The concept of shapeshifters originated from Campbell's exposition in "Heroes with a Thousand Faces". The so-called shapeshifter refers to a character with a strong contrast between the surface and the real character. Although Campbell did not influence the writing of film texts until the New Hollywood period. But as early as the studio era, screenwriters were more or less prototype characters in the practice of story creation. As the most dramatic and conflicting type of character, the shapeshifter has long become the most common character image on the screen.
Shapeshifters most often appear in two types of movies, one is comedy; the other is suspense. The former’s masterpieces of course include classic comedies such as "Passionate" and "Roman Holiday"; the latter covers most of Hitchcock's movies. What they have in common is that basically all drama conflicts are driven by character contrasts: if there is no male disguised as a woman in "A Passionate" and there is no identity contrast in "Roman Holiday", it is difficult to imagine how their conflict will be. Advance.
And among the many shapeshifter characters, there is also a unique female image, that is, the character type called the femme fatale. Today it seems that this concept is too discriminatory against women, but for a long time, they have represented literary works. A typical feminine concept in China. The so-called femme fatale refers to those female characters who appear pure and kind on the surface, but in fact hide a strong purpose. This type of role often appears in drama or suspense films, such as Sarang Stone in "Instinct", and Gui Lunmei in "Fireworks in the Day".
Of course, from a conceptual point of view, what kind of character design is too flat and too cartoon for femme fatale beauties. But in specific text writing, the construction of femme fatale is far more difficult than the concept itself. The reason is that all the dramatic tension of the femme fatale comes from the consternation left to the audience when her identity is revealed. Therefore, the screenwriter must construct a likable character in the early plot, and then destroy this surface feature in the key plot. Thus presenting complex character motivations.
Therefore, the key to constructing femme fatale is to maintain a balance. It not only allows the audience to establish a sense of identity with the character, but at the same time it must use details to hint or lay out the identity reversal behind. Anything excessive or unnatural will irritate the audience and make them feel disgusted with the character. In my opinion, "Lady Eve" obviously belongs to this kind of unbalanced character. Its problem is that it has not yet established a role identity for Barbara, and hastily developed another identity setting for the character. Let the audience lose the identity of the role.
Yes, I understand that Barbara is essentially a good girl. She is simple and straightforward, and even stopped cheating Fonda several times. But the problem is that these contents are only established after the characters’ true identities are revealed. It does not destroy the audience. The first impression of the character is her realistic and calculating side. Am I being too harsh on Barbara? After all, any character has a space or situation that suits his existence, and moral evaluation is not conducive to a deeper understanding of the character. First of all, I must deny that my dissatisfaction with Barbara is not due to some kind of moral anxiety-but I also want to emphasize that film is a popular art, and any film that tries to challenge the morality of the audience is risky. Secondly, we must also understand that the criterion for constructing a character is not whether it offends the audience, but whether the creator gives the character enough space for activity.
In fact, there are too many characters that offend mainstream morals but still love the audience. When we examine the creation of this type of role by the creator, without exception, we can find that the creator has enough patience to pave the other side of his authenticity. Think about "Comet Beauty", which female character in the works of the golden age can be more scheming, better at using others, and more in line with the label of femme fatale than Ava? But even if Ava is so bad, the audience still loves her. The reason is that the screenwriter carefully established the audience's sense of identity with the role in the opening paragraph: when Ava tells her tragic past, how can the audience be sympathetic to her? Even though the audience later learned that Ava's story was a lie, this still did not destroy our first impression of her.
But in "Lady Eve", the creator was too impatient in character advancement. He exposed Barbara's ambition prematurely, while ignoring the psychological feelings of the audience. Even in the climax plot, the creator tried to use love to eliminate all the negative effects caused by the characters, but it was too late. Yes, the movie has plenty of dramatic effects, and the plot can be called twists and turns, but what about it? When Barbara wanted to deceive Fonda at first, she had to bear the harshness of the audience.
Many times we say that screenwriting is a systematic work, and the system means that any possible defects will affect the overall effect. Therefore, the screenwriter has to carefully balance various factors, showcasing and restraint, imagination and reality. This is not so much dancing with shackles, as it is walking a tightrope with shackles, a little carelessness will collapse all efforts. As a film 80 years ago, my criticism is not deliberately making things difficult, but seeking shelter from those great forerunners, so as to peep into the immortal light of the film as an art.
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