——Analysis of "Death Papers" from the perspective of narrative and psychoanalysis.
After reading "Death Papers" for the first time in one go, I first sighed that the logic of suspect transfer in the movie is light but unobtrusive; but Before pulling the film, let me quickly sort out this set of narrative strategies about suspense. I really can’t do it-but looking back, what attracted me to "Death Papers" was only the design or the suspense plots. Narrative skills—they can also be replicated in all kinds of thriller suspense genres today—I tried to give myself another more convincing answer: the specific selection and character setting on the psychoanalytic level.
Narrative
From the perspective of traditional narratology, the narrative time and space of "Death Essays" is linear, and it remains to be explored and told from Angela’s single subjective perspective; this is what we are used to now, all kinds of suspense genres. Before the inertial thinking of nonlinear narrative, it seems rare.
1. Narrative clues:
James Monaco believes that stories, that is, events that are narrated, are produced with certain concepts and emotions. The organization of an overall system often requires one or more narrative clues in order to organically connect many elements of the film.
"Death Papers" only needs an obvious clue to connect the time and space of the story and the relationship between the characters smoothly-who is the suspect Angela suspects?
1. Chema: The 3'54'' Chema appeared in the cynical and distinctive image of the movie, and Angela at 8'57'' followed to Chema's home. Here, the film uses an intuitive bloody and terrifying prop setting and quilt. The magnified floor squeaks to render Chema's quirks and mysteries, and at the same time it is an externalization of Angela's vigilant psychology. Although the videotape incident did not happen at this time, a potential "moderate" suspect has already begun to be generated.
2. Woods: After witnessing the bloody tragedy behind the videotape, Chema and Angela began to endanger themselves, and Woods' debut followed this plot. In the school scene from 31'22'' to 39'21'' of the film, the arrival of Woods, accompanied by the development of the relationship between the characters, exploded: doubt-track-be discovered-be chased And dodge—evidence leakage—question and explanation—make an appointment for a cooperative interview. The plot design of the movie did not stingy with Woods because of this large-length appearance. Then, 44'21''-53'18'' Woods came to Angela's home, ridiculed and ridiculed with Angela. While interacting cordially with his family, Senna inadvertently leaked further information about the belt to Woods.
Among them, a corridor chase scene of 36'18'' is worth mentioning: in fact, both sides only passed through 6 doors in the chase, but the corridor with strong perspective lines and the unified red escape door with no features abstracted this scene into A maze, accompanied by a large number of low-angle elevation shots and incomplete reversal shots for Woods, the rhythm music of the march type, 6 doors are repeated into 12, which greatly expands the plot space, in fact, it is also Trying to replace Angela's chaotic subconsciousness with a chaotic visual experience, it is still in shock. Woods' appearance was accompanied by Angela's full of loopholes. Angela's protective color was constantly peeling off, but Woods's image became more mysterious and treacherous, as can be seen in the ambiguous scene between the two in Angela's bedroom. The transfer of the "suspect" to Woods is calm and understandable-in order to pave the way for a subsequent "whitewashing".
3. Castro: The emergence of the next third suspect, Castro, requires a transition-the camera. The investigation of the source of the camera (53'53''-56'11'') largely distracted Woods from suspicion and directed the finger at the school. Castro's timely appearance at this time also coincides with Chema's speculation.
4. Chema: In fact, for a long time after Castro's death, the position of the suspect has been suspended until Angela found Chema hiding a camera (criminal evidence) at 96'54''. Secretly photographing one's daily life coincides with Yolanda's warning at 74'19''.
5. Woods: When Angela misunderstood that Chema was the murderer, she calmly came to Woods's house, and only then did Woods' identity as the real murderer be exposed.
2. Narrative level:
A movie can have multiple narrative levels. "The story that encompasses the entire work is called the external level and the first level; the stories, memories, dreams, etc. told by the characters in the story are called the internal level, also called the second level, the third level...and so on."
The secondary narrative levels involved in "Death Papers" include:
a. In the only dream in the film, Woods sneaked into Angela's room late at night, piercing her neck with a sharp knife while
getting close to her; b. Cutting the horse , Yolanda, and Woods respectively describe the relationship between the victim Vanessa in the existing videotape;
c. Yolanda’s speculation on Chema, Chema’s rejection of Woods;
d. CCTV for Angela and Cass The surveillance footage of Troy, and the peeping footage of Angela captured by Chema's camera.
"Genette the narrative is divided into three levels of functionality, wherein the first function is to explain that narrative to explain the low level of high-narrative layer."
"Tesis" in the subject to make a judgment as Angela, listen to and Digest the narrative levels from different narrative objects. Their views all contribute to the interpretation of the layers of the puzzle. However, just like the multi-perspective narrative of "Rashomon", each individual "has his own ghost." , Or are also blinded to see the truth-the amount of information they give may be contradictory or redundant, which adds more suspense beyond the function of "interpretation". For example, when Woods explained the relationship with Vanessa, the movie was shown in the form of videotape, while Yolanda's account was a serious interview-style positive and negative shots-this kind of presentation is more objective and credible. ——And correspondingly, Chema’s persuasive warnings (40-second long lens at 40’13” and 31-second long lens at 43’50”) and explanations (77’38) ''-79'01'' Angela confronts the horse, the trivial front and back shots in a small space)-this contrast on the one hand confuses the boundary between justice and evil, balances the suspicions of the characters, and makes the truth more clear Blurred; on the other hand, it also makes the photo of Chema and Woods hooked up and backed up to become redundant and difficult to explain, which further complicates the relationship between the characters.
The only dream in the film is Angela's subconscious mind stepping up to explain-explaining why she still hesitates when facing a suspected major dangerous person-because of love! This makes the indecisive "Tai Chi Yun Shou" necessary in the process of plot promotion possible, and also plays a role in further complicating the relationship between the characters. I will try to explore this dream in the later psychoanalytic level.
The images of closed-circuit television and cameras are "iron evidence" in terms of character narration with too many subjective factors and not reliable enough. Therefore, they have the strongest interpretive role as the secondary narrative level in the film, and that is why, The “testimony” of closed-circuit television dexterously completed the resolution of Woods, the major suspect, and also because of Chema’s sneak shots, Angela completely let go of her guard against Woods and went into a wrong and dangerous situation.
3. Narrative structure and rhythm:
From the perspective of narrative structure, "Death Papers" is a typical causal linear structure. This mode focuses on the course of the event itself, and the truthful deduction of the natural logical sequence of the event—the narrative clues above The analysis of the film is enough to reflect the genre characteristics of the film's "pursuit of interlocking plot structure and rigorous logic".
"Death Papers" is always good at emphasizing external conflicts and the intensity of actions. The chase scene and the blowout development of the relationship between the characters that accompany Woods' appearance are typical footnotes; in addition, the identification of the source of the camera, Castro's identity The exposure of Yolanda, Yolanda’s warning, Chema’s hidden camera was discovered, etc., each plot setting is a new "explosion point" and a powerful external driving factor. It has never been ashamed to use the "last minute rescue" style of the old classic movie bridge-such a heart-wrenching plot actually used twice magnanimously.
In the film, the suspect judged by Angela has been transferred four times between the three people. From the time distribution of each segment of the film:
a, 31'22''-56'11'' Nearly 25 minutes is Woods Suspect period;
b. 62'07''——92'26'' Nearly 30 minutes is Castro's suspect period;
c. 74'19''-79'01'' Yolanda denounces, Angela confronts Chema +96'54''-111'10'' Nearly 19 minutes is Chema's suspect period;
d, 93 '14''——96'53''+111'11''——116'00''The suspect returned to Woods for nearly 8min.
The whole film is two hours, and the rhythm is relatively slow in the first half an hour. The blank period of the suspect is just to constantly render the atmosphere of secrets. In the campus scene where Woods first appeared, 99 shots were taken in 8min, and Woods used it in the 8min scene at Angela’s home. There are 124 shots-most of them come from the front and back of the dialogue and chase scenes. Therefore, we can see that although the time given to Woods in the text is longer than others, the fast-paced editing weakens the sense of time, and the narrative is also "quick" and appears "understatement", thereby weakening Woods' suspicion.
Castro’s play consists of two episodes of 63'47''-71'55'' office exposure and 89'40''-92'20'' locked in the secret room. The duration is not long. However, the scenes of Yolanda and Chema were emptied in the middle; unlike Woods's scenes that were always accompanied by his lingering figure, Castro's appearance was very poor, but this whole paragraph of nearly 30 minutes of text Time belongs to the suspect period of Card-this contradiction undoubtedly slows down the narrative rhythm of the film, magnifies Castro's suspicious weight, and constantly washes away the suspiciousness of Woods before.
The time when Chema was truly convinced by Angela to be the murderer was actually only a section of 96'54''-111'10''; on the one hand, Chema's suspicion was largely due to his habit and personality, and they were sporadic. Scattered throughout the film; on the other hand, due to Angela's subjective reasons, she has always been reluctant to admit Chema's suspicion. Therefore, the final "conviction" of Chema we saw was fast-paced, hasty, and the audiovisual content was small.
Generally speaking, the narrative rhythm of "Death Papers" is probably like the "slow-fast-slow-fast" in music (good layman, it seems that it shouldn’t be said that), and the slackness is usually suspenseful. Strong music is a customary technique to mobilize the listener’s emotions; first slowly and adequately spread the atmosphere, then quickly introduce dangers and contradictions, and then suddenly transfer the previous dangers to make logic stagnate and chaos, and finally converge neatly with the "leopard tail" in literature .
Psychoanalysis
According to Metz’s theory, the movie itself can mirror the viewer’s subconscious. The screen is the “mirror” that helps the audience find identification. The movie plays the role of “imaginary signifier (I think the synonym is grammar)” , Thereby establishing a communication between the audience and the "externalized subconscious." Therefore, all the thematic plots involving "making movies, watching movies" movies may not escape this discussion, just like Zhuang Zhou Mengdie's philosophical question of looping nesting.
Lacan’s mirror metaphor is not just an image projection in the sense of physical optics, but a mirror mapping in the psychological sense. It is due to the overflow of the desire of "I" and the need to seek to see my ideal image through the mirror of others, in short , Is "the projection of the desire of the other."
Desire is nothing more than "greed, hatred, ignorance," and it is the daily life of the critics of "evil by nature". The "desires" in "Death Papers" include: Angela's vague and worried voyeuristic lust for violence, and fascination with Woods-both are relatively secretive; her counterpart, Chema, is an easy-to-reveal image. A fan of violent pornography, and loves Angela; Castro’s desire represents the universal desire of the public, he claims to "make what the public wants", that is, the fanaticism for primitive violence; Woods' desire is vague Yes, or for me, I don’t think the film’s presentation is convincing enough—he seems to (only) show caressing and playing with a bunch of beautiful women such as Vanessa and Angela, as well as a natural childlike waywardness to violence. Naturally agree.
Freud interpreted the dream as: the repressed id in reality needs to be expressed. In the dream at 58'13'', Angela is "awake" and "waiting" for the arrival of Woods, facing the opponent's camera and dagger. Both are like "nightmare" in real life. A terrible symbol of violence, Angela at this time is unusually calm. At 60'50'', the camera slowly moved from the double mid-to-close shot to the close shot. In the screen, Angela calmly held Woods's knife-holding hand and moved it between her lips and teeth and licked obsessively-this is undoubtedly a naked subconscious mind. It appears that Angela's love for Woods is fully exposed-and Angela has been suppressed before. In the daytime Angela’s room at 49'47'' in the movie, there is almost the same scene: Woods kneels on Angela’s bed, leaning down, and the lens is pushed from the middle shot (the waist) to the small middle shot; Woods goes further Move closer to Angela’s face, and the lens is pushed to the mid-to-close range (the chest is stuck); when it is enough to ask "what color are my eyes?", the lens is pushed to the close-up (the collar of the card); when Woods is almost about to put his lips on, The camera finally reached the close-up (chicken jaw)-such delicate scenes were progressively used to spread the ferment of the ambiguous feelings-but finally because of Angela's reserved and inactive, the two could not complete the intimacy, Angie Ra did not forget to add "I will hit your nose hard next time"-these are the manifestations of Angela's camouflage and depressiveness; they are compensated and satisfied in the dream.
Angela is also a contradictory body of violent desire, repression and desire in her daily life. Objectively speaking, she was criticized by secular morals: at the beginning of the film, at the bridge section of the subway accident, the camera uses a low-position objective perspective that almost landed on the track as the interval to follow Angela's subjective view of the shrinking scene. The perspective, coupled with the suspenseful strings and piano, showed Angela’s natural curiosity about violence from the very beginning-but when his eyes were about to come into contact with the terrible reality, Angela was forcibly pulled away. This is A statement that the secular order rejects violence, similarly, the old professor also knows that "finding violent films is very troublesome", and they have long suppressed the original desire of "Angelas". Subjectively, on the one hand, Angela claimed that "I was writing a essay" was "disgusting", and on the other hand, she honestly looked at the videotape between her fingers and used headphones to detect the content of the videotape.
There is another fragmented illusion in the movie at 89'12''. Angela walks into the secret door in the secret room, and a black and white rough past scene flashes back in front of her: Castro is holding the anesthetic, and the subway guard shouts loudly. Warning, Chema and Woods’ alternate close-ups, they are both Angela’s subconscious fears or previous fears, and are symbols of violence; their collective presentation is not only the source of Angela’s anxiety at this time, but also her subconscious being. Attracted by violence, I never forget it.
There are only a small number of mirrors in "Death Papers", so we do not regard it as a deliberate response by the director to Lacan’s "mirror" theory-however, there are a large number of other symbols in the film to replace the mirror; that is the camera; because of it It conforms to the key philosophical action of "seeing".
In the film, the first time the Sony XT-500 was consciously used for shooting was in an interview with Woods (the previous shots that swept Yolanda and Angela were excluded), facing his own "criminal evidence", Woods behaved in the screen Smiling calmly, this is self-confidence and fascination, because Woods is used to repeatedly admire his image in this camera, including his violent image, he is willing to wander in the imagination and symbolism full of desire created by the camera In the world.
In the 6 scenes taken by XT-500, Angela also showed similar calmness. In the dream of film 61'53'', Angela enjoys the orgasm of oral sex in the dream. She looks at her camera, and besides the residual fear, she is also mixed with fascination with desire.
Movies always try to entice us into a field of desire with other people's stories, and stitch our experience and imagination with "mirror" icons. Angela tried to immerse her hidden desires from the violent video, and we as the audience tried to see what the real violence would be like through watching the movie; however, Angela was accidentally involved in the violence and she was reduced to being in the video. Violent objects to watch-this sense of crisis of being "violent" has undoubtedly been passed on to our viewers; also transferred is the sense of crisis of being "surveilled", when Angela found out that she was secretly photographed. At times, our trust in the people we know most has become precarious.
Sexual desire is an innate primitive instinct, and death is the instinctive impulse of human self-destruction, which corresponds to violence. "Death Essay", whether from his elaborate linear narrative logic or from the design he deliberately borrowed from the psychoanalytic theory, is itself a very relevant and rigorous "thesis"; we have reason to look at him. Be a standard example of writing a movie about violence and fear.
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