Perspective is the perspective, vision and point of view of the creator and narrator of the world. In a movie, perspective is the angle chosen by the director in order to expand the narrative or for the audience to better examine the characters and the meaning of events in the movie. The narrative angle chosen by the director determines the interesting direction of the film work and is also a part of the work style. A good perspective can provide the audience with a broader space for interpretation, and also give the film more aesthetic value and moral thinking. Many times, when we talk about movies, we actually analyze all kinds of movies through our own perspective.
In 1956, Albert Lamorris shot a short film called "Red Balloon", which won the Best Original Screenplay at the 29th Academy Awards and the short film in the main competition unit of the 9th Cannes Film Festival. Palme d'Or. In 2007, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien filmed a film tribute to Albert Lamorris, "The Journey of the Red Balloon". This film is an expansion and secondary interpretation of "The Red Balloon".
"Red Balloon" tells a fantastical story. Pask, a lonely boy, picked up a red balloon on his way to school alone. The red balloon seemed to be another child and followed Pask all the time. The red balloons filled Pask's childhood and brought him great joy. But another group of boys on the street is always trying to grab the balloon and try to break it. So, the little boy came forward to protect his red balloon.
In the film, director Albert Lamorris carefully depicts the adult world, growth memories and emotional changes with the help of the little boy Pask's perspective. Perspective is not only the narrative technique chosen by the director, but also contains the director's personal consciousness, the director's creative ideals, artistic expression, and the inherent needs of moral culture. In other words, any narrative perspective chosen by the director contains a rich philosophy of life and smooth poetry.
One: Children have a relatively low degree of socialization, so that children become observers in the film world, which helps the film to put aside the utilitarian nature of the world.
The child's perspective and the adult's perspective in "Red Balloon" are in a state of opposition. The child's perspective is represented by the little boy Pask, and the adult's perspective is Pask's mother. Pask yearns for friendship and company, and his mother wants Pask to be obedient and well-behaved. Two different perspectives represent two different voices, not just Pask's childhood, but most people's childhoods as well.
Director Albert Lamorris did not put too much emphasis on the adult perspective, but let the adult perspective appear with a certain authority at the right time to maintain the corresponding order. For example, Pask couldn't take a red balloon on a bus, walked into a classroom with a red balloon, or even went home with a red balloon. The reason why these can't happen is because of the order of the adult world. Although the child Pask did not understand the meaning of these orders, he still obeyed them. Director Bert Lamorris did not attack the rigidity of the world from the perspective of a child. On the contrary, he affirmed these rules and institutions. Although a bit cruel for Pask, this is the reality Pask needs to face as he grows up.
In the whole social order, children belong to a group with a relatively low degree of socialization. When they observe the world, they do not consider pros and cons, but real needs. This can be seen as a kind of "retreat" and "evasion" by the director in the narrative. Abandoning the mature and rational adult perspective and letting the child become his own eyes, in this process, the child presents the director's aesthetic photos of the real world and more concealed through simple processing and judgment of the world and events. social observation.
In addition to "Red Balloon", children's perspectives can be seen in many movies, such as "Lord of the Flies", "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", "The Last Lesson", etc. These movies outline a grand vision through innocent children's perspectives These can show the profoundness, uniqueness and superiority contained in the perspective of children, and at the same time realize the criticism and irony of the secular.
Second: when children understand the world, the characteristics of ambiguity, uncertainty, intuition and so on have a natural poetic quality, and they can achieve poetic artistic expression without any modification.
There are actually two forms of film, one is static and the other is dynamic. It is said to be static because after the film is completed, its time and space cannot be changed, and it is said to be dynamic because it can be continuously interpreted.
When we assign meaning to a film or evaluate whether it is poetic or not, it is often based on our own experience. In order to allow the audience to better feel the poetry of the film, the director will inevitably be influenced by the relevant poetic theory in the process of filming the film, and deliberately add interpretable poetic elements in the film.
However, if a child's perspective is chosen, then the film has a natural poetic quality. In the movie "Red Balloon", the little boy Pask walks through the deserted streets alone is a kind of poetry. He brings a red balloon to meet a girl on the street with a blue balloon. This is also a kind of poetry. At the end, The colorful balloons flying into the sky are even more beautiful.
If these elements appear in the adult world, bright colors will inevitably be a bit overwhelming. After all, not every director can handle strong colors like Almodovar. In the eyes of children, rich colors mean the richness of the world as a whole. When they interpret the world, they only understand things superficially through appearances. This kind of superficiality and chaos is a kind of poetry.
Mr. Wang Zengqi believes that children rely on intuition to experience the world, so they can best grasp the colors, shapes, light and shadow, sound and silence of the surrounding environment. The most perfect capture of the essence of life. In Pask's eyes, only the balloons are colorful, the whole city is gray, maybe because of loneliness, maybe the world is like this.
The "childish innocence" component in the child's perspective is actually a poetic representation that lasts for a long time. Through the visual expression of the "childish innocence", the simple aesthetic characteristics can be explored. When describing the language and behavior of children, it is easy to understand Showing a natural poetry. For the director, using characters to express the poetry of the film is easier for the audience to recognize, and it is easier for the audience to experience the "hidden" artistic style.
Third: The child's perspective is not only the perspective of looking at the world, but also the director's state of mind. Through such a simple perspective, the director's creative intention can be better realized.
In the process of realizing his intentions, the director must rely on a certain character. In "Red Balloon", the director chose the little boy Pask. At this time, we can paranoidly believe that the director hopes that he can return to his originality, through a more pure view of the world.
An obvious difference between a child's perspective and an adult's perspective is that adults' imagination and evaluation of the world is often a deliberate behavior, while the former is a spontaneous behavior. With the help of children's eyes, it is easier to capture details that are not easy for adults to detect. When adults view the world with rational eyes, all events that occur become an experience and a lesson. Where adults cannot reach, children can easily arrive with their unique innocence, and there is an equal dialogue between the whole world and the child.
In The Red Balloon, Pask builds an equal world between him and the Red Balloon, and how he treats the Red Balloon, the Red Balloon will treat him. When he was hiding on the street corner, the red balloon would also hide when he was not looking, waiting for him to find it. Of course we know that balloons are inanimate objects, but in this film, the "red balloon" is not only Pask's friend, but his only way out of his loneliness. Just as we are growing up, it is a reason to entrust our companionship to toys, cartoon cards, stickers, and dolls. Growing up, everyone has to walk a certain distance on their own. Maybe we all feel lonely, but we will all find something to accompany us. Those things are the light of our life and the treasures that we can remember for a lifetime.
In the film, the director uses the child's perspective on the one hand, and on the other hand, adds the adult's control and restraint over the world, forming a certain intervention in the child's perspective. While creating a dramatic conflict, it also allows the perspective to better realize the director's creation. intention. Because the child's perspective is simple and pure, it is rarely misunderstood. For the director, choosing a simple narrative perspective can make his aesthetic concept more clear.
In a movie, no matter which perspective the director chooses, the purpose is to reflect his own view of the world, but different perspectives can bring different viewing experiences. In "Red Balloon", the director turned Pask into his own "eyes". When Pask experienced the warmth and coldness of the world, it was also the director's own experience. From the audience's point of view, following Pask's "eyes", it is easier to enter the world in the eyes of children, and to explore the secrets of children's growth in this simple and innocent world.
In fact, the perspective of children has appeared in any field of art. In literary creation, it is a common method to reflect the cruelty of war through the perspective of children. In this narrative technique, readers can experience the damage of war to human beings more deeply. In music creation, creating music from the perspective of children can make music more vital and dynamic. Children's perspective is a perspective with natural poetry and beauty. Through this perspective, we can follow children back to their childhood and find the memory fragments scattered in childhood.
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