Characteristics of Russian sports film creation and mirror value
Fu Yansen Li Yajun
Sports is an indispensable part of modern people's lives, Mr. Cai Yuanpei once said "complete personality, the first is sports", sports in the improvement of our physique but also sharpen our spirit. The Olympic motto of "higher, faster, stronger" inspires more athletes to challenge themselves, surpass themselves, and guide human society to continuously progress. The Hungarian film aesthetician Bála Balaz said: "Because cinema is an art of visible representation, in other words, body movements, sports, athletics or acrobatic performances can obviously play a much greater role in film than they can play in any other art." ”[1]
Russia is a neighbor of our country, and its unique geographical location and long low temperature environment have created the rough, bold, enthusiastic and brave character of the Russian nation. Whether in literary works or in film and television works, the character of the Russian nation has been shown, in Russian sports films, in addition to focusing on the level of athlete competition, the atmosphere of the competition site, but also more around the competition of family, friendship, love, etc., its unique narrative method and all-round display of the characteristics of the arena, let us appreciate the unique charm of Russian sports films, but also for the creation and development of China's sports films to provide reference.
I. Overview of Russian sports films
"When it comes to Russian cinema, we cannot fail to mention the films of the Soviet period, which not only played an important role in the history of the development of Russian cinema, but also played a pivotal role in the history of the development of world cinema." [2] The first sports film was the 1925 28-minute silent comedy film Chess Fan, produced in collaboration with Spiekowski, a famous Soviet director, actor, theoretician and one of the founders of montage theory, Pudovkin and Spikovsky. [3] In 1930, director Tymoshenko adapted the pre-war audio comedy film Goalkeeper based on Casilla's novel The Goalkeeper of the Republic. In 1957, the Soviet Union established a social organization, the Soviet Federation of Sports Films and Television, which marked the entry of Soviet sports films into a stage of rational development, and Soviet sports films were already at the world level, frequently winning awards at international sports film festivals. Since 1966, the All-Soviet Sports Film Festival has been held, attracting a large number of outstanding directors and playwrights to participate in the production of sports films, during which they have also awarded sports medals to outstanding filmmakers including Najibin, Triphonov, and Zorin. This creative passion continued until 1980. In the post-Soviet period, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the enthusiasm for the creation of sports films gradually disappeared. Until recent years, a number of excellent sports films such as "Legend 17", "Wrestling Emperor Bodubine", "Figure Skating Queen", "The Last Ball" and so on have gradually appeared on the screen, especially "The Battle for the Front" released on January 1, 2018, in the first two weeks of January, the film has grossed more than $29 million, becoming the highest-grossing film in the history of Russian cinema. [5] There was renewed interest and enthusiasm for sports films.
Russian and Soviet sports films can be divided into detective films according to plot classification, such as "Auto Racing" (1978), documentary films such as "Sports, Sports, Sports" (1970); comedies, such as "Chess Fan" (1925), "Goalkeeper" (1936), "Substitute" (1954), "Free Throw" (1963), "Tiger on Ice" (1971), "The Eighth Wonder of the World" (1981), etc.; feature films such as "Boxer" (1941), "First Boxer" (1946) , "The Wrestler and the Joker" (1957), "The Third Extra Time" (1962), "Victor Crocina's Second Attempt" (1977), "Instant Determines Everything" (1978), "Cruel Game" (1979), "Doll" (1988), "Psychosis" (2004), etc., the film series "Champion" (2008), "Competition" (2012), "Clean Victory" (2012), "Shooting" (2015), etc. Throughout this history, sports films have dominated comedy and feature films.
Russian scholar Yelkina classified 46 Russian sports films according to the sports performed, of which 9 were about football, 8 about boxing and ice hockey, 3 about wrestling, 2 about basketball, gymnastics, modern biathlon skiing, and other sports such as motorsports, surfing, heavy sports, rowing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, figure skating, swimming, cycling, athletics, chess and other sports, from the research results, There are many sports in Russian sports films, but football, boxing and ice hockey are more popular among film creators.
Ii. Characteristics of Contemporary Russian Sports Cinema
Most Russian sports films are based on real sports events in history, such as Anton Megeldichev's "Battle for the Front", which tells the legendary story of the championship battle between the Soviet men's basketball team and the American men's basketball team at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and the game was full of twists and turns, until the last second when the Soviet team won by 1 point and finally won the championship. The protagonists of the films are mostly legendary athletes in the history of sports, such as the 2013 film "Legend 17" directed by Nikolai Lebedev and starring Russia's most popular actor Danila Kozlovsky, and the protagonists are Valery Khar Amov, a meritorious ice skater of the Soviet Union and a member of the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame, and legendary coach Anatolia Tarasov. In addition to the comprehensive display of the sports arena, it also pays attention to the lives of athletes and coaches outside the arena. Sergei Miloshnychenko, the official film of the Sochi Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said: "My film shows not the strength of athletes' athletic ability, but their thinking about life, the world and human beings. No one has discussed before what love is, how sports and love blend together, what faith is, whether athletes need it. I also pay attention to how the greatest athletes think about morals, jealousy, and so on. ”[6]
(1) Specific background settings to fully pave the way for storytelling
Several Russian films show unique scenes from different historical periods, "Podubne" shows us the countryside before the October Revolution in Russia at the end of the 18th century, the labor of dock workers and the city face of the United States, and in "Legend 17" we also see the towering chimneys of the Soviet period, the slogans of the Soviet period, and the strict airport inspection, which brings a strong memory to the audience. "Figure Skating Queen" and "The Last Ball" show more of today's urban life scenes, modern sports fields, high-rise buildings, and brightly lit streets.
The most common scenes in the film are professional competition venues including basketball courts, football fields, ice rinks, etc. In "Queen of Figure Skating" we see the resources of Russian ice sports, from the parks of Irkuzk to natural lakes, from the city indoor skating rink to the big ice rink in Moscow, which makes us feel both the oncoming cold and the enthusiasm of Russians for ice projects. The movie "Battle for the Front" shows us a full range of professional basketball competition fields, electronic scoreboards, live broadcast rooms of matches, press conference scenes, lounges, and panoramic displays of the Olympic Village of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, including the kidnapping of Israeli athletes by terrorists, which evoke people's thinking about more events outside the arena.
We also see more scenes of the protagonist reuniting with his family, Valery's childhood trip to Spain, his mother coaxing little Rapshina to sleep, Ivan's sweet time with his lover, Yuri's embrace with his father, Valoja talking about basketball with his son, and other scenes.
The film also appears in the hospital scene, whether it is Valery, Little Belov or Rapshina, the sports career is always full of accidents, many excellent athletes because of the appearance of injuries and farewell to the game forever, trauma always brings psychological wandering and despair to the athletes, whether it is the comfort of relatives, or the support and encouragement of teammates, in the end can not withstand the athletes' own persistence, they also rely on tenacious will to work hard to recover and finally leave the hospital and return to the field.
(2) Rich character relationships make the character shaping vivid and full
The absolute starring actors in Russian sports movies are coaches and athletes, in "Legend 17", "Figure Skating Queen", "Battle", through a large number of interactions, showing the coaches' guidance and polishing of the athletes' growth, showing the close connection between the coaches and athletes that are different from their parents and beyond the mentor-apprentice relationship, as the athlete's life mentor, the coach can always find the problems of the athletes and guide them to their ultimate success. "The Last Ball" is a film dedicated to the World Cup in Russia, director Kazlowski is also the protagonist of the film, the protagonist is a combination of coach and athlete, the film tells us the story of the male protagonist Yuri after a bad performance on the field and returned to the field as a coach.
The athlete's growth path is indispensable to the guidance of his family, the courage and skillful skills shown by his uncle when fighting bulls have become the spiritual source of Valery's future ice hockey field, the encouragement of his mother has enabled Rapshina to embark on the road of professional figure skating, and his father's silent attention has always revived when Yuri is depressed. Of course, it is also indispensable to the attention and companionship of his lover, Misha's inseparability makes Rapshina not miraculously return to the field, and because of such a short but touching love in Baudubne's life, he will be invincible in the future arena and so on.
In the collective project with the tacit cooperation with teammates in order to correctly implement the coach's intention to finally win, in the growth of athletes on the road is always indispensable to the companionship and encouragement of teammates, a long time to get along with each other has long established a tacit understanding, a small action on the field of a look is enough to understand, and then play a smooth cooperation. Sweating and suffering together, facing victory and defeat together, may be the most memorable experience of life.
(3) The changeable narrative techniques make the plot unfold brilliantly
Several Russian sports films also use different methods of narrative, "Legend 17", "Battle", "The Last Ball" adopts a conventional narrative method, arranging the plot in chronological order of story development. "Figure Skating Queen" uses flashbacks to show the different situations of the protagonist through the appearance of no characters at different times, highlighting the touching love between Misha and Lapshner. The story of "Podubne" adopts a two-line narrative style, using two time clues in different urban contexts, focusing on the different encounters of the protagonist, and the whole film shows obvious contrasting meanings.
A large number of pages present a comprehensive display of the excitement of the game in the sports scene, in "Battle" we see the excellent basketball skills of the athletes, wonderful dunks, flexible running position accurate three-point balls and other techniques in the film. In "Legend 17", we feel that the athletes quickly and smoothly complete various cooperation and wonderful confrontations on the ice, the agile movement stops and the rapid transformation, and the scene of ice chips splashing on the ice can't help but make people's blood boil and jump. At the same time, through panoramic shots and personal shots, long-range and close-up changes and synthesis and activities, even if we feel the atmosphere of the game site, we can also read the cooperation and psychological dynamics between the players, and fully understand the whole game.
Through several films in which all the technical actions are really completed by the actors, without special effects, such as when shooting the movie "The Last Ball", there were thousands of people in the audition, and the participants were finally determined after layers of selection, these actors have excellent football skills, and have undergone a lot of repeated practice in future shooting. The real performances of the actors in "The Queen of Figure Skating" give us a taste of the charm of figure skating, constantly completing various balancing actions in the spin jump. The real performances of the actors allow us to see the most primitive and authentic beauty in the human body.
Third, the enlightenment of Russian sports films to the development of sports films in our country
Through the analysis of the above films, we can conclude that the plot of Russian sports movies is the development of clues like this, some experiences in childhood made them embark on the road of sports, athletes experienced injuries after a little fame, and then returned to the field with the encouragement and help of family, lovers and teammates and coaches, and finally achieved excellent results after brave and tenacious struggle in the game. In several Russian sports films, collectivism, heroism, love, family affection and the extreme impulsive character of Russians are shown, and the spirit of the Russian nation is tenacious and brave, and the spirit of not fearing strong enemies is also shown. Present the story from multiple perspectives on and off the field. From its content arrangement to the use of expression techniques, the development of sports films in China is inspired by the following points.
(1) Fully explore historical materials and look for typical and excellent creative sources
Most of the sports movies in Russia come from real sports events in history, and most of the projects shown have represented the highest level in the world, such as ice hockey, basketball and football, which have a good mass base in Russia, high popularity, and a stable group of participants and audiences. When these real historical events are presented to a wide audience in the form of a film, they are easy to resonate, and while expressing history, they also stimulate the audience's pride and enthusiasm for participation.
In terms of theme selection, Russia selected a very influential ice hockey project in China, through the film and historical data we can know that the national ice hockey level in the Soviet Union period is the top level in the world, and Canada and the United States are in a three-legged situation, and the Soviet Union men's basketball team has also occupied the world's first position in both Europe and the world, until the United States appeared after the emergence of the "dream team" The situation has changed.
In the history of Russia, competitive sports have a glorious history, excellent athletes emerge in an endless stream, maintain the world's top level in many sports, show the Sports Concept and Training Methods of Russians in the movie, and also show the good mass base of sports, and the enthusiasm and attention of the audience have created a good sports atmosphere.
(2) Comprehensive reproduction of the inside and outside of the arena to create an immersive sense of reality
A game can be shown from different angles, in several Russian sports movies on the performance of athletes on the field can be described as doing enough homework, the comprehensive use of a variety of lenses, the display of the landscape near and far and the conversion of the speed and slowness of the key links, a more comprehensive reproduction of the wonderful game, while a more detailed display of the little things of the game, comprehensive and meticulous.
A game doesn't mean exactly the same thing for different groups, and the main task of players and coaches is to win the final victory through collective tactical coordination and individual skills. The audience hopes that the countries and teams they support will defeat their opponents and fully express their emotions. The country shows the comprehensive strength of the country through the competition and so on. Every move on the field has also become the focus of media attention, and everyone hopes to share everything on the field to the country and the people for the first time.
The film shows the athletes' daily training and key competitions in a large way, shows the field in an all-round way from different angles, pays attention to the game from the perspective of different groups, creates an atmosphere similar to live broadcasting for the audience, and shows a large number of individual skills of the athletes, whether it is figure skating based on rotation and jump balance action, or ice hockey that completes various confrontations in high-speed travel, etc., all of which more realistically restore the sports technology, restore the game itself, show the beauty of the person itself and the creation of the person itself.
(3) Portray characters from multiple angles and show the characteristics of national character
Russian sports films show us the network of people's relationships, people are social people, is a collection of social relations, and the attitude of interaction with different people also shows the multi-faceted personality of the protagonist - "When the filmmaker is creating, he will always inject a certain national character into the character image he wants to shape, so that the whole work is permeated with the common psychological quality and personality characteristics of the nation." [6] As analyzed earlier, we see family, friendship, and love in the film, creating a plump character image for us.
The Russians' enthusiasm is extremely vivid on the field, "The Last Ball" in the opening chapter because the protagonist did not score a penalty, and then fouled the referee and was finally sent off, resulting in the athletes' emotional loss of control, but also brought the fans' disallowness, almost triggered a large-scale fan commotion, let us can't help but think of the Russian fans in the World Cup and other fans in the world to fight in the past. In the legend, Valery was seriously injured by a car accident, lost his mind and overturned the belongings in his home, and the dialogue between the two male protagonists in the locker room in figure skating until the final fight, all show the extreme sexual tendencies of ordinary Russians.
In Russian sports films, we are shown more of the enthusiasm, bravery, unrestrained and extremes of the Russian nation. The cold climate can not stop the enthusiasm of the audience to watch the ice hockey game, whether it is indoor or outdoor, it can always attract more spectators to watch, and the players are always displayed in front of us in a sweaty image, so that we can feel their love for sports across the screen and so on.
Today, sports play an increasingly important role in improving people's health and quality of life, with the 32nd Summer Olympics being held in Tokyo in 2020 and the 24th Winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou, Beijing in 2022. China's sports industry ushered in a new round of development boom. In the context of vigorously developing the sports industry, the publicity of sports is also particularly important, making full use of online media and film and television to publicize China's sports culture, excellent athletes, coaches, etc. is bound to play a role in promoting the development of sports, but also to attract more people to participate in physical exercise. I hope that more film human body education will participate in the creation of sports films, and bring more and better sports film works to the audience.
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【About the Author】
Fu Yansen, male, a native of Raohe, Heilongjiang, is a teacher in the Physical Education Department of Harbin Institute of Finance;
Li Yajun, female, a native of Sunke, Heilongjiang, is a professor at the Russian Culture and Art Research Center of Harbin Normal University and the Slavic Language School of Harbin Normal University.
【Fund Project】This paper is the result of the 2018 Higher Education Teaching Reform Project of Heilongjiang Province, "Comparative Study of The Practical Curriculum of Teacher Education between China and Russia" (Project No. SJGY20180281), and the 2018 Pre-research Project of Harbin Normal University "Research on Russian Film Poetics" (Project No. 370611704).