In 1965, the Polish-American writer Jerzy Kosinski published the novel The Painted Bird, which tells the story of the atrocities that took place in World War II from the perspective of a boy, Joska. After more than half a century in 2019, Czech director Wenceslas Malhall used the novel as a model for the film of the same name, "The Painted Bird". The film was shortlisted for Best Picture at the 76th Venice Film Festival and represented the Czech Republic at the 92nd Academy Awards. Although it did not win the award in the end, it did not affect the film to become a classic.
Yezh Kosinski
When the novel "The Painted Bird" was first published, it was criticized for containing too many bizarre "abuse" plots, and The overall plot line of Wenceslas Malhaul continued the storyline of the novel, while removing some sensational dross, so that the entire film focused on the depiction of the atrocities of the war and the reflection on the acts of war, making the style of the film dark rather than dark.
The main story of the film is simple and cumbersome, and the simplicity is that the whole movie revolves around the wandering journey of the boy Joska, a total of 9 short stories before and after, through continuous wandering, Josca realizes the cruelty of the world. The world under the shroud of war is full of haze, which not only directly affects the people in the war zone, but also indirectly changes Josca's worldview and life. From the naïve teenager at the beginning of the film, to the silent enduring of the persecution of the world, to the end of his own mind is even adversely affected, what happens when he throws a clean white paper into the ink? Just look at Joscal's changes before and after.
This is a non-mission film, the protagonist does not have a clear goal to achieve from beginning to end, the only thing he has to do is to survive, stay or continue to move forward is to survive. This also means that the pace of the film will not be too tight, and in the soothing progression of the story, the audience's attention is all focused on Joska's wandering journey, creating a better experience space for the audience. The audience's viewing process is like following Joscal to witness the changes in the world, re-examining the impact of the war from the perspective of a young boy.
Wenceslas Malhall
The film "The Painted Bird" has a very special and strong style, the external style is expressed in the director's use of black and white images instead of the common color picture; the inner style is expressed in the application of symbolist elements, and the director uses some symbolistic elements to help the audience understand the connotation of the film.
The world's first color film "Flashy World" was released as early as 1935, because the color picture contains more color elements, and color is also an effective way to compose and create the atmosphere of the film, so the color picture quickly became the mainstream of the film after the appearance. Even some early black and white films in order to highlight the dramatic tension contained in the color, spent a huge amount of manpower on the film film frame by frame manual color, the most representative is Eisenstein's "October" in 1927, the black and white picture appeared on a colored red flag waving, this flag represents resistance and hope, the importance of color can be seen.
Glitz World
But some directors like to do the opposite, and in today's colorful films, many directors have begun to try to tell stories with black and white images. The black-and-white style of this film has intensified in recent years, not only to be loved by the audience, but also to be recognized by the judges at major film festivals. These include "Roma", which won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 91st Academy Awards, "Cold War", which won the Best Director Award in the Main Competition Unit of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, and "Midsummer", which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, all won in black and white.
Rome
In recent years, Chinese directors have also created many black-and-white style films, such as the Tibetan director Wan Ma Tse-dan's work "Tharlo", which has won awards and won soft hands, and even the small-cost literary and art film "Village Opera", which has not yet been released, has also received unprecedented attention. Fan Wei won the film emperor with the black-and-white film "No Problem", and the young director Huang Xinyao's work "Big Buddha Plus" also exerts the black humor of small-budget films to the extreme. These films have received more attention because of the black and white style, and likewise, the high quality of the film has also promoted the development of the black and white style, so that more audiences can recognize and accept such a return to the basics of the film style.
Take the film "Painted Bird" as an example to analyze the advantages and limitations of black and white images.
advantage
"Painted Bird" tells the story of the Second World War, the film is full of violence and intuitive bloody pictures, black and white images can eliminate the cruelty in the blood, so that the violence returns to the violence itself, rather than becoming a gimmick to create blood. In other words, the director makes the audience pay more attention to the brutal behavior of the abuser and the pain of the victim, rather than focusing on the blood-red visual stimuli.
The black-and-white images are closer to the overall style of the film and can show a strong sense of age. Through Joscal's series of encounters, the audience feels more about the cruelty of the world, and everyone in the war era bears the pain of life. The war era is the background of the story, just as the black-and-white images are the background of the film. There is a kind of expression in Chinese called allegory in the scene, the director is to integrate the impression of the war into the monotonous black and white tone, and only black and white can afford such a thick and tragic history.
The world of war times is lifeless, as weak and painful as the plague, every ordinary person in war faces the same dilemma of survival, the unique color of their bodies has long disappeared, and in the context of war, everyone is just an ant-like existence. The black and white images deprive each person of their unique colors, and they live monotonously and similarly in the vast land, creating an extremely depressing atmosphere of the film.
limitations
Limitations of the subject matter. Each unique style is a double-edged sword, and when used properly, it can be used more effectively, but the use of imbalance will amplify the limitations of the style. Although the black and white style has the above advantages, the development of films from black and white to color is an inevitable trend, the fundamental reason is that the monotony of black and white is only suitable for small-cost literary and artistic films, and it is a film dominated by external factors such as stories and performances. The nearly three-hour duration of "The Painted Bird" is a great challenge for the director, and the lack of color appeal can only be compensated by a twisty and bizarre story and excellent performance, which also puts higher demands on the actors.
Limitations of composition. We all know the importance of depth of field in the lens, and the important way to highlight the depth of field is color. Black and white images will make the picture flat, lose the three-dimensional look and feel, and also lack the visual stimulation brought by the depth of field. For master of color use such as Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee, removing the color of the film is equivalent to removing the soul of the film, even if the ink-style "Shadow" is not completely black and white style, but only uses a dark color design.
Symbolism originally referred to a genre of painting, which was later successfully applied to film, and gradually became one of the most common film creation methods used by directors with its unique referential meaning and the deep meaning behind the appearance. The overall structure of "The Painted Bird" is simple, the story line is clear, and it is not difficult to understand the main plot of the film's surface, but if you want to explore the real intentions of the director, you must start with these symbolist elements.
It should be noted that symbolist elements are generally more obscure, and some will be connected back and forth to produce greater dramatic tension. Through the use of symbolist elements, it can help enrich the clues of the film and leave more room for the audience to imagine, that is, the role of "leaving blank". The Painted Bird has a large number of symbolist elements through which the director conveys his creative ideas and film themes to the audience.
Painted birds
The title of the film is "The Painted Bird", which originates from a passage in the film: the bird keeper paints the wings of a bird white, and after releasing the bird back to the flock, a strange and tragic scene occurs, and the painted bird is attacked by the flock and dies. The painted bird is an outlier in the flock, obviously the same species, but it is attacked by the flock of birds. The painted bird symbolizes the Jews who were hunted by the fascist camp in World War II, and in this film naturally refers to the male protagonist Joscal. There are two groups in the phrase "painted birds," one is a victim and the other is a perpetrator. Joska saw the dirty bird being expelled to death, thinking of his own displacement situation, he couldn't help but burst into tears, and the director used Josca's tears to show his anti-war stance and attitude.
Wooden boats and driftwood that drift with the flow
The wooden boat was a toy made by Joska himself, and he put a note on it that read, "Come to me," and drew stick figures of himself and his parents. He put the wooden boat into the stream, and the wooden boat went with the flow, carrying Joscal's wishes. And the driftwood appeared when Joska was scared into the rapids, and Joska, who was deeply powerless, could only cling to a driftwood on the surface of the water and go with the waves.
Putting wooden boats and driftwood together for analysis can play a role in echoing back and forth, and if you notice these two details when watching the movie, you will feel doubly desolate. Wooden boats and driftwood are objects that drift like duckweed, they cannot control their own destiny, and the current carries them forward. They symbolize the sense of powerlessness of ordinary people in the war years, wrapped in the tide of the times, and can only survive with the tide.
liquor
Joska has two contact with spirits in the film, the first time when he was staying at the bird keeper, who poured him a glass of wine, but he refused. In the bird keepers, although they still live a life of starvation, they have a rare period of stability. Although the bird keeper is a strange person, he does not bully Joska, and Joska understands that he is still a child and cannot drink alcohol, so he refuses. The second was when a gang of soldiers ransacked the village and forced Joscal to drink, making it easier to secretly give him to the Germans, and Joska was drunk.
Through the attitude towards drinking twice before and after, it can be seen that Joska's situation is getting worse and worse, and alcohol generally means adulthood. From his voluntary refusal of alcohol to the indoctrination of spirits, symbolizing that during the war years, he was forced to grow up early and feel the good and evil of the adult world in advance. Nine times out of ten people have a bad life, especially in the war years, and the director also hides his firm anti-war stance in the wine.
Of course, there are other more unique symbolist elements in the film, such as the decapitated ram, the gouged eyes, the pistol, etc., I will not repeat them all, if you are interested, you can communicate with me in the comment area.
Whether it is the black-and-white video style or the symbolist elements, Czech director Wenceslav Malhall is trying to better express the central idea of "The Painted Bird" - anti-war. The Polish-born original author of The Painted Bird, Jezy Kosinski, experienced war as a child, and some readers believe that the book is not only a novel, but also the author's real personal experience, Kosinski denies this speculation, but also acknowledges that the dark history of childhood was the inspiration for the book. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Kosinski, who was born in 1933, had just turned 6 years old, about the same age as Joska, the protagonist of "The Stained Bird."
The film uses black and white images to create a world without basic order, and uses a keen lens to capture the helpless and cruel faces of sentient beings in the dark ages. When Joska first wandered, he would verbally refute and physically refute in the face of bullying, but after more experience, he gradually understood that rebuttal was meaningless. Wandering in the dark world, Josca went from aphasia to dishonesty, from helpless self-defense to actively attacking others, a clean white paper was gradually painted with dirty colors by the chaotic world.
Tragedy is about breaking good things up for people to see, and "The Stained Bird" is such a tragedy about Joska's growth. The director did not use blunt words to express his disgust with the war, but used detailed elements to subtly convey anti-war ideas to the audience. In fact, the film is about more than just joska's tragedy?