"Elephant Sitting on the Floor" is the posthumous work of director Hu Bo. The film has won the Fabian International Film Critics Award at the Berlin Film Festival, the Best Debut Award Special Mention, and the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film.
This nearly four-hour movie tells the story of four low-level characters in a small county in Hebei that happened in one day. The four story lines intersect each other. The four protagonists are in trouble in their lives and face the unbearable life. Trying to go to Manzhouli to see a sitting elephant in order to find salvation in life. The biggest highlight of
"Elephant Sitting on the Floor" is its slow-paced use of long shots. The film shows us the pain and despair of the low-level characters through audition language and unique performance techniques. We have many profound practical meanings. Today I will interpret the charm of this movie with you through the three aspects of expression, audiovisual language, and theme presentation.
01 Expression method: use a multi-line cross narrative structure to narrate the fate of the characters, and at the same time use metaphor montage to connect the stories and imply the destiny direction
①Through multi-line narrative techniques, to show the fate of the four characters in different ways. The four story lines are parallel and cross each other. The relationship between the characters becomes clear as the film progresses. In the end, all the characters meet and run for a common purpose: to see the elephants in Manzhouli. The
movie shows four stories:
high school student Webb was kicked out of the house by his rude father. In order to get rid of school violence for his buddies, he accidentally injured Yucheng’s younger brother;
Webb’s crush Huang Ling wanted to get rid of her bad mother, and The deputy director of learning is ambiguous;
Webb’s neighbor Wang Jin was pushed to sleep on the balcony by his daughter-in-law, and had to be driven to a nursing home in order to buy a school district room for his granddaughter;
ran into a friend’s wife after being dumped by the subject All these friends chose to commit suicide by jumping off the building...
In the end, these protagonists who were desperate for life chose to go to Manzhouli to see the elephants in search of salvation. The narrative of
is clever in that it does not use the traditional unitary method to tell multiple story lines, but each line crosses, and each character intersects and meets through interspersed clues. Through clever editing, the film presents the same emotions of the four characters in one day side by side, so as to show the four characters' different ways of reaching the same goal.
②Through metaphor montage to connect the story, while suggesting the direction of the story and the change of the character's fate
metaphor montage conveys the unique connotation and deeper meaning of the film to the audience by assigning specific scenes, characters, and props to specific symbolic meanings. In "Elephant Sitting on the Ground", metaphorical montage is used in many places, and some unique props are used to convey special meanings.
The biggest metaphor of the film is the elephant. All four people want to go to Manzhouli to see the sitting elephant. Although everyone knows that it won’t be good to see it, they all regard elephants as being. Salvation is regarded as the spiritual sustenance to rescue today's difficult life. Here, Manzhouli is a metaphor for everyone's peach blossoms, and the elephant sitting on the ground is a metaphor for everyone's self-salvation and struggle against life.
02 Audiovisual language: through long shots, empty shots and dark tones to render the emotions of the characters, and use voices to further deepen the creation of the atmosphere
①The repeated use of long and empty shots to render the emotions of depression and despair of the characters
In every story line, the director used a long lens to follow along when the protagonist walked. Compared with other movies with a strong sense of rhythm, this film has become extremely slow due to a large number of long shots. Director Hu Bo believes, "The most attractive thing is the long gap between the event and the event, the memory and the momentary space. , The bottomless emptiness after the plot happened, these are far more attractive to me than just the narrative plot. "
is precisely because of the long and shaking shots, which left the audience with blank spaces and gaps, and the audience’s emotions can follow the film. Influenced by the characters. The desperate and helpless mood of the characters in the film becomes more three-dimensional through the interpretation of the long lens, which can give the audience a sense of "presence" and immerse themselves in the emotions of the characters.
street
②In terms of color, through the use of dark and cold tones and backlighting techniques, the dark tone of the film is laid, and the despair of the characters’ hearts are further highlighted. The color of the film not only visually and intuitively express the content, story and characters Personality, emotionally, also constitutes a visual psychological hint to the audience.
"Elephant Sitting on the Floor" is dominated by cool and dark tones throughout the film. Backlighting is used in many places to outline the dim state of the underlying characters and give the audience a visual impact.
When Wang Jin went to see the nursing home, he passedThrough a group of ultra-dark shots, we can see the silence and calmness of the nursing home and the sluggishness of the elderly inside through the cracks in the door. At this time, Wang Jin’s heart is repulsive and desperate. He does not want to live in such a place later, so In the no-light and no-light corridors of the nursing home, we can almost only see the silhouette of Wang Jin. Through such color and light processing, the audience can feel the despair and darkness.
Yu Cheng and his ex-girlfriend are walking in the tunnel. When there is only natural light outside the tunnel, only two people's silhouettes are shot in the backlight. Just as Yu Cheng said in the tunnel: "My life is a bunch of tatters", dark Tunnels imprison people in darkness like life. The
film, through the setting and use of color and light, infuses the emotions of the characters, expresses meaning through color expressions, and very naturally substitutes the audience into the atmosphere, strengthening the despair and dark mood of the film. Here, color and light have become extremely powerful. A means of expressiveness and narrative function.
The silhouette in the tunnel
③In terms of sound effects, the organic combination of environmental sound and background sound can render emotions and atmosphere deeper. The environmental sound and background music in the
movie can play a role in rendering the atmosphere and expressing the inner emotions of the characters. In "Elephant Sitting on the Floor", environmental sound and background music are used extensively, combined with the picture, to render the atmosphere of the plot in a deeper level.
Webb discovered that in the long shot of grandma's death, the environmental sound was mixed with the sound of firecrackers outside the window, and the sound changed from weak to strong. The strong contrast between the sound and the picture aggravated the sad atmosphere and magnified Webb's sad mood.
When Webb shouted under the bridge to vent his sadness, the ambient sound included the sound of passing trains and the whistle of cars, and the background was mixed with heavy music of piano and trembling violin. This sound effect of Fully demonstrated the helplessness and pain of Webb . Like a river full of garbage in front of him, life is a mess, and the roaring train on the bridge may be the only way out. The organic combination of sound and picture gives the audience a very strong impression. At the end of the film, the loud and clear cry of the elephant outside the bus broke the tranquility of the night, and the movie also called for a curtain call. The sound of gave the audience unlimited imagination. After the heavy watching of the movie, the loud elephant sound gave the audience not only empathy for the protagonist, but also hope.
In short, through various vocal effects, the film harmonizes the singleness of the single-camera long lens, enriches the three-dimensional sense of the film, and further renders the emotions of the characters and the theme of the film.
Webb yelled and vented under the bridge
03 Theme presentation: Behind the story of despair, what brings us is a reflection on the plight and reality
Although the film is about the unbearable lives of the four bottom characters, they all have one characteristic. It is to fight against fate and find a certain exit to get salvation. Behind these four desperate things, in fact, more is to give us hope. At the same time, the profound issues reflected behind the story are worthy of our reflection and are of practical significance.
①The profound ending, which completes the main expression of the film, and brings hope to the desperate story.
At the end of the film, the bus to Manzhouli stopped at night, and Webb, Huang Ling, Wang Jin and their granddaughter got off together. Under the shining of the car lights, they kicked the shuttlecock, and there was the sound of elephants in the distance. Everyone was attracted by the sound of elephants in the distance, and the story ended here.
In the end, it doesn't matter whether they arrived in Manzhouli to see the elephants. They are willing to fight with life, and they are willing to go out to find inner salvation. That is enough.
As the old man Wang Jin said when he was at the station, "I tell you the best situation is that when you stand here, you can see that place over there, you think it must be better than this, but you can’t go. You can solve the problem if you don't go." So the best state is that I stand here thinking of the peach blossoms in the distance, and the sound of elephants rang in my ears. This is the best ending and destination of these low-level characters in the film. They are making the final struggle against the absurd world and hopeless fate. They are changing their lives and redeeming themselves.Compared with
, many of us are desperate and resigned in the face of unbearable and adversity, thinking that we can only live this life like this, thinking that all misfortunes are destiny, will not fight and never want to fight in the past. After watching this film, if you also encounter difficulties in your life, do you have the courage to cheer up and make changes and redeem yourself? I think we all get energy from it more or less.
②Behind the four stories, the real dilemma and social reality issues of typical low-level characters are presented.
movie, Webb accidentally injured the perpetrator when he helped his buddies resist campus violence. The deputy director of the school did not judge the matter fairly, but was worried that it would affect his own future. In this bad school that is about to be demolished, no one cares about the psychology and growth of the students.
Reflect on frequent school violence incidents. When schools choose to aphasia, who will protect the rights of students? When we are responsible for the actions of both sides of the violence, should we reflect on the lack of school and family education?
The epilogue
"Original Sin" has a line like this:
"We may not be able to control how the unbearable and impermanent began, and we may not be able to let the pain and regret disappear. But we may be able to decide. How should all this end."
Faced with the predicament, these characters in the film chose to go to a distant place to find salvation, thus ending the immediate discomfort. Facing the end of the blank, I hope they can find the elephant and regain hope in life.
also hopes that we, who are in the same adversity, can find our own elephant.
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