Friday's words: We can't extract too many regular creative methods from French films (or French films), for the simple reason that their filmmakers' creative thinking is too open-minded, and it is not something that can be learned! At the same time, when we watch a French film, we can completely distinguish it from other European films, such as a film that hides a temperament that you can't see but can feel that influences the viewer (of course, we can't blame the obscurity of French cinema). What makes French cinema avant-garde to world cinema, we will interpret French cinema today with a "zambi child" from Cannes in 2019.
The reason for choosing this film as an example is simple – it covers almost all the characteristics of French (and even French) cinema.
Screening at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival
The characteristics of "anti-genre" are relative to mainstream films, and it is also the characteristic of the entire "European film", but this point is more extremely reflected in French films. So what exactly is a typed storyline?
Throughout Hollywood feature films, their story structure is nothing more than the following situations: main narrative, flashback, interpolation, parallel narrative... (The law is hidden in the timeline); their space is mostly established by the axis formed by the relationship between the protagonist and the supporting characters; their narrative rhythm is nothing more than the beginning, the climax, and the ending. And what about French movies?
First of all, if you look for a law on the axis of time and space to interpret French films, you are bound to fall into a dead end, and you will find that the events on its timeline are chaotic, or even have no cause and effect. Take a look at Zombie Kids:
The film has two lines: the story of two high school girls in modern France (note that girls have no primary and secondary roles); the other is the story of a black man who becomes a "zombie" after death in Haiti half a century ago.
▲ Stills from "Zombie Child"
We can finally learn from the whole movie that one of the girls has a relationship with a black person, but it should be noted that from the perspective of the film story, there is no explanation and progressive relationship between these relationships, so it cannot play a role in dramatic tension and contradiction. What's more, in space, there is no direct contact between the people of the two eras, and we can only know the relationship from the trivial chats and streams of consciousness of the characters.
Second, if you're looking for the beginning, climax, and ending of a French movie, it's going to end in a dead end—it can have a climax everywhere, and more than one or two places (note that the events in these climaxes are completely isolated, unrelated, and not at the service of which main line), and of course it may also be flat throughout the text to make you sleep without an orgasm.
From an audiovisual point of view, the climax of "Zombie Child" is on every "ritual event", like the witch making voodoo at the beginning of the movie, like the Haitian funeral ancestor ceremony, like the voodoo priestess performing spells on the spot, and so on. These events are mysterious enough to rival the science fiction genre, and their authenticity is like a documentary, however, they exist in isolation in the film, do not serve any story line, and have no progressive relationship with other plots.
Throughout the French film, from the confused "Love of Hiroshima", to the unpredictable Godard, to the flowing "Fangfang", "Angel Emily", etc., you will find that all classic French films have their story narrative methods that override the timeline and the character space line, if you have to pull out the third line, that is, "stream of consciousness", and people's consciousness is originally divergent, open, and unrestrained, which determines the anti-genre characteristics of French films.
From the perspective of lens application and editing, French cinema is absolutely "minimalist". This is true not only for commercial genre films, but also for art films of other European countries of the same kind. For example:
1, French film in the expression of a certain point of view or thought, it does not use the empty lens like Antonioni, it will let a character or some characters through debate, dialogue, lecture in the way of the way of direct expression. (Such as the movie "120 Blows Per Minute", "Mother and Prostitute")
2, it will not use fixed lenses like Ozu Yasujiro or Hou Xiaoxian, on the contrary, French films will use a lot of shoulder-to-shoulder, shaky, and moving photography; (such as "Adel's Life" and "Angry Youth")
Stills from "Adel's Life", 2013
3, French movies in the time, space jump will not use what empty mirror special scene, filter contrast, not even a fade out of the fade in, said to turn on the turn, jump thinking people caught off guard, can be described as the province of the lens to the home!
These characteristics have caused a major viewing effect of French films: the pace is fast.
We can say that French directors will not accommodate the audience when making films, let alone treat the audience as fools, they only care to state events and express opinions to the greatest extent, to stimulate the audience's dialectical thinking and imagination space.
And this minimalist feature, I think is enough to call it an "avant-garde" approach! After all, the magic weapon for most commercial films to survive is to modify, render, and even exaggerate and deprive the audience of the space to think in order to seize the public box office.
The "avant-garde" of French cinema is not only reflected in rebellion, but also in the creativity and freedom of others, and of course, its artistic accomplishment.
In Zombie Kids, you can not only see the fusion of exotic and modern pop pictures, but also hear the fusion of mysterious music and modern music. You can hear real-life conversations, mysterious incantations and academic speeches... This is rare in themed genre films, and it is dangerous to use.
Modern French cinema (especially after 2010) has become more and more inclined to a pseudo-documentary approach – shoulder-to-shoulder, juggling, natural light, open composition and other documentary techniques are heavily used in films.
Not only that, but the performance of actors in French films is also more inclined to a kind of daily life improvisation than traditional drama. For example, 2010's "Between Man and God", if there is no cast list, if it is not hidden by the bloody scenes in the film, at first glance you will really think that it is a well-planned documentary; for example, 2017's "120 Blows per Minute", those passionate debate scenes in the classroom, this is not improvisation can achieve that kind of authenticity;
▲ Between Man and God movie poster, 2010
The same is true of the "Zombie Child" we are holding today, not so much that there are a lot of mystical scenes in the film, but rather that the director is improvising the things in the lives of the actors, but these things happen to a special ethnic group. Of course, even students in modern French cities perform as if they were watching a documentary.
What is admirable is that the French director has found a kind of fusion between this recording body and the story body, and the effect of this fusion does not affect the story of the film, but also does not affect the authenticity of the film.
The philosophical thinking generated by the fusion of truth and fiction is another feature of French cinema!
The French writer Gide has spent a great deal of time in his novels arguing the relationship between the "truth of reality" and the "truth of art". This is enough to prove the philosophical dialectical thinking of the French. And this kind of thinking is everywhere in French cinema. Let's look at "Zombie Child" again—
The mystery of the film is self-evident, it comes from the island nation of the Caribbean. For the people of modern civilized society, everything that happened in that exotic land is undoubtedly amazing. However, if the space of this movie is only enclosed in that island country, then the story of "Zombie Child" is at best an exotic story. And when exotic stories take place in civilized societies (especially in a multi-racial social system like France) and happen to a few middle school girls who love to listen to popular songs and love to skip class and swear, the mystery becomes "magic realism"
To survive this magical reality, one must make a compromise between reality and faith, just as a writer has to make a compromise between the truth of art and the truth of reality.
Zombie Child exists in two spaces: modern France and exotic Haiti.
There are also two bridges connecting these two time and space: a Haitian girl living in France, and a Haitian earthquake.
Obviously, this is the director's careful design under the philosophical thinking - he let people of two eras, people of two different racial and cultural environments coexist in the same movie, forming a delicate contradictory relationship. And this contradictory relationship, the director did not use dramatization, film genre to show it, but instead a realistic approach.
The works created under this kind of philosophical thinking can not only present complex social problems, but also stimulate the dialectical thinking and imagination space of the viewer.
If you think that French cinema only has boring things like ideas, scholarship, dialectics, etc., you are very wrong! The French have never lacked romance, which is hidden in the dialogue of their characters, in those avant-garde film scores, and of course in every detail of the shot, from Bresson to Truffaut to Carax... Everywhere!
Of course, you have to keep up with the rhythm of French cinema first, you have to accept their avant-garde and have their open consciousness.
Pay attention to "Friday Literature and Art" and interpret classic movies
▼▼▼ Past related articles, you may like:
A brief analysis and overview of European film styles
For this gay film, we only have a share of jealousy!
Where did the "nameless fire" in "Angry Youth" come from
What exactly is this heavy taste erotic film trying to convey to us?
What a movie with a "magic realism" temperament!
10 "Dark Fairy Tales + Magical Reality" movie recommendations