The King of the Circus – A discussion of the self-perception of different groups in the film

As a genre film, song and dance films are produced with the addition of sound to the film, and its rapid development has become a major category of films, which has to be amazed by his appeal and audience popularity. Early song and dance films simply combined some music and some song and dance passages, and it was precisely because of its roughness that it declined early. Later, people began to improve this film format, and with the popularity of genres such as Stevens's "Rock age" and "The Wizard of Oz" by major film companies such as Metro-goldwyn-mayer (MGM), the genre began to be widely loved by audiences. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, the public's taste for movies changed, and this film format began to enter a downturn. However, in recent years, with the popularity of song and dance films such as "City of Philharmonic Music" and "King of the Circus", the genre of song and dance seems to have revived. And it is worth mentioning that the protagonist of this article, "The King of the Circus", was released in China in early 2018, coinciding with China's Spring Festival, and all kinds of Hollywood blockbusters in the Spring Festival this year have folded, while "The King of the Circus" has become popular against the current, I don't know if this is due to the increase in the appreciation level of Chinese audiences, or because of its family finale?

The film is set in 19th-century America. At that time, American society, due to its strong religious background, was still as conservative, feudal, stubborn, despised entertainment and enjoyment as other european countries, admired Calvinist asceticism, and practiced Max. Weber, in his masterpiece The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, referred to the vocation of work, to the production of capital purely, and to the acquisition of capital not for personal pleasure. In this social environment, theatrical performances aimed purely at personal entertainment and the indulgence of desires are undoubtedly a blasphemy against God, a kind of existence that is despised and spurned by millions of people. Then, in an atmosphere of asceticism, a disdain for the spirit of personal entertainment, p.t. Barnum appeared, and in the eyes of these conservative ascetics, his bold surprises, lively and relaxed innovative entertainment creeds, and ideals that did not bring joy and enjoyment to the masses seemed even more unforgivable. "The King of the Circus" continues to reflect to the audience the evils of various social elites such as discriminatory behaviors of the powerful and discriminatory acts of differences in the form of song and dance. In order to support his family, the hero p.t. Barnum in the play gathered all kinds of strange people in society and formed them into a circus, they may have different physical disabilities, may have different skills from ordinary people, but they all have similar encounters and misfortunes, they are trapped in the eyes of the world, discriminated against and despised, often tormented by inferiority and fear in their hearts, all fall into a deep self-awareness dilemma, can not find the value of their own existence, and the establishment of the Barnum Circus gives them hope and light, Give them a home inside their sensitive and fragile hearts. For some well-meaning audiences, they can find real joy in circus performances, while those who are stubbornly conservative opponents, who see the uniqueness of circus performers as weird, protest the existence of circus. Under the constant offensive of public opinion, p.t. Barnum gave up his original intention, began to fear and hide his inner fear of inferiority and cowardice, began to submit to the conservative Old European aristocratic culture, in order to find the so-called higher culture of the nobility, began to create a charming Jenny Linda as a singing star, in order to obtain personal pursuit of fame and fortune, and to anesthetize his heart. However, fame and fortune made him forget his original intentions, and P.T. Barnum gradually moved away from his circus, and began to despise the various flaws and strangeness of the members, no longer encouraging and accepting them as before, but was ashamed of them avoiding talking, and in order to chase money, he did not even go to see the ballet performance of his beloved daughter. With his various changes and gradually deviating from his original intention, his wife and children did not chase fame and fortune like him, but chose to turn around and leave him at the most brilliant time of his life. P.T. Barnum, who gradually lost his original intention, was like a broken branch on a big tree, leaving his roots, drifting away with various storms and tides, completely unaware that the prosperity in front of him was just a mirror of flowers and moons in the sky. Sure enough, with the indulgence of p.t. Barnum, and later the circus was set on fire by the opponents, Jenny Linda saw through that she was just a pawn of the hero p.t. Barnum and chose to quit the music scene. P.T. Barnum, who is chasing fame and fortune, has become nothing, and the prosperity of the past has become a cloud of smoke. But fortunately, the deceased people who were despised by him in different forms did not leave, and reunited with themselves, and did not blame themselves for their mistakes, only with sincere gratitude, they thanked p.t. Barnum for giving them a chance to face themselves and walk out of the cage of inferiority, what a lovely group of people. Under the influence of these strangely shaped, but noble and lovely people, p.t. Barnum finally realized how wrong his pathological pursuit of fame and fortune, and his discrimination against the differentiation of friends, and more importantly, he saw his own inner smallness and inferiority. With the encouragement of his friends, he regained his original intention, bravely faced his inner inferiority and smallness, plucked up the courage to make a comeback, and the fire burned down the luxurious circus. He and his friends set up a new circus in a tent, the circus that truly belonged to him and his friends, and gave the power of the circus leader to his lovely group of friends. In the end, he also found his wife and daughter, and the family has been reconciled since then, and they have lived a happy and happy life.

Directed by Michael. Before filming the movie "King of the Circus", in addition to shooting some musical video, Gracie only worked in some films such as "The Magician", "Double Pupil", "Cubbyhouse" and other films, which may be the reason why the visual experience and viewing effect of this film are excellent. As Michael. The performance of Gracie's directorial debut "King of the Circus" can be said to be quite eye-catching, but there are still some hard wounds that cannot be ignored, such as the design of the story towards the pattern, still a typical Hollywood genre film routine, the story of the small people growing up because of the strength of the heart to achieve the American Dream; and some plot switches are too abrupt, the development of the clues is not smooth enough, such as the growth of Barnum Jr. in the first six minutes and the blossoming of love with the rich family Charletti. However, although the film as a biopic can be said to be quite bad, even a little upside down, and even those who have been ruthlessly used and oppressed by Barnum as having been helped and redeemed by Barnum (this face can be said to be the same as lao mei's behavior), but as a song and dance film, it is indeed quite eye-catching, after all, the music team of "Philharmonic City" is still quite powerful.

In my opinion, in addition to appreciating the exquisite costume of the film, I am more concerned about the spiritual connotation of the film and the self-perception of the various groups in the circus at that time under the prejudice of social class at that time. The dilemma of self-knowledge exists not only in ancient times, but also in modern times, and I think it will also be accompanied by the continuous transformation of social classes and will always exist in the future. Whether it is the Tao Te Ching. In chapter 33, "He who knows others is wise, and he who knows himself is wise." The victor is the strength, the self-victory is strong", or the famous saying "Γλῶθι σανό" in the ancient Greek Temple of Delphi Apollo (know yourself), all tell people the importance of self-knowledge, but also show that at least since then, the problem of self-knowledge has been plaguing the vast human society, who I am, who I will become, this has always been an eternal proposition that plagues human society. The male protagonist of the film, Barnum, and his strange but kind members, who were marginalized by mainstream society, were plagued and tormented by self-knowledge in the social environment at that time.

In this film, in order to attract the audience, the male protagonist Barnum recruited a large number of strange people to become his circus members, such as dwarfs, bearded female workers, obese people and some tattooed stunts, etc., who have been ridiculed and attacked by people around them and even their relatives, and have been marginalized by the mainstream society for a long time, and gradually fall into the quagmire of inferiority and self-denial in the continuous denial and ridicule, and serious lack of self-awareness and self-confidence. And most of the people around them are also happy to enhance their sense of self-satisfaction and vanity by denying the value of their lives, and use this to comfort their humble and fragile hearts in the laughter. These fierce and introverted taunts and despisers, not only in the movie, but also in our lives in large quantities, and sometimes our casual ridicule may ruin the lives of others. In fact, these strange people in the Barnum Circus, many of their strange appearances are not determined by themselves, they are just different from others, but they have suffered a lot of discrimination from the people around them, and they have suffered great pain, who brought them this pain? It's actually that dirty society. When watching the movie, the every move of these strange members always touches the hearts of the audience, and their attitude towards life is also touching everyone, so that all the audience can't help but sympathize with them. Why is everyone involuntarily moved by such a group of "weird people"? I think in addition to the super appeal of the song and dance film itself, it is because every audience we watch the film, even if they are sound and ordinary people, but in real life, in the eyes of the outside world, they have also been treated as "strange people" of one kind or another, being ridiculed and ridiculed by people in front of people or behind people; or they have been insulted by leaders at school and at home in the company, sneered by teachers, and harassed by customers. As a result, we have also been like the eccentrics in the circus, beaten into the vortex of self-blame and self-abandonment, into the quagmire of infinite self-denial, gradually lost our self-positioning, slowly and slowly blurred our self-perception, and fell into a long-term confusion of not knowing "who I am". And the various "weirdos" in the circus in the film are not magnified by all kinds of discrimination, prejudice and ridicule in our lives? We are tired in life, for every penny, with all our strength, but if we stop a little and ask ourselves, do we know ourselves? Perhaps no one can say that the film itself is a microcosm of each of our self-perceptions, and through song and dance, it is thrown into every viewer, gently clasping our souls: Can you know yourself?

Mr. Zhu Guangqian, a famous scholar, said: "Following the birth of the modern world, the awakening of romantic aesthetics is accompanied by a desire for freedom and enthusiasm for performance." Yes, when strange "freaks" begin to get together and join the circus in rehearsals and perform together, they are redeemed in each other's lives and begin to find themselves in the group, and the self in this group gives them confidence and courage. So when these weirdos were turned away from Barnum, they bravely took to the streets together to sing "This is Me", shouting "i'm not scared to be seen, i make no apologies, this is me", bringing barnum the brilliance of humanity and the courage of life, it also deeply infected me in front of the screen. I also hope that this brilliance and courage can infect more people, let the world have more understanding and tolerance, less ridicule and prejudice, in a world full of tolerance and understanding, we may have the opportunity to truly know ourselves, find the real self-knowledge, so as not to fear the world's sneers.

Finally, watching the American song and dance films skyrocket all the way, widely popular, praised continuously, and won a lot of box office in China, which shows that China's domestic song and dance film market is also expanding and growing, but the development of our domestic song and dance films is miserable and the prospects are gloomy. In fact, the start of Chinese song and dance films is not too late, in 1932, a song and dance film in China", "Banana Leaf Shangshi", was released, but due to the lack of the foundation of song and dance dramas like in the West, the market is narrow, the number of films is also very small, and the industry is also in a recession. Even if there is such an excellent song and dance genre film as Chen Kexin's "If Love", the market response is still not ideal. At present, there are several problems in the development of song and dance films in China: first, the type of works is limited, second, the lack of professional production teams, and third, the immaturity of the market audience. Therefore, if we want to develop China's song and dance films, we must first solve these three problems. The most fundamental problem of type limitation in China is that because China does not have the soil of song and dance dramas as abroad, domestic film companies copy foreign song and dance film forms for the Chinese market, just like forcing Guangdong people to eat Sichuan cuisine, which is difficult to swallow. Therefore, I think that if China's song and dance genre wants to have a great development, it must be combined with domestic folk songs and operas, etc., and the song and dance traditions that the people are familiar with, rather than forcibly grafting Western stage plays, so that China's song and dance films can have a good future.