Antonioni
In my opinion, outstanding directors have three characteristics at the same time: a unique and clear thinking about civilization, human nature and society; a deep insight into human weaknesses and deep sympathy; and sufficient talent and interest. Excerpt from Zheng Shi's "Dream and Reality in Light and Shadow".
Known in the film industry for his love trilogy "Adventure", "Night" and "Eclipse", Antonioni, who has won the gold medal at the three major film festivals in Cannes, Berlin and Venice for many times, and won the Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award, is undoubtedly the best of them. He was the first to win the Grand Slam award at the world's three major film festivals and the Academy Awards.
After World War II, the rapid development of science and technology made the world begin to bid farewell to the past. In the Italian film industry, a new trend has also emerged. This is the new wave of cinema in film history, which is called neorealism. Among them, outstanding masterpieces include "Rome, the Undefended City", "The Man Who Stole Bicycles" and so on.
Poster of Rome, the Undefended City
This trend of thought deeply influenced Antonioni.
On the basis of his inheritance, he innovated neorealism. Adhering to the "directing concept that life is poetry", he has entered the tentacles of neorealism from the outside of the characters to the heart; from ordinary civilians to the urban middle class.
This makes his film both hazy poetic and warm to the care of reality. For example, the art film "Eclipse" that I want to recommend today.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > avant-garde video narrative and unique film aesthetic temperament</h1>
At the beginning of the birth of the film, the audience was mostly people at the bottom of society. Spectators who call themselves "upper class" often have to sneak into the cinema after the opening. So the writer George Bernard Shaw satirized with a sense of superiority:
The only way for a film to become an art is to make a film made entirely of subtitles.
The opening credits of the "Jane Eyre" movie shot in the 1940s
This statement is full of absurd prejudices. However, film and literature have indeed always had a kind of "continuous cutting, rationalization and chaos" involved. It wasn't until Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" and "The Party Fights Against the Odds" that the film struggled to get rid of its subordinate status and become an independent seventh art.
In Eclipse, a film that is still full of avant-garde flavor, it sees the film's proud independence. It deliberately downplays the plot, highlights the sound, emphasizes the picture, but reduces the dialogue. With an atmosphere of wanting to say goodbye, the unique charm of the image is presented.
1. Fragmented plot
If you want to feel the twists and turns of the plot, this two-hour movie may make you lose patience after dragging and dropping the progress bar many times, and lose touch with the movie.
In traditional literary narratives, the dissolution of the plot may be accompanied by a nasty stream of consciousness. When the author erects a wall of abstraction, impatient readers may not be able to enter.
But the advantage of cinema over literature is intuitive visuality. So despite abandoning the usual dramatic conflicts, I don't think the film is story-free. The director uses skillful lens language to express a group of intriguing scenes.
The director changed the focus of the story conflict from the external plot of the general film to the inner emotional conflict of the characters. At the beginning of the film, Victoria and Ricardo, who are in the same room, actually do not have too many fierce quarrels. But through the empty and tired expressions of the two people, the few dialogues, and those pictures full of alienation, the confused emotions in the characters' hearts are appropriately and fully conveyed.
After the heroine leaves the slightly dull apartment, the next scene she steps into is a stock exchange with a lot of noise. The change of the scene symbolizes that the heroine has bid farewell to a withered love and entered a new mental journey. The film uses this dynamic and static contrast of the before and after scenes, rather than the external plot conflict, to express the psychology of the characters, and then satisfy the audience's desire for stories.
The storytelling of this kind of film narrative is, of course, thin. But its obvious benefit is that the audience can easily withdraw from the aesthetic expectation of paying attention to the twists and turns of the story, and focus on the emotional changes of the characters. After moving away from the story, feel the inner psychology and desire of the characters more clearly.
2. Beautiful and timeless picture.
The reason why this anti-genre art film can have its place in the history of film is inseparable from the beautiful and timeless picture of the film. Someone commented on the film:
Antonioni carefully constructs every picture, and there is not a single inch of film that is not in the service of art.
Ghosts don't cry
Contrasting black and white images. Antonioni shot the film in 1962, 32 years after the world's first color film, Glitz World. The choice of black and white film is more of an active artistic pursuit of the director, rather than a technical limitation.
This is similar to Alfonso Cuarón's three-time Oscar-winning Roma. Interestingly, both film plots took place in the 1960s, and the title of the "Roma" movie even took place. This seems to indicate that the two have the same heart, and it is also a meandering path of some artistic expression.
The heroine, Victoria, is like the waiting Godot in the Irish playwright Beckett's modern absurd play. She was extremely entangled, but finally said goodbye to a relationship that had been in love for many years.
In her second relationship, it is also hidden. It seems to be looking forward to new relationships, but it often refuses to go far.
Black and white picture with stronger contrast. Eclipse uses this method of recording, presenting the isolation of the characters and their incompatibility with the times.
Cross-shoulder front-to-back shots. Victoria insisted on leaving, while Ricciardo searched for the cause and tried to keep it. The unequal relationship between the two is reflected in the composition. The camera gives Victoria a frontal close-up, and the poor man has only a blurry back door.
Unbalanced left and right composition. Without the help of dialogue, the characters are placed on either side of the screen through a simple set of pictures. It is a good demonstration of the emotional estrangement of the two. If you look closely, you will find that the characters occupy only a small corner of the picture, and the picture is full of various object furnishings. It is a metaphor for the middle of the relationship between the two, and it seems that there are many miscellaneous things isolated.
Framed framing is everywhere. The director showed a special preference for framed framing. In the opening scene, a 10-second long shot is given, and a craft-like thing is placed behind an empty picture frame along with an ashtray full of cigarette butts.
Then the heroine continues to appear in the middle of the door frame and the window, forming a picture that seems to be understated, but has a profound meaning.
These man-made objects seem to bind people to a narrow scope and heaven and earth, making people lose their vitality and freedom. At the same time, it also shows the blurring of the boundary between people and things, making people become another kind of object in the lens.
It embodies a certain concern of the director: in the face of high-speed and developed technology, human materialization and alienation.
3. Meaningful ambient sound.
In the classic narrative of the film, the sound is only a true representation of the environment at that time. It embodies a kind of seeing the mountain is the mountain, and seeing the water is the seeing and gaining of the water.
But in Antonioni's lens, the ambient sound is given more connotations in addition to its original meaning.
In the room where Victoria and Ricciardo broke up, the sound of the fan turning was always heard. It conveys the sweltering heat and depression of the scene, and creates a ubiquitous and disturbing restlessness.
Later, Victoria walked alone through the quiet streets and heard a row of flagpoles, hitting each other and making a crisp sound. Here, the sound changes from an accessory element to the protagonist of the picture.
It is no longer a reproduction of the scene, but an externalization of the protagonist's struggle inside. The rattling of these flagpoles is like the swaying of the character's heart. In the empty window of feelings, she is like these bare flagpoles, her heart is extremely empty but she can't help herself.
In Antonioni's films, sound is not simply a reproduction of yesterday, but a vehicle for conveying emotions and a metaphor for expressing themes.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > feminist gaze and collision from a male perspective</h1>
"It's a paradox. On the one hand, the desire to unite has never been as strong and idealistic as in our society; on the other hand, those who desire union have never been so demanding. The compromise between these two contradictions is that we don't form a pair. "Kraftman," The Sociology of The Companion.
The great achievement of the process of modern civilized society is the independence of women in gender relations. As a typical example of the middle class, the heroine of the film, Victoria, is an outstanding representative of it. Have a decent career financially and have no worries about food and clothing. Spiritually possessing a bit of art, pursuing independence and freedom of thought.
But she is lost in the pursuit of her love. After ending a long relationship, it seems that prince Charming has found himself, and in the end he still suffers from gains and losses, leaving Pierrot, who pursues her, at a loss.
Patriarchal bystanders.
In the first relationship, Ricciardo, knowing that he can't get it back, still thinks of Victoria's empathy. He pressed again and again, wondering who the man was.
Although Victoria made it clear to him that it wasn't the presence of anyone else who caused the two to break up, Ricciardo didn't believe it.
In fact, Victoria gave the reason. When Ricciardo tried to make love, Victoria refused, saying, "Please don't repeat the mistakes of the past."
Men have only carnal love for her, and there is no spiritual resonance. This was the root of Victoria's intolerability.
Later, she seems to fall in love with Pierrot. But in fact they are two people living in different worlds.
Pierrot's car was driven into the river by a drunk man, and after being salvaged, the two had a conversation. Victoria asked: What you're worried about is the body. Don't you regret the death of that drunkard?
But the handsome Pierrot was unaware of this, and he replied: Of course, there is the engine.
Later, in Pierrot's room, Victoria inadvertently saw a pen with a picture of a beautiful woman.
She finally realized that she was no different from Piero's newly purchased BMW. Of course, he cherished it, but it was just a favorite item.
Even Victoria's indifference to Pierrot aroused his competitive spirit. When the two finally hugged each other, Pierrot showed a sly smile.
In fact, Pierrot knows very well that he feels like he is in a foreign country with Victoria. He knew that he and Victoria were two worlds of man, but he had to be determined to win the prey that had taken a lot of pain.
Feminist gaze. Victoria looks like a cold woman on the surface, but in fact, she is passionate at heart. In her melancholy expression, there is actually a simple child's heart.
In the movie, she doesn't smile. But a limited number of laughs stemmed from some simple pleasure. For example, watching a puppy stand upright and walk on two feet; seeing a mist spray from a water pipe that waters the lawn; kissing through a glass window.
Of course, her simplicity is always accompanied by delicate sensitivity. The two walked across the lawn, and Victoria ran excitedly to the water pipe, not forgetting to tease: I have wasted your time on this.
In her opinion, men tend to be utilitarian. While Pierrot boasted of his passion in the stock market, Victoria poured cold water. She thinks it's not a workplace, it's a fighting arena where you live and die.
I wish I had never loved you, or loved you more deeply.
It's a voice from Victoria's heart and a declaration of her love. Therefore, even in the face of the handsome Alandron, she is extremely entangled and disappointed.
American writer John Gray believes that men come from Mars, women come from Venus, and they are different species from different planets. Antonioni, as a male director, uses simple black and white images to gaze deeply at feminism.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the pain and scars of the times of human civilization</h1>
After the end of World War II, humanity emerged from the devastated war. At that time, major breakthroughs in basic science allowed human civilization to enter the fast lane of development.
But it soon became apparent that the clouds of war hung over the world, especially over the European continent, like a ubiquitous specter.
Eclipse was filmed in 1962, a year in which a shocking event occurred in the history of the world. The United States and the former Soviet Union, because of the Cuban missile crisis, the two nuclear powers are tense, and nuclear war seems to be on the verge of breaking out.
In the movie, the hero and heroine are full of confused and helpless eyes, which truly reflects the people in that era and the worries about the future of the world.
Victoria, caught in the glue of the breakup, opened the curtains in order to get rid of the oppressive atmosphere in the room. But what appeared in front of him was a huge water tower, shaped like a mushroom cloud rising from the sky.
The heroine seems to throw a piece of wood into a rusty scrap iron barrel at random, but the film suddenly rings a church bell.
The mystery is revealed at the end of the film, and the scrap iron bucket finally rusts out of a hole, and the water in the bucket quickly dries up. The film then switches to a newspaper.
The director, who has always used obscure symbols as the main means of expression, this time is simple and crude, and it is self-evident that the collective pain of the times is expressed: the fear and despair of the nuclear threat in Europe, which hangs between the two great powers of the United States and the Soviet Union! So the bells of this church are filled with a desperate echo! And that broken bucket seems to vaguely show the end of the world.
Carriages appear twice in the film, and they sped by at a fast pace from one end of the street. It directly shows the director's concern for modern civilization and even his desire to return to the idyllic life of the past.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan. The enormous destructive power of this superweapon soon prompted Japan's unconditional surrender and greatly accelerated the course of the war in World War II.
With the beginning of the Cold War, the United States and the former Soviet Union developed more powerful hydrogen bombs.
The discovery of atomic energy has given humanity a greater ability to destroy. People have not yet recovered from the convenience of enjoying technology, and they turn their heads and tremble in the horrors of the destruction of the world.
The way to eliminate the threat of nuclear war is to eliminate the state apparatus, which represents public power, by creating more and more powerful nuclear warheads.
This frenzied nuclear arms race will not dispel panic, but will only lead the world to a more uncertain future.
Italy, a non-nuclear-weapon state, is more pronounced in this panic. So Antonioni, a public elite intellectual, complains heavily about the madness of the world in the world of black and white images.
This fear of uncertainty about the future of the world is the root of the film's sense of alienation.
end:
Antonioni pessimistically believes that:
The world in which modern man lives does not have the necessary moral tools to match science and technology, and man cannot establish a true relationship with his environment, his companions, and the objects around him.
At the end of "Eclipse", the director seems to forget that this was originally a love movie. In the last shot, a flashing street lamp occupies the entire picture, and the dazzling light is as strong as a nuclear explosion.
Perhaps in the director's view, even the sadness of love cannot hide the huge scars and pain of the times!