Speaking of David Griffith, there are two movies that cannot be bypassed, one is "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915, and the other is "Party Facing Differences" in 1916. There is a saying that the movie begins with Griffith and ends with Abbas, which shows the status of Griffith.
What I want to recommend here today is a Griffith love movie-"Remnant Tears", without the dazzling movie language, but from the content point of view, this movie should also be respected.
For movie fans, after watching "Remnant Tears", they should understand a point of knowledge, that is, when the image of China first appeared on the big screen. In the movie "Remnant Tears", Richard Baselmes played a young Chinese man who went to Paris to teach Buddhist teachings here. As a result, the cruel reality made him fall into a downturn, not only ruining his career, Also contaminated with opium. Lillian Gish plays a girl who is often beaten by a father who is a drunkard in the movie. Two people who have no sense of belonging spark off, but it's a pity that the good times don't last long.
The Chinese youth Cheng Huan played by Richard Baselmes has a very special identity in this movie-a preacher. But because of cultural differences and the characteristics of the times, he did not realize his ideals. In terms of cultural characteristics, such a setting has a certain similarity with the "unaccounted for talent" in traditional Chinese culture.
It can also be seen from this that Griffith tried to use his films to touch Chinese culture, hoping to open up a whole new vision for his films through the collision between two different cultures. Unfortunately, this understanding is biased: opium, weakness, decadence...
After cultural differences enter the field of film, the most obvious manifestation is in the role. But this does not mean to make a big fuss on this issue, but to understand this role in the ideological and political context.
Of course, the Chinese youth Cheng Huan in "Remnant Tears" was not made out of nothing. Early literary works provided certain imagination to the Chinese in the eyes of Westerners, as well as the exchange of various information, and the mutual exchange of talents. "China's image" is concretized.
In Griffith's films, "Remnant Tears" has not been paid too much attention. Compared with his previous "Birth of a Nation" and "Party Facing Differences", this movie is indeed too ordinary. But it is undeniable that this movie still has a feeling of soul-stirring.
It is worth mentioning that the beauty of Lillian Gish, in Hollywood where beauties are popular, Lillian Gish is like a lotus flower, out of the mud but not stained, and the beauty is unreal. In the movie, she interprets a petite and weak image of domestic violence that is very close to reality, and in a trance, it reminds me of Duras' "Lover".
I've always liked Margaret Duras' "The Lover" very much, and it is also a story about exotic love. This novel has a startling beginning, but it has an end that cannot be undone.
Looking back at modern love movies, apart from having a body to express so-called love, there are few such quiet and delicate stories. I like to watch old movies. This kind of movies with a sense of time always reminds me of many stories. This is probably the meaning of movies.
This article was first published on the personal public account: F-and-love (F-and-love)
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