From nowhere, the artists were faced with 2 tasks to complete:
1. Breakthroughs from past art forms.
2. Satisfaction with the existing public aesthetic trend.
When these two tasks are perfectly combined, it is the basic standard recognized by both academics and the public.
The film "Lighthouse", according to the tastes of Chinese audiences, or the entertainment habits cultivated by "American Hollywood fast food culture", has hardly completed the second task, and most audiences' evaluation of it is vague. , and was even dubbed the gimmick of a "horror, thriller" film. When I first saw it, I thought it was a movie like "Little Plum's Deserted Island Neurosis," but the guys at Cannes weren't fools.
As the saying goes: A work of art without symbols is like a book without a plot, or a script without a story. Let's look at the symbolism of the film, what kind of content it hides.
1. What does the title of the movie "The Lighthouse" symbolize?
This is not difficult to explain. The lighthouse is used to indicate the direction for sailors. The original meaning of the lighthouse is: light and direction. At the beginning of the movie, we can find two guardians walking towards the lighthouse, and a group of seagulls flew around the lighthouse. .
2. What does the seagull symbolize?
Seagulls appear several times in the movie: 1. Warning from the old guard, 2,, Contaminate the water of the guard, 3, Provocation to the new guard, 4, Beaten by the new guard, 5, Pecking at the body of the new guard .
We can probably guess that the seagulls here are not a symbol of freedom. They fly over the ocean territory of the old guard. They are humble but cannot be ignored. They hover with the soul of the sailor, but why do they want to peck at the body of the new guard? Let's keep this question for now.
3. What does the new guardian symbolize?
These are the two protagonists of the whole film, and the author has given them two rich and wonderful plots. As long as we are slightly negligent, we will be led into the maze by the director, ignoring its hidden wonderful symbols and unique artistic points. If you don't miss the details, you may be able to glimpse some answers in the fog.
Just like the revolution of French painters in 1800, artists broke the definition of "God must be high above", and people are no longer yearning for those falsehoods. Impressionist painters began to express the present, paying attention to the ontological behavior of human beings.
In the movie, both guardians have gone through the process of monasticism, they have experienced:
1. Atonement, 2. Blasphemer, 3. Doubt, 4. Revolutionary, 5. Martyr.
The symbolism of the characters: "The people of today, the gods of the past".
Now, we also need to free our minds, and we don't need to use the old Hollywood drama to examine this film. Let us find the myths about ancient Greece and some philosophical vocabulary in our memory, and explore again with a philosophical level of thinking.
If the two guardians are gods, what are they doing?
4. What does the Kraken symbolize?
When the guards took the statue out of the mattress, the siren was the symbol of all lust.
The path of seeking is full of mists, and human beings believe that they should pursue the pleasure of their nature. The naked siren has become an idol, hidden in the arms of human beings, and blasphemed in the lighthouse. Looking for beautiful sirens on the shores of the world, having fun with them, and thinking that these desires are one of the meanings of existence.
5. The old guard
If the lighthouse symbolizes light and light represents the truth, the old guard will be more difficult than the new guard's curiosity and exploration. He warned the latecomers: "May God save the souls of those who are humble, the process of guarding the truth will be full of storms, don't offend. Seagulls, they're fearless and carry the sailor's curse." The old guard's all-encompassing face is telling the audience that he's like the god who rules the sea world: Boston. In fact, the director is also an old guard designed according to that model.
6. Martyrs
When the guardian fulfills his wish, completes the revolution, overthrows the old guard who symbolizes the old power, overthrows the old myth of the sea god Boston, you can also say that he fought with his own heart, conquered and domesticated himself. He finally saw the light of his curiosity, and the "truth"
However, as the old guard prophesied: "The ever-changing desires in people's minds disappear when they see the truth."
His eyes were burned by the dazzling light of truth, and he fell under the lighthouse. And like the god Prometheus written by Rubens, he was pecked by seagulls.
So far, the guardian of truth has completed: the stages of atonement, blasphemy, doubt, revolution, martyrdom.
Boston, the sea god in Homer's epic "The Odyssey", has a child who is a cyclops, and the new guard in the movie "The Lighthouse" has a one-eyed head in a shrimp cage, and the recurring seagull is also one-eyed.
After the guardians of the truth have fallen, the seagulls have come bravely, enjoying the food that can provide them with nourishment.
Welcome to think about the second question: what does the seagull symbolize?
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Author of the article: Hu Xiao
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