In Kubrick's films, we can see obvious traces of Hollywood films, but the core of his films seems to be different from what Hollywood expresses. L.R. Popuk summed up Kubrick's style in The Elements of Cinema:
"The key to Stanley Kubrick's art is his ability to constantly change subject matter and style, but still control all the visual and aural elements. He is one of the few such film directors currently, and with each new film His philosophical interests seem to have continued to expand into every broader and more interesting field as he came out. Kubrick's films include the following important elements:
1. Have a strong, humanitarian interest in a wide range of philosophical issues inherent in the process of social development;
2. A well-designed, nuanced screenplay contains a strong narrative core and is full of rich detail;
3. The picture concept is very imaginative, and special effects are used;
4. Flexible and complex photography;
5. The witty performance reflects that the director is good at conveying the ideas contained in each scene to the actors;
6. Effective use of various styles of music (classical, country western, pop). "
Throughout Kubrick's film creation, what we can see is the colorful themes and genres, and the imaginative and flexible film language pictures, but we can also dig out the core of his creation. It seems that it always revolves around Excavation and care for the inner world of human beings, compassion for human destiny and emotional tremors.
Next, I will take Kubrick's "Lolita" as an example to try to discuss Kubrick's film's inheritance and innovation of classic Hollywood, its film expression techniques, aesthetic characteristics and ideological connotations. The last aspect that I am more interested in is the textual transformation and narrative expression of "Lolita" itself from the novel to the screenplay to the final film presentation.
First of all, it is Kubrick's inheritance and innovation of classic Hollywood. Everyone should know that Kubrick was a professional photographer in the early days. His father gave him a camera when he was in middle school, which stimulated his interest in photography. It can be said that his early photography experience laid a solid foundation for his later film career, and we can fully appreciate his emphasis on photography techniques and visual aesthetics from his works.
Kubrick started filmmaking in the late 1940s and wrote his first film, "Day of the Fight" in the early 1950s. In fact, we can see very obvious traces of classic Hollywood from his early films. But in the process of his continuous creation, we can also see his constant innovation and fission, from the initial innovation in form to the innovation of the ideas and concepts expressed later, we can see that Kubrick He wants to pursue or express a thought and concept that is different from the mainstream of Hollywood.
For example, its storyline, in the early Kubrick films, was still based on conflict, and followed the order of establishing conflict, strengthening conflict, and resolving conflict. The bet at the racetrack established a small conflict, and the final plan was completed. When the small conflict ended, but because of an accident, the huge sum of money was lost, ushering in a larger dramatic conflict. At the end of the novel, the male protagonist also Sanctions were imposed, and the final conflict was resolved.
In "Lolita", this kind of plot conflict still exists. At first, Humbert lived with and married Charlotte in order to meet Lolita, until Charlotte opened Humbert's diary. , ushered in the first conflict. And then Lolita left Humbert to usher in yet another conflict. This also pushes to the climax of the beginning and the end of the story, Humbert chooses to kill Quilty who took away his beloved woman, ushering in the end of the story. But in the later "The Shining" and "Eyes Widespread", we can hardly see obvious conflicts, especially "Eyes Widespread", just some scattered and disorganized little things happened, completely entering a kind of "fragment" Narrative mode, and Kubrick in the film is more in pursuit of the character's heart, rather than the narrative.
Second, in terms of character types, in the early Kubrick films, we can clearly see the style of the classic works, in which men and women always have obvious positions and conform to a fixed pattern, such as "Killing" The male protagonist is the initiator of the whole story and is in a central position, while his girlfriend Xiao Fei shows his dependence on him and his "not smart, not beautiful" characteristics as soon as he appears, and is in a manipulated, passive position. The position of the character will always give a soft light effect. However, in the middle and late works, the characters in the film are difficult to locate in terms of categories, and they cannot be simply divided into good people and bad people. For example, Humbert in "Lolita", it is difficult for us to say that he is a psychopathic bad guy. Although Kubrick did not intend to make us sympathize with him and identify with him through his portrayal, but in the film Some of his socially or ethically seem immoral and distorted behaviors, I don't know if everyone will, but as far as I'm concerned, I can understand why he fell in love with Lolita and how he felt about her The rationality and authenticity of the behavior and psychology of deformed love and control, of course, I should not be a psychopath, but through Kubrick's narration, I can understand such a character more abundantly, and can feel this way The authenticity and life of an image, as well as the richness, complexity and tortuousness of his inner emotions.
Furthermore, in terms of audio-visual language, classic Hollywood mainly emphasizes a closedness and rationality in terms of composition and camera movement. This rule has always had a profound impact on Kubrick, even in his later works. out of this. For example, in "Lolita", the long shots and color filters commonly used in genre films are widely used, especially when Humbert is warm with women, and the light and shadow tone of the film has also been adjusted according to the plot and theme. The adaptations, the colors are soft, and the scene composition of the picture is always selected from the most commonly used medium and close shots in classic movies. The camera is hidden as much as possible, even the speed of movement is relatively slow and uniform, and the lens appears composed and steady. But Kubrick is by no means a traditional person. He still made his own innovations in audio-visual language. For example, in "The Shining", Kubrick used a lot of fast-moving shots, such as Xiaodan. When Ni was pulling the dart, he turned around and saw two little girls, and Wendy saw the word "murder" in red on the door. These techniques are forbidden in classic Hollywood movies, and the creepy background music makes us More frightened. In addition, the repeated use of low angles and lenses, the breakthrough use of Steadicam cameras, the excessively bright tone, etc., have left us with a new feeling.
It can be said that Kubrick is not satisfied with following the classic type of movies. He added personal innovation on the basis of absorbing its essence, and finally formed his own unique style and charm.
In the second part, we briefly analyze the time and space of Kubrick's films.
In the film space, we found that Kubrick likes to choose a closed space to develop the storyline. He reveals the psychology of the characters through the stylized creation of the closed space, and also shows the suppression and control of human nature from the outside world. , so as to deepen the theme and think more deeply about human nature. For example, in "Lolita", Kubrick consciously created a closed space, so that most of the time the characters are always in one dark closed space after another, such as living room, bathroom, bedroom, hotel room, hospital, Cars, etc., show that Humbert has a deformed emotion for Lolita that cannot be made public, and at the same time, in the process of such conversion, it also provides a reasonable process for the accumulation of the characters' inner emotions and desires, until In the final burst, it seems that all closures and tightenings are released and destroyed.
After "Lolita", Kubrick's film space became more and more closed. For example, the whole film of "Dr. Strangelove" is in three closed spaces: the cabin of the bomber, the air force base. The office, the war room of the Pentagon, they together constitute an overall dark and oppressive atmosphere. "2001 A Space Odyssey" is also almost always a closed space, mainly showing the high-tech products made by human beings, such as spaceships, transfer stations, conference rooms in the base, etc., which are also completely closed spaces.
When it comes to film time, Kubrick excels at using a variant of film time. First of all, Kubrick makes good use of omissions and jumps in movies, such as "The Killing". Because of its narrative structure, this film determines the fragmentary and ephemeral nature of its passages. Kubrick's jumps in time are as much as Twelve times. In "Lolita", Kubrick also used the omission and jump of time many times. For example, when Humbert met Lolita for the first time, he told Charlotte that he was going to book a house. The next scene That is, Humbert watched the movie with the mother and daughter, and both of them put their hands on Humbert's lap because of the horror of the movie they watched. This omits the step-by-step explanation of their relationship. Rather, it jumps directly to a time of character relationship that is more in line with the theme Kubrick wants to express. Another example is that after Lolita learned of her mother's death, Humbert wanted to take her to Bethley to start a new life for the two of them. The next shot shows Humbert lovingly painting Lolita's toes after they've been living in Besley for six months. Kubrick deliberately omits the passages of time that seem to promote the relationship between the characters, and only presents the passages of time that more accurately and directly reflect Humbert's deformed love for Lolita. By jumping the narrative time, Kubrick not only prolongs the time of the story, but I think the more important point is that he can keep the audience in a momentary grasp of the mood of the film, making Lolita think. The kind of character emotion and relationship to be presented can be more deeply felt by us. Another very classic example is the bone thrown into the sky in 2001: A Space Odyssey, arguably Kubrick's most classic and well-known passage of time jumping in movies.
In addition to the jump of movie time, Kubrick's deformation of movie time is also reflected in the expansion and elongation of movie time. The most typical example is the paragraph in "A Clockwork Orange" in which Alix beats his companion on the shore. Kubrick uses all the slow motion of the characters. George and Dim are attacked by Alix and fall into the water. Alix pretends to want Radim to go ashore, but scratches his hand with a knife. Waving sticks, splashes of water, and ballet-like body movements form an aesthetically pleasing scene of violence. When we appreciate such violent scenes, we are deeply impressed by these expanded time and extended pictures, resulting in a great sense of disgust and a deeper analysis of the characters' hearts.
In the third part, let's briefly discuss the thematic connotation of Kubrick's films. Let's take a look at the video shared by our classmates just now. In "The Shining", firstly, Jack's temperament changed greatly with the change of time and the exhaustion of creative thinking after serving as a caretaker of the hotel. Finally, he carried out a mad pursuit of his wife and son with perseverance. With an axe in Jack's hand, While slashing at the door, the concept of family disintegrates. Secondly, it is the director's performance of race, war and other themes in the film. For example, when introducing the hotel, Uman said: "This place originally belonged to the cemetery of the Indians. During the construction of the hotel, the Indians were attacked several times. "And then Chef Dick came to the hotel again and was unexpectedly hacked to death by a mad Jack. At the end of the film, the camera freezes on the time subtitles of the photo, which happens to be the National Day of the United States. It seems to tell us that the so-called race and the upper-class wealth and civilization of human beings are based on killing. We can understand that in a society composed of human beings, people divide themselves into different groups due to issues of concepts and wealth, and then exclude them, and then take possession of people and things through violence.
And "A Clockwork Orange" also sets up characters representing normal social order and systems for us. Through their attitudes and ways of treating Alix, we can see that human nature is suppressed in the system and society, which leads to alienation and makes Every character doesn't seem normal. This artificially created abstraction has a more profound effect on the distortion of human nature than ordinary violence.
From the above, perhaps we can glimpse the theme of a certain level of Kubrick's films. He tends to have a vague positioning of the character's character, and usually puts the character in a very complex environment, and uses the character's reflection or resistance to the external environment to show the harsh environment or external oppression of human beings. Characters are always in multiple contradictions and conflicts, or there is an unknown strong psychological struggle in the heart of the characters. When external communication factors are broken, such as weather, communication, etc., or the communication between human beings is too lacking, it often leads to the alienation of human nature, and human beings themselves also have a series of problems that they cannot overcome, such as sexual desire, violence, fear and so on. The aggregation of these factors will lead to the externalization of human nature at different degrees and levels.
We then return to Lolita, which also expresses such a theme through Humbert's arguably deformed fascination with Lolita. Beneath deceit and betrayal, human nature marked by lust is humble and insignificant. We see that Humbert's initial use of Lolita as the personification of his pure love is itself a fatal mistake, and all the signs in the film suggest that Humbert has been in the role of Ben deceiver, although he is always present, but But he didn't know it all the time, but he didn't know the truth until later as a party. Kubrick didn't want to show Humbert's emotional entanglement with Lolita. I think he wanted to show a person's helplessness and humility when faced with lust. Humbert has always been dominated and controlled by lust. On the one hand, he is deeply infatuated with Lolita, trying to make her the object of his control. For example, he will prohibit Lolita from dating that classmate and forbid her to make phone calls. , participate in drama rehearsal, etc. And Charlotte's death strengthened his desire to control Lolita, but the ending was just the opposite. He was always controlled by Lolita, or he was firmly controlled by his own lust. On the other hand, we can say that Humbert is obsessed with the illusion that he has created. From a worldly perspective, Lolita seems to be just a sweet-looking, playful and slightly neurotic, wild girl. But from the diary recorded by Humbert, we can see that he has made Lolita myth, "The dual personality of this beautiful girl makes me almost unbearable, only a woman who is in love can understand my tiny handwriting. "He mistook lust for love, and at the end Lolita's betrayal ("I think he's the only person I've ever loved.") led to the inevitable tragedy. But we may understand the role of Humbert in this way. Although Humbert killed Quilty in the end, he seems to be, or even a victim of this incident, and we will give him all kinds of things that are dominated by lust. Deformed behavior is a form of sympathy and pity.
Finally, I would like to share the textual transformation and narrative expression of "Lolita" from the perspective of "Lolita" from the novel to the screenplay to the final film presentation.
It can be said that the narrative methods of novels and movie scripts are obviously different. Although both novels and screenplays are seen by people, the way of seeing is different. George Broston said in "From Novels to Movies": "People can see with the naked eye, and also It can be seen through the imagination of the mind. And the difference between the vision created in the visual image and the concept created in the mental image reflects the most fundamental difference between the two means of the novel and the film.” Simple Interpretation means that the narrative mode of the novel text is based on words, which makes the novel highly abstract, and readers must complete the imagination of characters and plots in their thinking.
The movie script is an audio-visual text, which requires the use of unique film and television thinking to nurture the audio-visual image and provide the best buds for shooting. That is to say, the screenplay requires the playwright to change the image that the novel can express through abstract imagination into the image that can be "see" through the audio-visual feeling when choosing the narrative method. In this way, the discussion, description and lyric in the novel all need to change the way of narration before they can be presented in the movie script. Such a difference between texts also reflects a tension. The transformation of Lolita from novel to screenplay to film also reflects Kubrick's mastery of audio-visual techniques and his understanding of the subject. focus of expression.
Below, I will briefly share a transformation method of the text of "Lolita" from several perspectives such as narrative plot and theme, narrative theme and perspective, and narrative time and space.
The first is the narrative plot and themes. The themes of Nabokov's novels can be said to be ambiguous. It can be said to describe the various living conditions and mental states of people at that time, such as the loss of love, the loss of morality, the absence of meaning, the game of power and so on. The whole novel embodies a life like a "siege" everywhere. Humbert built a siege for himself because of the death of his childhood lover, the trauma of past childhood love and the constraints of real morality and law. Prostitutes and marrying a rather childish woman want to live a normal life to break the siege, but reality hits Humbert again, so when he meets Luo, who is the same age as Annabelle. When Rita fell, he fell again. Not only did he not want to jump out, but he also encircled Lolita into his own siege, took her to exile, and prevented her from dating or even talking to other boys. get crazy. And if you want to break out of this siege completely, the only way is to destroy one of them. In the end, Lolita chose to run away and escaped Humbert's imprisonment with Quilty, who she loved, but finally jumped from one siege to another, and was finally abandoned by Quilty, married a lame man, and had a difficult childbirth. And died; and Humbert killed Quilty in anger, pushing himself to destruction.
It can be said that Nabokov wrapped the various dilemmas of modern people's life in erotic coats and created a perverted person who, although immoral, still did not lose his humanity. The entire novel is also Humbert's self-reported form of telling his own mental journey, confessing his crimes, and constantly torturing his soul between morality and immorality.
In addition, the novel can also be interpreted from the perspective of politics and power. For example, the novel expresses Europe and Lolita represented by Humbert, the United States represented by Charlotte, and the third represented by Quilty. The mutual checks and balances between these three forces in the world, once one of the forces weakens and disappears, will lead to a political metaphor that will eventually lead to their common demise.
In addition, the novel can also be interpreted as a landscape documentary, and the American scenery, history, and human feelings along the way are also themes that cannot be ignored.
For the theme of the screenplay, combine the previous discussion on Kubrick's consistent theme style. I think it's a politically biased theme. The reasons are as follows. The first is that it has greatly expanded Quilty's role, allowing one of the three forces to have more direct games. In the novel, Quilty is only mentioned at the end of the novel, "Did I know he used to know her mother? He's actually an old friend? . in front of him, pulling Dolly Guangguang's arm, holding her on his lap, kissing her cheek, she was fascinated by him when she was only 10 years old?" And in the movie, Quilty is given to him at the beginning of the film. Moved out, that is, Humbert shot Quilty, and in the process of the story, Quilty also appeared early, that is, at Charlotte's ball, Lolita planted him. Love roots. After that, Quilty made as many as seven appearances in various identities. These appearances were either a game with Humbert or an exchange with Charlotte. This seems to be a game that wants to emphasize the three-way power.
Another reason is that I am more convinced that Kubrick is not trying to shape or excavate the humanity of Humbert's image, but to express a certain political theme. In the film, Kubrick's memories of Humbert's first love and its impact on his psyche are all deleted. Instead, let him fall in love with Lolita at first sight without any background. At first, I couldn't accept this setting at all. I thought that the deletion of Annabelle, which I think is the most important and sacred plot point in the novel. Minus is blasphemous to the original book, until I saw what Lolita looked like, and secretly forgave Kubrick in my heart. It is understandable that Humbert can directly move such a lovely girl.
The third is to delete all erotic descriptions from the film, transforming the gushing erotic expression of the story into an inner eroticism, such as some secret relationships between Humbert and Lolita, only through Humber She paints her nails, and Lolita feeds Humbert food to express it in some ways that are full of erotic tension but without direct erotic scenes.
Based on the above three reasons, I still believe that Kubrick has some emphasis and deviation on the theme of the original novel.
The third is the change of narrative subject and perspective. It can be said that Nabokov, as a stylistic master with a language game style, is very particular about the choice of the narrative subject and perspective of the novel "Lolita", which is also one of the greatest features of the novel. "Lolita" does not adopt the perspective of the omniscient and almighty God in the traditional novel, in which the narrator conveys information in an authoritative tone, but very innovatively adopts the editor Dr. John Ray Jr. and the editor of Humbert's memoirs in "Introduction". Humbert's first-person narrator "I", the two dual narrators. The narrator here calls himself "I", which seems to be a first-person narration, but does not participate in the plot, which means that the narrative subject of the novel is still Humbert. In this way, the novel has an independent narrative voice, which can establish a narrative layer that is external to the protagonist and can make different judgments to show distance. In addition, the two make the entire narrative escape the constraints of past and present time, and escape from the constraints of morality and immorality, and play an effective distancing role. To put it simply, in the novel "Lolita", Dr. John Ray Jr., the editor of Humbert's memoirs, criticized Humbert's perversion and immorality, and Dr. Ray, the "first-person narrator" The setting of the novel makes the immoral plot in the novel comical and more dramatic, thus diluting the tragic color.
And Kubrick's film directly deleted the narrator Dr. Ray, but adopted Humbert's limited perspective as the first-person narrator. This single perspective turns the world outside the main perspective into a mystery, thus A lot of narrative suspense is formed. That is to say, we can only follow Humbert's eyes to see and think.
As for Humbert's hidden thoughts about Lolita's many inner lusts in the novel, the film is expressed through Humbert's diary. Humbert began to record his love for Lolita in the diary after meeting Lolita. Rita's unknown obsession and distaste for her mother, which he freely enjoys in his diary, sets up some erotic plots. Here I think Kubrick used the form of literature to retain the narrative form of the novel. The diary is used as a symbol of novel narrative.
The third is the transformation of narrative time and space. Nabokov has clearly divided two forms of time, namely applied time and pure time. The former is the time we measure with the help of clocks and calendars. The latter is time of perception, time without content and context. Obviously Nabokov prefers the latter, and there is a clear tendency to obscure time in the novel - for example, he deliberately allows Humbert to arbitrarily merge the past of Annabelle with the present of Lolita. It can be said that Nabokov retraced the past in the reversal of time and moved forward along the cage of time, although this progress is actually a kind of nostalgia and dependence on the past.
But on the whole, the novel is divided into three levels, the first level is written in the tone of the editor Dr. John Ray Jr., in the present tense, at this time the stories of Humbert, Lolita and Quilty The characters in the novel are all dead; the third layer is the postscript, which is also the outer layer of the narrative, and the narrative events return to the time when Humbert confessed his sins in prison; and the second layer, Humbert's memories, is the novel. main part of . In this part, the protagonist Humbert's perspective is used to narrate his experience from childhood throughout his life. This kind of setting makes the time span is very large, but it is full of layers.
The movie script is different from the novel, because the time of the movie will be relatively simpler to fully consider the factors such as our audience's understanding of the plot and the regularity of the movie. Kubrick's "Lolita" takes the method of explaining the ending first, and then linearly narrating the reason, which is simpler.
As for the movie space, the original novel made wanton jumps in various spaces. In the movie, Kubrick only chose two representative spaces - one is a hotel that symbolizes the life of aristocrats, and the other is a symbol of the United States. The motel of modern life expresses the difference of contemporary people's living environment through the comparison of these two representative and intuitive space images.
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