The Origin of Fear - "Breaking Dawn" after viewing the | 2019 "Truth, Goodness and Beauty in Movies" Theme Essay Excellent Film Review

Fear is one of the many emotions of man, and it is also the most puzzling. In the hearts of mortals, there is fear; the human heart is like a wild field, and once fear breeds, if it is not effectively controlled, it will grow like a wild grass on the plain.

In the field of contemporary film, as people continue to exhaust various external possibilities, the exploration of the inside begins to increase, and thriller psychological drama gradually becomes a film genre. A number of excellent thriller psychological dramas such as "Doctor Edward", "Mechanic", "Mulholland Road", "Master Key" and so on have entered the public's field of vision. Aristele Banks Griffin's film Breaking Dawn, one of the films screened at the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival, is also a thriller psychodrama.

The film is not easy to understand, and most of it is a one-man show by the heroine Joan Lee. To understand this film from the perspective of the usual "appreciation of people's stories" is doomed to be futile, because the real protagonist of "Breaking Dawn" is not Joan Leigh, but the fear itself, more precisely, the deep, inner fear of man. The film, cut through Joan Lee's perspective, shows the manifestations of fear and attempts to explore where it comes from.

Like many thriller psychological dramas, the character substitution of "Breaking Dawn" is very strong, and its first-person narrative angle allows the audience to involuntarily transfer and attach their emotions to the heroine, thus obtaining a psychological experience similar to her. So much so that from the heroine's nervous eyes, bare feet, injured left hand, and the piles of garbage in the room, flying flies and other subtle details, the audience experiences a certain kind of real pain. This "pain" is consistent, and it progresses with the plot, even reaching a certain peak, where the audience, together with the heroine, acquires the desire to almost suffocate, and constantly struggle and seek a breakthrough. From these points of view, "Breaking Dawn" is undoubtedly a success. Although many people did not really understand it, at the end of the film, there was a long-lasting applause in the theater.

The director made this film with "ambition". Its ambition lies in dissecting human "fears." To this end, the film has made a series of unremitting laying out and interpretation, presenting a variety of main manifestations of fear. First, there is the fear of loneliness. The film is almost a one-man show of the heroine Joan Lee, and Joan is also a solitary person, she never leaves the door half a step, as far as possible to cut off contact with the outside world. However, behind this extremely lonely behavior pattern, it is precisely her extreme fear of loneliness that is hidden. She took the initiative to call her sister's phone and verbally refused to let her sister come to visit, but after her sister's arrival, she showed happiness and reassurance; Fred, a convenience store worker who delivered food for her, after she had only met once, she became dependent, and even finally entrusted him with the most important things; she also took the initiative to call "Cow lang" to come to the door, and had a close relationship and conversation with the latter; the apartment she lived in was left by her grandmother, although her grandmother had died for many years, even though the neighborhood had become chaotic. But she still feels the safest place, and this sense of security comes from her expectation of family affection.

There is also the fear of violence, injury and even death. At the beginning of the film, the reason why Joan does not go out is explained, and the famous "Sam's Summer" vicious criminal case occurs in New York. It was a real case, when a man calling himself "Son of Sam" shot innocent passers-by randomly and continuously at gunpoint in the summer of 1977. Joan often holds the radio, nervously following the progress of the case, and when others inadvertently mention the case, she has a super stress response. In addition to this, "hints" are also everywhere. For example, the sister worried about Joan's safety, brought her a gun, the moment she saw the gun, Joan instinctively shook a little, and then, taking advantage of her sister's lack of attention, hid the gun in the mezzanine under the floor. Joan would often look out the window, and whenever she saw the little hooligan fighting, her face would skim over the obvious anxiety.

There is also one of the most important fears, which is not easy to see, but runs through the whole film, that is, the fear of fate. In this regard, the director has the deepest intentions and the deepest concealment, and the film cleverly uses a large number of imagery "symbols". For example, Joan's door is trivially locked, these locks symbolize some of the identities that people use to protect themselves, but also form self-imprisonment in real life; Joan's naked feet, for this pair of feet, the film gives a lot of close-up shots, they try to walk outside the door again and again, and retract again and again, they symbolize people's courage to face life with their true selves; and the most important, but also the most wonderful one, the doorbell that often rings instantly, every time Joan answers, no one answers, she is very annoyed, and even calls the police. And these doorbells, it is fate that is slamming the door, just like the main theme of the first movement of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony", it is unpredictable, close at hand, and frightening, and overcoming the fear of doorbells and facing these sounds is not only Joan's, but also a subject that each of us must face.

These deep fears, interpreted from Joan Lee's point of view, are seen in the eyes of the audience, and the latter experiences worry, anxiety, and even pain. However, these are not the experiences given by movies, but the experiences that people get when they touch their own hearts; enjoying such a thrilling psychological drama is actually a dialogue with their own souls. There is nothing that can better understand oneself as much as knowing the fear within. The human heart is the source of fear. The so-called fear is the infinite amplification of the human mind to some reality or future danger, and what is magnified is the sum of personal experience and the things that are most concerned about oneself, which together constitute the "true self".

Although the overall tone of "Breaking Dawn" is somber, the director has not given up hope in his heart, and he has arranged a bright ending for the film. At the end of the film, in a city-wide blackout, Joan Lee lights a candle, a slight candle, like a heart lamp, so that she can see the neighborhood in front of her and the city in the distance in the dark. The blackout sparked a great riot, and the city was on fire everywhere. From "candle fire" to "big fire", Joan also completed a transcendence of her own, she walked out of the door, stood in the fire-lit neighborhood, looking into the distance...

As the sun rises, the tone of the film gradually changes from dusk to bright. At least for now, the grass on the land of fear has burned out, and a new life is about to begin.