Many people were fascinated by the black-and-white poster of the movie "Lyceum Theatre". Gong Li, dressed in a white shirt and strappy pants, sat leisurely at the table, the mist from the half-burned cigarette in her hand just revealing half of her face. A blurry image of a man on the left side of the table reveals a hazy feeling, and together with the list of people scribbled with a brush and the release date, this black-and-white photo seems to be very telling.
If this poster is not presented in black and white, the sense of story may be damaged by half, but as a movie, is it necessary to make "Lyceum Theatre" in black and white?
Directed by Lou Ye and starring Gong Li and Zhao Youting, "Lyceum Grand Theatre" was finally released on October 15. Interestingly, not long ago, a color-restored version of the black-and-white film "The Eternal Radio Wave" was released, and both films were related to espionage work. One relies on high-tech to restore the original color to make the audience feel fresh, and one chooses to remove the color and release it in black and white, which also makes the audience feel fresh.
For modern cinemas, Lyceum Theatre may be a special format. When "Lyceum Grand Theater" premiered, the Great Bright Theater had a little screening failure, the film's dark part was red, and the protagonist Gong Li apologized to the audience after the screening, hoping to watch the best effect after the film was officially released.
The black-and-white images of "Lyceum Theatre" are still somewhat different from traditional black-and-white films. Just like adding a black and white filter to the color photos taken by digital, its picture light and dark contrast is not strong, the characters are gray, and in the rainy weather, there is a feeling of "smoke cage cold water moon cage sand".
Lou Ye once said that he deliberately blurred the details to increase the uncertainty and contingency of the story. The choice of "bad images" is also because aesthetic images are easy for the audience to leave from reality itself and from the characters, and care about the light and scenery.
Under the guidance of this minimalist thinking, it is said that Lou Ye also requires actors to appear on camera in order to pursue the realism of the characters, but sometimes they also appear to be dull. In particular, the heroine Yu Yan is a very popular star, even with gong Li's own aura support, most of the shots are still too plain. Removing the color, at the same time blurring out a lot of clothing information, Yu Yan, who appeared on the scene with a silk scarf wrapped around his head, suddenly reminded people of "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit".
In addition to the ambiguity of the form, "Lyceum Theatre" also has a sense of ambiguity in the narrative. Yu Yan came to Shanghai, ostensibly to star in a drama arranged by director Tan Na, the lens deliberately blurred the boundaries of the stage, and the drama that appeared from time to time was integrated in the main narrative, as if there was a relationship and seemed to be irrelevant, and when she finally walked out of the theater, it also gave people a feeling that they seemed to understand and did not understand. The last movie that made people feel this way was Nolan's "Creed".
"Lyceum Theatre" is adapted from Hongying's novel "The Death of Shanghai", and the part of the play is from the novel "Shanghai" by Japanese writer Toshiichi Yokomitsu. Black and white will lose a lot of video information, for example, in "The Death of Shanghai", the Fashion Atmosphere of Shanghai, which is often advertised, is difficult to reflect in the clothing, and through the original work, it is known that Yu Wei "wears a black beret, a blue satin flower cheongsam, and a light red open-silk rice short coat" on the outside. Tan Na "wears dark striped pants and a Chinese brown paddle pullover" on top. The film apparently redesigned Yu Yan's look, and Zhao Youting, who plays Tan Na, has a color still to see that the top is brown.
In "The Death of Shanghai", Yu Yan's original drama was "Foxtrot Shanghai", writing a popular Paramount dancer and a poor poet who pursued free love, and finally doubled jumping off the building to commit suicide, wind and snow, paper drunk gold fans, there is no pattern, but there is a good literary style.
The screenwriter of the novel is Mo Zhiyin, who is changed to a drama producer in the film. Mo Zhiyin is known as a "popular writer", and it is easy to guess from the title of the play "Foxtrot Shanghai" that the prototype is Mu Shiying's "Shanghai Foxtrot Dance", and Mu Shiying and Mo Zhiyin's pronunciation is very similar. The opening and closing sentences of "Shanghai Foxtrot" "Shanghai is a paradise built on hell" are also aphorisms in "Foxtrot Shanghai", which yu yan considers "wonderful".
"Shanghai Foxtrot" obviously gave inspiration to "The Death of Shanghai", Lou Ye replaced "Foxtrot Shanghai" with a novel by Heng Guangliyi describing the background of the May Thirtieth Strike, which is more in line with the main narrative of the film, and when Yu Yan and Tan Na speak their lines, it is easier for the audience to have a sense of ambiguity that cannot distinguish between the inside and outside of the play.
But Lou Ye's narrative technique, hidden in black and white tones, coincides with the culled "Shanghai Foxtrot" to some extent. Except for the flashback at the beginning, the narrative of "Death in Shanghai" is basically linear, and the story is not difficult to understand. And "Shanghai Foxtrot" is a representative work of the new sense school, the novel is very cinematic, "fluttering skirt, fluttering robe horns, exquisite heels, heels, heels, heels, heels", like a lens language, jumping picture under the hidden multi-layered story, after reading to give people a feeling that they seem to understand, but also seem to not understand.
From the plot text of "Lyceum Theatre", it is difficult to piece together the complete information of the story. After a cursory reading, it can only be known that Yu Yan is a spy, who has cracked a code from a Japanese intelligence officer through hypnosis and learned that Japan is going to take action against Hawaii, but she deliberately conceals it and misleads her superiors. The audience needs historical background knowledge to understand that yu wei broke the news that the Japanese army was going to bomb Pearl Harbor.
In the special atmosphere created by the black-and-white lens, the decision of a female spy seems to change the historical pattern, and some surreal hypnotic scenes coupled with the ups and downs of the gunfight at the end give this literary film a touch of superhero film flavor - Yu Yan is like a Chinese version of "Black Widow".
However, the loss of visual information under the black and white lens, coupled with the identity and relationship of the characters in the spy theme, after watching the movie, the audience may still be confused, which side of the spy is Yu Yan?
In the novel, it is clear that Yu Yan worked for the US intelligence department, Yu Yan's ex-husband Ni Zeren worked for the military command, Mo Zhiyin and Bai Yunsheng served the Wang puppet regime and the Japanese respectively, and yu Yan was called "second-class slave" and "first-class slave", while Tan Na was a left-wing literati.
"Lyceum Theatre" also launched a synchronous script killing work, "full spy", different camps of the form is indeed very suitable for script killing. The language in the movie is vague, perhaps in order to leave some space for the script to kill, but if it is still the same story, the same batch of characters, there is really no need to give up the end.
Shooting a black-and-white film at the moment, if there is no special narrative technique, it seems to be sorry for such a unique lens language. But the old black-and-white movie, the story is also very simple, just like Federico Fellini's "The Great Road", although it is regarded as a "masterpiece of the master", when you look at it with a pilgrimage mentality, you will find that it does not have any fancy techniques, but just tells the story of a small person in peace and stability, and when you see the ending, it will be as uncomfortable as swallowing a blade.
Black and white blur many details, Gong Li obviously does not conform to the original setting of the 28-year-old Yu Yan, she and Zhao Youting in the ear grinding, the traces of age on their faces are flattened together, but black and white also highlights the deep facial features of Oda Chejang, people can't help but speculate whether the Japanese officer he plays has a closer relationship with Yu Yan, or actually has a deeper identity.
Ambiguity and ambiguity can leave more room for imagination, but it can also be misleading, and sometimes it is not understood, purely because of thinking too much. "Lyceum Theatre" takes a 1.85:1 mask, vertical subtitles on the screen "stand on the sky", so that some theaters may appear incomplete display situation, the film side hastily issued a notice "the screening screen is not wide", reminding the studio manager to pay attention to the switch. But there are also viewers who make up their brains as lou Ye's deliberate lens language, which is "creative resistance to censorship and tailoring".
Black and white, as well as new forms and new languages, can sometimes become a barrier to viewing movies or even to the screening of cinemas. There is also a warm movie reminder from the theater "Lyceum Theatre", "Due to the particularity of some shots in the film, there may be a feeling of vertigo during the viewing process", and said that you can get a vomit bag. Some insiders also suggested that when the Shanghai International Film Festival and the Shanghai Film Screening and Distribution Industry Association inspect whether the screening of the cinema is qualified, in addition to routine operations, they can also consider taking "Lyceum Theatre" as a test film.
However, for the director, exploration is always welcome with open arms. Just like Ang Lee is exploring 120 frames, Nolan is exploring the limits of "brain-burning".
What is less known is that Lou Ye also participated in the production of "Heavenly Book Qitan". He first studied animation production, and after graduating in 1983, he worked as an artist at the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio, where he also participated in "The Golden Monkey Descends demons" for two years. Lou Ye, who has a background in art, should be extremely sensitive to color, and the choice of black and white must have been specially considered.
Oda, who is also a director, said in an interview about "Lyceum Theatre", "During the shooting, I heard that the director was struggling with whether to use black and white style, and I thought it was absolutely necessary to use black and white, so I voted for black and white."
For film, there is always a need for new experiments, and all kinds of experimental works are needed to motivate the industry to move forward. But for the audience, the film is still used to tell the story. Leaving aside the black and white and the mental constraints given to you by various forms, "Lyceum Theatre" is not good, you can boldly say it.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Shi Chenlu Text Editor: Shi Chenlu
Source: Author: Zhong Han