On December 28, 1895, on a cold French winter day, the Lumiere brothers shook up their projectors in the Indian Room of the Grand Cafe, 14 Rue Capuchin, Paris, France.
On December 28, 2012, in the cold winter of China, the silent film "The Great Artist" produced in France was released in mainland China.
In this film that confounded many viewers and even theater projectionists, everything was not only black and white, but silent. All plots require actors to convey through exaggerated facial and body movements. Just occasionally interspersed with some scenes.
The maladaptiveness quickly disappears as the film progresses, replaced by a devotion to silent-era black-and-white tones, retro looks, traditional love story plots, and high-quality body and facial acting.
Funny coincidences, love at first sight encounters, wonderful dramatic twists, misunderstandings, clearing up of misunderstandings, happy endings. The whole story uses the very classic three-stage dramatic structure at the beginning of the film. There are also essential Lacey-style spirit dogs.
Black and white films pay more attention to artistic composition and the use of light and shadow, making it easier to guide the audience and highlight key points.
Because there is no voice, actors rely entirely on their own limbs and expressions to convey emotions and structure stories, so silent films have also been accused of being "superficial and exaggerated". This is one of the reasons why the ending is a happy one. Silent films tend to be more comical because of the unintentionally comical nature of its silent nature and the fact that the action is faster than in real life due to its silent nature and sixteen frames per second. genetically determined.
Another reason that leads the story to a happy ending is the director's selfishness. The director is an artist, and the film is a projection of the director's thoughts. It tells the story of a silent film actor who insisted on his artistic pursuit and was unwilling to compromise and eventually fell down and lost. The artist in the film has already paid for his artistic pursuit. How can the director of the same artist bear the heart? How about watching your own artist die step by step?
The final ending is also very cleverly arranged, very 1920s musicals skillfully reached a compromise between ideal and reality.
Many scenes in the film are unabashedly paying tribute to the classics.
In 1927, Jolson said in "The King of Jazz": "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you haven't heard anything yet." The sound film began their new chapter. With the development of technology, color and 3G have made movies more exciting and impossible, but from the Lumiere brothers to Méliès, from Eisenstein to Griffith, they are reminding us that movies The initial enchantment may well be its sheer power, which, from the day the film was born, was contained in its brilliant, silent cry of black and white.
The success of "The Great Artist" once again proved this for us.
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