In 2019, "Joker" directed by Todd Phillips became a phenomenon film and won the Golden Lion Award at the 76th Venice Film Festival, which shows that this film is not light in the eyes of fans. This film with "clown" as the core tells not only the story of "clown", but the gap between the bottom of society and the elite from the perspective of "clown". In other words, the "clown" is the "Nezha" in the minds of Americans.
There are not many films related to "Joker", as early as 1928, the German director Paul . Lenny made the film "Smiley Man" with the "Joker" as the core character, which was adapted from Victor Lee. Hugo's novel The Man with the Smiley Face.
The protagonist of the story, Gwenpran, is a descendant of the nobility, who accidentally fell into the hands of a human trafficker, was disfigured by human food, and always had a strange smile on his face. The kind-hearted jianghu artist Sus took in Winplain and made Gwenplain his righteous son, and also adopted the blind girl that Wimplain saved. In order to live, Seuss took them on a wandering show. By chance, Gwenplain regained his knighthood, but he refused the gift of falling from heaven. When he returned to Seuss and the blind girl, the blind girl was already terminally ill. After the blind girl died, Gwen puran was so grief-stricken that he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
The image of Gwenpran in "The Smiley Man" is the prototype of the clown, and this film adapted from Hugo's novel portrays the human world in nineteenth-century Britain, and portrays the arrogance and lavishness of the nobility, cunning and ruthlessness and the kindness and innocence of the lower classes of society. And this is the meaning of the image of Gwen Puran, although the face is ugly, but the integrity and kindness.
In addition to "The Smiley Man", many movies use the "face" to complete the contrast or metaphor, making the movie more entertaining and ornamental. For example, "Northferatu" shot in 1922, "The Man Who Was Slapped" in 1924, "Phantom of the Opera" in 1925, etc. In these films, the "face" is not only a metaphor, but also a medium for the audience to understand the film.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > metaphor for the face:</h1>
Aristotle defined metaphor: metaphor is constituted by giving a word that belongs to something else to another, either from "genus" to "species", or from "species" to "genus", or by analogy. In this sense, metaphor is actually to transform meaning.
In the movie "The Man with the Smiley Face", although GwenPlain is a smiling person, his image and distortion, smile and bitterness coexist. The contradiction between the skin bag and the soul makes the characters full of drama, and to understand the metaphor of Gwenpran's face, it is necessary to take into account the following two levels:
First: physiological irresistivability.
The reason why Gwenplain is a "smiley man" is because of his facial disability, which is artificially caused, irresistible, and under the ugly appearance is a soul that refuses to kitsch. Because he is a "smiley person", GwenPlain cannot express his emotions normally, and the sadness of having nowhere to put and the loneliness of no love to complain about are Gwenplain's greatest sorrows. Although in the process of selling art, Gwenplan also has happy moments, but because of his "face", all the normal emotions of Gwenplain are sad.
At first, Gwenplain became a "smiley man" because of his unfair fate, and later it was feudal society and hypocritical aristocrats who crushed his personality, making him lose the source of happiness. Physiological irresistivability is the same as the irresistibleness of the environment in which Gwenplain is located. In a sense, "The Smiley Man" is through GwenPlain to complete the satire of the times, the satire of the aristocratic ruling class. Gwenplain's face was ugly, as was England ruled by James II in the seventeenth century.
Second: psychological adjustability.
Gwenplain did not give up being a kind person because of the ugliness of his face, and the psychological adjustability gave him a sound personality and integrity. After being injured by human traffickers, Gwenplain maintains the softest part of his human nature, and although he is penniless and displaced, he adopts a blind girl.
In the process of wandering, he did his best to bring warmth and happiness to the blind girl, and his appearance made up for the gap in the growth of the blind girl, and also made the blind girl see hope. Gwenplain's feelings for the blind girl are very complicated, especially in the face of the duchess's seduction, Gwenplain's heart has some wavering. This wavering stems from men's instinctive desires, desires for wealth, status, and women's bodies.
The uncertainty of emotion reflects the contradictions in human nature, but the rationality and kindness in human nature ultimately triumph over desire. He discovered secrets and conspiracies in his contact with the duchess, and when he truly understood the good and evil of human nature, God left him with a blind girl who was terminally ill.
Psychological adjustability allows Gwenplain to find the norms of being a human being, making him a valuable person, a person worthy of being loved, but life will not change because of this "adjustability". The tragedy of "The Smiley Man" is that Gwen Puran laughed at life, but life never smiled at him.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the artistic value of clowns:</h1>
The most central part of "The Smiley Man" is the alienation of people by society, which is one on the physical level and the other on the psychological level. In the process of alienation, the image of the "Joker" represented by the "Smiley Man" was gradually full, laying the foundation for a series of "Joker" movies later.
First: clowns can better reflect the alienation of society to people and add to the practical significance of movies.
Although "The Smiley Man" ends in tragedy, it is not to reflect the tragedy of the character of Gwen Pulan, but to reflect the harm and alienation of society to people through Gwen Pulan's life past. Although Gwynplain uses death to liberate himself, the injustices and injuries in society never stop, and this powerlessness is the reality of the film.
Second: The ugly image of the clown can be compared with the noble soul, making the film more dramatic.
Gwenplan, though ugly in appearance, never hurt anyone. In the process of selling his art, he performed as much as he could, hoping to amuse the audience with a comical and exaggerated gesture. Gwenplain knows that life is not easy, so he wants to bring warmth to the world in this way. The contrast between the brutal ruthlessness of the nobility and the kindness and warmth of GwenPlain adds to the dramatic tension of the film and also brings an excellent contrasting irony.
Third: The clown's behavior and choices can reflect the confrontation between good and evil in human nature, sublimating the theme and idea of the film.
GwenPlain in The Smiley Man is not an immutable good person, he has experienced three psychological changes, the first time when he feels love, the second time when his desire arises, and the third time when he knows who he is. The three transformations have made the character of Gwenplan more full, and also intuitively reflect the confrontation between good and evil in human nature. Although the ending of the film is death, the character of Gwenpran still shines with the brilliance of humanity.
The artistic value of the image of "clown" is not single, but complex and diverse. In different contexts, the artistic value of the "clown" is also different. But what is certain is that in the metaphor of "clown", the harm caused by society to the individual must exist. Therefore, the "clown" itself is the "victim" of society.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > written at the end:</h1>
"Smiley Man" is a desperate movie, and maybe that's where the vitality of "Smiley Man" lies. The story begins with a sea of snow and fog, ending in a cold late night, with occasional starlight and nothing more than the lights on an offshore ship. Directed by Paul. Leonie accurately captures the essence of Hugo's novel, tells a profound story of Gwenplain's life experience in a thought-provoking way, combines the fall of Gwenplain's life and the dark side of society, completes a wonderful metaphor, and also achieves the classic screen image of "Joker".