Good evening, teachers and classmates. I am Hu Wenqi, majoring in theatre and film. The topic of my report today is"Sci-Fi Film Types and Their Variations." First of all, I would like to share with you two judgments about science fiction movies: A sentence from "Twenty Thousand Leagues of Light and Shadow: A Brief History of World Science Fiction Film and Television," which says,"If Darwin told us, where do we come from?" Science fiction movies will tell us: where might we go? Some people joke that the occupation closest to a philosopher in real life is probably a doorman, because he always asks you three questions: "Who are you?" "Where are you from?" "Where are you going?" Then, Darwin used his theoretical theory to answer the question "Where do we come from?", while science fiction films are dedicated to answering the question "Where are we going to go" by means of figurative, audio-visual, and film language. Go? " The answer to this eternal question is, therefore, in this sense, a second judgment:"Science-fiction films are the type of films closest to philosophy."
The previous students shared their views on a certain aspect of science fiction movies from different angles, so as the last student in the group, I would like to do some summary and addendum work here. First of all, I want to imitate the classic question posed by Andre Bazin in "What is a Movie?" I also want to throw out a question to you—"What is a science fiction movie?" As a film genre that began in 1905 with "Travel to the Moon", after more than 100 years of development, the development trend of science fiction films is still in full swing, and it is not as good as other long-history film genres such as westerns and musicals. With the declining trend, science fiction movies still dominate the global film industry with absolute hegemony today. However, we still have to ask, as American writer Raymond Carver did-"When we talk about science fiction, what are we talking about?"
Let us think about this question with reference to the way of thinking about linguistics and semiotics. Then the question is equivalent to "Sci-fi movies, as a self-contained film type, as a category, what are the connotations and extensions?"That is, what are the essential attributes and characteristics of sci-fi movies? What specific films do science fiction movies include? I don’t think it’s too difficult. We can easily list theextensionof science fiction movies through various channels. It is just a list of film history and science fiction classics that have survived the washing of time. In this list, there are some such names—"A Journey to the Moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Avatar, Blade Runner, Terminator, To Space, Interstellar, etc...."
We can also refer to the classification of the extension of film history science fiction films in "Keywords of Film Studies" and divide the existing science fiction films into the followingsub-types: They are represented by "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Interstellar". Thespace flightsub-genre, this kind of sci-fi film is often devoted to exploring the possibility of film technology as much as possible, in order to express some extraordinary skills, either at the film level or at the aerospace level, but at the same time, this kind of film is also thematically. It often reflects on the belief that humans have absolute control over technology. Alien invasionis the most prolific subgenre, represented by films such as Independence Day and Arrival, which often refer to others as elements that threaten life or social mores. There is also afuturistic societysub-genre. "Metropolis" is the prototype of this type of sci-fi film. Such films are often subject to some kind of criticism of the future urban space, challenging the modernist belief in technological development as the driving force of social change.
However, what is important and difficult is not the listing of the extension but the definition of thecontent, which determines whether a film can be classified as a science fiction film. However, when we try to find a definite and clear concept to characterize science fiction films, we find that this behavior is impossible, and we will eventually realize that the connotation of the concept of "science fiction films" is just like its extension can be infinitely listed. In that way, its connotation also changes and changes with time. Likewise, here I list several definitions for your reference.
One definition is that of science fiction films as"fantasies of possibility", a type of film that observes a certain possibility that human affairs are developing and deduces various wide-ranging consequences fromit, such as in "The Day After Tomorrow" on climate development. audiovisual presentation of possibilities and consequences. One definition issome kind of technology that hasn't actually happened yet, or the result of technology, or some kind of disturbance of the natural order (such as human nature), as in "Her", which tells the story of people falling in love with artificial intelligence. The last definition shows that science fiction films are different from fantasy films and technology-special effects films. Science fiction filmsdo not use high-tech means to create fantasy scenes, but the stories contain surreal plots that can be explained by science.For example, "The Lord of the Rings" is a fantasy, not sci-fi.
None of the above three definitions can provide an authoritative definition of science fiction movies, just as the great Bazin cannot provide an authoritative answer to "what is a movie", but only asks himself a self-answer in his own work, which leaves open-ended questions. So this question can only be left to everyone: what is your definition of a sci-fi movie? When we think about the relationship betweenthe system of sci-fi genres and individual, concrete sci-fi films, it is natural to think of Saussure 's distinction between the concept oflanguage and speechin his structuralist linguistics. The language system is independent of and prior to the individual language behavior of speech, just as the rules and paradigms of the film type system exert an influence on the creators of genre films.
However, film and language are fundamentally different. As Metz said, film is not a language, but a language. Each director invents his own set of grammar, so sometimes film directors can also make breakthroughs with the help of their own genius. The film genre system comprises grammatical rules and conventions. AndTarkovsky's "Fly to the Sky"is such a testament to the sci-fi film genre. The film not only inherits the elements of the sci-fi movie genre but also surpasses the tradition of the sci-fi movie genre and seems to break the sci-fi movie genre. conventional, but to a certain extent, it points directly to the essence of science fiction movies.
Because most of my classmates may not have seen this movie, I want to give a brief introduction. The film tells the story of a psychologist who goes to the space station to conduct scientific research on the Solaris star. The entire film is nearly three hours long, and the first hour is a poetic and objective way of showing the protagonist on Earth before parting. The first two hours describe a series of mysterious things that happened to him and two other scientists on the space station due to the influence of Solaris, such as the protagonist's deceased wife on the space station. The other two scientists also frequently encountered the physical existence formed by the externalization of their inner consciousness, memory, and desire. This makes the protagonist and other scientists face the conflict between their rational mission as scientists and the deep emotions and memories of human beings. How to deal with these conflicts, how to deal with these non-human existences, how to deal with such a situation. The alien planet Solaris, which human reason cannot understand, has caused them to fall into contradictions and dilemmas.
We unanimously judged Tarkovsky's "Flying into Space" as a science fiction film, which was accomplished precisely by identifying the film as asciencefiction film, such as the film adaptation of the famous science fiction writer Lim's novel "Solaris," and the symbols of space navigation, space station, alien planet, etc. in the film, which are also the inheritance of the sci-fi genre elements in the external form of this film.In terms of the thematic connotation of the film, this film still has something in common with traditional science fiction films; that is , the theme of deep reflection on scientific rationalitythat is often seen in the aforementioned space flight science fiction films . The film's transcendence of the sci-fi genre tradition is reflected in the fact that, first of all, unlike the sci-fi genre tradition, which began with A Journey to the Moon, "it shows that human beings have gone through a series of adventures, encountered many strange phenomena, and the ending is comedic and everyone is happy.", it adopts a paradoxical ending; that is, while giving a seemingly comic ending, it deconstructs such comedy and the possibility of redemption, showing anabsolute tragedy, and thus more able to trigger the audience's reflection on the boundaries of human cognition and the conflict between science and human emotion and memory.
At the beginning of the last paragraph, both the audience and the protagonist thought that the protagonist had returned to the earth and his father, but the surreal rain and the sound of foreboding made everyone feel something strange. Then the male protagonist knelt down and expressed his remorse to his father. We all thought that the protagonist had been redeemed. However, the camera gradually zoomed out and zoomed out, and we finally realized that the protagonist did not return to Earth, did not really see his father, but stayed in The audience was greatly shocked and fell into deep contemplation because of the solaris.
Secondly, at the audiovisual level, this filmopposes the construction of spectacle scenes often seen in sci-fi blockbusters and instead presents a poetic style, which also continues the consistent style of tower film language. Such as the slowly shaking water plants at the beginning, rich natural sounds and poetically floating long-shot paragraphs present a quality completely different from the sensory stimulation of science fiction blockbusters, which focuses on audio-visual stimulation, making it possible for the genre of science fiction films to blend with poetry. Finally, the ideological connotation of this film also containsprofound philosophical speculation, which is contrary to the conventional plot of sci-fi blockbusters and realizes the profound understanding of scientific rationality by showing the conflict between scientific rationality and human consciousness, emotion, and memory. Reflect.
At the end of this report, I would like to quote Wittgenstein's concluding sentence in "Treatise on Logic and Philosophy": "What cannot be said, one must remain silent."I think this directly points to the theme of this film—whether it is the mystery of the spiritual world or the unknown of the external world, human beings should have a sense of awe. The above is my bibliography, and this concludes my report. Thank you for listening.
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