Author: Gao Xiaoli (Director of art criticism department of Literature and Art Daily)
On July 1, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in an important speech at the meeting to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, "The emergence of the Communist Party in China is a groundbreaking event, which has profoundly changed the direction and process of the development of the Chinese nation after modern times, profoundly changed the future and destiny of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, and profoundly changed the trend and pattern of world development." The movies "Revolutionaries" and "1921", released on July 1, whether it is a group portrait of heroes with typical characters or a time node to reflect the theme of the times, all aim their creative perspectives at the magnificent revolutionary process a hundred years ago, explore the "spiritual source power" of communists who are determined to save the country with sincere artistic creation, and convey the revolutionary spirit of revolutionaries who have gone forward and succeeded. The hot screening of these two films has blown a red whirlwind on the big screen, which not only gained a good reputation from the audience, but also received unanimous praise from industry experts.
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"May my dear youth, born of youth and die of youth, go forward and do not care about the back, turn his back on darkness and turn to the light." This is an excerpt from the article "Youth" written by Mr. Li Dazhao in the ending song of the movie "Revolutionary".
As we sang, we saw the 11-year-old boy driving the train alone and shouting excitedly: "I'm going to a faraway place, I want to do big things, I want to be a useful person." This highly romantic montage technique made a bright artistic reversal for the tragic ending of the revolutionary pioneer Li Dazhao calmly walking on the gallows and generously taking justice. This child is Li Dazhao, and it is also the bright future of thousands of young people of the Chinese nation. And this is precisely the goal of Li Dazhao, a revolutionary who turned his back on darkness and turned to the light, for which he struggled all his life and even shed blood and sacrificed, that is, to "create a family of youth, a country of youth, and a nation of youth with the self of youth."
As a major revolutionary historical theme film, "The Revolutionary" creates a vivid and three-dimensional brilliant image of revolutionary pioneer Li Dazhao in different dimensions through the review of the last 38 hours of prison life of the proletarian revolutionary pioneer Li Dazhao who was arrested and imprisoned, with the first perspective of the protagonist and the third perspective of the characters who intersect with him, through flashbacks, interpolations, and multi-line narrative lens language, in the context of time and space in different dimensions.
As a communist sower in China, Li Dazhao's main deeds have been expressed in works of art. But the audience also wants to know more, and get closer to the heart of the heroic martyr, which is where the film "Revolutionary" strives to break through and expand. The film changes the conventional linear narrative method, with the 38-hour countdown to Li Dazhao's life as the main narrative focus, and radiates out the scattered narrative of Li Dazhao from studying in Japan in 1916 to his heroic inauguration on April 28, 1927, in the 11 years from Li Dazhao's return from studying in Japan to April 28, 1927. The film walks out of the books in the courtyard and shows Li Dazhao in many time and space scenes that Li Dazhao personally sowed the seeds of revolution among intellectuals, students, workers, peasants, newsboys, beggars and other people from different strata, so as to reflect his heavy burden and ideological feelings as a revolutionary forerunner. He united the trade unions of various industries in Shanghai to seek justice for the newspaper boys who were shot, severely punished the murderers, and shouted loudly: "The concession is Shanghai's, Shanghai's is China's, and every inch of land here is our China."" In a speech to the workers in the Kailuan Coal Mine, he pointed out that the lives of the workers were not yet worth mules. Li Dazhao's speech was to the point and full of passion, and inspired by him, the Kailuan coal miners' strike shocked the Beiyang warlords and imperialism.
The main narrative of "Revolutionary" is unfolded in an atmosphere rendered with revolutionary passion, in addition to being the sower of the revolution, the film also allows Li Dazhao to recall the past in prison through flashbacks, and warmly shows the image of a polite scholar, a husband and father who loves his wife and children deeply. He would enthusiastically invite the newspaper boy to breakfast, but told him not to touch the books he bought with his oily hands; on a sunny and grassy afternoon, he would bring his wife and daughter to the grass for an afternoon tea and enjoy the joy of the world. These warm auxiliary plots build an artistic bridge of light and shadow between Li Dazhao's capitalized revolutionary feelings and the emotional world of ordinary people, narrowing the distance between him as a pioneer of a great revolution and our ordinary audience.
In terms of artistic presentation, a prominent artistic feature of the film "Revolutionary" is the different scheduling and application of light and shadow and color aesthetics in terms of lens language, scene switching, character inner activities, dramatic conflicts, plot rendering, etc., so that the realist revolutionary historical theme film has a little more romantic color of art film under the heavy texture of restoring history. This kind of lens language under the rhythm of light and shadow naturally sets off the plot interpretation, mobilizing the audience's emotions to fluctuate with the fate of the characters in the play, which is precisely the indispensable inner temperament of a good movie. For example, in the opening scene, in the gloomy and dark prison, the disheveled Li Dazhao sits alone in the cell, and under the wide-angle flat-pushed lens, the whole picture is a cold and oppressive black tone, and a faint light spills over Li Dazhao's head from the prison skylight. He stomped on Erlang's legs and sang the "Internationale", and the image of the great revolutionary pioneer who calmly and righteously jumped on the screen. Another scene also shows his pursuit of light, he looks up at a beam of sunlight, and the camera momentarily switches to the scene where he touches the blooming flowers at home. One is the dark old world, the other is a warm and bright new world, And Li Dazhao is an awakener who turns his back on darkness and turns to the light. At the scene of the Kailuan coal miners' strike, countless miners lay arm in arm on the rails, and countless miners' lamps shot straight into the sky, which was particularly dazzling in the black tone of the military and police shooting and suppression, which also confirmed Li Dazhao's famous saying that "a noble life is often in a heroic sacrifice." Those countless bright miner's lamps imply that the proletariat, under the sowing of Li Dazhao's revolution, has awakened to darkness and begun to struggle for its own destiny and for the light of the future of its descendants. In addition, in the film, Li Dazhao disguises himself as a farmer and drives a mule car to escort the wanted Chen Duxiu out of Beijing on a snowy winter night. In this section of artistic interpretation, it not only portrays the deep friendship between Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, but also adds a little revolutionary romantic feeling to the film. Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong climbed jingshan overlooking the city of Beijing, and the bright yellow city wall glowed golden under the sunlight, which also implied that the revolutionary flame of "iron shoulders shouldering morality" was endless. There are also the childish words of children who frequently switch in different time and space, "Daddy you are back", which is the family's eternal expectation, and its artistic shock is tearful.
Guangming Daily ( 2021-07-07 13 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily