The story probably tells the story of the famous actor Yu Yan, played by Gong Li, who went to Shanghai, which was then known as the "isolated island" to carry out a spy mission, and many forces competed openly and secretly in the Shanghai colony. Due to the complexity of various forces in the film, there are also many languages such as Chinese, British, Japanese, French and German in the film. This play can make me walk into the theater for nothing more than a few things: Golden Lion nominations, Director Lou Ye, cast.
The actors of this film invited Gong Li, Zhao Youting, Oda Cerang and other big celebrities naturally do not need to say much, and about Lou Ye, I have seen some of the plays he directed in the past, this is the fifth. Although he is not fully understood, he also knows a little about his film style and personal characteristics. As a representative figure of the sixth generation, he has many of the significant characteristics of this generation of directors while retaining strong personal characteristics: handheld shaky photography, depiction of marginalized people, exposure of the dark side of social reality, literary temperament of the characters, love of "pain" and so on. Most of the features are also preserved in the Lyceum Theatre. His depiction of the dark side of society is an important reason why I love him, and he often likes to pay attention to those who have been forgotten by society. For example, Shanghai in "Suzhou Creek" shows the life of the bottom people behind the glamorous shanghai. Dilapidated houses, damp walls, and the rustle of slippers rubbing against cement floors are all portraits of the most authentic living environment of most Chinese people. Most of the sixth generation of directors are deeply influenced by Italian neorealism and are keen to document the real China, rather than the praise of previous films. At the same time, Chinese films in the 1990s began to gradually commercialize, and foreign blockbusters were introduced, which made a large number of sixth-generation directors begin to send films to international film festivals, and the scale could be broadened and the creation became more and more bold.
The most intuitive visual impact of watching Lyceum Theatre is its signature handheld shaky photography and black-and-white graphics. For the black and white shooting method has been tried many films, it is not a new thing, and this shooting method is becoming more and more accepted, from the recent "Manck", to the Oscar-recognized "Roma", and then to the "Artist" that won the best picture in previous years, etc. Have adopted the black and white shooting method, and the public is gradually accepting this film form. On the one hand, the presentation form of "Lyceum Grand Theatre" originates from the background of the times at that time: 41 years of Shanghai, which reflects the sense of historical age in black and white; on the other hand, after the story script comes out, it is more like a minimalist film, and the black and white way is consistent with the film. Compared with "Roma", which is more familiar to the public, this film is different. In the process of watching the movie, it can be clearly felt that the picture is not simple black and white, and many places are gray or even blurry. This is a deliberate blur, and the picture is no longer a strong contrast between light and dark, but a gray with a more realistic texture. The effect created is more realistic, not aesthetic, which also reflects Lou Ye's personal characteristics. In contrast, the black and white pictures in "Roma" are obviously carefully designed, and the large number of designed panoramic shots are obviously different from the jittered cameras in "Lyceum Theatre". "Roma" tells the story of AlfonsoCaron's childhood memories, and the exquisite black and white is designed to narrate the childhood memories in a more modern way. The likes of "Mank" and "The Artist" are more of a tribute to the black-and-white period before the popularity of color films in the sixties. The use of light and shadow in the film is also worth exploring, a large number of scenes are even virtual focus, black and white are no longer distinguished, the middle is excessively gray, sometimes even the face of the character can not be seen clearly, simulating the scene in the dark also reminds me of the blind man's perspective in "Tuina", using the same method to show the scene in the dark. At the same time, the use of large close-up shots and the use of Steadicam shooting to follow the long shots of movement have long been the hallmarks of Lou Ye, and naturally they are also indispensable in this film.
Another obvious feature of the film's structure is the play-within-a-play. The structure of the play-within-a-play is not uncommon, and I was quite impressed by Casavetti's "Premiere Night" and the Palme d'Or song and dance film "Jazz Spring and Autumn", which are characteristic of such films for the ambiguity inside and outside the play. In this film, the director also uses audio-visual techniques many times to blur the boundaries between the inside and outside of the play, and the seamless connection between the stage and reality makes people exclaim. The first scene at the beginning of the film is quite interesting in just a few minutes: it sets the tone for the whole film; it reminds the audience of the concept of a play-within-a-play; it hints at the direction of the plot; and the ending echoes. At the end, the picture before the death of Gong Li and Zhao Youting is connected to the jazz performance through a panning lens to return to the stage, taking care of the beginning, making the whole story like a play, which is ironic. At the same time, Gong Li's identity as a spy also requires him to "play" inside and outside the play.
In fact, there is a high threshold for watching the film, and it is necessary to have a certain understanding of the social background at that time, otherwise it is difficult to understand the logic of the whole story. At the same time, many viewers are easy to see it as a spy war film, in fact, spy war is just a cover, the film is a hymn to Yu Yan, and the essence is still a story about "people". The ambiguity of the narrative and the large amount of hidden information in the plot also challenge the audience's ability to absorb information and understand the language of the film.