About the author:
Chen Xuguang, male, Dongyang, Zhejiang, professor, PhD supervisor, Peking University Art School, director of , Peking University Film and Television Research Center , mainly engaged in film and television science, art theory, etc. Research;
Xue Jinghua, female, from Sanmenxia, Henan, a direct Ph.D student at the Art School of Peking University, mainly engaged in art criticism research.
It seems that since 2018, Guizhou filmmakers and their works have attracted widespread attention in the film industry. Bi Gan won the Silver Leopard Award for Best New Director in the Contemporary Filmmaker Unit of the Locarno International Film Festival and the Best New Director Award for the Golden Horse Award in the Taiwan Film Awards for "Road Picnic"; Rao Xiaozhi's "The Unknown" relies on super high The word-of-mouth of Lu Qingyi completed the counter-attack, and earned nearly 800 million box office at the cost of 30 00 million, creating a great achievement with a small boast, becoming a hit movie of the year; Lu Qingyi’s "Four Springs" won the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary , Best Editing; Zhou Hao's "Datong" won the 52nd Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary, etc. In the work of the director of Guizhou New Force, who is "squandering flowers gradually becoming charming", Bi Gan's "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night of the Earth" pay more attention to The current people's inner and subconscious dream world, narrative fragmentation , Dreamlike, showing a style that is almost magical realism; while Rao Xiaozhi's "The Nameless" and "Hello Madman" are dark humorous, exaggerated and misplaced, showing absurd aesthetics. But these movies have a strong sense of reality and reality, whether it is the inner psychological reality or the outward reality of life, whether it is magic realism or absurd realism.
In addition, Lu Qingyi's "Four Springs" and Zhou Hao's documentary "Cotton" and "Datong" use images to record family and social changes, conveying care for life and attention to the bottom group to document movies Style form,Become the third force of Guizhou film.
In fact, the new movie scene in Guizhou in 2018 is not accidental. "From 2002's "Looking for a Gun" to Wang Xiaoshuai's "Growth Movie" "Cyan Red", "I 11" and "Intruder", a large number of minority-themed movies such as "Gun Lala" " "Bird's Nest", "Bride of Flower Waist", "Our Gasang", "Water Phoenix", "Anayi", "Dong Nationality Song", "Sun on the Clouds", to some of the scenes of "Man, Mountain and Sea of People" and "To Our Dying Youth", To "Roadside Picnic", until the "Last Night on Earth", "The Nameless" in 2018, and the "Four Springs" in 2019, more and more filmmakers are based in Guizhou or choose the geographic space of the film. In Guizhou, the pursuit of performance or authenticity or spectacle of Guizhou." [1]
In the overlap of fiction and record, absurdity and reality, some directors of Guizhou New Force have shown their exploration and exploration of personal author style. Persevere, while others have shown proficiency in film genre production and industrial aesthetics. Relying on Guizhou's geographical, cultural, and economic background, they continue to produce excellent works in the production of small and medium cost (or moderate and light industrial aesthetics) genre films and art films. Undoubtedly, in the fast-developing, complex and changeable current Chinese film art, culture and industry map and the "industrial aesthetics" construction map, this "Guizhou New Force" of Chinese film has important and unique significance. Our investigation and understanding of the overall situation of contemporary Chinese film art creation and industrial production has a unique and indispensable reference value and experience enlightenment significance.
1. Guizhou’s regional characteristics and new power director overview
Guizhou is located in the southwest of my country, with many plateaus and mountains in the territory. It belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate, cold and rainy. "Fen Yin" vividly summarizes the characteristics of Guizhou's topography, climate, and economic level. According to the 2018 GDP statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Guizhou ranks 25th among the 31 provinces and cities in my country with an economic aggregate of 1,480.645 billion yuan, which is nearly 8 trillion yuan behind the first place, but Guizhou's GDP growth rate ranking in 2018 Second, it reached 9.1%, second only to Tibet's 10%. In terms of urbanization rate, Guizhou’s urbanization rate was 46.02% in 2017, ranking 30 among the 31 provinces and cities in my country. [2] The GDP of Guizhou in 2018 was comparable to that of Guangdong in 2001.The level of economic development in Guizhou lags behind most areas in my country. The backward economic level and the slow urbanization process have allowed traditional customs and ideas to be preserved in Guizhou.
plus plus In recent years, Guizhou has been building a large number of infrastructures. Projects such as Guizhou on the cloud have brought unprecedented opportunities to the development of Guizhou. Mountainous landforms, humid and rainy climate, obscure dialects, ethnic customs, large areas of urban and rural mixed areas, etc., make Guizhou unique in the current natural and cultural customs of China, and have a great impact on Chongqing at the turn of the century. similar. However, compared with the prosperous "Little Hong Kong" in Chongqing, Guizhou is more "earthly" and "poorer". These objective conditions have invisibly established the realism characteristics of Guizhou films.
Generally speaking, the current Chinese New Forces directors have a complex and diverse composition, and their creative styles are also different. Many of their selves are hidden in their works. However, their control over the capital market and media marketing is easy. [3] But from the perspective of Guizhou New Force directors, they also have a talent for film commercial operations, but at the same time, they also have distinct personal creative themes and styles, which are very important for the exploration of other new force directors’ styles. Enlightenment.
Bi Gan's "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night on Earth" both start with Kaili, use Guizhou dialect, and both have long shots of tens of minutes. The image style is simple and natural, but the story content is fantastic and novel. It tells the protagonist's surreal search, interleaving and myth. Memories, dreams, long shots, and poetry are Bi Gan's distinctive personal hallmarks.
Rao Xiaozhi’s representative work is "Hello, Madman! "And "The Unknown." Different from Bi Gan, Rao Xiaozhi's works are full of black humorous style, with strict theatrical structure and emotional design. "Hello, madman! "Adapted from a drama, it has a potential drama color, and conflicts are concentrated. The most common point between the two works is absurdity and comedy, but at the same time they have thinking and sympathy for the fate of small characters. This absurdity and complexity that reflects reality forms the distinctive feature of Rao Xiaozhi.
Lu Qingyi's "Four Springs" is a first-person family documentary video that records trivial matters in the director's family. The atmosphere of the film is relaxed and natural, the characters are real, intervening in life, and the life records of a single family express the ordinaryness of most people life. There is no coherent story line throughout the film,The shooting technique is relatively simple and single, showing restrained realism aesthetics.
Zhou Hao worked as a photojournalist in Xinhua News Agency, Southern Weekend and other media in his early years. His journalism experience also left a mark in his documentary. His documentaries "Senior High School", " Secretary ", "Emergency Clinic", "Cotton", "Parents in a Foreign Land", "Xiaofeng", etc., can reflect a social issue through documentaries, and are more inclined to news documentaries.
The works of the above four directors show polarization in the relationship between film and reality. Director Bi Gan’s work has a magical realism color, the boundary between dream and reality is blurred, and the language is poetic; director Rao Xiaozhi’s work is absurd and exaggerated. But it deeply reflects the living conditions of ordinary people; the works of Lu Qingyi and Zhou Hao firmly grasp reality and reproduce reality in plain language. In this separation, it also contains the dialectics of the unity of opposites between Guizhou New Force directors in handling the relationship between fiction and reality.
2. Absurdity and Magic: Two Styles of Guizhou Movies
Guizhou New Force director's detachment and fiction of reality are mainly reflected in the works of Rao Xiaozhi and Bi Gan. "Hello, Madman!" by Rao Xiaozhi "" and "The Nameless" are distinguished by their absurdity and black humorous comedy style. Bi Gan's "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night on Earth" are distinguished by magical reality.
The important source of comedy effects is exaggeration and dislocation, which can be verified in early comedy. Comedy master Chaplin's iconic dress, exaggerated body movements and story lines, such as walking posture, smiles, and leather shoes, all conform to this principle. "The Unknown Person" is also full of exaggerated and misplaced plots: Hu Guangsheng’s heroic complex, Jiang Yang’s dream, and the inspirational slogan of “one step at a time” and “bigger and stronger”, smug ideals, and the reality that has become the laughing stock of everyone; Ma Xianyong Before investigating the case, the sense of confidence and the reality of being arrested as a prostitute; the dislocation of the water gun and the deterrent of the real gun reveals the betrayal of right and wrong, the logic of life, cause and effect, making the film as a whole present a sense of nonsensical comedy.
In the dislocation of dreams and reality, even after hard work, they still cannot get rid of the predicament of life. The little people in "The Unknown" are unable to decide their own lives, and thus cannot gain dignity. In the process of gambling with destiny, they are always in "fear of uncertain future and meaningless despair of life"."After being cut off from the roots of religion, metaphysics, and transcendentalism, man is at a loss, and all his actions become meaningless, absurd and useless." [4] Therefore, from the perspective of the core of the drama, "The Unknown Generations has an absurd nature and a sense of tragedy like Sisyphus.
However, compared to traditional absurd dramas or movies, the absurdity of "The Nameless" is slightly weaker and more realistic. From the perspective of the plot structure, "The Unknown" has clear story clues. Although the language, background, and character settings are funny, they are logically rational and are based on reality. Another work by Rao Xiaozhi "Hello, Madman! "Compared with "The Unknown", it is more absurd. Seven people were imprisoned in a mental hospital to prove their innocence. They made all kinds of absurd and ridiculous actions, but they did not help to prove that they were a normal person. The meaninglessness of behavior is more vivid than that of "The Unknown." How 7 people had accidents at the same time and were imprisoned in a mental hospital, this is a vague and illogical plot in the first half of the film. In the film, the boundaries between illusion and reality, self and the other (The other) are blurred, and the degree of rebellion against truth, logic, and meaning is stronger.
From a certain perspective, "The Unknown" and "Hello, Madman!" The absurdity of "Roadside Picnic" stems from meaninglessness, and the magical nature of "Roadside Picnic" comes from rebelliousness. From a spatial perspective, Bi Gan’s two works can be roughly divided into two parts: Kaili and Dangmai. Kaili corresponds to reality, and Dangmai corresponds to the past, future or dream. The magical colors in the two works are mainly concentrated in Dangmai area.
In the first half of "Roadside Picnic", the story before Chen Sheng embarked on the journey to Zhenyuan, the past and the present interlaced, the story follows the protagonist's thoughts and dreams, showing a fragmented appearance. From the beginning of the film to 13 minutes and 55 seconds, the basic situation of Chen Sheng’s clinic, Chen Sheng and Lao Wei, and Wei Wei is explained. From 13 minutes 55 seconds to 15 minutes 25 seconds, it talks about the old doctor’s dreams and past events; 22 minutes 37 seconds on the wall A green leather car appeared, followed by Chen Sheng’s dream about his mother’s blue embroidered shoes. It mentioned Lusheng and the Miao people, as well as the old doctor’s dream about his son, and mentioned the image of batik and blood. In 27 minutes, it was said that Chen Sheng’s son was caught The past buried alive; at 28 minutes, suddenly jumped to the scene where Chen Sheng met his wife 18 years ago; followed by Chen Sheng buying bananas in the tunnel. I7i 30 minutes before the opening,There is no clear boundary between the past and the present, the reality and the illusion. They are all expressed as real events that are happening. The narrative is loose and lacks logic, forming a stream of consciousness narrative. After Chen Sheng's departure, the film's narrative style seemed to return to a linear style, following Chen Sheng's sight and footsteps. In fact, there are nonlinear stories hidden under the linear shell. Here, both the deceased wife and the unborn nephew are young and living peacefully. Chen Sheng can sing for his wife and chat with his adult nephew. The whole journey is like a carnival or a dream. This part of the story is Chen Sheng’s "compensatory longing" for the regret and destination of life, where the dream becomes a real memory [5], "Nothing becomes everything, everything becomes nothing, everything is possible but impossible Yes, everything is reasonable but unreasonable” [6], “absurdity” replaced reason, the inherent concept of time, past and present, true and false, imagination and reality have been completely rebelled. It conveys a kind of "super rational" spiritual appeal.
Although the expressions of the above four works are different, they all achieve detachment and criticism of the world. Whether it is absurdism, black humor or magical reality, there are bold and exaggerated fictions, betraying the truth of life and the traditional sense, but the ultimate goal is not to satisfy the imagination, but black humor, or irony, in fact, it is more Return to reality at a high level.
3. Reality and Regression: Guizhou Filmmakers’ Realistic Orientation
Gombrich pointed out in "Art and Illusion" that the art of illusion is dedicated to the production of retinal illusions, "try to make people feel wrong about real objects The artistic method of using all techniques and means to make the viewer think that what he sees is real" [7]. This aesthetic illusion can give people a sense of illusion, as if they can touch the objects in the painting and smell the fragrance in the painting. It is true that the medium form of film determines that it has a "realism" superior to painting since its birth. Krakauer believes that the nature of film is the extension of photography. However, the film cannot get rid of the artist's design and intentions. Metz believes that film is a means of expressing imagination. It is a "waking daydream", that is, adapting to reality and evading reality, that is, moving forward and regressing. For film to be liked, it must make people's consciousness and unconsciousness. Hallucinations, but cannot exceed a certain limit. [8] Therefore, the realism of the film lies in the proper use of illusion techniques,The film has certain characteristics of real life and becomes a small “example” of reality.
The development of film narrative must take advantage of a certain space. "Film is the art of space. Film recreates real concrete space quite realistically..." [9] The spatial background of film needs to include natural and cultural landscape and ecological living environment. Wait, these are the conditions that must be met to create a "real illusion." The pictures of "The Nameless", "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night of the Earth" are full of natural and social space symbols such as cold weather, dilapidated houses, roadside vegetable plots, and messy markets, as well as dialects and spit. Humanistic space symbols such as phlegm and lack of ambition, these details are close to life, so that the film can become a social microcosm in an illusion. The low-level characters in the film have sufficient and credible social backgrounds. Chen Sheng’s identity as a rural doctor, Ma Xianyong’s identity as a security guard, and Li Haigen’s and Hu Guangsheng’s migrant youth identity, have broad social representation. Detailed descriptions of their life background, habits, dreams, etc., such as unfinished building disputes, broken pickup trucks, taking advantage of buying fruits, buying houses with elevators, etc., so that the life scene on the ground floor can be displayed in detail , The fictional film narrative space has become a miniature society, which has a two-way correspondence with reality, conveying attention to reality, and being able to "exemplify" the real social appearance within the scope of the film. It is the core of realism.
In addition to outward realism, there is also inward realism in Guizhou New Force's film works. This is the sense of reality inside the characters. This is reflected in many characters in the directors of Guizhou New Power. Ma Xianyong's desire for security status, Hu Guangsheng's yearning for "success", Li Haigen's pursuit of marrying a wife, etc., these simple wishes make these people full of bright smoke and fire. Among them, the most prominent inward realism is Bi Gan's "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night on Earth".
As mentioned earlier, the magical nature of Bi Gan's works comes from "rebellion": rebellion against time, rebellion against reality, and so on. "Roadside Picnic" and "The Last Night on Earth" are more focused on memories and dreams. Before embarking on the journey of "searching", the lives of Chen Sheng and Luo Hongwu were boring and ordinary, especially the life of Chen Sheng’s rural doctors. Meaningless repetition, "everywhere in the shackles". In such an environment,People have lost the ability to think about the ultimate meaning of life. The dream of the Dangmai part is an enlargement of Chen Sheng’s heart. Here, “freedom replaces reason, and all rules and habits must be measured by the highest principle of freedom” [10], and the principle of “born free” is here. Wanton exaggeration. The originally impossible desires and pursuits were affirmed, and the spiritual level of people under secular repression was liberated. This kind of praise of human freedom reveals the true nature of human beings under rational repression, and is a kind of inner realism.
In addition, realism also has a prominent position in the works of other directors of Guizhou New Forces. For example, in the documentaries of Lu Qingyi and Zhou Hao, there is a deep concern for reality. This kind of extreme magic and extreme realism can appear In Guizhou movies, it is inseparable from the special historical stage of Guizhou.
As mentioned earlier, Guizhou is experiencing the tears and pains of modernity and tradition in the 20th century. This is different from the growth background of the steady development of most new power directors. Guizhou New Power directors are the witnesses of reform and transformation. In this context, Guizhou filmmakers have similar panic and alienation to society as the sixth-generation directors. Social development and cultural conflicts force them to use images to reflect on the changes brought about by changes in their lives. pays attention to the rapid economic development of Under the background, the real living conditions of the people. The panic caused by social changes also made them think more about their hearts, pursue the freedom and liberation of human nature with a romantic attitude, and explore their inner truth.
4. Industry and Aesthetics: The Big and Small of Guizhou Movies
To a certain extent, Guizhou’s relatively weak economic volume, the geographical location of the southwestern edge and inconvenient transportation conditions restrict Guizhou’s capital power and industry The development of level and modernization, of course, may not be the misfortune of the film-perhaps it just formed the uniqueness of Guizhou film. Because it is the uniqueness of Guizhou's geographic space and cultural space formed by these factors that determine the uniqueness of the production and presentation methods of Guizhou film space, and also form the unique industrial aesthetic characteristics of the new power of Guizhou film.
Regarding the aesthetics of the film industry, the author once summarized the elements of constructing the aesthetic system of the film industry as "the object world or imaginary world as the source of images; as the producer's production subject; as the noumenon of film forms and film works; as acceptance and The audience and media of the second subject of communication" [11],It is also simplified into three levels of film text content, production mechanism, and communication acceptance. It is believed that only by combining these three aspects of industrial aesthetics can a benign film production system be built, and all links can be coordinated to achieve the film industry. The functional beauty, synergy beauty and optimization and maximization of output benefits. [12]
From the perspective of film investment, volume, text, and audience market, the author divides the film industry aesthetics into three levels: light, medium, and heavy industrial aesthetics, such as "Wolf Warriors 2" and "Red Sea" Action, "The Wandering Earth", etc. naturally belong to the aesthetic level of heavy industrial films with huge investment. A large number of genre films and some art films are at the level of moderate or light film industry aesthetics. Obviously, movies of different levels have different market demands, different operating rules, and corresponding genre rules or aesthetic formulas.
In contrast, the film works directed by Guizhou New Force mainly focus on the aesthetic level of the medium or light film industry. "The Unknown" "Hello, Madman! ""The dramatic, strong plot, genre features, and grounded worldliness of the film" are integrated with the commercial nature of the film, and "a good tension is maintained between commerciality and artistry, institutionalization and authorship", It is an excellent work of moderate industrial aesthetics. [13] Judging from the content of the text, the story of "The Unknown" is typified, reflecting social reality through typical personal encounters, and showing certain genre characteristics. From the perspective of communication and acceptance, the pre-screening publicity of "The Unknown" is lower than that of "Last Night on Earth", with a box office of 9.195 million on the first day, but in the end it reached 794 million, mainly relying on word-of-mouth fermentation.
Both "Roadside Picnic" and "Last Night on Earth" have distinct personal styles at the content level, emphasizing sensibility over rationality, exploring the connotation of human spirit and reflecting the inner world. It is an art film in the traditional sense, but also a light The level of the aesthetics of the film industry. The investment volume of "Roadside Picnic" was small, the director took on more work during the filming process, and the publicity intensity was also weak. But on the whole, whether it is content, production, or dissemination, "Roadside Picnic" has always been fermented in small circles, maintaining the principle of "small", which matches its content and is also in line with the aesthetics of the mild film industry. The inherent requirements for cost control, small circle propagation. However, "The Last Night on Earth" deviates from the production rules that should be expected of the light film industry aesthetics.Ignoring the principle of synergy between the content level and the communication level, trying to rely on the previous work "Roadside Picnic" to quickly establish a brand effect, deviating from the low-cost route at the investment and publicity level, and launching marketing in a large commercial scope, but ignored The small group of content and the narrowness of the audience market. It can be said that "The Last Night on Earth" was untimely trying to be bigger, but it failed.
From the practice of film production, it is not difficult to find that the manpower and material costs of Guizhou are more suitable for the production of small and medium cost films. As the author believes, "The space production in Guizhou, represented by "Looking for Guns" and "The Unknowns", has successfully transformed space into commercial productivity, showing the broad prospects of small and medium cost types of "film industry aesthetics"." "The Last Night of the Earth" may not be fast, it embarks on a "no return" where the commercial marketing of art films is too fierce, but it also provides valuable experience and lessons for the development of Guizhou film. [14]
Concluding remarks
Guizhou films present a distinctive "authorization" personal style in the "dual opposition" of fiction/reality, introversion/extroversion, authorship/type, etc. Either reflect the reality with absurdity, or explore the heart with rebellion, but in the end, they reach the same goal by different paths, connecting with the real "earth and energy" at different levels, and then contemplating intervention in reality. This is also determined by the unique social conditions of Guizhou: the relatively weak economic volume and low degree of urbanization retain more of the traditional landscape, making Guizhou films full of humanistic care and authorship; while Hong Kong’s adjacent influence has a higher impact. The speed of economic development and the overall environment of the rapid development of Chinese society have prompted Guizhou New Force directors to think about society, explore individual freedom, and express themes such as conflicts of modernity. From an industrial perspective, Guizhou’s economic foundation makes it more suitable for the development of small and medium cost movies, which has also been confirmed in the practice of film and television production. Undoubtedly, if you are too eager to pursue "big production" and "big box office" while ignoring the coordination of all aspects of the film industry's aesthetics, you may be too haste, or even self-defeating.
What can be expected is that after calmly summarizing the experience and lessons of various artistic creation, aesthetic expression, and industrial production, while knowing the cold and warmth, the new force of Guizhou film will be steady and steady, and the better it goes, the bigger and stronger it gradually.
Guizhou movies, tomorrow will be better!
References
[1] Chen Xuguang. "Spatial Production" of Chinese Films: Theory, Pattern and Status Quo-Taking the Space Production of Guizhou Films as a Case [J]. Contemporary Film, 2019(06): 7 .
[2] Data source: National Bureau of Statistics [EB/OL]. (2019-10-05) http ：//data.stats.gov .cn /easyquery.htm?cn=E0103.
[3] Chen Xuguang. New Era, New Power, New Aesthetics—The current "New Power" director group and the construction of "Industrial Aesthetics"[J]. Contemporary Film, 2018(01): 32.
[4] Yuan Kejia, etc. Compilation. Modernist Literature Research (Part 2) [M]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1989: 675.
[5] Yang Xiaoxia. The rural complex and poetic expression of "Road Picnic"-Bi Gan's personal video A Preliminary Study of Style[J]. Film Review, 2017(18): 21.
[6] [Denmark] Kierkegaard. On the concept of irony [M]. Tang Chenxi, translated. Beijing: China Social Science Press , 2005: 263.
[7] [English] Gombrich. Art and Illusion [M]. Changsha: Hunan Science and Technology Press, 2004: 3.
[8] Zhu Yiling. The dream of Chinese contemporary experimental images Sex[D]. Nanjing University of the Arts, 2007: 18-19.
[9] [法] Marcel Mardan. Film Language [M]. He Zhengan, translated. Beijing: China Film Publishing House, 1992: 183 .
[10] Zeng Fanting, Jiang Chengyong. Romanticism and the formation of the concept of "absurdity" [J]. Journal of Tsinghua University: Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition, 2019(5): 116.
[11] Chen Xuguang. On "Movies" The realistic origin, theoretical resources and system construction of "Industrial Aesthetics" [J]. Journal of Shanghai University: Social Science Edition, 2019(1): 39.
[12] Chen Xuguang, Li Hui. Contending and speaking: Current Film Research Field "Film Industry Aesthetics" in the Domain [J]. New Films, 2018(04): 47-48.
[13] Chen Xuguang. Expansion of genres, "industrial aesthetics" stratification and broad space for "imaginative consumption" ——On the "Film Industry Aesthetics" of "Wandering Earth" and the comparison with "Crazy Aliens" [J]. National Art Research, 2019(3): 120.
[14] Chen Xuguang. The "space of Chinese film" Production": Theory, Pattern and Current Situation——Based on Guizhou Film Space production as a case[J].Contemporary Film, 2019(6): 10.
Fund Project
This article is a major national bidding project "Research on the integrated development and aesthetic trends of film and television dramas and games" (Project No.: 18ZD13) Preliminary research results.
Editor: Cao Honggang
Editor: Zeng Zhen
Source: "Film Review" Issue 19, 2019 (Special Issue for the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of New China)
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