1. Narrative strategy: From perspective to means
The producer of "Schindler's List" once approached Polanski to direct the film, but was politely rejected by Polanski not wanting to recall that period of suffering, and was eventually directed by Spielberg. Compare "The Pianist" and "Schindler's List". The former uses an artist's survival to narrate the suffering history of World War II, and "Schindler's List" uses a businessman's double redemption (redemption for others, redemption for oneself) Inner heart) This is more focused on the perspective of God’s identity to expand its description of World War II. The two World War II films with the same similar plot have very different viewing experiences. Watching "Schindler's List", the audience empathizes with Schindler, and its high salvation road, the audience's feeling of watching the movie is God The feeling of compassion. In "The Pianist", the audience empathizes with Valle, and his survival in the humiliation, the audience's feelings of watching the movie are the pain and struggle of prisoners.
The problem of perspective is the skeleton of the whole film's narrative. From what perspective the audience builds the story, and from whose eyes the event is shared, directly guide the audience's value orientation and aesthetic orientation. The first third of "The Pianist" focuses on the survival of the entire family with Valle as the mainstay, and the second two-thirds focuses on Valle's own survival. The structure of the chronicle is a structural method from an omniscient perspective. But its perspective is not a purely omniscient structure. The main body of the film is described through Valle. The parts that do not appear in the film are: In the opening paragraph "The German is coming", the father is slapped; At the end of the "German Retreat" paragraph, the officers work and sign documents; a friend meets a German officer who helps Valle; a few lyrical scenes (the film is controlled and lyrical, most of the lyricism is brought to the audience through Valle's sight) . The advantage of the omniscience viewpoint is to increase the objectivity of the work and strengthen the expressiveness of the narration; the disadvantage is that the audience is not easy to identify with the characters. This kind of omniscience viewpoint structure and the narrative strategy of focusing on the protagonist (limited perspective) is the narrative strategy. Very superb.
"Schindler's List" adopts intemperate narrative methods, such as a lot of music foreshadowing. The colorful passages of the whole film are the big panorama of a little girl in red walking in the black and white film. This scene is extremely Rendering. The narrative method of "The Pianist" is restrained and calm. The subjective music in the film does not appear many times, and there are few close-ups. The music in the film is mostly active music played by Vallee. Chopin’s music and the overall narrative rhythm of the film The content is very appropriate. These two narrative methods can arouse the pity of the audience as a result. Polanski focuses more on finding the roots from within. It is definitely a master at creating atmosphere in terms of plots. In this section of life in the Jewish quarter, there are two appearances of crazy women looking for husbands; a mentally disordered bearded man asks the Germans To smoke; the tramp who robbed women's porridge were all restrained but had an orgasm. After carefully analyzing one of the scenes, Valle failed to rescue a little boy who had escaped from the Jewish quarter in search of food on his way home. During the meal, his younger brother told a "joke" about a Jewish doctor who was shot and killed when he was rescued. The atmosphere at home was frozen. In the middle of the night, the German military officer came to the Jewish Quarter for review and broke into a family opposite Valle’s home. One of them had a disability and could not get up. He was kept down by the Germans. From a perspective (note, no advance), the disabled fell down. It's not over here. The family was driven downstairs by the Germans and ran away on the empty street and was killed like toys. Events connect events, events sublimate events, and climaxes connect climaxes. Only this calm approach can achieve such a good effect.
2. Character setting: From individuals to groups
, the most difficult thing to construct in a movie describing the genre of World War II is the characters and their relationships. First, it cannot be the two models of good people and bad people, and it cannot be too ambiguous about the unjust. Second, it is necessary to target the main characters, but also to outline all aspects of the common people. Third, choosing which character to be the main character is a cautious and cautious question. The actions and choices of the main character directly affect the audience's judgment of war. Two typical examples that are more controversial are "Jinling Thirteen Hairpins" and "Sedek Bale". The former failed in the redemption of a foreign godfather and a group of prostitutes (although there is no problem in artistic and historical prototypes and creations) , But its value orientation is unacceptable by some people), and at the same time it is suspected of demonizing female students and beautifying prostitutes; the latter part of the killing of the Sediq in the first half appears cruel, and the latter part weakens the sense of injustice of Japan’s revenge. The identity of the Sediq people who were educated in Japan ambiguous about the unjust war in Japan.
Art and war are the two most opposing terms. One represents beauty, and the other is the survival path of an artist who focuses on spiritual world training but seems helpless in troubled times. This perspective brings out the human nature. The impact is huge. From the artist's perspective, the artist's choices in each event, the artist's enthusiasm, have a greater sense of weight than ordinary people. When his family was about to leave, Vallee chose to stay in Poland; when the family was short of supplies, Vallee chose to sell his piano; when he met a child who fell into a cave and was beaten, he chose to rescue. ; Valle chose no when Heitz asked him to join the Jewish police force; Valle went to a coffee shop to make money to supplement his family; Valle chose to go to a Jewish resistance organization (although he was not accepted); Valle helped his family get a work permit to make money. Out of the rescued younger brother; when the younger brother and sister were taken away, Valle’s self-blame in what he said to his mother, etc. These opening episodes first established a "tall and rich sense of justice and responsibility" image. When the family entered the train, he was rescued by Heitz. After a struggle and crying, Valle chose to survive. This is a sudden turn of Valie's image and becomes plot point 1. Valle's begging for mercy after being beaten up; Valle's help from his friend's escape; Valle's evasion again and again; he is completing his transformation from an artist to a person who is surviving. After meeting the German officer again, Vallet’s first performance (the tune is Chopin’s first ballad, describing the life of a wandering Poles) became plot point 2. The tears after Vallet’s performance showed his mood at this moment. complex. The mutation from such a tall person to a "humble" person, sincerely completes the description of human nature. Valie is a down-to-earth character who is accepted and empathized by the audience. The audience has completed the purification of humanity in the process of comparing Valie.
Valle is a lucky man, this kind of fortune is because of the relationship between the characters to give him a safe network. He is the Jewish policeman who has given him important protection. He hides with him from the wealthy Jewish businessman in the restaurant. He helps him obtain a work permit and then helps him contact Meyek. The actress Jialin’s family admires him and admires him. Cellist Dorota, and German officer
, Most of them died. There are so-called good people and bad people among these people, so the description of people is objective. The descriptions of German military officers are not much, and they met after the defeat. They avoided the level of suspicion of ambiguous war criminals. At the same time, they also enriched the context of describing human nature. These Germans also have family members, and they also hate war. Many of them People are involuntary, and the victims of war are on both sides. Including the various aspects of the people who assisted him and the sentient beings in Valle’s escape, enriching the expressive power of war, a few more typical images have a woman who shouts how I can do this to smother her child, arguing whether to resist The elderly, the tramp grabbing porridge, the insane middle-aged woman looking for her husband, etc. At the same time, one third of the film's pen and ink is describing the survival of the Valle family, so that the survival of a person, a family, or a group of people in this movie is described, and the amount of information is quite rich.
3. The theme of
human nature in war tragedies Human nature is a very broad concept, and it can better reflect the various aspects of human nature in war. Humans are derived from animals and are different from animals. Human nature is actually a struggle between animal nature and divine nature. War is like a catalyst, animal greed and cruelty, divine selflessness and kindness are all portrayed. If "Schindler's List" is about the human theme of salvation from the perspective of accomplices (Schindler's original motivation was to make money in war), then the human theme of "The Pianist" would be bigger and more objective.
Survival is the first motivation of man, beauty and ugliness are the accompanying products, good and evil are what you encounter, hatred and greed lead to destruction, tolerance is redeemed. "The Pianist" emphasizes survival, the difficulty of living, and the survival of love. A single person is a personality, a group of people is a human nature, a single person cannot survive, and a group has energy to live, or it is the energy of destruction, or the energy of salvation. This kind of human context is in the destruction of a German and a person’s Survival gives it an objective and profound meaning under the double contrast.
At the end of the film, when Valle’s colleagues reflected on the crazy behavior of seeing the German criminals cursing, they completed the film’s interpretation of war tragedies and humanity themes. After all, if you complain with grievances is an infinite loop of the motif of war, only tolerance and love can survive.
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