Ye Yang Reporter, host Large event planner, social activist
We can say that "Inception" is a realistic scene, a happy ending in Hollywood; we can also say that this is the sixth layer of dreams, or the continuation of the dream of the whole film; we can also say that this is a real reality scene, but reality itself is the deepest dream.
——Xu Feng
Xu Feng
Born in Shanghai in 1971, Xu Feng taught at the Central Academy of Drama after graduating from the Beijing Film Academy in 1998 with a master's degree, and is now a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Film and Television. In 2015, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Department of Film at the University of Paris VIII.
Professor Xu Feng has long been engaged in the teaching and research of film history, especially in French film research. He has co-authored monographs such as World Cinema in the Eastern Perspective, Chinese Cinema: Description and Interpretation, and Interviews with Chinese Independent Films. His important papers include "Three Dimensions of Accepting Aesthetics in Film Studies" and "Between Hollywood and the French Film System: The Necessity of Supporting the Production and Distribution of Art Films". He is currently in charge of the key research project of the Central Academy of Drama, "Artistic Research of Stage Drama and Film Master Patrice Xiehou".
He has coordinated nearly 20 film festivals, and supervised and planned important films such as Wan Ma Tse-dan's "Looking for Zhimei Gengdeng", Song Taijia's "The Sun is Always on the Left", Xu Haofeng's "Master", Diao Yinan's "The Party at South Station" and so on.
Li Yuran
Inception excites me and accumulates a lot of questions. Christopher Nolan explores the composition of dreams in the form of a thrilling film and tells us that ideas can be implanted in dreams, and that reality is both true and illusory. I usually think that commercial movies tell any story, they will be slightly weak, the most essential things have been packaged into the shelves of the public to pick up. In this sense, I crudely think of Inception as the pinnacle of commercial cinema. We don't know much about dreams-based films, and we were surprised to suddenly see such a film with such a complex structure, and in the field of commercial films. As a researcher of film history, how original do you think this film is? How many precedents are there before it?
You raised several levels of the question, and I'll start with specific films. Personally, I think "Inception" is very original, which is not inconsistent with the director's influence from other films.
Dream-based films, beginning with European avant-garde cinema in the 1920s, have formed a vague tradition in the history of cinema, but there are two films that have a deep similarity in formal structure to Inception, namely, French director Chris Mackay's "LaJetée" (1962) and Alain Renai's "Jet'aime, jet'aime" (1968). Both experimental, small-budget sci-fi films deal with both time travel and dreams: the protagonists are monitored by electronic instruments and time travel in the form of dreams. is a short pictorial montage in which a survivor is hypnotized under the paris aftermath of the nuclear war, and on his journey back in time, he repeatedly encounters a woman who is shot and falls down when he finally runs toward her — he dreams and experiences his own death. "I Love You, I Love You" is a young man who has attempted suicide, who undergoes an experiment to restore his memory, due to the mistakes of the scientist, the experiment is out of control, and the protagonist's messy dream leads him to the love dilemma and suicide attempt of the year; but this time, the suicide in the dream causes death in reality. The structure of this montage film is complex and confusing, and does this poster remind us of Cobb's vision of Mel in Inception?
Poster of "I Love You, I Love You"
In addition to science fiction films about dreams, we must not forget to discuss the three types of films of consciousness/unconsciousness, films about supernatural abilities (special functions), and thrill films. Dream-based films can be seen as a branch of the discussion of conscious/unconscious films, in which we must mention Alain René, whose "Last Year in Mariambad" (1960) is a wonderful example of "thought implantation", in which the woman does not believe what the strange man calls "the covenant of Marienbad last year", but finally accepts his memory description under the call of reality and inner passion. And decided to "elope" with him. As for films that exhibit extraordinary abilities (special abilities), they are usually commercial films; a more recent example of success is Spielberg's Minorityreport (2001), Spielberg's most outstanding film (my opinion), which intervenes in both human supernatural intelligence and the corruption of modern surveillance systems. Thrillers (also known as psychological horror films) are known as Hitchcock's legacy, and it is a genre of films that use psychoanalysis relatively popularly, in which crime and horror do not arise from external conditions, but from psychosis. Today, film genres and genre grafting are the norm, from "The Matrix" to "Inception" are the result of the cross-integration of these genres and styles in the film industry.
I don't explicitly see Nolan talking about the film, but it's important to note that if these connections actually exist, it doesn't deny the originality of Inception, but rather proves that it grows on a huge movie tree, and the deeper it takes root and the more lush it is, the more fruitful it is. This is true for both commercial and art films.
Under such a premise, where is the originality of Inception, and how do you think of its structural characteristics?
I think the originality of "Inception" lies in how to complete the structural exploration and expression of dreams under the framework of the big film industry. The film's original English name Inception translates as "Beginning" (also translated as "Foundation", a very good translation of the title on the Internet), of course, this title can be explained in multiple layers, but the most basic meaning is "the generation of ideas", which is concretely implemented in the film as the implantation of Robert Fischer (hereinafter referred to as Robert), so that he has a consciousness in his dream and gives up his father's energy empire. In this way, the "dream" forms the real subject of the film. An author named "Crazy Diamond" suggested that "Nolan's dream is not like a dream at all", and I agree. I especially recommend the blog post of "Crazy Diamond" on "Time Network", where his analysis of the film from a psychoanalytic point of view is quite in-depth. I want to emphasize that in the creation, there can be no real dream reproduction, only the form simulation of dreams; at the same time, it must be taken into account that this film is not an experimental film of An Andalus Dog or Afternoon Net, nor is it a small-cost art film like, I Love You, I Love You, or even Nolan's early film Follow; Inception, as a product of Hollywood super industry, according to the audience orientation of the public theater, must make the director's narration more transparent and easy to read - clear, logical, and easy to understand. In a psychoanalytic way, it is to make the dream simulated by the film more "second-degree modification".
Therefore, the complex structure of the film is based on simple psychoanalytic concepts (unconscious/ love desire / death desire / early trauma / repression / defense mechanism / dream is the realization of desire / treatment), and the structure and its emphasis on the clarity of the level, so that "looking at the complex and simple".
The film is structured as a recurring, layered dream, but it can be seen as an ordinary flashback. The dialogue between Cobb and the elderly Saito in the opening of the film connects with the fifth layer of the film's "implantation mission" (Cobb goes to the edge of the unconscious to find Saito), which pushes the film to the end.
Specific to the implantation operation, its five-layer dream consists of a preset three layers and a temporary decision to infiltrate the last two layers. In the first three layers, the dream is dominated by the "supporting role" of the film: the "Pharmacist Yusuf" (the lesser "supporting role") responsible for the depth of sleep dominates the first layer of dreams, the cautious and polite "Outpost Arthur" organizes the more static and elegant second layer dream, and the bold action faction "Ems the Pretender" directs the "Snow Mountain Castle Raiders" like the third layer of dreams. This design does not bring the characteristics of a multi-point of view narrative, first of all, these supporting characters do not have a developable personality and psychological depth, are quite flat, typed images, not enough to bring a unique perspective; secondly, the film assumes that all participants are "trained", are dreaming in a rational "conscious" state, and all take the task as the only point. Their role is more like the "consciousness" still awake in the dream, the monitor of Cobb and Robert's unconscious desires and complexes; at the same time, they create different levels of "implantation" of a single action, enriching the visual image in space, strengthening the rhythm in time, and enhancing the tension in the narrative.
The only people who really have a psychological life in the film are Cobb and Robert.
In Robert's clues, we see a detailed setting similar to that of "Rose Bud" (Orson Wells, "Citizen Kane"): the windmill in Robert Jr.'s hand in the frame that fell from his father's bedside and was broken is a symbol of his childhood love and joy; this happiness is lost due to his father's excessive expectations of him (patriarchal order), and his love for his father is repressed into opposition, unconsciously trying to judge the path away from his father, but consciously vowing to take over his father's group to certify his own value. The idea of Robert is implanted to make him feel his father's recognition of his personality, while letting go of his hatred for his father and his desire to take over the company.
Cobb's problem is the guilt and lust for his deceased wife, Mel. He can only return to his children and live again if he proves his innocence, which means forgetting Mel and self-forgiveness; therefore, Mel's residual thoughts in the film become a fundamental obstacle to Cobb's dreaming and implantation. Cobb becomes a potential "psychopath" (Hitchcock), doing everything in his power to get out of trouble and creating obstacles in his subconscious role as Mel. As the protagonist of the implantation action, the dream of all the collaborators is just an external scene of Cobb's inner split, and the deeper the dive, the more intense the split. As the object of implanted action, up to the third layer of dreams, all dreams are more or less presented as Robert's psychological infiltration journey.
In the first layer of dreams (Yusuf's master), Robert is somewhat in his down-and-out state, and in this part, his confrontation is the most extreme, and his defense mechanism hits the potential opponent Saito. This allowed Cobb to add the task of saving Saito from the unconscious margin in addition to the implantation action, which is very important and will be discussed later.
In the second layer of dreams (Arthur's main control), Robert enters the role of successor of a large company, enters and leaves the luxury hotel, and his inner suspicion and hostility towards the godfather (his father's assistant) is openly revealed. The implantation was fully activated, and Cobb's schizophrenia began to surge: first the child appeared in hallucinations, and secondly, in the flickering of the curtain, Mel quietly floated to Cobb's pre-consciousness.
The icy landscape of the third layer of dreams (controlled by Eames) is largely a reflection of Robert's fear of the core of the world of gold power – doesn't this scene filmed in Canada also remind us of Switzerland, the world's country of financial secrets? For Cobb, diving deep into the dream, his psychological division is finally uncontrollable, and the subconscious Mel appears openly and shoots Robert: this can also be seen as one of Robert's own defense mechanisms to escape the trauma of his early years, beyond this obstacle, he finds the paper windmill and father's love of his childhood, and lets go of his desire for the consortium (implantation success); at the same time, for Cobb, the film turns to the fourth layer of dreams, which is his own dream.
The fourth layer of dream Cobb reconstructs his dream world with Mel according to memory, and through Cobb and Mel's face-to-face confrontation, his repressed desires and fears surface to the surface of consciousness. The film reveals to us Cobb's intense desire and deep fear of women and sex. The dream space he and Mel co-constructed for 50 years is an extreme form of desire—through a deep meditation technique that makes all objects of desire a perceptible, indistinguishable entity. If co-running this space shows Cobb's obsession with sex; the length of "50 years" suggests that he is deeply panicked about this obsessive situation. In Cobb's unconscious world, the conflict between himself and Mel is actually a conflict between liberation and entanglement. Everything that was done with Cobb was for liberation, and all the results that came to Mel were entanglement: Cobb implanted a spinning top into Mel's unconscious, suggesting that everything around her was a dream; the creation of this consciousness in Mel, although it made her want to leave this world, intensified her psychological paralysis of seeing Cobb as a "life-saving straw" to confirm the reality of her life. Cobb's sense of guilt lies in the fact that it is difficult for him to distinguish the line between his escape from the dream and the liberation from Mel, and it seems that it is this desire to liberate mel that leads to Mel's death; he characterizes himself as an obsessive lover by meeting Mel in his dream, in order to defend himself from the invasion of guilt, which in turn leads to a complete split in personality.
Ariana, the dream architect who accompanies Cobb, is set as the opposite of Mel throughout the film: because Cobb's psychological split stems from lust and guilt toward women, another woman is essential in psychotherapy (implantation action); but because of this, her relationship with Cobb, although implied (she was able to sneak into Cobb's dream, Cobb protected her from escaping), is set in a rational, relatively non-erotic state. If Mel is more like Cobb's unconscious "original self," Ariane plays the role of the rational "superego"; in the dream her fatal blow to Mel becomes the solution to Cobb's psychological dilemma —removing obstacles without guilt. Cobb and Mel's last whisper, informing her that they are old and white, has become the last step in his self-soothing and self-healing. This is the opportunity for the film to dive into the fifth layer of dreams.
The fifth layer of dreams is the common space of Cobb and Saito. From the first layer of dreams, Saito is close to death, and the originator of the implantation action becomes the rescued (his status as a wealthy Japanese businessman is not meaningful here, which is the subject of our next discussion). In the fifth layer of dreams, he completed his whole life in the normal way; in front of the golden screen representing wealth, only his decaying face remained. When Cobb says to Mel, "We're old with a blank head," all we see is holding hands; here Saito becomes a mirror for Cobb. The edge of the unconscious is revealed as the insurmountable common edge of life—meaningless old age. The simplest, the most real, and the darkest; this deepest dream is also the shallowest dream, like the breath under the skin of real life. So it's no surprise that neither Cobb nor Saito woke up without calling (we'll talk about that song next time).
Since then, the film's implantation operation has been completed, everyone has their own place, and Cobb is happy to go home. This is a Hollywood "bright tail", and many fans are disappointed in Nolan. However, the ambiguity of the film's ending is obvious, Cobb, who came out of the airport, surrounded by blurred visions, and everything is filled with illusion; the paradoxical eyes of the partners make people wonder whether the so-called implantation action is illusory; the last child's cry (the only time in the film, the child and their voices appear at the same time), becomes a footnote to reality, making us feel that the father and son are really together; but the spinning gyro in the foreground, ending the film when it seems to stop, seems to remind us that the dream repeats, It's not over. Therefore, we can say that this is a realistic scene, a happy ending in Hollywood; we can also say that this is a sixth-layer dream, or a continuation of the dream of the whole film; we can also say that this is a real reality scene, but reality itself is the deepest dream.
But what is more important than whether the ending is reality or a dream is the author's wish. In Inception, there is a song used to wake up the Dreamers, which is used as an important musical theme of the film. This song Non! Je ne regrette rien (no, I have no regrets) is a world-class pop song by French singer Edith Piaf. In the eyes of those who are familiar with the meaning of this lyric, this musical theme is meaningful. Here's a look at translating the song:
No! Nothing
No, not at all
No! I don't regret anything
No, I have no regrets
Nor the good that was done to me
Life treats me well
Nor the evil all this is well didn't matter to me!
The same evil that is done to me is equal to me
It's paid, swept away, forgotten
All paid, dissipated, forgotten
I don't care about the past!
I left the past behind
With my memories
Use my memory
I lit the fire
I've lit a lamp
My sorrows, my pleasures
My sadness, my joy
I don't need them anymore!
I don't need them anymore
Swept away loves
Eliminates all love
And all their tremolos
And all their vibrato
Swept away forever
Eliminated forever
I'm starting from scratch
I went back to zero again
Because my life, because my joys
Because of my life, because of my joy
Today, it starts with you!
Today, let you start
We see that the abandonment of the entanglement of memory and love in this song, the unparalleled understanding of the bitterness of life, and the determination to start from scratch are closely related to Cobb's psychological disputes and desire for liberation in the film, and further show the director's perception of this problem. Like the film's name, Inception, what he expresses is the desire to awaken from a dream, a real "beginning."
Speaker: Xu Feng
Interviewer: Li Yuran