a certain movie or TV series, they often say: "So-and-so's movie is so-and-so." And the "so-and-so" is self-evident - the director.
On the importance of film scripts
many film masters have elaborated on the role of film and television scripts. There is such a sentence in "On Director's Script" :
"The director may use a very good script to make a very bad film, but he will never use a very bad script to make a very good film."
Famous Japanese Director Kurosawa Akira believes:
"Weak seedlings will never get a good harvest. A bad script will never make a good movie. The weaknesses of the script must be overcome in the script completion stage, otherwise, it will leave irreparable consequences for the movie. It is a pity. However, the important role of screenwriters is not recognized by people. Just open every newspaper that introduces new film and television works, and you will find that in all the introductions, besides directors and stars, there are directors and stars, and the name of the screenwriter cannot be found at all. "
Even in the titles of film and television works, the screenwriter has been removed from the chief position and placed below the producer, chief director, director and others. And some so-called producers or third-rate directors who have no artistic talent can boss around with the help of sponsorship money or other investments, think highly of themselves, hire gunmen, and write and shoot one episode every two or three days. As a result, what they produce can only be batches of shoddy cultural garbage.
In fact, smart film and television directors will never do stupid things that violate the laws of art. Xie Jin and Zhang Yimou ask famous writers to write scripts, Hollywood directors use the collective wisdom of screenwriters to polish scripts, which are the first conditions and basic experience to ensure the success of film and television works.
We can imagine:
Without the highly individual characters and the ups and downs and interesting plots shown in the script of "One Night ", no matter how talented the director is, can he create a world classic business card based only on the old cliché of "a rich girl runs away from home and falls in love with a poor but upright good young man"? Without Robert Shawwood's play, could Mervyn Leroy have made "The Blue Bridge", an artistic swan song that is both haunting, tear-jerking, profound and contemplative, based only on a common love story of "a mistake that makes it difficult for lovers to get married"?
Admittedly, in early film production, scripts were insignificant.
Film was born in 1895. It is a young art, and film dramas appeared 25 years later than movies. Movies, in their early days, were simply imitations of life. Mechanical photography, such as the train entering the station captured by and the Lumiere brothers . Therefore, there is no need for a script. The photographer alone is an all-round filmmaker. He is responsible for conception, directing, filming, and editing. In short, he is the movie. Later, slightly edited fragments of life began to appear on the movie screen to show some interesting situations.
At this time, I already had some creative ideas before shooting.
However, even at the peak of silent films , such as David Griffel's "The Birth of a Nation" and Charlie Chaplin 's " Modern Times ", the script only provided a more detailed plot idea or story outline. Although the credit was indispensable, the completion of the film should mainly be attributed to the creative work of the director and photographer.
The emergence of sound films immediately made script writing occupy an irreplaceable and important position in the entire film production process.
Hungarian film theorist Balazs said:
"After the birth of sound films, film scripts automatically jumped to the top position."
The word "automatic" is used very delicately - fully embodying a natural and unquestionable momentum. After the film reaches its maturity, that is, the emergence of true modern "art film", the artistic foundation role of script creation, the first step in the entire film production process, cannot be ignored.
Understand the essence of film drama
For anything, only after understanding its essence can we truly understand it and grasp it freely. Since the task of the screenwriter is to write a "play", then he must have an essential understanding of the "play".
And what exactly is "play"?
It is common for the audience to talk loudly after coming out of the cinema, and people after watching the TV are often heard sighing: "It's okay, there is a show to watch." ” or “No chance. It's not pretty at all." Even in daily life, we often hear people comment on something: "There is drama" or "There is no drama at all." It can be seen that the presence or absence of "drama" is of great importance and determines success or failure, or even life or death. However, the presence or absence of "drama" only depends on whether it is good-looking or not, interesting or not, lively or lively, exciting or exciting, or intense or not intense?
In fact, whether it is good-looking or interesting, it doesn't matter. , after all, this is just the subjective feeling of the audience. At most, it can be said to be the appearance of a certain level of "play", without discussing the essence of "play".
In people's understanding, there are often some misunderstandings:
For example, they think that major news happening in social life must be serious;
For example, I think that unexpected accidental events in daily life must also have drama, etc. This is really "specious". In social life, the presidential election, the National People's Congress Standing Committee issued an announcement, a volcanic eruption flooded a city, world war tens of millions of civilians died... all of these, as news, are indeed eye-catching;
In daily life, someone is suddenly hit and killed by a car, A group of people on the street beat each other to a bloody head, a son in the family raised a knife to his mother, someone laughed when his wife died... all of this can also be fascinating.
However, they are still far from being called "plays". At best, they can only be regarded as "the shell of the play" or the "hotbed of the play."
Film, television and drama theorists have different opinions on "play". Some say and write Drama is about writing characters, some say that writing a drama is about plotting, some think that film and television dramas should emphasize "movement", and some explain that the most important thing in film and television is to emphasize the art of montage .
What is the essence of "play"?
Chinese and foreign drama, film and television theorists do have different views on this issue, but there is a process of understanding .
The so-called "essence of drama" is the core of the laws of drama art itself. People’s cognition of the inherent laws of objects is not completed at once. The process of continuous deepening and improvement of cognition promotes the continuous development of drama theory. In the process, different understandings of the "essence of drama" will be formed. To this day, the research on this issue still needs to be further deepened and improved.
The theater is a laboratory for testing human behavior in specific situations. This concept also defines the essence of drama from a specific perspective. The object of drama is people. Every drama work places a single person in a specific situation and gives certain conditions and stimulation, so that he can process his directed inner life into actions to complete the process of self-expression. Therefore, drama is not only about human behavior The most concrete and intuitive artistic imitation is not only an artistic way of intuitive expression of people's inner life, it is also the most specific art form used to imagine the specific situations faced by people.
Since ancient times, most dramatic works have explored the destiny of mankind through the destiny of individuals. In specific works, the destiny of the characters is just the fit between personality and situation. This understanding of the essence of drama can be regarded as a summary of human drama practical experience.
Drama activities are full of confrontations, such as the confrontation between drama creators, the confrontation between actors and scripts, the confrontation between actors and directors, the confrontation between actors and the audience, and the confrontation between actors and themselves. This kind of confrontation makes drama a ritual of spiritual activities. The confrontation is precisely for transcendence, and all those involved in the drama will elevate their souls in the ritual.
Actors become holy sacrifice, and the audience receives the secrets of their hearts in a living ceremony. The meaning of the audience's existence is to rise together with the actors. Therefore, the audience and the actors are inseparable from each other. They merge together and transcend confrontation. Only in this way can the cruel passion burning of the drama be able to infect every drama participant.
How to do a good drama theme
The theme plays an important role in the core of the drama and future films. When creating a good film, there is usually a profound theme first and it is used throughout the entire creative process. In a sense, the theme of film and television is the "priest" and "priest" of the audience. The audience always wants to gain spiritual enlightenment and emotional comfort from your works. There is no such thing as an artist who creates entirely for himself.
Therefore, the theme of the drama must be sincere and beautiful, at least the author himself must think it is sincere and beautiful. Otherwise, with a hypocritical attitude and a playful mentality, it will be difficult to enter the palace of art and be truly accepted by the broad audience by smearing some ugly, dirty, sick and obscene connotations. So what kind of theme is beautiful?
1. Profound and unique
Since the film is a discovery of life, it should of course only narrate a well-known story in general, but must express a profound, original concept, emotion or feeling about life that inspires the audience. The question aims at the indirect, direct or potential influence and role in the entire creative process. Only in this way can the completed video have real value and be retained for a long time.
Take a look at the classic works in the history of movies over the past century. Only a few people have become famous because of their mature and rich artistic expressions and film and television methods. Even movies like " Battleship Potemkin ". Although his artistic innovations leave a distinct impression on people, if there is no profound theme as the foundation, all the creation of artistic techniques will inevitably become a tree without roots, and no matter how fancy it is, it will not survive for a long time.
2. It must have a sense of the times
Any artistic work must contain the traces of the times to some extent. The theme of the film that is completely beyond the times will inevitably determine the hollowness and vanity of the film, and it is difficult to have long-term vitality. All "historical blockbusters" must be the most accurate and vivid artistic expression of a certain era. Only the most "sense of the times" can it be "historic", just like "only the most Chinese characteristics can it be of global significance". Only by truly reflecting the life of the era in which you live can you obtain historical value that will not fade.
For example, the reason why the American film "Bonnie and Clyde" is accepted by the world's film history and loved by audiences in other countries is that it truly, accurately, and vividly reflects the distinctive characteristics of the era in which the content of the film is set. It not only conveys the "voice" of that era, but also contains the "cognitive role" that future generations have on that "image history".
Another example is the movie "Crazy Stone". The reason why it has become a "new film" is directly related to its own contemporary nature - people deeply hate thieves in society. "Crazy Stone" depicts the contest between an ordinary museum worker living among ordinary people and a thief. Through the behavior of the protagonist of the film, this "typical" character conveys the confusion of people in this era, expressing the hopes of the people and embodying the crux of the current era.
3. It must have connotation
As the core element of drama, the theme is the spiritual leadership of future drama content and the soul and commander in the creative process.Wang Euzhi of the Qing Dynasty commented on this: "The meaning is also the commander. Soldiers without commanders are called rabble." The "meaning" mentioned here is the title or theme. Having a good subject matter but lacking an appropriate theme and drama core is like a congenitally mentally retarded child, unable to grow up healthily. Therefore, it is very important to determine the topic.
So, what exactly does the title refer to?
The title is the ideological content to be expressed, which roughly includes two aspects: the theme idea and the purpose of writing.
Rhetoric uses appropriate language forms to express specific content. Therefore, the relationship between rhetoric and subject is the relationship between form and content. materialist dialectics believes that form and content are dialectically unified. Content must be expressed in form, and form must also have its own content. In terms of the relationship between content and form, content determines form, and form reacts on content. The content to be expressed by rhetoric determines the rhetorical form that people use to adapt to it. The rhetorical form that is suitable for the content can better express the content. We can understand the connotation of the topic from the following three aspects:
A certain thought or concept.
This is indeed the case in most film and television works, either praising a certain spirit, or spurring a certain phenomenon; or analyzing life, or criticizing society; ranging from expressing views on thousands of years of history and the course of a century; to conveying what a child should do with a penny; general to praising bravery, sincerity, kindness, and purity, and subtle Should a dog be raised in the city? Should a young man "impress" a girl or "pursue" her...
In short, art is a product of "beauty", but it is by no means beautiful for beauty's sake, but relies on "beauty" to infect people and then produce a certain "effect", and the first point of this "effect" is to inspire people's ideological awareness. Convey new concepts and understandings to people; In short, it refers to the "educational role" of the title.
For example, "Autumn in the Palace of Han Dynasty" has a "theme structure", which is formed by the instant blending of many ideological factors in a specific cultural and aesthetic situation. The particularity of the "theme structure" leads to the richness of the ideological connotation of the work, which is also the fundamental reason why a work has many themes. At the same time, the "theme structure" theory also points out a feasible way for us to explore the ideological connotation of other similar drama works.
presents a certain situation, artistic conception or a specific emotion.
The author did not have a clear ideological concept when he conceived it. He neither wanted to express a certain point of view on social life through drama creation, nor did he want to use writing to elaborate a certain philosophy. Rather, I just want to create a mood and express a specific emotion or emotion.
Like the Chinese film "Once Upon a Time in the South" and " Red Sorghum ", like the Swedish film "Weeds", like the former Soviet film "Winter Nights" and "The Shore", like the American film " The Snows of Kilimanjaro", like the Italian film "Humberto D", like the British film "We Met Too Late", etc., all generally fall into this category. This aspect of the theme mainly plays an "infectious role" or "aesthetic role".
conveys some new, beautiful, and unfamiliar "image information" to the audience.
Specifically, such as life experiences that are unfamiliar to the general audience. Social life that has never been seen before, certain scenes, scenes, events, etc. that interest people because of "defamiliarization". They can all become the starting point of creation and the gene of the theme.
is like some films and television films that mainly describe exotic customs, new scenes, and "strange" people, such as my country's "Liu Sanjie" and " Five Golden Flowers ", and the United States' " Guanshan" Western films such as "Flying Through ", as well as films such as "Star Wars", "Waterworld", "Jurassic Park", including the 1996 Oscar-winning "Braveheart", which is based on the battle between England and Scotland in the medieval era, are all in this category. Here, the significance of the title mainly lies in its "understanding" or "information transmission".
Of course, the three aspects of the above theme are not completely independent or integrated in a specific film, but have their own priorities.
These are indispensable when making dramatic time and space clues.
If the selection of time and space angles and the interception of time and space capacity are still external considerations of the film and television structure, then the design of time and space clues has already entered the internal weaving of the structure. The so-called time and space clues are the internal logic and internal basis of the structure of a film and television work.
Film and television works reflect life through an organic artistic whole, and this artistic whole must have a liaison that governs all content. Therefore, no matter which structural form or category is adopted, the structure cannot be without time and space clues that are pre-designed and followed at all times, because it is the central nerve of the structure of film and television works, and invisibly controls the specific implementation of each part of the film and television works.
Someone has written the script. Due to the lack of a certain structural clue, the result will inevitably be a straggler or a ragtag group. Although it is billed as "artistic innovation", the actual artistic effect is self-evident.
Of course, the original artistic meaning of "clue" should be understood broadly. For those authors who are accustomed to understanding clues only as tangible "lines" and "bars", it is necessary to point out that what we are talking about here is clues in a broad sense. That is to say, it refers to the link or soul that unifies the content of the work and the time and space of life into an organic whole. It can be presented as a tangible "line", or it can also be embodied as an invisible "character", "norm" or even "atmosphere". Only in this way can the film and television structure be displayed naturally and flexibly in various styles.
Below, we will discuss the quality and form of structural clues.
The quality of clues
The so-called quality of structural clues refers to the category and nature of the internal basis of the film and television structure when it unfolds in time and space. Looking at the "various structures" in film and television creation over the past century, the quality of the clues is nothing more than the following:
Taking the character's experience or character development process as the axis to unfold time and space.
unfolds time and space based on the development and change process of events.
is based on a certain established emotional atmosphere and expands time and space within a limited range to form an organic image situation or an artistic collection of multiple images.
uses the author or the characters’ emotions or flow of consciousness as clues to the film’s structure. The so-called emotional fluctuation refers to the kind of imagination and association that the author or the characters in the work have a certain tendency in a conscious or semi-conscious state. The so-called flow of consciousness refers to the imagination and association of " stream of consciousness style" without conscious control (note: it is not a stream of consciousness in a purely psychological sense). Such clues are mostly reflected in some modernist works.
uses a certain ideological concept or the nature of a certain thing as a clue to structure the chapter. Among them, ideological concepts are used as clues, that is, a purely rational and metaphysical "idea" is used as a clue to construct chapters. In various modern narrative art works, chapters with symbolic character and abstract colors often use this clue quality.
In the category of modern novels, symbolic novels are more common in this kind of performance. The behavior of the characters, the development and changes of the plot, and even the setting and description of the scenes do not follow the logic and patterns of real life. They only interpret an established philosophy, concept, and thought. In a certain sense, it can also be said that its entire content and all concrete representations are just diagrams (here, no derogatory meaning) symbols of an established idea.
Another type of narrative works uses certain connections, the same character, and nature between things as clues to connect chapters. Most of the contemporary documentary feature films are like this, combining people, events and scenes in social life that have the same nature or character in a certain aspect to express a given theme.
What needs to be pointed out here is: uses this clue to structure the chapter.We should try our best to make the image natural and accurate, make things credible and palpable (at the aesthetic level), and avoid obvious preaching. In terms of the structure of the overall chapter, we should pay attention to certain rules and regulations to make it conform to the logic of life and avoid mechanical piecing together and artificiality.
Screenwriters should start from the following aspects when making dramatic conflicts
The reason why some theorists are paranoid against the idea that "conflict is the essence of drama" is mainly because they have a paranoid and narrow understanding of the way conflict is reflected in drama. For example British dramatist Jones said:
"A play shows the conflict of people's will from beginning to end. Performed with actions, from beginning to end, a little quiet There is no scene, and the action progresses so violently and quickly, which is obviously impossible in life. In this way, the play loses its main purpose - to give a true reflection of life. "
But is the expression of conflict just a way or style of "violence and intensity"? Moreover, does a "violent" melodrama have to be "rough", "sacrificial to characterization", and unable to give a true reflection of life? This statement is obviously too paranoid and even absurd.
In fact, there should be multiple understandings and perceptions of dramatic conflicts. In terms of its degree,
has intensified conflicts and diluted conflicts; in terms of its level,
has external conflicts and internal conflicts; in terms of its performance,
has explicit conflicts and latent conflicts; in terms of its combination,
has small plot conflicts and major plot conflicts.
Only in this way can we broaden our horizons and ideas. Then we can create film and television works of multiple categories and styles. Below, we will introduce them one by one.
Intensified conflict
The so-called intensified dramatic conflict refers to a dramatic conflict that condenses and synthesizes the conflicts in life and expresses them strongly.
The characteristic of this kind of conflict is that it is not satisfied with the "general" reflection of the life contradictions contained in the subject matter. Instead, we try our best to discover and organize the multi-faceted, multi-level, and multi-clue personnel disputes related to this conflict to make them more concentrated and complex, thereby forming a stronger and more tense dramatic conflict.
Take the American film " Casablanca " as an example. If the subject matter expressed in this film is indeed a common one, there will naturally be contradictions and conflicts in it, which can also attract people. But if we only briefly describe how the conflicting parties battle their wits and courage. It can only make an "average" movie, but the creators of this drama did not simply deal with this subject, but tried their best to intensify and complicate it.
First of all, the "two sides" of the conflict are added to the "five parties" of the conflict, namely the anti-fascist fighter Czechoslovak Laszlo, the German occupying force Major Strass, the American hotel owner Rick, Ilsa who is both Laszlo's wife and Rick's lover, and the French Vichy government captain Reno under the control of the Germans. These five parties form intricate conflicts with each other. It can be clearly understood that the enhanced dramatic conflict is not only not necessarily rough, but also very helpful in shaping the characters.
Such plays are numerous in Chinese and foreign film and television creations. Moreover, the specific manifestations of conflicts are also diverse.
Downplaying conflict
The so-called downplaying conflict refers to the kind of conflict that does not have exciting or strong plots, nor relies on tense and dangerous scenes, but is reflected in a seemingly natural state of life.
This kind of conflict may seem loose and dull on the surface, and is not as stimulating as a strong conflict. However, truly excellent dramas that downplay conflicts are often more likely to gain the audience's emotional resonance and deeper rational understanding because of their universal coverage.
The so-called "play without a play" is even more valuable. The Japanese film "The Call of the Mountains" belongs to this type. In this work, there is no strong and exciting plot conflict. It basically describes the story of a pair of ordinary civilian men and women who gradually develop love in their daily working life. Later, although there were some minor ups and downs in life, there were minor conflicts with ordinary people and affairs from time to time.
But it basically uses "life flow" strokes to describe the emerging emotional story between the two people. It is not until the end of the film that there is a sudden stroke, which makes the audience have a strong "emotional impulse". As for the whole article, this is the beauty of it. In this light description, it can capture the audience, lead them to a progressively better state, and then obtain the final strong artistic touch.
External conflicts and internal conflicts
External conflicts are mainly conflicts in the external form of personnel.
Inner conflict mainly expresses the contradictions and conflicts in the character's inner world.
Although it is impossible to completely separate the two, the screenwriter should focus on the specific grasp when creating. If the focus is different, the overall structure, plot design and character modeling of the play will also be different.
Dramas that focus on external conflicts. The American film " Death by Speed " is a typical example. The film shows the battle of wits and courage between police and criminals. Main plot: A criminal installed a bomb on a bus and stated that the car must maintain a speed of more than fifty miles per hour, otherwise he would detonate the bomb. As a result, a brave and resourceful policeman jumped from his car into the bus and directed a woman who was not familiar with driving skills to overcome various difficulties and resolve various crises... Finally, he ensured the safety of the passengers and captured the criminal who had been detonating the device remotely.
In this film, the scene is thrilling and suspenseful. The two sides are engaged in a life and death struggle. The conflict is so violent that it is jaw-dropping. All films that focus on external conflicts are mostly like this: they generally do not show the complex activities of the characters' inner world, but focus on the ups and downs and changes of the plot. American films such as "The Crossing", "Bonnie and Clyde", and "Vertigo" all fall into this category.
As life in modern society deepens, becomes more complex, and becomes more commonplace, dramas that are very different from daily life, such as strange, thrilling, violent, exaggerated, and focusing on external conflicts, will inevitably give people a certain sense of "isolation." Therefore, films that mainly express the inner world of characters have received more and more attention and love from modern audiences.
This kind of film, such as the famous British film "We Met Too Late", the heroine Laura has a very happy family; the husband and wife are harmonious, and the husband loves her very much; although the two children are naughty, they are very innocent and cute; the material life is also carefree, the husband works outside, Laura is a housewife at home, and she is a well-educated wife and mother. She does housework at home on weekdays, goes shopping once a week, and watches a movie as a pastime. The cause of the conflict was also very common. She had a grain of sand in her eye, and a middle-aged male doctor helped her.
From a common acquaintance, the two gradually developed an extramarital affair that they "shouldn't have", but they couldn't extricate themselves, and got deeper and deeper... The deeper they got, the more painful they were.
The entire play is to express Laura’s strong and complex inner conflict between extramarital love, family responsibilities, and conjugal emotions. It not only fully expresses her irrepressible emotional impulse towards the male doctor Alec, but also repeatedly describes the unspeakable feeling when she returns home and faces her husband who loves her and her children who love her. The ambivalent state of mind that she talks about but is unwilling to deceive; it not only exaggerates her "sense of guilt" after each meeting, but also depicts her constant desire to see each other again, and even her infatuation...
The author has been "cruelly" torturing the heroine, and vividly expressed the conflicts in her inner world at multiple levels and angles.In this film, the external events are very simple and serve as the background for the protagonist's emotional activities. Two middle-aged men and women met by chance and started a "shouldn't have" but actually normal extramarital affair. Soon they consciously terminated the relationship, that's all.
Judging from the plot alone, it seems extremely bland. However, because the film focused its expression on the intense conflicts in the inner world of the characters, it achieved great success.
Manifest conflict and latent conflict
Manifest conflict refers to the conflict that can be directly seen through the movement and performance of people on the screen. For example, the fight between the two parties, the competition with each other, the strong confrontation, or the inner conflicts and emotional waves of the characters, etc.
This is not the case with latent conflict. It often does not have an obvious external visual sense, but is the kind of conflict that is "only perceived" beneath the surface visual image.
Latent conflicts can be divided into two types: potential conflicts within the scene and potential conflicts after the whole play. The former refers to the potential conflict within a certain calm scene, and the latter refers to the potential conflict after the whole play with "no conflict" on the surface.
For example, in the film " Kramer and his wife ", the former appears very prominently and frequently. For example, after his wife ran away from home, a letter finally arrived and Kramer read the letter to his son. On the surface, this scene seems to have no conflicts and no waves. However, the screenwriter created an invisible but very strong potential conflict in the seemingly calm scene.
We can imagine: Originally, Kramer was overjoyed to finally receive a letter from his wife, and his son was also very happy. However, both of them were disappointed. The wife's letter was only addressed to his son, and did not include a word of greeting Kramer or expressing reconciliation. Although the mother's language was kind, it only hypocritically expressed "love Billy" and still did not want her son. What will be the state of mind of the two of them at this time?
So, on the surface, Kramer is still smiling as he reads the letter to his son and is happy for his son because of "how much his mother loves Billy", but how intense is the pain caused by his inner disappointment? What kind of sadness is hidden beneath his superficial smile? On Billy's side, hearing the words in his mother's letter, he was extremely disappointed and angry. He didn't want to listen to it anymore, so he vented his grief and anger by amplifying the sound on the TV.
Faced with this kind of conflict, it is impossible to see it only from the surface of personnel activities. This is a typical manifestation of "potential conflict within the scene".
This kind of seemingly static, calm, normal scene contains potential conflicts of intense characters or events. It is often reflected in film and television works, such as many shots of "Raise the Red Lantern ".
In short, "creating something out of nothing" and "moving in silence" are worthy of our careful consideration and careful understanding. If the "potential conflict within the scene" is still studied in the field of film and television theory, few people pay attention to or recognize the "potential conflict after the whole drama", and some theoretical disputes often arise due to differences in cognition. For example, for a certain play that seems to have no conflict on the surface, but it is favored and even loved by the audience, what is the reason? Does this prove that good drama can be made without conflict?
The Japanese film "The Dancing Girl of Izu" is indifferent and the content is mediocre. It just describes the story of a student traveling on vacation, who met a wandering entertainer during the trip, and had a mutual affection for one of the young dancers. Later, because school was about to start, they had to break up romantically.
Throughout the whole film, there is almost no dramatic conflict. It only presents the audience with a fresh, pure, beautiful and slightly sentimental custom picture. In the play, the simplicity of the people, the beauty of the scenery, the purity and joy of the young girl's first love, Young students' yearning and persistent pursuit of love, wandering artists' wandering whereabouts...
There are no ups and downs in the whole plot, and there are no intense scenes. To a certain extent, it can be said that this film wins with artistic conception.However, is there really no conflict? Is the reason why the broad audience loves it just because they want to appreciate an ink painting? For a film like this, when we analyze its conflicts, we cannot "just stay in Lushan", but we must jump out of the film, stand on the social background in which it is located, and go back to explore its dramatic conflicts from the perspective of the reception aesthetics of why the audience loves it.
At this time, we will find that the reason why the audience loves it is that through it, the audience can obtain a certain spiritual or emotional balance. Something that has been lost or cannot be obtained in real life can be regained through the film. Then, we discovered that the conflict in this type of film is actually a conflict caused by the strong contrast between the life reflected in the film and the social reality in which the audience lives. This kind of conflict can only be formed and displayed through the audience's thoughts or feelings.
Here, it is necessary to remind that the "conflict without conflict" mentioned here is essentially different from the various arguments advocated in previous years that "cannot express the contradictions of socialism", "do not express conflicts within the revolutionary ranks", and "can only sing praises blindly". The latter covers up real-life conflicts and is "anti-realism"; the former deliberately uses the contrast between the film content and social reality to make the audience artistically touched, and then realize the conflict.
