"Lyceum Theatre": There are subtle changes in grayscale in the thick shadows of black and white pictures

Reporter Liu Qing

Celebrities play female workers in plays directed by progressive directors, Romains who write strike leaders in left-wing plays, beautiful female workers date lovers of opposing classes in taverns, surrounded by couples dancing foxtrots in pairs... The play-in-play of the movie "Lyceum Theatre" and another film in the movie are called "Saturday Novel", this term originally meant the afterglow of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly School, director Lou Ye said that he wanted to use such a film and the degraded literary tradition dialogue, and the result was to complete this huge collage: "Mantis Catching Cicadas yellow birds in the back" Spy war stage, foxtrot dance and left-wing drama tied to the stage, once thought that the all-star team's pompous performance was a humorous parody, and when it ended, it was a serious and absurd "crappy drama".

The film opened to the ground, in early December 1941, the isolated island of Shanghai, the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was full of buildings. Director Tan Na is a progressive intellectual, and the producer Mo Zhiyin around him is a gangster of the Wang puppet government, in order to rehearse the stage play "Saturday Novel", the two look for her thousands of times to find the actress Yu Yan, who has been hidden for a long time. The celebrity's return to Shanghai Beach was to set off a bloody storm, and only Tan Na was very stupid and naïve to believe that she was simply coming to continue the front edge with him on stage and off stage. Mo Zhiyin showed his bottom card early and laughed at Bai Mei, a northern girl who was also following the trend around Yu Yan: "Obviously, I am doing things for the Chongqing military command, pretending to play a left-wing drama." "The characters appear one by one, this kind of human setting is not uncomplicated, and Lou Ye is not responsible for the times and eras, far from "Purple Butterfly", recently there is "Clouds Made of Rain in the Wind", "Big Times" is always a virtual background, he is interested in the chaotic identity of a group of people and a more chaotic and chaotic spiritual world. Therefore, Zhao Youting, who played Tan Na, was less persuasive than the literary and art workers of the 1940s, but he could not talk about original sin. That's not the crux of the movie.

Yu Yan and Tan Na reunited in the tavern where they were dating that year, the sky was hazy, Tan Na asked for wine, Yu Yan took off his coat, they recounted the past in the backlit corner, as soon as they opened their mouths, it was the contrived dialogue of the third-rate romance novel, at this time a neat and beautiful transition, it was already the stage of the Lanxin Grand Theater, it turned out that Yu Yan and Tan Na were rehearsing, they were talking about the lines of the play "Saturday Novel" in the play. This passage can be seen as a microcosm of the entire film, concentrating on the characteristics and weaknesses of the director's creation. Lou Ye's strengths are clear at a glance in "Lyceum Theatre". Yu Yan and Tan Na from the outside of the bar to the interior of a short paragraph, the camera in the space of the movement traces like a spirit snake, jump editing between the two of their respective half-body close-up and the same frame of the picture back and forth, the light is gloomy, the black and white picture of the thick shadow of the grayscale has a momentary subtle change, ordinary commercial film genre films and spy movies can not see such a paragraph, the director explains not the plot, is the character's obscure swinging, uncertain inner world of the mozz. In the process of infinitely moving secret observation, his lens is a "thief of the heart" who can capture the traces of his heart, but he seems to have a little inadequacy in the face of strong dramatic situations. The flowing air of the foxtrot dance could not hide the embarrassment of Tan Na and Yu Yan coming face to face, and Zhao Youtinghe, who was frustrated with his lines, was like an experienced director, but rather like the stunned Qing of the student theater troupe. Gong Li played Yu Yan, and many times the stage seemed to be unable to accommodate her domineering figure, and the audience familiar with her certainly could not imagine that she would perform a "civilized drama" with an overly solemn tone. When Yu Yan reads the emotionally sad lines as Qiulan, the audience will almost wonder whether the "Saturday Novel" in the play is ironic or parody.

According to Lou Ye, during the filming of "Lyceum Theatre", he once told Gong Li that Yu Yan was both a female star and a female spy, and she did not need to act as a star, and she could not act as a spy. As a performance director, perhaps helplessly, Lou Ye is good at letting go of the character's behavior traces in open rehearsals, from which he captures the "ambiguous stream of consciousness" that he is obsessed with, but he has not been able to construct and reproduce the "ambiguity" with accurate plays. Gong Li's performance ability to ride the dust lies in the precision of the road to Jane, "concise" and "accurate" are the two sharp blades she holds, in the face of many limited and limited roles, such as Jiu'er, Qiu Ju, Ju Xian, Feng Wanyu of "Return", and even the farce qiu xiang or the heavily symbolized "Golden Armor" queen, she can chop out magnificent scenery in the force. During the anecdotal rumor shooting, Gong Li and Lou Ye adapted to each other's working methods, and it was difficult to run into, this rumor could neither be confirmed nor falsified, but in the face of the fog of "Yu Yan", this woman who seemed to have a firm self and was inevitably driven by the will of fanaticism and confusion undoubtedly carried a clear Lou Ye label, but not so "Gong Li".

Before the release of "Lyceum Theatre", an old detail was repeatedly recalled, that is, in Lou Ye's old work "Weekend Lover", actress Nai An jumped on the No. 26 tram, the car detoured, and the Lyceum Theater at the intersection of Maoming Road in Shanghai flashed by, which was a clip that exuded spiritual charm. It is really nostalgic - Lou Ye, who did not carry the burden of "legend" and was immersed in the common people, but left a number of market styles.

Source: Wen Wei Po