1. Wu Zuguang and the construction of cinematic presentation of stage opera
Wu Zuguang (1917-2003), a famous dramatist and director, received a complete private education in traditional Chinese culture when he was a child, and observed and studied a large number of Peking Opera repertoire in his youth, which laid the foundation for his aesthetic of traditional Chinese art. Since 1947, he has directed films such as "National Soul", "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain" and "Return of the Wind and Snowy Night" in Hong Kong, and he has also participated in the production of many opera films, and gradually formed a stable artistic style in the 30s and 50s of the 20th century.
In 1953, he cooperated with Mei Lanfang to shoot "Mei Lanfang's Stage Art", and in 1955, he cooperated with him again to complete the cinematic adaptation of "Roselle", marking the maturity of Wu Zuguang's opera film art. The following year, he co-directed "Barren Mountain Tears" with Cheng Yanqiu, which is his emphasis on the subjective expression of film lenses and the exploration of traditional Chinese aesthetic identity.
"Luoshenfu" is a diction written by the writer Cao Zhi during the Three Kingdoms period, which has been widely circulated in history, and there are also poems, songs and calligraphy works adapted from it in art history. This article tells the story of Cao Zhi staying overnight in Luochuan Yi, meeting and separating from the goddess Luoshen, expressing infinite melancholy and sadness.
In the 20s of the 20th century, Mr. Mei Lanfang created the Peking Opera "Luoshen" on this basis, which became a classic of Mei Pai. After 1949, Mr. Mei repeatedly considered making it into a film for survival, firstly, in line with the policies and goals of promoting the wide dissemination of literature and art at that time; The second is to pass on the video materials to future generations for disciples to study.
The movie "Luoshen" creates the beautiful figure of the goddess and the dragon, as well as the mourning of Cao Zhi's meeting in Luochuan without a return date, highlighting the mythological color and tragic feelings of this film, and better restoring the atmosphere and artistic conception of "the eternal mourning meeting" described in "Luoshenfu".
The film innovatively uses special effects and live-action sets, combined with the use of film lenses, and successfully interprets the traditional mythological theme of "Roselle" perfectly. The film breaks through the time, space and program of traditional opera, creating a mournful atmosphere of half-fiction and half-reality, which can be called the "peak of classical opera film",1 which can be regarded as an example and model of the cinematization of opera.
(1) The construction of stage opera space
The artistic expression of Chinese opera has a unique expressive characteristic, while film has documentary characteristics, requiring the camera to record the plot scene from the perspective of others, presenting the origin and core of the story. Chinese opera films focus on how the virtual of opera and the reality of film penetrate and integrate each other. Cui Wei proposed that opera films are still stage documentaries, "although opera films appear in the form of films, they are based on opera, and they must be based on the traditional laws of opera, and maintain and promote the characteristics of opera."
In this regard, Lan Fan further elaborated, believing that the types of opera films should be divided into film and drama, which are "two concepts and methods for opera films as film genres to cope with and solve the contradiction between the principle of opera narrative and the principle of video narrative".
In terms of the spatial setting of stage opera, Wu Zuguang believes that opera films should not be blindly empty, but should be properly set and conform to the realism of the film. Of course, the set should not be too realistic, but should be appropriately matched with the actors' performances, scene atmosphere, and emotional changes, and promote the cinematic transformation of opera in the concept of combining virtual and real.
In the film "Roselle", in the layered realistic set, the actors' entry and performance actions are no longer bound to the principle of horizontal (frontal) audience perspective. Taking the Luochuan inn scene as an example, the virtual inn space on the stage was widened into the interior and exterior spaces of the museum, and the space in the museum was divided into the corridor and the hall.
In "Kawakami Parting", the Luo River that separates Luoshen and Cao Zhi crosses the scene, and the stage opera space is divided from the perspective of film depth of field and picture structure, and the horizontal and vertical dimensions form the spatial structure of this scene, which is the landscape space displayed by film art. Wu Zuguang mastered the creative know-how of opera films through the filming of "Roselle", accumulated creative experience, and laid the foundation for the 1956 cooperation with Cheng Yanqiu to shoot "Barren Mountain Tears", and the same creative concept was also presented in the night weaving scene of "Barren Mountain Tears".
Second, stage opera and opera films differ in their representation of spatial levels. The former's story, performance and time-space transition are all completed in the enclosed space of the stage, and the performance emphasizes coherence and unity, maintaining the logic of linear performance; The latter is centered on the director, shooting and screening are not limited by time and space, and film technology is used to complete the selection and reorganization of opera repertoire, plot and space.
Although the shooting content is still the opera itself, the lens shows the trade-off of performance and the slicing and reconstruction of the complete opera stage space to a certain extent, while forming a multi-level spatial relationship. For example, in the "Kawakami Farewell" in "Roselle", the fairies and Cao Zhi are separated diagonally by the Luo River along the screen, and at the same time divided into two independent spaces with front and back shots, which last until the re-interaction between Sheng and Dan.
The scene of Luochuan inn, the large vista outlines the exterior scene of the night inn, shows the three-dimensional scenery of the inn hall, the candle fire, the rockery tree and other three-dimensional scenes through sports lenses, and records the opera performance scenes with fixed lenses, which together constitute the expansion of the multi-level space of stage opera by film language.
Third, opera films dissolve the restrictions on the direction of performance of stage opera and broaden the dimension of opera performance from the spatial level. Stage opera emphasizes the performance of actors to face the audience, ensuring that the audience can see the content of the performance. The film avoids the principle of using the stage as the coordinate, so that the process of tracking the performance action from the viewer's perspective is visualized by the lens, and there is a broader performance space without constituting a contradiction in time and space.
The opera stage is more rectangular, which is prescriptive for the horizontal space of the picture and the position of the actors, and the performance is mostly in the front third of the stage vertically, and the movement of the characters mainly follows the horizontal axis. Compared with movies, it is necessary to consider the depth of field, that is, the vertical space expansion of the picture, the sound and picture content of each shot has been strictly fixed in the storyboard in the early stage, including the performance and position of the actors in the vertical space, and the character shift originally along the horizontal axis unfolds along the vertical axis.
For example, Cao Zhi confesses at night under the corridor of Luochuan Guild Hall, occupying the left two-thirds of the picture, with the eaves in the foreground, the fake stone in the middle scene, and the silhouette of the mountain sky in the back, the composition is full of rhythm and depth, there is no spatial separation between him and the audience, and the performance also unfolds along the longitudinal coordinates.
(2) Deconstruction of the integrity of stage opera performances
Cui Wei believes: "As far as opera films are concerned, the reason why they are regarded as films is that the study of opera films must study the use and performance of lenses. And the lens is precisely the core of the film's deconstruction of the integrity of the opera stage performance.
The performance language of stage opera is a coherent program and exercise, and the basis of film grammar is lens slicing, through the selection of the combination of procedural exercises fragments and the adaptation of the rhythm of the opera plot, the stage form is transformed into the film media system to realize the reconstruction of stage opera performance. The split shot further breaks up the complete structure of the stage opera performance, and the actors' performances, programs, singing voices and other stage opera elements are reconstructed to conform to the language and visual effects of the film.
On the whole, the stage opera unfolds linearly strictly in the context of the plot, and the performance singing voice and body style seen by the audience are presented synchronously, while the filming of the film is based on sub-shots, pursuing the performance effect under a single lens, and does not require the actors to always maintain the best state of the whole performance. Therefore, the smoothness and charm emphasized by stage opera performances are frequently cut off, and the director's judgment of the picture effect is shifted from the instantaneous audiovisual perception to the film and picture frame that can be repeatedly identified.
Mei Lanfang also expressed her thoughts on this: "I think that after the lens on the screen, the feelings are not easy to coherent, the expression is not deep enough, and it is necessary to process and study in this area in the future." "Roselle follows the documentary nature of the film as a whole, paying attention to the fit between the performance and the plot, such as the application of techniques such as front and back shots, over-the-shoulder shots, and top-up shooting angles.
Singing plays an important role in opera performance exercises, and its integrity and coherence are the basic requirements, and the editing and retention of opera stage exercises after cinematic presentation are also controversial.
For example, in "Roselle", Kawakami parted, and when showing Luoshen's large singing skills, he combined environmental shots and Cao Zhi's reaction shots; Taking "Barren Mountain Tears" as an example, when Zhang Huizhu moved to the window and looked out in the night weaving, the audience's perspective in the stage opera was always fixed, relying on the opera music to pass through the door and stylized movements to express the emotions of the actors, while the subjective lens was used to replace Zhang Huizhu's perspective in the movie, and only the sound of the two drums was heard.
At this time, the child was already asleep, Zhang Huizhu waited left and right to wait for her husband to return, slowly moved to the window to look out, but saw that the four fields were quiet, and the mountains were solemn. The film's deconstruction of the integrity of the stage opera breaks the synchronization between the singing voice and the picture, and reduces the singing voice from the focus of the stage opera scene to the auditory vocabulary that promotes the narrative of the film.
In addition, the cutscene structure of stage opera has various functions such as scene differentiation, plot rhythm delay, and interaction with the audience. The director takes different measures when dealing with the time-space transformation of the film, consciously weakening the difference between the opera program and the film language, the time-space transformation in the film is often more complex than the stage opera, in addition to props, sets, lighting, but also involves color grading, track, radio and other elements, it is necessary to assemble the lens through montage after the camera is stopped to complete the space-time transformation.
The movie "Roselle" revolves around the story of Luoshen and Cao Zhi, with four paragraphs, such as the opening, inn dream encounter, Luochuan meeting, and Kawakami parting, the opening scene is gradually turned into a close-up scene with a long-range, slightly elevation angle with a push lens, the clouds and mist set off the image of Roselle wearing Ayara light gauze and holding a dust, and the picture space of Jin Bixiangyun explains the identity of the characters who appear, while bringing a novel visual perception.
The inter-scene time-space transformation of the stage opera "Roselle" mainly relies on the actors' getting on and off the stage and the opening and closing of the curtain to foreshadow the audience, and with the changes between the scenes, the audience also completes the transformation of the virtual space-time of the opera stage and the real time and space of the theater, and the film compresses the space-time and narrative through the superimposed painting technique, so that the audience's emotions can unfold in a continuous and uninterrupted time and space. At the same time, the two passages of the inn dream encounter and Kawakami in the stage opera are presented in a cutscene, while the film only uses the similarity between the inn building and the Tiangu to complete the transition.
(3) Reshaping the narrative of stage opera
The opera film does not use the stage as the reference line for actor scheduling and space station, but provides a variety of viewing angles through different scenes and camera shooting angles, and the montage combination of the lens changes the narrative mode of the stage opera and the fixed viewing angle of the audience to a certain extent, realizing the reshaping of the stage opera by the film.
Stage opera does not take the development of the plot as the sole goal of performance and choreography, on the contrary, in the play or the part called the selling point, the promotion of the storyline is deliberately weakened, and the audience here mainly expects and appreciates the singing and body of the horn. Chinese opera films adhere to the narrative language of film, and the first task is to narrate the story of opera with the lens.
In the scene of Luochuan Inn, the director uses a large close-up to show Cao Zhi's rubbing and caressing of the jade belt gold pillow, highlighting the symbolic characteristics of Roselle's relics, making the pillow a symbolic emotional concept, and the audience completes the empathy from object to person here. Montage is an expression of the director's personal style to stage opera, such as the ending of "Tears of the Barren Mountain" in which Zhang Huizhu holds a dagger from the right out of the picture and enters the left, and when she holds the dagger to the hill, the film shows the image of a woman suffering from feudalism and war with a stable backshot long shot.
After Zhang Huizhu's somber singing voice is integrated with the night of the mountains, she presents the picture of the two missionaries with her subjective lens from a top-down perspective, where the use of overhead perspective focuses on the entanglement of the characters in the play and the negative examination of the missionary service. After Zhang Huizhu killed herself in despair, the large close-up camera continuously showed the shocked facial expressions of his neighbor Bao Shide and two errands. The film opens with a pull-shot, and at the same time ends with a pull-shot, the main body of the picture slowly withdraws, leaving only a corpse and Bao lamenting and sighing, reflecting the experimental meaning contained in Wu Zuguang's film.