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The multiple forces of cinema
Language is the way humans exist, specifically, colloquial, written, image... They are all expressions of language and the many ways in which people exist in the world
Through words, literature writes poetry and tells stories; Use lines, colors, and paintings to describe the world and express emotions; Combining picture and sound, the film presents the world on the screen and conveys emotions
Liu Heng believes that when expressing the same content, the choice of language expression form is different, and the final effect is different, and behind the difference in effect, it is actually determined by the different forces of different language expressions
Focusing on the effect of the movie, Liu Heng pointed out the effect of the film and showed the power of the film; The power of film consists of three parts, namely political power, social power and artistic power
As a cultural and political game, the political power of film is displayed, from national competition to the increase of human creation
Of the film's three forces, political power comes first
At present, the international community, the most distinctive manifestation is the game between countries, the game is not determined by a single factor, but the integration of politics, military, economy, diplomacy, etc., constitute a three-dimensional game between countries, culture is also part of the comprehensive three-dimensional game, film as a part of the cultural and political game, undertake the mission of consolidating national security and enriching human creation
The first is to guard the mission, to screen and filter foreign ideologies and cultures; The second is the mission of export, the key to the political power of the film lies in the export of its own culture, of course, all cultures are not completely equivalent, when encountering heterogeneous cultures, it is impossible to avoid misreading, and even contradictions and conflicts, therefore, how to seek common ground in differences, how to reserve differences in differences, film undertakes the task of resolving conflicts and integrating exchanges
Although in the process of cultural export, other forces are also exerting their due strength, such as the export of novels across borders, but the expression of pure language and writing, after the secondary creation of translation, the gap between the original work and the translated work is difficult to bridge, the interpretation of the information implied between the text of the novel requires an audience with certain literacy, and the audience for reading the novel is far lower than the audience watching the movie
The capacity and strength of film transmission information are more advantageous, it can reduce the resistance in the text language to transmit information, and can reach a large number of foreign audiences in a faster and cheaper way of communication
As a social education, the social power of the film is all-encompassing, and the educational function is the most important part, which is reflected in the fact that the film can convey positive forces such as correct values and can be accepted by the audience
The audience's reception is based on universal humanity, which Alain Badiou calls "human ité générique"
For example, Americans, Chinese, British, and Egyptians are all able to transcend their differences, like Chaplin's films, and reap the joy and bitterness shared by human beings; Or, look at the effects of superhero movies on a positive note, which show situations of human solidarity and inspire a sense of justice in real life
As a popular art, the large number of audiences of film makes it possible to educate members of society once it exerts its educational effect
The artistic power of film is more profound, solid and durable than political and social forces, and artistic power is the core of the triple force
Liu Heng believes that the power of art comes from artistic classics
Classics can transcend time and space, shake off the political, economic and social attributes that were once attached to it, maintain the pure connotation essence of art, and nourish the art of future generations
In other words, because of its intrinsic profundity, an art connects the common feelings of human beings
When the sense of commonality of human beings is connected in the art classics, the power of art can be revealed, it triggers people's emotion, through the further integration of emotion and reason, people realize the meaning of life, and finally, the artistic power of film breeds the role of inclusion
The political, social and artistic forces of film, all three
Playing a role in their respective fields, political forces reflect the posture of defense and export in the competition between countries; Social forces exert the power of education and propaganda when facing the audience; The power of art resists the erosion of time and space, preserves the value of classics, and shows the role of educating people's hearts
Finding out the differences between different fields, concepts and things is actually preliminary, just like the three forces of the film, their respective attributes are different, but how to find common ground while reserving differences and discover the commonalities in differences requires the intervention of philosophical thinking
Liu Heng pointed out that the commonality of the three forces involves the problems of "metaphysical", "metaphysical" and "metaphysical"
Metaphysically, it can be interpreted with the Chinese Taoist "Tao", understood as the main purpose or idea; Metaphysics is the core of commonality, which refers to the quality and state of the filmmaker; Metaphysics can be understood as "instrument", that is, the use of specific tools and creative techniques
In essence, Liu Heng's categorical paradigm reflects the traditional Chinese philosophical view of the unity of heaven and man
He will correspond to the three talents of heaven and earth and man respectively
Different from the subject-object opposition in the West, China's concept of three talents is a close combination of the three
When Liu Heng discusses the metaphysical upper and lower, he does not have a clear distinction and no reference to each other, but uses fifteen sets of antonyms to clearly sort out the specific metaphysical upper and lower in the film, reflecting the interlinked state of harmony and balance
Film Ontology: Metaphysical
Liu Heng's metaphysical views on film are essentially his ontological views on film, he believes that the essence of film is the embodiment of "Dao", and the content of "Dao" is specifically manifested as life and death, love and hate, good and evil, misfortune, and old and new themes
First of all, Liu Heng discussed the origin of art and further explained the resources and motivation of art
All human production and life activities revolve around life and death, and the theme of art works is always inseparable from the theme of life and death, of which death is the eternal source of creation
Liu Heng excavated the inspiration and promotion of death on art from the life encounters and artistic creations of Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Verdi, and he traced the connection between art and death, believing that art originated from witchcraft, because people's memories of dead relatives and the desire for life made primitive witchcraft produce substitutes that left people behind, such as inverting molds on the face of the deceased, making masks, and making certain depictions on masks
The creation of masks is equivalent to the physical presence of the deceased, and this transformation represents the beginning of early art, when people used images (masks) as bodies, and the presence of masks symbolized the presence of life
So that the emergence of rock paintings, paintings, sculptures, etc., which are regarded today as products of art, are rooted in a profound concept of life and death, so that after the emergence of photography in the century, photographs have specialized in portrait photography for a long time, revealing that people hope to leave another possibility of life in the world through images
It is in sorting out the origin of art that Liu Heng discovered that the production of art fills the desire of human beings to "live to death"
The eternal theme of art is life and death, in essence, the eternity of art lies in people themselves, and people's thirst for life is the endless source and eternal power support of art
He proposed that because of competition, people have love and hate
The trigger point of love and hate is the conflict of interests between people, and the behavior of hatred and hatred
His interpretation of love and hate is from the perspective of social attributes, for example, he listed movies such as "Joker" and "Parasite", pointing out that the hatred of the protagonists in the film comes from the injustice and blows of social competition
However, this view needs to be supplemented
The author believes that love does not only come from competition, such as the love of parents and children, but more reflects the category of human selfless emotions
For example, the protagonist in "The Piano of Steel", facing the double whammy of layoffs and divorce, tried his best to satisfy his daughter's desire to have a piano, and in the end, the piano really appeared in the way of "the piano of steel"
The foreign film "Beautiful Life" also tells the story of a father's love for his children, in order not to let his son be devastated by war, the father
"Deceiding" the child that the Nazi concentration camp was a place to win gifts, creating a fairytale atmosphere in various ways, and in the end, the father died tragically at Nazi gunpoint
The protagonists of these two films could have turned everything they invested in their children into the possibility of saving their own lives, but they both chose the former, all out of selflessness to their children
's love will motivate them to rise to the challenge and be willing to give what they have
Why didn't Liu Heng mention the selflessness of love? Thinking from another angle, perhaps the essence of Liu Heng's views can be interpreted
Liu Heng's creative career began in literary writing, and his novels "Food for Dog Day" and "Fuxi Fuxi" and other works show the survival state of small people and the tone of pessimism, and this creative tendency is also reflected in his turning to the creative field of film scripts, still retaining a direct exposure of the real situation of ordinary people, similar to Lu Xun's cold attitude to human nature and sharp writing
Liu Heng said bluntly: "I read almost all of his works, including diaries and letters
That kind of obsessive reading happened to happen when I was a teenager, and I was so impressed
The depth of my reverence for him can almost be said to be irrational
He had a great influence on my writing: "Liu Heng's creative tendencies determine that he maintains a calm thinking about people themselves, which is an aspect that cannot be ignored to explain the aesthetics of his film creation
In addition, there can be another interpretation, Liu Heng puts the selflessness of human nature in the choice between good and evil
In his view, it is competition that determines the orientation of human activities, and it is precisely because of the cruelty of competition that it has created two kinds of differentiation
One is that the idea of "evil" stands out in competition, such as violent movies; The other is the breakthrough of the concept of "goodness", competition and promotion of the positive, brilliance and sublime of human nature, such as Liu Heng's "Qiu Ju Lawsuit", "Beautiful Mother", "Zhang Side" and "Yunshui Ballads"
It is precisely because of the focus on people, the concern for people's fate and individual encounters, that Liu Heng proposed the fourth set of antonyms - misfortune
In his view, the transformation of misfortune and blessing is the norm in life, so people's fate is unpredictable, and the happiness they can have is always relative
In the face of drastic changes in fortune and misfortune, people will always feel a sense of fear, modern people's anxiety is increasing day by day, and art shows this unpredictable process and future analysis, creating a soothing spiritual value
Finally, Liu Heng's film ontology rests on thinking about the old and the new
He neither agrees that "old" hinders "new" nor that "new" defeats "old", but prefers a balance between old and new
In fact, Liu Heng only points this set of antonyms to the end, but from his attitude, it can be inferred that the theme and concept of the film are not stubborn existence, nor are they blindly new, and the theme of human art is eternal.
For example, life and death, love and hate, good and evil, misfortune and happiness, are all themes that human beings need to face in history, but the development of history not only has commonalities, but also differences arising from different eras, that is, the emergence of new themes or ideas, new themes, and this "new" is the unique product of a certain era
In this sense, I think that the old and the new proposed by him just summarize his film ontology, the essence of film is "Tao", and the content of "Dao" is the common and eternal life and death, love and hate, good and evil and the theme of the old and the new, and the old and new belong to the immutability of the essence of the film, and also involve the change in the unchanged nature of the film, and the dynamic in the stability