Taste the classic
Zhang Junzhao's "One and Eight" shot in 1983 is usually considered to have fired the first shot of the "fifth generation movie". Its appearance announced the rebellion and departure from the past "fourth generation" film values and aesthetic pursuits. This is a movie with a new sense of modeling and strong expressive power at the time.
The literary script of this film is adapted from Guo Xiaochuan's long poem of the same name, expressing the noble integrity of a true communist under the complex background of the entanglement of national wars and inner-party lines. The film highlights the national dignity that Communist Party cadres and bandits understand together under extreme conditions, and the vitality that they can stimulate together. The emergence of
"One and Eight" has caused a variety of strong reactions in the critics. Some have fully affirmed its bold explorers; some admire its unconventionalism, some are angry at its ideological rebels, and some hate its composition, color and other violations of vision The accustomed... at the time, Professor Zheng Guoen of the Film Academy once said that the breakthrough in the styling of this film was the most noticeable at the time. Some people even think that the first and most impactful breakthrough in the new era began with the styling of the film. Although it is biased, it reveals the distinctive features of the fifth-generation directors and works. The innovation of film styling consciousness is actually a rebellion against the traditional film styling concept and thinking style, and it pays more attention to the exploration of the film itself. The
film, under the overall impression of a complete impression, boldly uses the incomplete composition of the partial picture, causing a strong visual impact. The sometimes incomplete and sometimes oppressive visual structure reveals the prisoners’ past evil deeds and spiritual distortions. At the beginning of the film, the faces in the dark prison cell were a bit ugly because of the special requirements of the film's modeling. Later, they came forward in times of crisis to make them look a little cute. The color tone of the whole film mainly highlights the words "black and white", and strives to use the simplest color elements to make the picture more perfect and richer. The interior and exterior scenes in the film deliberately avoided all bright colors, choosing to use large areas of black and white to structure the picture. Without the leisurely elegance of ink painting, only the heavy color blocks are as powerful as sculptures. Under this premise, the film also uses concise composition techniques to create a contrast effect. Light and heavy far and near have become important elements of the picture.
The light treatment of this film is very different. In the interior scene, the bright and dark areas created by the house structure are used to reflect the huge contrast in the picture. In the exterior scenes, the bright surfaces and shadows caused by strong sunlight are used consciously. The film pursues the "silhouette" effect, uses the sky as the background of the picture, reduces the exposure, and suppresses the sky to intermediate gray, and all the characters become silhouettes. Since they cannot directly express the actor's facial expressions, the actor is required to adopt modeling, use sound, and through action To visualize inner activities. The sound and picture modeling of
film is three-dimensional and multi-directional, and the use of human voice, sound and music is unique. The shooting method of "space outside the painting" used in the film can be said to have created a new idea of photography at that time. It not only strongly vented the creator's emotions at the time, but also did not directly conflict with the visual fidelity of the film. The music in the film is simple and noble. There are many unaccompanied male or female choruses, and there is a child chorus at the beginning of the film. The latter part of the music appeared more, developed and upsurged with the plot and mood.
"One and Eight" is an exploratory film in the new era. The theme and style of the whole work constitute an artistic unity. Judging from the aesthetic habits of today's films, the depressive, dull, and severe atmosphere created by the film, as well as the subjective thoughts and emotions strongly rendered by the author, seem out of control. The narrative structure of the film makes people feel lengthy, and the lens language that pursues a sense of formality loses visual excitement. Xiao Feng also believes that "One and Eight" is not very mature, and overemphasizes the shocking overall effect, but lacks a delicate grasp. However, the film has made bold innovations from the establishment of the theme to the director's processing, sound and picture modeling, and performance awareness. When discussing the theme of "One and Eight", Zhang Junzhao and Xiao Feng both mentioned the relationship between the creative state at that time and the background of the times. In 1982, Zhang Junzhao, Zhang Yimou, Xiao Feng, and He Qun were reluctantly assigned to the Guangxi Film Studio. Zhang Junzhao believed that this was an indispensable background for the release of "One and Eight". In his words, "The four brothers only have a way to advance and no retreat. They are all energized. They feel that if they can't do something, it's really shameful to go back to see Jiang Dong." This emotional color reflects their creative state. in, Which is also reflected in the theme selection of "One and Eight".
In the winter of 1983, "One and Eight) was screened in Beijing. The screening room was full of seats, and people who were late to hear the news from time to time sat on the ground after finding no seats in the dark. Ninety minutes, which seemed too long because of depression, passed, and the people present were all in a daze--in the end they just left silently. Although there were no flowers, applause, or even any censure; despite the fact that the film was forced to delete as many as 107 in the censorship at the time, the "fifth generation" of the Chinese film industry was born stubbornly and clearly.
The so-called “fifth-generation director” refers to the “82 graduates of the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy who entered after the Cultural Revolution (also known as “Class 78”. There were 28 graduates in this year who were assigned to work in film studios. There are 20 people, including famous directors such as Chen Kaige, Zhang Junzhao, Tian Zhuangzhuang, etc.), as well as the 1983 Renxue director training class (Huang Jianxin was in this class and the director cadre specialization course in 1984 (including Guo Lingling, You Xiaogang, etc.) Graduates of Beijing Film Academy, as well as some young directors who have not entered the academy (such as Zhou Xiaowen, Sun Zhou, etc.). Later, some of the photography department and fine arts graduates of the 82nd Beijing Film Academy also joined the ranks of the "fifth generation of directors." Before the "fifth generation", people did not know that the history of Chinese film could be divided into such generations; after the "fifth generation, the new generation of filmmakers are unwilling to follow the road of eye-catching generations." Go on. Just as I don’t know who creatively gave this group of vibrant young directors the title of "fifth generation", the "fifth generation" directors are destined to use this title with a creative rewrite of Chinese film history. Got to be loud, hitting "unprecedented and unprecedented."
