"Do you have heartache when you cough?" Love will make your heart hurt more, and the deeper you love, the more true it will be. You will be obsessed with her, you will be jealous, you will misunderstand, you will be rejected, and your heart will not be able to bear it all. Even a small kiss is fatal and you'll suddenly fall to the ground. ”
- "Mechanical Heart"
"Mechanical Heart" is one of my favorite movies, the theme of this movie may be old-fashioned, but the creativity and expression are brilliant and amazing. With gorgeous visual effects and wild imagination, this 2013 movie has attracted countless fans and received a lot of praise. For example, it has been nominated for Best Animated Film at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany, the European Film Festival and the César Film Awards in France.
The male protagonist of the film, Jack, was born in the cold winter, his heart was frozen, and the witch Madeleine installed him with a cuckoo heart. Since then, his life has been under a curse: he can't let people touch the parts of the heart, can't have too many mood swings, and most importantly, can't fall in love. However, when he grew up, Jack still fatalistically met the true love in his life. He disregarded his fragile heart and spent his life trying to pursue what he loved...
The film has a strong gothic style, but unlike the dark, corrupt Hollywood gothic movies, the background of "Mechanical Heart" is brighter. Director Marcés Maltheon is French and has a romance characteristic of French. At the same time, he is versatile, has good grades in writing, music, etc., and is a very interesting person, and these personal characteristics are also reflected in the film. Therefore, his gothic "Mechanical Heart" temperament is very mixed, with a different style.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >: Gothic culture and Gothic cinema: Gothic culture and the Dark Middle Ages are closely related, and the 1990s after the 1990s is the golden age of the development of Gothic cinema</h1>
Gothic culture is closely related to the European Middle Ages, in the long "Dark Ages", social productivity was low, technological backwardness, often large-scale wars and deaths, there are many phenomena that people can not explain, therefore, the power of religion is very strong, human nature and reason are not valued. The Gothic culture derived from this exudes darkness, loneliness and corruption, while at the same time mixed with struggles with reality, resistance, and yearning for beauty.
Several Gothic-style films were born in the early 20th century, with vampires as the protagonists. Vampires symbolize death, darkness, and corruption, while at the same time revealing a noble, poignant atmosphere, which is a typical representative element of Gothic culture. Gothic films before the 1990s were monotonous and did not become climatic. It wasn't until Tim Bolton made his move that gothic films ushered in a golden age.
In 1990, Tim Burton discovered Johnny Depp and made the gothic film Edward Scissorhands, a film based in black that tells a lonely, poignant love story. Since its birth, it has a history of nearly 30 years and is still ranked in the top 100 Douban movies. Nearly 800,000 people have commented on this movie, and the Douban score is as high as 8.7 points, which shows how much everyone loves this movie.
Tim Burton is an iconic figure in gothic films, and his films have a strong gothic style, such as the later "Guillotine Valley", "Barber Todd", "Zombie Bride" and "Frankenstein Dog" and so on. Since "Edward Scissorhands", Gothic films have begun to receive people's attention and love, and after entering the 21st century, the market for Gothic films has further prospered.
At the same time, the elements of Gothic movies are richer, not only vampires, but also witches, werewolves, alien lifeforms, freaks born through technological means, and so on. Crows, bats, owls, black cats, etc., are indispensable elements of Gothic movies.
Each director has his own unique style, and Tim Burton's films are weird and full of wild imagination. Johnny Depp is his royal actor, and his former wife, Helena Bonham Carter, also appears regularly in his films. The director of "Mechanical Heart", Marcéis Maltheon, has been called "the Tim Burton of the French literary world", and he uses his own understanding to interpret the Gothic style, both in homage to Tim Burton and in many of his own ideas.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the expression of the Gothic elements of "Mechanical Heart": character modeling, artistic creation and storyline, are full of strong Gothic style</h1>
This "Mechanical Heart" is a representative work of Gothic movies, loved by many people, and the Douban score is as high as 8.0. The background of the film is dark and gloomy, and the director integrates many gothic elements into the character modeling, artistic creation and storyline of the film, interpreting the gothic atmosphere to the extreme, bringing people a unique sense of beauty.
1. Character modeling
Just by looking at the character shapes in the movie, you can get the essence of the Gothic movie. Madeleine was a witch, wearing a vintage black dress with a rose brooch pinned to her chest. Arthur has thick dark circles under his eyes and a faint smell of zombies. Anna and Luna's makeup is dark, quite a bit of a vampire temperament.
The protagonist Jack has been dressed in black since he was a child, and when he works in the playground, he also dresses up as a vampire, cold and charming. The arch-villain Joe is long and jade, dressed in black clothes, has the cold sense of a vampire earl, and after his eyes are poked blind, he wears a black blindfold, which also exudes a gothic style.
In addition, the black cat in the movie can understand people's words and is full of spirituality. Crows are everywhere, sometimes rendering the environment and sometimes foreshadowing danger. They all have their own gothic attributes, and the film adds to the atmosphere of mystery.
2. Artistic conception
The gothic style emitted by the film at any time benefits from the creation of an artistic conception. At the beginning and end of the film, there is a strong gothic style.
At the beginning of the story, it is a snowy winter, and on the top of the mountain in the distance, there stands a black castle, and a pregnant woman is walking towards the top of the mountain...
The black castle, the snowflakes in the sky, and the young and beautiful women, the overall feeling is mysterious and poignant. Is this scene familiar? Yes, there is a similar scene in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, outside the black castle, when Edward uses scissors to make ice sculptures, pieces of snowflakes fall into the air, and the heroine Kim dances in the snowflakes. That kind of beauty with sadness has become a classic in the hearts of countless people.
At the end of the story, it is also the season of snowflakes, and the deeply hurt Jack returns to his hometown and deeply mourns his adoptive mother Madeleine in the cemetery outside the castle. Madeleine's crucifix tombstone, the black dead tree next to the grave, and the few crows standing on the tree vividly express the factors of darkness, corruption, and death.
3. Storyline
The whole story is tinged with Gothic sadness, the male protagonist Jack was born in the coldest time, the heart is frozen, in order to let him live, the witch Madeleine installed a mechanical heart for him. This made him a different person, and it also doomed him to loneliness, as well as a tragic fate.
He fell in love with Acacia, but his heart was fragile, and he couldn't bear even a kiss. Still, like a moth to a fire, he threw away the key to the cuckoo clock and kissed Acacia at the cost of his life. If you can't love happily, then what does it mean to be alive?
Jack's life is lonely and tragic, he was abandoned by his mother when he was born, and his love could not be achieved. This lonely, sad story is very much in line with the Gothic style. Recall carefully, the ending of "Edward Scissorhands" is not also very sad? Regret and incompleteness will cause a huge impact on people, and despair, loneliness and struggle are the essence of Goth.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, the french director's unique interpretation: gorgeous special effects, cheerful scenes, so that the tone of the film is brighter</h1>
The French are known for their romance, and this gothic film is also very French. The background color of the film is brighter, the fantasy and aesthetic colors are more intense, not completely dark and corrupt. It can be said that this film has a more mixed temperament, thanks to the following two factors:
1. Gorgeous special effects
The film has many gorgeous special effects, and when expressing the feelings of men and women, this special effect is used more, adding a beautiful and romantic atmosphere to the movie.
Jack's mechanical heart used to pop out of the cuckoo, and after falling in love with Acacia, what bounced out of the heart was a mini version of Acacia. In the egg Arthur gave him, there was the shadow of Acacia. While Jack was resting in bed, many elf-like Acacia came out of the egg and flew around him. When Jack listens to Acacia sing, he will unconsciously go out of his soul.
The section where Acacia performs song and dance is even more extreme. She danced indulgently, the pillars around her collapsed, the scenery changed, and she became a winged butterfly, flying indulgently.
When she first met Jack, she was very happy inside, and the whole person was happy like floating in the clouds. At this time, her feet landed on the ground, and she flew up without herself, floating in mid-air.
The subtle psychology of people who are in love, expressed through such gorgeous special effects, is both novel and bold, but also concrete and perceptible, adding a lot of romantic atmosphere to the whole movie and diluting the depressing feeling brought about by the dark elements of Gothic.
2. Transformation of the scene
The transformation of the scenes in the movie can also alleviate the oppressive and dark gothic style. The story begins in Edinburgh, in a castle on a cliff, full of loneliness and decadence. As the plot progresses, Jack arrives at the Andalusian playground. It's dreamy and beautiful, and the overall atmosphere is very different from the gloomy castle.
The playground is a place to bring joy, and the scene here is based on orange, giving people a joyful, bright feeling. There are butterfly elves, snail-shaped barricades, balloon people, and gear-shaped people, trumpet people who step on a single wheel to report news everywhere, and two-headed beauties, these strange elves, basically orange, although the appearance is a little strange, but it will not make people feel afraid, but make people feel cute and happy. As Jack lamented, "This is not the same as Edinburgh."
Orange is a warm color that gives a relaxed, pleasant feeling. Jack reunites with Acacia here, the two read many good times together, the relationship between the two is confirmed and developed here, for them, the experience is pleasant, beautiful, and worth remembering. The warm colors not only render the beauty of their feelings, but also dilute the dark atmosphere of the first half of the film in Edinburgh, making the background of the film brighter.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >4, written at the end</h1>
The film "Mechanical Heart" has a mix-and-match beauty, although it is regarded by many as a gothic movie, but compared with Hollywood's gothic movies, it has a different temperament. This is probably due to the romance of the French. The film is gloomy and decadent, but there is no lack of gorgeous beauty, and the overall tone is brighter, which can bring people a better experience.