
Text/Ma Jiajun
Anyone who has seen the movies "The Red and the Black" and "The Adventures of the Warriors" knows the late French actress Chandra Phillip. In late April of the previous year (1979), Phillips's wife, the French writer Anna Phillips, came to Xi'an with her and screened a film "The Charm of the Devil" starring her husband during his lifetime. The story of this film is based on the world literary masterpiece Faust.
Faust is a play by the great German poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) who took sixty years to complete. After the "May Fourth" Movement, guo Moruo translated and introduced to China, which had a certain impact on our new literature.
Engels said of Goethe: "Goethe is sometimes very great, sometimes extremely small; sometimes a rebellious, mocking genius who despises the world, and sometimes a mediocre man who is cautious, content with everything and narrow-minded." This duality of Goethe is also manifested in Faust.
Based on medieval European folklore, Faust rewrites the absurd story of the old doctor selling his soul to the devil into the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty by advanced bourgeois people. The verses summarize the spiritual development of the bourgeoisie from the Middle Ages to modern times. Faustus walked out of the medieval study; he drank the magic soup and became a dancing teenager to enjoy the happiness of the world, but eating, drinking, and material enjoyment were not truth and beauty. Faust fell in love with Margan in tears and caused tragedy, so it can be seen that love is not beautiful. So Faust walked out of the narrow personal circle to pursue the truth in the "big self" of the universe, and he became a powerful courtier, eager to kill and kill, and drunk and gold. But the emperor fainted, the political situation was corrupt, the finances were poor, and the country was in chaos. It can be seen that power is not the beauty that should be pursued. Faust then returned to his study. In the scientific experiment, a "artificial man" He Mongol Russ was created, and this "artificial man" was so lustful that the experimental glass bottle smashed into the fairy's shell car. Nor does scientific experiments seek truth and perfection. Faust married helen, a beauty from ancient Greece, and gave birth to the avid adventurous son Ophrod. O'Brien was shot down to dust by a fire and died, and Helen sadly threw off her clothes and veil and flew away, showing that classical art and romantic passion are not beautiful. In the end, Faust used the power of the devil to defeat the false emperor and reclaim the beach, and he realized from the song of labor that the ideal society created by labor is true, good, and beautiful. So he practiced his pact with the devil and surrendered his soul as soon as he was satisfied. But the Emperor of Heaven, on behalf of goodness, took Faust's soul.
The film "The Charm of the Devil" greatly simplifies the plot and deletes half of the pursuit of science, art, and labor for future generations. It modernized the characters, and the costumes were all cylinder hats and tuxedos from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The old professor Faust and the devil were exchanging appearances with each other. Chanra Phillip starred in Faust, who was transformed into the devil. The film highlights Faust's visit to the court as a minister. In times of financial decay, the devil does not print paper money as in the poems, but deceives people by making countless gold coins out of clay. Finally, with the sound of explosions and smoke, all evil was eradicated. The film adaptation is characterized by the absurd picture of the satire of modern political life. It is only because of the film's excessive modernization and intention illustration that it is far from the original Faust.
(Published in the August 1981 issue of Film Window)
(Note: The author of this article has authorized this headline)
(Ma Jiajun, a native of Qingyuan, Hebei, born on October 5, 1929, is currently a professor at the College of Literature of Shaanxi Normal University, a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a member of the Chinese Filmmakers Association, an honorary president (former president) of the Shaanxi Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Russian Literature Research Society, a former president of the Shaanxi Provincial Higher Education Drama Research Society, a former consultant of the Shaanxi Poetry Society, and a former executive director of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Science Societies. Shaanxi Province to build socialist spiritual civilization advanced individuals, Shaanxi Province to teach and educate advanced teachers, etc., enjoy special allowances from the State Council.
He is the author of 12 kinds of "Nineteenth Century Russian Literature", "The New Stage of Aesthetic History", "Poetry Exploration", "Exploration of World Literature", etc.; 4 kinds of "The Essence of World Literature" and "History of Western Drama" co-authored with his daughter Ma Xiaoyi; 9 kinds of "History of World Literature" (3 volumes) and "Research on Gorky's Creation"; edited 4 kinds of "30 Lectures on European and American Modernist Literature"; co-edited and co-authored "100 Topics of Marxism-Leninism", "Cultural Research Methods", "50 Lectures on Oriental Literature", "Western Literature in the Twentieth Century", etc. and more than 40 kinds.
It has been listed in more than 40 kinds, such as the Dictionary of Chinese Writers, the Dictionary of Chinese Poets, the Dictionary of Chinese Social Science Scholars, the Cambridge Dictionary of International Biographies (27th Edition in English), the Directory of Experts in Russian Studies Abroad (Russian Edition) of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Classics of Shaanxi Century of Literature and Art. )