1. Thematic analysis
"We watched the show, tired of the hypocritical expressions, tired of the tricky stunts; Truman's world can be said to be fake, but Truman himself is not fake. This show has no script and no show. It’s not necessarily a masterpiece, but it’s a fake. It’s a real life.” The designer and director of Taoyuan Island, Christopher Christopher,’s monologue at the beginning of the film is very meaningful.
The French philosopher Baudrillard said that all of our reality is actually simulation. In simulation, reality is re-modulated from non-reality to produce super real that is more real than reality, and this super real is "produced from the command warehouse of the mother body and memory bank. With these, the real is It can be produced next time" [1] . In "The World of Truman", this theory can be interpreted in two dimensions.
First of all, for the character of Truman. Taoyuan Island, where he was born, grew up, and lived, and never left, is actually a super reality produced by simulation. Truman lives in a seemingly happy family, with his beautiful wife Meilu, and a kind mother; his friend Ma Long has brothers and sisters, his neighbors are friendly, and he has a leisurely paperwork. The film does not deliberately show the emotional love-hate entanglement, the intrigue at work, or the ups and downs of life. In this world, Truman is an ordinary person, living a plain life, but also has his own simple happiness and regrets. He has lived on a huge "super real" Taoyuan Island all his life. Before seeing Sylvia, he had never doubted this truth; and as long as he stepped out of Taoyuan Island, he would discover how false this truth was. Why did he never want to go out before? Halfway through the film, Dr. Keith revealed the truth. The plot of his father's death in the ocean was to create a psychological shadow of his childhood by fearing the ocean, who was aspiring to become an explorer like Magellan. Is the sea really scary? For Truman after this incident, the horror became reality. Is Taoyuan Island the real world? To Truman, who has been instilled countless times as "the best place on earth" by countless people, Taoyuan Island is the real world. Governor Keith directed and created Truman's memory, turning the unreal into super real. Just as Baudrillard described the real status quo of modern society-all our realities are actually simulations. The reality produced in the simulation, he called it "super real"; and this "super real" is more deadly: it is more real than reality.
The second dimension falls on the audience of the Truman reality show, and even the audience of the movie itself. Baudrillard once cited the example of a theme park to explain the process of hyper-realism. The park is a fictional scene in the movie. People's daily life is nothing new, and it is necessary to experience the magic in this created illusion. Maybe we think that theme parks in bright places are nothing, but Baudrillard’s further inferences are shocking. He believes that more importantly, our lives are, to a large extent, composed of film and television works and media. Constructed. The Truman reality show is a lively example. This popular TV show around the world is broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and viewers will even sleep endlessly for it. One extreme is the middle-aged man who has been soaking in the bathtub. For him, the Truman reality show may constitute all of his real life. Truman’s world has produced a huge illusion for its audience. It’s almost perfect. Neighbors talk about faith and harmony, seek closure and do nothing, steal chaos and thieves and do nothing, just as Christopher Christopher said in the film, "Taoyuan The island is what the world is like". Such a world is undoubtedly fascinating. In fact, similar to the Truman reality show, no matter what kind of world they construct, the chaotic world, the apocalyptic world, and the fictional world are probably higher than the real world, removing the trivial and trivial daily world in reality. The glamorous things that do not exist in real life are projected on film and television dramas, and then reversely conveyed through advertising and other methods, come to real life again, and become a tool to dominate people.
It should be noted that the advertisements in the play and even outside the play are important bridges for the construction and control of life by film and television. In the film, there are many advertisements embedded in it. For example, every day before Truman comes to the newsstand, there is always a person who buys "Dog Fan Magazine" and is suddenly pushed to post "Caesar Chicken" and other advertisements while greeting the uncle twins. The poster wall of his wife Meilu, and the unnatural ad slogan "interrupted" in the chat between his wife Meilu and friend Malone... Baudrillard said, "If we are consuming products in products, and we are in advertising, it is the meaning of consuming them. ". [2] What he means is that what is consumed is never the product in the advertisement, but the concept of the advertisement, so the advertisement itself becomes a consumer product. Let us think about the advertisements that the audience saw. Malone said, "Beer, it should be like this." The shot of the Mococo that Truman accidentally drank was placed in the upper right corner of the film's opening footage... The logo of the same brand of beer appeared in the bar. The bar counter (94'35"); the cup of the same style in Truman's hand was held in the hands of a female audience (94'39").
As an audience, you should undoubtedly hate advertising. It is so funny every time it appears in the play. However, why did the brands consumed by the stars in the play end up in the hands of the audience? Because advertising itself cannot control our intentions, it is aimed at our unconscious desires. Advertising is a weapon for creating desire in a consumer society. This kind of beer and cocoa with a more well-known brand may not necessarily be more advanced and high-end than other brands. However, people who drink beer and cocoa on TV are indeed the objects that everyone wants to be. They are consumed by the big stars of the Truman reality show, which is so popular in the world-this has caused people to chase them. And when Truman walked out of Taoyuan Island, and the audience turned to other shows and forgot about Truman, Truman was no longer a star. Will the cocoa that Truman drinks still appear in people's hands? And this problem is not only a problem in movies, but also a contradiction in the real society. Baudrillard’s thinking is, is the existence of such a “consumer society” real or is it a huge illusion created by media such as film and television, advertising? People's preferences and choices are his/her own choices, or choices made under the control of being in this illusion?
At the end of the film, Truman, who has seen the falsehood of Taoyuan Island, chooses to leave here. Christopher Christopher has a thought-provoking remark: "The outside world is as false as the world I gave you, with the same lies, and the same deceit." His world, and the outside world, are exactly what he said before. The two dimensions of the hyper-real existence. One is the world of Taoyuan Island. The super-reality created by Christopher Christopher’s simulation is undoubtedly false to outsiders. Only the Truman who has embedded memories in it can believe it as true. The outside world has become a "consumer society", not so much real, as it has become a greater illusion. In Baudrillard’s context, the process of simulation actually has no reference representation, and there is no so-called reality behind the simulation. Therefore, whether it is the Truman Show or the world outside of the Truman Show, it is constructed Super real is pseudo-real that is more real than real.
So where is the truth we have been looking for? Truman asked: "Is everything fake?" Christopher's answer was: "You are real, so so many people look at you." The truth that Truman has always claimed is actually only in Truman—in the protagonist of this reality show who has been deceived, his emotional experience is real, his pain of losing his first love is real, and his love to the world Suspicion is true, these real things, whether it is Taoyuan Island or the outside world, cannot be stopped. The outside world, I don't know if it is more real or has more cover. It induces people to fall into a bigger illusion. At this time, no one will tell Truman that everything is false. When reality no longer exists, and when the consumer world manufactures commodities to control people, how to eliminate their domination over us, the most important point Trumen has already possessed-the self-consciousness as a subject.
2. Lens language analysis
The biggest feature of the film’s lens language lies in the use of “hybrid lens”, that is, the blending of the film director’s objective narrative lens and Christopher’s candid lens. The boundary between the two is blurred and the narrative is promoted together, so that the film does not have the roughness of a pseudo-documentary. The texture is mellow and smooth, and the look and feel is almost the same as the general Hollywood commercial blockbusters. For example, in the beginning of the film when going to work, when Truman opened the door to say hello, the black circle around the screen showed that this was a sneak shot from Christopher, while the picture of a neighbor's family of three greetings without black circle was from Truman's subjective point of view. After that, Truman was photographed all the way to work by the camera in the car radio, the newsstand camera, and the fisheye lens (conversation with the twins), all from Christopher Christo; when Truman went to work, the conversation with his colleagues was a typical shoulder-to-shoulder conversation. In the camera, the paper tearing lens came from Truman's subjective point of view, and the lens that was blocked by the corner of the desk indicated that he had never escaped from Keith's sight.
The mixture of these two lenses, on the one hand, is the cross-editing of the two lenses mentioned above, on the other hand, it also shows that the secret shots of Christopher actually have a sophisticated and stable camera position and composition, unlike the " "Clover's Archives" and other pseudo-documentaries pursue the "realism" of the shaky picture of the portable camera. Black shadows on the frame, obstructions, and the squeaking noise of the camera-these are not so much the actual recurrence of the candid shooting, but to remind the movie audience that the presence of "God" Christopher is a symbol of the control of Truman's destiny . For example, when Truman was rounded up by Dr. Keith, who was wearing a radiation suit, the metal shield covered 1/3 of the screen, showing that the control of the violent machine reached an unprecedented height. In addition, the repeated appearance of the element of Truman in the frame is similar to the shadow of the candid picture, and it also hints at his imprisoned situation.
The satire of TV commercials constitutes one of the important comedic elements of the film. In the "insertion ad" of his wife Meilu and friend Darren, the actor deviated from the movie convention (can't look at the camera), suddenly looked at the camera and advanced the camera, giving a speech. This parody of the TV commercial scene scheduling method allows the audience to wake up from the "real illusion" constructed by the hidden camera, forming a sharp contrast, which constitutes the comic and absurdity.
In the movie, the audience of the Truman Show is not just a viewer. In the passage where the audience appears, the director places the point of view on the TV, turning the viewer into the object being watched, so that the director's criticism is not only directed at the instigator of the farce, Christopher, but also at the fact that he is already unknowingly. TV viewers controlled by the consumer society.
Another important lens element is facial close-ups. The film used a lot of facial close-ups in the filming of Christopher Keith, accompanied by unsmiling performances by actors, highlighting the coldness of the characters and giving people a strong sense of oppression. In addition, the close-up of Truman's face in his sleep shows a close look at the most private and quiet moment of solitude-sleep. This privacy violation image can resonate with the audience and is therefore included in the poster. One of the most impressive passages in the movie is the dialogue between Truman and Christopher at the end. After violence cannot stop Truman, Christopher persuades him like a father. However, at this time, Christopher's oppressive facial close-ups and Truman's close-up shots from a low position portray this completely unequal relationship. And Truman’s "Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Night" curtain call shattered the "real" illusion created by Dr. Christopher-this is not a "reality show" like a fake, it is just a prisoner. Absurd drama.
Written on 2013.11
[1] (United States) Kellner, Baudrillard: A Critical Reading [M], Nanjing: Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2005, p. 128-p. 129
[2] (French) Written by Busia, translated by Lin Zhiming, Object System［M］, Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2001, p.203
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