happened to a person who was extremely nervous or even a little sick, and told the process of his inner transformation. He was placed in a position of omnipotence at the age of three, accepting the worship of the Manchu civil and martial arts. After many years, he finally became a normal person. ——Bernardo Bertolucci
In the 1980s, Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci and photographer Vittorio Storaro came to China , and they were against the Forbidden City. There was great interest. Soon after, they took the eyes of an outsider and made a biographical film about the last Chinese emperor Pu Yi. This was the first and only film that was actually shot in the Forbidden City. The film finally shined at the 60th Academy Awards in 1987, and directly won 9 awards for best film, director, and photography. It was also the first film in history to win this honor with a Chinese theme.
Hidden Symbols
In the 1970s, Trevor Whitt first proposed the theory of film metaphor in "Metaphors and Films", and constructed the basic framework of film metaphors. In the classification of metaphors, summarized ten types. Movie metaphors, including simile, slippage, substitution, juxtaposition, metonymy, synonymy, etc. When metaphor appears as a film technique, it makes the originally "externalized" emotions become more "built-in" and complex.
From rhetorical terms, metaphor is the mental behavior, language behavior and cultural behavior of perceiving, experiencing, imagining, understanding, and talking about such things under the suggestion of other things. In layman's terms, we can understand metaphor as the use of a specific thing to imply another thing on time. In a movie, it is through a certain object to achieve a certain emotion or reflect a certain theme. "The Last Emperor" directed by Bernardo Bertolucci hides the loss and doubt in the film's symbols.
The door you can't get out of
Puyi has always been inseparable from the "door" in her very dramatic and tragic life. The " door" has also become a metaphor for Bernardo Bertolo's imagery. Puyi’s first door was his first door to the pinnacle of power, but at this time he was only a three-year-old child, but he was caught in the focus of the world’s changes, letting the ups and downs of history and the swaying situation of wind and rain give The feudal dynasty presented its last elegy. After growing up, Puyi was just an empty city even if he was personally convicted. The death of his biological mother caused him another blow. Even if he wanted to cross the palace wall and return to the palace to honor his biological mother, he was stopped by the guards at the gate of the palace. Emperor, he can't get out or in.
warlords fought, Puyi was driven out of the Forbidden City, and later the Japanese found Puyi. They hoped that Puyi could be restored in the "pseudo-Manchukuo", but the naive Puyi believed it, but in fact it just went from one prison to another. . He has crossed many "gates" that symbolize power, but he has never belonged here. He has belonged to the vassal and hostage of power all his life. He tried to go out, but was powerless.
Bernardo Bertolucci realized this very clearly as a bystander. Therefore, in "The Last Emperor", it not only has the extensive and profound traditional culture of China, but also has the re-deconstruction of the East from the unique western cultural perspective. In the traditional Western business, the East is the embodiment of wealth and romance. This mysterious and ancient empire makes them yearn for, but the opium battlefield at made them realize that behind this huge empire is for thousands of years. The repression, darkness, backwardness, ignorance...
The "red" of happiness and tranquility symbolized by traditional Chinese culture is also repressed under the power of the "Crimson Red" of the Forbidden City. These were all keenly captured by Bernardo Bertolucci, who tried to examine Chinese history from the perspective of Occidentalism, and made up for the confusion and loss of the West with the help of the depth of Eastern freehand brushwork. In a sense, "The Last Emperor" is more like a picture of beings with a clear Eastern culture.
color metaphor
This huge picture of Eastern beings needs an artist's hand, so he found Vittorio Storaro (three Oscars for best photography). VittorioIn order to truly restore the heaviness of the Forbidden City, Storaro spent almost 3 months constantly consulting Chinese historical documents and investigating, and finally made "The Last Emperor" reach unprecedented heights in video content. It takes several hours to consider and consider . The vicissitudes of life precipitated in the lens, and the heavy historical traces of the mottled dark red palace wall naturally added a bit of desolation to this crumbling twilight empire.
Puyi is at the pinnacle of power, but his spirit has been in the shadows, always seeming to be isolated from the world. Bernardo Bertolucci deliberately hits the light on the top of the wall in the movie. The light hits Puyi's body as a shadow forever. These shadows metaphor Pu Yi is suppressed and bound by time and space. It was not until the arrival of the teacher Johnston that the light on Pu Yi slowly increased, and he began to gradually walk out of the shadow side, but the time and space did not leave Pu Yi any chance to rest, just when the light was about to shine all on Pu Yi, it changed God, Puyi was driven out of the Forbidden City, the Japanese found Puyi, and the pictures thereafter are always cloudy and evening.
The sunshine of Manchuria Railway Station that has not been seen all year round, the gray-green green of war criminals and soldiers, brings invisible oppression. The depressed flow of people moves in an orderly manner, and discipline suppresses the entire special historical period. The dazzling red outside the train station dispelled the haze in the darkness, but the red of the new era is totally out of step with the gray-green coat. This is the arrival of the new world, but some people have stayed in the old world.
originally symbolized the supreme power of yellow, but also in sharp contrast with the dark green in the second half of life, it seems like a splendid life, walking the royal family down the altar into a commoner. The warm and cold tones of a also seem to imply the collapse of the feudal dynasty, and Pu Yi's original golden life has also become gloomy . It wasn't until after 1959, after Puyi's labor reform amnesty, that the green symbolizing life and hope reappeared in the picture. He finally ended the life of the first half of his life and started his wonderful life as an ordinary person.
light and shadow metaphor
Vittorio Storaro changed the dark shade of western movies and created a Chinese retro tone in "The Last Emperor". The 3-year-old Puyi was found by Cixi, and the light and shadow layout of this scene is the real peak. There is a huge contrast between the natural light from outside the window and the light inside the new city. The Empress Dowager Cixi sits quietly on the bed in the center of the hall. The maidservants and eunuchs beside him do not even breathe. The depression and closure fill the entire hall, the boundary between reality and illusion The boundary disappeared in the blurred light and shadow. The huge ancient empire of
was entrusted to a 3-year-old child by Cixi. Xiao Puyi hid behind the pillar of the dragon sculpture and looked around. He still didn't know what the title of emperor meant to this country, but a few words from Cixi changed his whole life. The dim light hides some romance, the golden light hit Pu Yi's face, as if this decadent empire will be reborn in Pu Yi's hands, but the dark shadow seems to reveal a decadent breath.
The vast Forbidden City, the mottled crimson palace walls, young Puyi chasing in the open space, the imperial city in the picture is scrupulous under the overlook of the distant view, Puyi is like a drop in the sea in front of all things, even if you are the emperor, he is still In the world. The wave of history, the torrent of social promoters, the dynasty that symbolizes the ancient city wall, is about to exit in silence.
The victory of the fusion of East and West
Puyi failed to ride the bicycle that symbolizes breaking through imprisonment and shackles, dragging the ancient empire forward, he came to the new world, restarted his life in the new world, the last of China This emperor draws a successful conclusion. This is the image of Puyi in Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor". The baptism of for thirty years still shines with the brilliance of "humanity".
Puyi finally broke free from the traditional flattening of history, and truly restored the origin of human beings. In Hongda’s visionIn the corner, showed a sense of "wandering in historical fate". The addition of and this is a powerful demonstration of the integration of Eastern and Western cultures after the collision, which also makes "The Last Emperor" given the meaning of the times in the context of modernization. This is the framework of Eastern culture, and the interpretation of Western culture is a victory for the integration of East and West.
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