"Writing is exploring the unknown, not the same as building a model airplane."
There has never been any convention that is a constant theorem that must be followed. Written by Charlie Kaufman in 2002 and directed by Spike Jones, "Adapted Screenplay" uses three layers of narrative structure and narrator, from beginning to end, to expound Kaufman's personal point of view as a screenwriter. This is the narrative theme of the film.
Get away from the narrative theme first. Narratology is the theory of narrative texts, following the Russian formalism of the 1920s and branching off from French structuralism. The so-called "structuralism" means that "all forms of social life are reflected in the role of universal laws, and this universal law can control thinking activities." For narrative texts, the universal laws proposed by narratology are used to analyze the text. . The most central concept in narrative text analysis is the narrator. From the first second of contact with a film or literature, the identity of the narrator has been established, the identity of a storyteller who has been simulated, and he is different from the author himself. The Adapted Screenplay is a great example of how the author builds a relationship as a narrator with the story he's written.
The film begins with the self-report of an otaku screenwriter. From then on, the narrator on the first floor begins to establish, the anatomy of self-mental state and the view of life. Markovich's filming begins, with Nicolas Cage playing screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, at this time in "Adaptation" Charlie sets up a narrator who he simulates, played by Nicolas Cage he himself.
His presence on the set made him question why he was here. Through this, the next shot reproduced the process of the origin and evolution of species. It can be seen that this is the brain activity process of Charlie's self-questioning. The reappearance at this time shows Charlie's thinking. At the same time, the reproduction of the origin of species at the beginning is also a treatment of narrative structure, which pre-orders the audio clip when Charlie thinks about the beginning of the script in the middle of the film. Charlie and Amy are discussing the screenplay Charlie is writing based on Susan Olin's "The Orchid Thief," and their conversation leads to female reporter and author Susan, who interviews the flower thief for a story in The New Yorker, in Charlie's script wanted to reflect Susan's creative process, so he talked about the story between Susan and Lao Xu in the movie script.
In this way, the film undergoes the first change of narrative perspective. The two are introduced in the conversation. The camera turns to the scene of Susan, played by Meryl Streep, writing a novel. He entered the world of Lao Xu, the character he wrote. The three narrators are all established within less than eight minutes of the film's opening, and the entire film is also structured in three lines by the three narrators. The overall film uses matching editing to achieve the transformation of the three perspectives. Driving through Charlie to Lao Xu also completes the conversion; from the innermost Lao Xu's perspective to photograph the relationship between nature's flora and fauna, to Susan interviewing Lao Xu before writing a novel, the voice of the two exchanges is switched to Susan in front of the computer The voice narration of writing the book, and then when Charlie reads the book, the voice narrated by Susan reaches the outermost Charlie's perspective, layer by layer like a silkworm chrysalis.
The three narrative perspectives have different characteristics. The outermost perspective of Charlie mainly uses the method of inner narration to show the thinking process of his brain, the monologue of his own cognition and views, and the inner heart when he gets along with Amy. , the brainstorming process when writing the script.
Susan's perspective is to show the perspective through action by entering the history of the characters and showing the interview. The perspective of Lao Xu, the flower thief in the novel, is shown through the conversation with Susan. Using different ways of showing perspectives, the perspectives of the three narrators are not single and interact in the film at the same time. In this film, narrative skills are combined with film editing skills. Switch back and forth freely between the three narrators.
Narrative voice is the most basic material for constructing a story and can express the needs, desires and limitations of the narrator. Charlie's brother Donno is also played by Nicolas Cage in "Changing the Script". Here we can combine the narrative voice and Freud's psychoanalytic theory to penetrate. In the movie, Charlie is an obedient otaku who is not good at communicating with outsiders. He will think in his mind 10,000 ways to approach girls , but in reality it always ends with nervousness and sweating.
He is immersed in the rich imagination of his heart and brain. He has his own views on creating stories, rejecting traditional Hollywood drama, rules and conventions, and upholding the artistic expression he wants. And his younger brother Dono also wants to become a well-known screenwriter like Charlie. After listening to Robert McKee's lecture, he is in high spirits and wants to use his skills to create stories. At the same time, he is stronger in communication than Charlie, and it is easy to put makeup on the set. The teacher took it home.
It's like an alternate self in Charlie's mind, the self he wants to be in terms of communication, and the self he hates in terms of creation. Neutralize and produce Charlie who is not good at communication in reality but has his own creative ideas. Just like Freud's exposition of the three personalities of man, the real Charlie belongs to the "id" level, while Donald is the "superego" level, and is Charlie in the imaginary world.
The cinematic shots feature the same actors, and the narrative technique uses narrative voice to add color to this. When the film began to switch from the perspective of Lao Xu in the novel world to Charlie's perspective, Tang Nuo appeared for the first time. Charlie told Donno, "There are no rules to follow. If someone insists that there are, it is not a rule but a principle." "Writing is an exploration of the unknown world, which is different from building a model airplane." Build character through narrative voice , to express the voice of the characters that cannot be expressed.
The narrative structure in "Adapted Script" is a typical set of layers. It does not use a general linear narrative, but starts with Charlie writing the script, and then inserts Susan's story into it, and then Susan writes the story before interviewing The sequence is narrated, but the whole is not completely in such a flashback structure, and in the second half of the film, when the three narrators are in the same space across time and space, the single flashback structure is also broken.
First of all, from the perspective of Susan's book writing, Susan went to interview and found Lao Xu in court. After the court, she met with Lao Xu to understand the matter. From then on, the connection between the narrator and the narrator was established, and the two were no longer independent. Characters in their respective time and space, but to break away from the same time and space. On the other hand, after the book has been published, Charlie has a problem writing the script and needs to communicate with the original author. He goes to New York to meet Susan in the elevator, but due to his own character, he cannot communicate, but at that time , another layer of narrator and narrated encounter.
The narrative structure is not finished here, but the second half of the film combines the theme the film wants to convey. When Charlie was writing the end of the script, he didn't know how to end it. He listened to McKee at the suggestion of his brother. After the lecture, McKee's suggestion gave him an idea, so he asked Susan and Lao Xu to establish a relationship in the script, and in the two people's house, Charlie sneaked in to observe and discover the inspiration for the creation of the ending. When Susan and Lao Xu found out, the three were in a room. At this point, the narrative structure is complete, and the three clues and three narrative perspectives are unified.
At the beginning of the article, the theme expressed by the film has been clarified, and at the end of the film, the narrative structure and theme are likewise integrated. From the beginning of the film, Charlie's personal view of the play is to refute all the techniques and rules of Robert McKee. In the second half, when Charlie personally goes to a lecture given by the famous Hollywood playwright Robert McKee, after his personal self-avoidance inner monologue ends, McKee on stage in the film says: "If you want to use the narration Only God can help you, and that's the most sloppy, loosest way to write it." And before this sentence, Charlie Kaufman had just filled the movie with a large section of Charlie's inner monologue to ridicule Hollywood. traditional drama system.
After the lecture, Charlie found McKee and McKee in the tavern to discuss the script Charlie was writing. There was no character change or change in Charlie's already written script, so McGee told him again: "Your character must have The change must be their own change. The ending must be wonderful to make up for your inadequacy." Charlie used all the characteristics and elements of Hollywood plays to make Susan and Lao Xu have a relationship in the script, and he sneaked into their room. , let the three narrators meet, using Hollywood's usual "kidnapping", "pursuit", "crash", "gun" and other elements, with the terrifying, suspenseful and gripping music, and constantly using the "mechanical seance" routine to create McKee taught him the ending, but that's not the subject of "Adaptation," which Charlie Kaufman uses to satirize everything about Hollywood drama.
The ending Charlie wrote is the combination of Charlie and the brave Donno in his brain, who took the initiative to say what he wanted to say to Amy. On the drive home he thought of how to write the ending, which was "Kaufman and Amy finished their meal and drove home with the idea of the ending in mind. For the first time, my heart was full of hope." Charlie Kauf Mann puts himself into the whole movie and finds his own ending. Completely opposed to Hollywood plays, opposed to conventions, and did not forget to say in the narration of the ending: "No matter what McKee says, I think it is very appropriate." Again, the narrative theme of the film is expressed.
From the narrator, narrative voice, narrative structure and narrative theme, this anti-traditional play method can also be intuitively opposed to all conventional works. So Charlie Kaufman has the same fascination with cinematic and narrative texts without the use of any technique.
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