Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" has been considered a classic since 1980, but in 1948, when it came out, it was not timely, not only did it have no box office revenue, but it was also said by critics to focus on small moods under the torrent of the big times, "simply forgetting the times", and the narrative of the story seemed "so pale and so morbid".
Film critic Huang Jianye said: "The encounter of "Spring in a Small Town" in the history of Chinese cinema is somewhat similar to Proust's "Remembrance of the Lost Water Years", which breaks through the fog of the times in which he is located, advances the mainstream attention at that time, and makes the audience listen to the oppressive and gorgeous sensual monologues, so truly revealing the wandering and bitterness of an intellectual. Unique art form and precipitated cultural reflection, Ling Yue's superb artistic belief makes it self-sufficient to form a very charming small universe, decades later in the dust of history, breaking out of the cocoon, raising eyebrows, inspiring a new generation. ”
At present, Douban scores 8.6
On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Chinese cinema in 2005, 101 senior directors, film critics and cultural workers selected 100 of the most representative Chinese films, and Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" topped the list with the highest score.
Below, we will interpret the innovative aesthetic consciousness of "Spring in a Small Town" that transcends the times from the perspective of the advancement of the film's plot narrative, the creation of the film's artistic atmosphere and the use of the lens.
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<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > plot composition: to advance the narrative process in the form of a jade monologue, similar to the "internal focus narrative" in the sense of narratology</h1>
(1) The plot of the film is as follows, telling the test of Zhou Yuwen by the arrival of a former lover:
After the war, an ordinary couple in Jiangnan Town, husband Dai Liyan was weak and sickly, and his wife Zhou Yuwen spent boring and dull time every day in buying vegetables and cooking, frying medicine, and embroidering. One day, Dai Liyan's old classmate Zhang Zhichen came to visit, but Zhang Zhichen happened to be Zhou Yuwen's first love. For The arrival of Zhang Zhichen, Zhou Yuwen imagined that he could bring her the love that had been consumed by ordinary days again, and Zhang Zhichen on this side had never forgotten Yuwen. Dai Liyan, who had insight into the truth of the matter, dragged the sick body to commit suicide to complete the two of them, which made Zhang Zhichen and Zhou Yuwen regretful and decided to put an end to the past, Zhang Zhichen left, as if everything had returned to the original state, but Yuwen and Liyan were full of thoughts, they climbed the ruins of the broken wall of the small city, looking around, and their hearts were probably full of mixed feelings and thoughts.
"The mottled ancient city walls are a testimony to the vicissitudes of the past 5,000 years." And the small city is a microcosm of a country and an era. The spring of a small city is the hope of a nation and a country.
(2) The film uses Zhou Yuwen's monologue to advance the narrative process
All the events in the film have been re-dissolved by her psychology, and her psychological refraction makes the audience feel quite intimate about the original life, very much like the "internal focus narrative" in the sense of narrative science.
The first-person "inner focus narrative", also known as the "inner focus narrative", is a deliberate choice set by the author to facilitate the narration of events and the expression of the character's heart song. For a novel, it is only the information that the narrator as the focal character should provide. All narrative is confined to the view of the narrator as the focal figure, and the role of narrator narration, commentary, and communication is evident in the work. Such a narrative perspective is convenient for exposing the world's human condition from different levels. This is also the most used narrative mode type in Lu Xun's novels.
Zhou Yuwen would pass by this section of broken wall every day when she bought vegetables, and she would often stop here
Yuwen is busy every day, but she can still see that her life is very boring and dull, often staying on the broken city wall for a while, and her husband Dai Liyan has nothing to say, and Dai Liyan is speechless about the family atmosphere, after all, her own illness has dragged down the family.
(3) The director still prefers the character of Zhou Yuwen, and sometimes arranges for her to make monologues from an omniscient perspective
More typical is the monologue after she learned the news that Zhang Zhichen was coming:
"Who knew there would be a man coming, he came from the train station. He knows the house of Li Yan completely... The first time Lao Huang came to tell me, I didn't think it was him... I didn't know that Li Yan was also his friend... I was a little flustered, I kept my composure, I don't think it would be him... He had no idea that I was married to Li Yan. Why did you come? Why did you come? Tell me how to see you? ”
Zhou Yuwen was young and beautiful, and knowing that Zhang Zhichen was coming, his heart was wavering
(4) Zhang Zhichen's arrival was a terrifying wave in the Dai family, and his actions were an irregular bomb between the Dai brothers and sisters and Zhou Yuwen
The emotional and psychological activities between the four people are promoted in restraint and introspection
Mr. Faymu once said: "In order for a film to capture the audience, it must assimilate the audience and the environment of the people in the play." To that end, I thought it was necessary to create the air in the play. ”
Before Zhang Zhichen's arrival, the lives of Zhou Yuwen and Dai Liyan seemed to be solidified, and the daily entry and exit, relatively wordless, the depression and sorrow of the jade pattern, Dai Liyan should have noticed, but because he was always lying sick, he simply did not ask.
Zhou Yuwen "lived a day without change" every day in the city wall, Dai Xiu was Li Yan's sister, following Yuwen through several times to buy vegetables back, Dai Xiu said: "Walking along the city wall, there is an endless road. ”
Therefore, for the audience, they are full of sympathy for the rhythm and situation of Zhou Yuwen's life, which also makes some of Zhang Zhichen's behavior seem to have a certain degree of understanding in the audience.
Zhang Zhichen and Dai Liyan are old classmates, but their mental outlook is very different
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > "laughter fades away, amorous but ruthlessly annoyed", Famu tries to create a game of morality and desire in the film</h1>
A group of four people went out, and Yuwen and Zhichen were very worried
Many people who comment on what this film has touched themselves bluntly say is the slow advancement of the restrained and restrained narrative atmosphere. The whole film conveys the delicate game of personal morality and desire to fight, similar to the feeling of "closer to homesickness is more timid", which is reflected in Zhang Zhichen and Zhou Yuwen, "it is as if they see each other, and it seems to be ruthless when they see each other" when they see each other.
The more this happened, the more dai xiu, a young girl who had a good feeling for Zhang Zhichen, also became aware of the original emotional past of Zhang Zhichen and Zhou Yuwen like her brother. No matter how big the background of the times, the psychology of people as the smallest molecule is an unknown thing, "mixed with bitterness, confusion, and even decadence." ”
Fei Mu's unfolding of the atmosphere of the film amplifies the influence of the traditional culture of "affection, stop at etiquette", making the whole film appear subtle and beautiful, and the emotional performance and psychological experience highlight the restraint of "alienation and obsession, paradox and lyricism", which makes people deeply appreciate the helplessness of the hero and heroine: "The heart of seeking proximity is the meaning of alienation." ”
For Dai Liyan, he had the intention to complete Zhou Yuwen and Zhang Zhichen, but he was still bound by traditional culture and was more entangled
Someone commented: "When Dai Liyan in the film represents the old-style traditional Chinese culture, there are good and bad, and the serious illness means that the old China in the environment at that time has shown a sick state, and he does not know what the disease is, but he is blindly seriously ill, but he has not fallen, this is a root-seeking culture rooted in the traditional culture, no matter how young Zhang Zhichen is, he has always been invincible to the long and splendid culture that has been precipitated by the years. This also explains why Zhou Yuwen finally chose Dai Liyan instead of Zhang Zhichen. ”
I personally do not agree with this view, Zhou Yuwen's choice is certainly unavoidable, but for Zhang Zhichen, Zhou Yuwen's abandonment of him again, even if it is a second emotional injury to him, he is also respected and accepted, because in this kind of introverted only in the heart to admit that Zhang Zhichen and Zhou Yuwen are emotionally inclined to each other, Dai Liyan is not actively giving up, is passively wanting to leave the world, saying that it is a complete, but also an emotional contest, after all, this is the price of life. Otherwise, if the two people climb the city wall at the end of the film and look at the distance, they will not look so defeated and so worried. Emotional repair still has a long way to go for the couple.
The atmosphere and style of the film contained in Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" is a reaffirmation of traditional Chinese culture, but also a promotion and inheritance, like a looping ancient poem, rather than a simple emotional dispute, the content fits the form, and the form serves the content, thus extending the discussion of the fate of the characters and the cultural connotation of the deeper level.
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<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > In order to convey the "gray mood" of traditional ancient China at that time, the camera scheduling used long shots and slow motion to form unskilled works</h1>
Fei Mu has achieved an elegant picture similar to that of Chinese landscape paintings in the creation of atmosphere, and in terms of lens scheduling, he also focuses on this requirement, and tries his best to use long shots and slow motion to express the state of people themselves. Just as Mr. Barkin said that the highest state of writing is to write without skill, the unskilled nature of the film also tests the actual skill level of the director.
The long shot in "Spring in a Small Town" uses the depth of field to remind the audience of the attention and experience of the emotions of the characters in the picture, slowly and changeably, highlighting the characters themselves in the longer single-shot shooting, and conveying an oriental humanistic meaning and artistic feeling. We can feel the feeling of these two pictures:
The picture of Zhou Yuwen going to buy vegetables every day
Zhou Yuwen and Zhang Zhichen walked together with each other with "affection, stop at etiquette"
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<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Tian's version of Spring in a Small Town is a tribute to the 1948 version of the film of the same name directed by Fei Mu</h1>
Compared with Fei Mu's 1948 version of the film, Tian Zhuangzhuang's version of the film has become color, the space has been extended a lot, the heroine's monologue has been hidden, and the story content and storytelling methods have also been somewhat different, becoming more acceptable to today's audiences.
At the beginning of the film, he explained the relationship between the young young woman Zhou Yuwen (played by Hu Jingfan) and her husband Dai Liyan (played by Wu Jun), who was only fulfilling her obligations required by traditional morality and ethics. At the same time, Li Yan's former friend, Yuwen's old lover Zhang Zhichen (played by Xin Baiqing), is rushing from Shanghai to the small town, although his visit makes Yuwen sway between love and etiquette, and has the idea of going out of the small city, but because the monologue is no longer there, it is more abrupt than to meet the long-term expectations in his heart. And the little sister Dai Xiu (Lu Sisi) because of a large group of friends who are as energetic as her, Zhichen's touch on her and her love for Zhichen have also been discounted.
Compared with the artistic feeling of Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town", although Tian Zhuangzhuang's version also won the "59th Venice Film Festival San Marco Award" and some individual awards for other awards, as Tian Zhuangzhuang said, this is a tribute to Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town".
Throughout his life, Mr. Faimult has worked hard to make his film creation aptly national
The reason why Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" has received such praise is not because of the superior technology, but more convincing reasons are "the reason for the creative ideas of modern art", throughout his life, he has been committed to making the film creation show the national style appropriately, this innovative aesthetic consciousness is rooted in Mr. Fei Mu's heart, we have this version of the aesthetic and implicit "Spring of the Small Town", which is undoubtedly an artistic treasure that we should cherish today.
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