The great French novelist of the 20th century, Marcel. Proust said in his masterpiece "In Search of Lost Time": "When a person can't have it, the only thing he can do is not to forget", and the lyrics of the song "Memories always want to cry, a person is too lonely", I think these two sentences are the most profound expression of the emotion of "Memory Building Block Hut", today this article will analyze the unique moving features of this "Academy Film Award for Best Animated Short Film" from different angles. @Jia Luoheng
Memories of the Brick Hut is a short film directed by Japanese director Hisahito Kato and released on June 10, 2008. Although the whole film is only twelve minutes long, but because of its strong French atmosphere, unique shape and novel picture atmosphere, people are bright, the short film won the "81st Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film Award" and the "2008 Annecy Animation Festival Best Short Film Award" in France, douban score as high as 9.3 points, in the Douban "20 highest rated animation short films", ranking first.
The film tells the story of an old man who lives alone, and suddenly one day, the world becomes a vast ocean, empty and lonely. As the water level rises, the old man continues to build houses, like building blocks, and the surrounding houses have been submerged, and only the old man's house stands. When moving furniture, the old man's pipe accidentally fell into the water, and after the old man dived into the water to find the pipe, he couldn't help but open the doors one by one, and the memory came like a flood beast...
In the eyes of many people, the pictures of Japanese anime are as fresh and pure as Makoto Shinkai's pen, clean and meticulous enough that every frame can be used as wallpaper; or Miyazaki's anime pictures are delicate and warm, full of medieval European style. Although the style of this "Memory Building Block Hut" is very different from the Japanese anime we remember, with rough picture quality, blurry pictures, and hand-drawn stick figures, but even so, the main theme it presents is profound. Today's article will analyze the unique charm of this short film from three parts: picture color, lens construction, and object metaphor.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > picture color: the alternating picture of cold and warm is the intersection of reality and memory; the warm yellow is like a faded photo, which is a beautiful memory; the cold blue is the real appearance of real life</h1>
The famous photographer Qitorap once said: "Color is part of the language of film, and we use color to express different emotions and feelings, just like using light and shadow to symbolize the conflict between life and death." We believe that the meaning of different colors is different, and the understanding of color by people in Different Cultures in Beijing is also different. Zhang Yimou, a famous domestic director, once said: "I think that the color of film visual elements can evoke people's emotional fluctuations."
There are many forms of expression of color meaning in the movie, which can be the overall color tone, can also be part of the picture scene, but also the environment, but all the expression methods must be in line with the image, theme, content, etc. in the film, the short film "Memory Building Block Cottage" is dominated by yellowed hand-painted colors, supplemented by ice blue, so that the short film picture appears really realistic.
Harmonious use of color:
The harmony of colors refers to the similarity of colors and the unity between colors and expressive content. The film uses warm yellowing tones, which add to the thickness and texture of the color of the picture, just like admiring old photos or documentaries, giving people a strong sense of realism and a strong sense of history.
The reality part of the short film "All Scenery is Love Language" adopts a warm yellowish tone, which is in line with the lonely and lonely situation of the elderly in real life, giving people a sense of having experienced vicissitudes visually; at the same time, there are also memories of relatives in the warm yellow, although the memory picture is blurred, but it is very warm and happy.
Contrasting use of colors:
The use of color contrast refers to the use of color differences between colors and the effect of color interaction to produce changes. It is mainly the contrast of the characteristics of the color itself, including the contrast of hue and the contrast of brightness. Color contrast refers to the color of a specific object in the picture in contrast with the surrounding environment. The solitude and the warm yellow of the memory symbolize the old man's pursuit of happiness and family affection, while some houses flooded by the ice-blue sea mean the hardship and loneliness of real life.
The warm yellowish hue looks blurry, but contains a warmth; the ice blue looks clear and bright, but in fact it presents the loneliness of reality in a clear and unobstructed view. The ice blue lake without fluctuation also gives people a sense of peace, the bustle of the past, the gathering of relatives, are taken away bit by bit by time, and the only thing left is the peace of the years, and the heart is like water, more or less.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > lens structure: the switching of multiple lenses makes the short film picture rich in changes; the use of montage techniques gives the storyline of the short film a three-dimensional sense and a sense of fullness</h1>
In addition to the excellent use of picture color, the use of lens language is also just right, as the basic element of the film, the lens plays an important role in portraying characters, rendering emotions, and creating atmosphere. The unique use of the multi-lens language in the short film is highly in line with the content of the word "memory".
Kato Hisahito is an animator with a gentle drawing style and a knack for the smooth use of French romance. If you savor "Memory Building Block Cottage", you will find its rich and mellow French atmosphere, and this French mood is presented through the switching and editing between different lenses.
Panoramic lens:
The panoramic lens presents the whole picture of the person or object, visually creates a certain impression on the audience, and can make the audience see the physical action of the character and the relationship between the character and the environment. At the beginning of the film, the old man sits alone in the room, at this time the surrounding objects are in full view of the audience; in another place, the old man's house stands above the vast sea, and the surrounding houses are submerged.
The panoramic shots of these two places integrate people and things into the large environment, highlighting the situation that the old man is in at the moment.
Push lens:
The use of pushing the lens highlights the subject from the group, highlights the key point from the overall situation, and the falling frame of the push lens will enlarge the person or object represented to a large proportion of the picture area, which is a key reminder to the audience. After the old man dives, the scenes seen, such as when seeing the wooden bed, the camera slowly advances, the wooden bed gradually enlarges, and then the camera enters the memory in a fading manner; for example, the door of memory is continuously enlarged under the push of the camera.
The director will gradually approach the camera lens and the picture, the outer frame of the picture will gradually shrink, and the scene in the picture will gradually enlarge, so that the audience's line of sight can see a certain layout from the whole, this kind of pushing the lens can guide the audience to feel the inner activities of the character more deeply, and strengthen the emotional atmosphere.
Alternation of montage and quick cut
If a short film is to show rich content in a limited time, the rhythm of the lens language is very important. Former Soviet director and theorist Pudovkin once pointed out: "The rhythm depends on the relative length of each shot, and the length of each shot organically depends on the content of the shot", "Memory Building Block Hut" in the later part of the film, taking a superb combination of cross-montage and fast cutting, the lens crosses reality and memory at the same time, and at the same time, the various pictures in the memory flash by a fast-cut performance technique, and the expression method of this lens language shows everything in the old man's past in front of the audience. The contrast between the beauty of memory and the loneliness of reality greatly mobilizes the audience's senses and resonates emotionally with the people in the play.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > presents the theme of the short film in a symbolic way of expression, abstracting figurative objects such as "pipes", "wall tiles", "sea water", "building blocks and huts" to form a metaphorical meaning, so that the film presents a strong directional effect</h1>
As a special means of verbal expression, metaphor is used in literary works to show the unfinished subtext of the work, Leykov and Johnson's definition of metaphor is: "The essence of metaphor is to understand and experience a certain type of thing through another type of thing", Richards pointed out: "Metaphor is the principle of the omnipresence of human language, metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, it is also a way of human thinking," by analyzing the metaphorical meaning of the unique film symbols in "Remembering the Building Block Hut", It plays a crucial role in understanding the connotations of cinema. Unique ideographic objects are used in many places in the short film, which give the film a unique meaning.
Metaphor for pipes:
Some people say that "Remembering the Brick Hut" is a "story triggered by a pipe", which shows the important use of "pipe" in the short film. After the pipe fell into the water, the old man repeatedly changed several pipes, but still made up his mind to find it, after finding the pipe, the picture switched to the scene of memory, the old woman handed the pipe to the old man, from this point it can be seen that the "pipe" is an important link and connection between the two old people.
Metaphors for wall tiles:
After other houses were flooded by the sea, the old man continued to pile brick by brick, whether it was windy or rainy, the old man continued to raise the house. As the sea rose, other houses were flooded, and the old man's house was still erect. "Wall tiles" are not only the cornerstone of building a house, but also a means for the elderly to maintain their memories.
Metaphors of seawater:
"Vicissitudes of the sea" means great change, describing the change is long. The sea represents the passing memory and the passing of time. The rise of the sea means the passing of the old man's memory, and only when the sea water floods the whole world, the old man's memory will disappear in this world.
Brick Cottage:
As the title, the metaphorical meaning of "Building Block Hut" is profound and real, and with the continuous development of society, the house has risen from the realistic role of settling down to becoming a comforting place for the spirit and soul. "Memories of Building Blocks Cottage" is not only a place for the elderly to live, but also a spiritual pillar and spiritual comfort for its good memories.
The reason why the old man piled up the house in the wind and rain is to keep the good memories with his relatives, and when the old man opens the door of the door with one floor after another, the memory is like flooding the sea, constantly emerging. And these memories are being recorded in every corner of this house, even if the sea is submerged, the erosion of the years, as long as the house does not fall, the old man's memory will not be erased, and the bond with his relatives will not be broken.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Conclusion:</h1>
Some people say, "Time dilutes everything", but "Memory Building Block Cottage" tells us that even if time passes, family affection will not fade.
Memory, an important piece of evidence representing the existence of the self, memory is the recording of the trajectory of life. Pushkin once said: "Everything is smooth, everything will pass"; Chekhov said: "Everything will not pass", these two seemingly contradictory words, but they contain a kind of attitude towards the world: Do we choose to forget? Or do you choose to remember? I believe that for family affection, no one will choose to forget.