The French have always been known for their undisciplined freedom, but the French director Luc Jacques and his team spent 13 months in the polar regions with a rigorous and demanding attitude. The filming of "Emperor Penguin Diary" was completed under severe circumstances, showing the world the real and extraordinary life of Emperor Penguin for the first time, and deservedly won the Best Documentary Award at the 78th Academy Awards.
1. The rhythm of rich themes is
not difficult to guess. The choreographer tried to convey the sigh of life through the process of the migration and breeding of emperor penguins, as well as the sincere praise for the mysterious creature of the emperor penguin. However, with the final production of "Emperor Penguin Diary", the thematic implication it conveys is uncontrollable, and the spiritual wealth it expresses is also incalculable.
Emperor penguins eschew their flamboyant swims in the water, leap out of the water for clumsy walks, and recklessly move to their breeding sites for generations. What a serious and cautious attitude towards life!
In the cold wind, a pair of emperor penguins danced a song of love, kissed and stroked each other, and combed each other's hair. What a warm and unyielding attitude towards love!
In order to protect the fragile and precious life on their feet, the penguin fathers can not eat for two consecutive months and stand firm in the wind and snow. What a spirit of willingness to sacrifice in the face of children!
When it is extremely freezing, a large number of penguins snuggle with each other to keep warm, and use their dark backs to resist the cold wind and wait for the sun to appear. What a spirit of unity in the face of difficulties!
The mother penguins swim into the unfathomable sea to approach the greedy and cruel seal for the sake of their husbands and their children to be born. When they lose their children, they go to steal and snatch other little penguins. What kind of unspeakable maternal love is this?
Furthermore, the film actually recorded the bloody mouth of the seal, the greedy eyes of the albatross, the endless snowstorm, and the unpredictable extremely low temperature. Isn't this a reminder of the natural law of natural selection for the survival of the fittest?
And I think it's better to think of it as an inspirational film than an eco-documentary. In such a harsh environment, the emperor penguins can bravely complete the inheritance of life, can maintain the spirit of not abandoning and not giving up, and when the little penguins grow up, they can decide to leave and force them to become independent. In this way, "Emperor Penguin Diary" has become a complete and true story from the perspective of calm onlookers. It not only plays a hymn of life for us, but also recites a spiritual poem.
2. A narrative frame with a unique structure The
film adopts a vertical structure and tells the hard-working process of the nine-month-old emperor penguins. From migration to stay and mating, and then to the second migration and three migrations, the film records the southern breeding grounds as the main line, supplemented by the efforts made by the male and female penguins to survive for the little penguins before and after. The film makes the audience go deep into the life of emperor penguins and experience the hardships in the ice and snow together with them.
One of the highlights that I have to say is that the choreographer and director cleverly inserted songs whose lyrics and melody were very consistent with the situation in the four key plots of the beginning, penguin mating, seabed foraging, and the final snowstorm. Just as "Jasmine" was repeatedly inserted into "Kindergarten" directed by Zhang Yiqing to give the film a unique rhythm, Emily Simon's ethereal and ethereal singing also gave "Emperor Penguin Diaries" a different narrative rhythm, making it more narrative. Clearly, the plot is clearer.
3. Unique Commentary
Siluc Jacques wisely abandoned the third-person commentary adopted by most documentaries, and replaced it with a first-person self-narrative that conforms to the main content of the film. This approach, which has greatly shortened the distance between the audience and the protagonist in the film, still cannot satisfy Luc's desire, so he turns the simple first-person self-narrative into an alternate description of a man and a woman, and then transforms it into a cordial dialogue in key plots . When the penguins get married and start a family, they are directly bound as a family, and even the dubbing of children is added. In this way, because the penguins all look very similar, after migrating back and forth, there is no need to worry about finding the penguins before to run through the whole film.
The writing of commentary is also very particular in this film. A lot of vivid metaphors are used in the film to help the audience understand the content of the film, and it also adds a lot of interest to the common boring and repetitive problems in documentaries. For example, the father penguin that hatches eggs is likened to "acrobat walking a tightrope", and the penguins who are shrinking from the cold are likened to "turtles huddled in their shells"... These self-narrative sentences that keep popping up are supplemented by appropriate pictures. It achieves the perfect effect of sound and picture integration, and it also makes people feel interesting.
Fourth, the meaning of coherent and selected shots The
authenticity is the life of a documentary. There is no doubt that only the careful selection of shots and the ingenious placement can fully reflect the authenticity and reliability of the documentary and achieve the effect of lyrical expression.
Due to the limitations of the environment, "The Diary of the Emperor Penguin" is naturally not as delicate and charming as "The Migration of Birds", but the two films are surprisingly consistent in using a lot of close-up shooting. Whether it is during courtship, in incubation, or on the way to find food during migration, it is undeniable that close-up close-ups occupy a large proportion. The choreographer consciously uses close-up techniques to help the audience better understand the life and situation of emperor penguins. For example, the close-up of the emperor penguin’s claws is repeated many times in the film, it is difficult to move during the migration, the claws tremble slightly when the penguin eggs are hatched, and the claws stand firm when protecting the children... The director only describes the subtle details of the claws, it is easy to Completed the disclosure of the emperor penguin's psychological activities, using the camera to silently describe the touching and real situations in the polar low temperature.
Although the director focused most of the shots on the great and lovely creatures of the emperor penguins, he still did not ignore the grasp of empty shots. At the beginning of the film, the push-pull camera is used, and the various scenes are continuously switched to show a large area of white atmosphere, which not only allows the audience to understand the recording environment, sets the overall tone for the film, but also lays the groundwork for the subsequent plot narrative. Foreshadowing. When the blizzard is coming, the sky and the earth change rapidly, and the wind blows the snow around like a solid empty shot, which can not only render the harsh environment, but also metaphorically express the hearts of the penguins trembling in the cold wind. worries and fears. Of course, if you shoot the glow and the sun shrouded in the snow-white ground, you can first tell the audience that winter is finally gone.
As we all know, documentaries are only favored by a small number of people at home and abroad, and are not as popular as feature films and TV series. But "Emperor Penguin Diary" has successfully attracted countless audiences and won wide acclaim with its exquisite plot arrangement, close-to-human perspective, exquisite pictures and long-lasting themes. The film not only praises the dedication of emperor penguin parents to life, but also praises the courage of the little emperor penguins to break their shells in winter. And I think whether it is the bloody and brutal seal or the merciless albatross, what they do is all out of the desire for survival, the desire for life, it is natural.
Can not help but want to shout: life! life! After the film, I sincerely thank Luc for recording this song of life, so that we can know the importance of his life and cherish the preciousness of his life. But I believe that the thinking about life and the study of nature will not stop there.
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