"Dream" is not a dream, it is a film directed by a Japanese named Akira Kurosawa in 1990. Although the designation of "dream" has opened the door to escape from reality by its wild imagination, the use of dreamlike colors of bright or empty gray, the ancient rituals of Orientalism, etc., it is obvious that the aged Kurosawa Akira is the most persistent. It has always been the theme of social criticism in his life. In the eight dreams that make up the entire film, Akira Kurosawa jumps back and forth between various scenes of nature and society, but the main point is sharp and clear: today's human beings are being destroyed by war, nuclear threats, and the madness that destroys nature. The only way out is unmistakably marked by the tantalizing vision of the Nameless Village (or Waterwheel Village) in the Eighth Dream—a paradise of moral ideals.
"A dream ahead, waterwheel village", Akira Kurosawa has set up a golden road sign for us - just like many artists, poets and philosophers (far as Rousseau, as close as Zhang Wei and Zhang Chengzhi) did That way - at the end of the road, the waterwheels from the Nara period or the shogunate period are slowly turning on the gurgling river, the childhood accompanied by colorful flowers along the river, the peaceful and peaceful old age in front of the wooden house, and more importantly, the piece of memory for the ancestors. The flower stone and the funeral without sadness... This traditional, simple, quiet, closed, peaceful, psychic, world without modern industrial pollution can be said to be the dream created by Akira Kurosawa for the entire human race.
The severe criticism of the theme of human social life and the conception of the future utopia, this is the master style! Akira Kurosawa's ambition is truly worthy of the title of Japan's "movie czar" - after what Isaiah Berlin called "the worst century ever" (world wars, atomic bombs, environmental degradation, etc.) , he used the unique way of dreaming for human beings to express his hope above disappointment, his pursuit above fear and worry, and his construction above criticism. The human spirit in the quagmire of modernity (the domination of science and technology, alienation, and the loss of human subjectivity) tries to present a medieval and harmonious spiritual home.
Although the human experience of the 19th and 20th centuries has proved how catastrophic this ambition can be when it enters into historical practice, we do not need to be too insistent on political criticism of the old Kurosawa Akira's dream. A sense of reality based on the understanding of historical experience can give us warmth, while another romantic imagination that is dissatisfied with reality can give us yearning.
However, it has to be said that Akira Kurosawa's ambition to explore the way out for human beings is getting hotter with age, so that the critical theme of "Dream" is so explicit and direct that it affects the artistic expression of the whole film. The film conception of the eight "dreams" is almost magical, but the fantastic and blurred effect that should have been expected is greatly reduced in Kurosawa's incessant preaching. In 1950, Akira Kurosawa was 40 years old. In Rashomon, the monk and farmer's outspoken statements about disappointment and hope for human nature already made people feel a little contrived; in 1990, Akira Kurosawa was 80 years old. " was his last major work, and he seemed eager to entrust a lifetime of social thinking. However, it is this kind of attitude of "devoting to the world" that makes "Dream" difficult to maintain a posture of transcending and flying despite its deepness; especially the accusation of nuclear radiation after the explosion of the atomic bomb and the preaching statement of the unicorn are even more important. Too real and eager to pull the psychedelic color that "dream" should have to the abyss of reality, panting, heavily.
Because of this, among all the eight dreams, the only ones that really surprised me were the rain of the sun, the peach blossoms, and the crow in the wheat field. Just like Picasso's painting "Dream" of the same name, these three dreams all use surreal bright, bright and contrasting colors, and the imagination that seems to be flying in the clouds gives the whole dream an otherworldly texture, such as The fox marriage, the end of the rainbow and the dance of the peach blossoms, etc.
Here try to analyze the dream of a crow in a wheat field. This is a great tribute to the great Vincent Van Gogh by Akira Kurosawa, and it is also an amazing real dream - where the souls of the three masters in the fields of human film, painting and music converge and fuse.
Van Gogh started business in the early days and then became interested in religion, but he failed to achieve anything. The successive failures in his career and love made him extremely depressed and lonely. Ten years before he died, he began to learn painting, but he was still not understood by the world. This is a fertile soul who is suffering but always has a deep love for human beings and nature. The more lonely he is away from the crowd, the more he longs to be loved, especially in the final stages of his life. Such a soul is also a symbol of the suffering of all human beings. As a result, after Van Gogh's death, it resonated with more and more people, including Akira Kurosawa. It is said that Akira Kurosawa had a strong interest in painting since he was a child, and especially liked Van Gogh. His paintings maintained the strong style of Van Gogh.
In "Dream", Akira Kurosawa expressed his understanding and reverence for the spiritual idol's final life choice in the form of a dream.
A middle-aged man admires Van Gogh's oil paintings in a museum, but unexpectedly enters the world of paintings. The first is "Suspension Bridge near Aar". The blue water suddenly fluctuates. Women in colorful clothes wash their clothes by the river. Men run in along the river. The yellow wooden suspension bridge, the man asked Van Gogh where he lived and then trotted away; under the blue sky, the man passed through large wheat fields, brightly colored flowers and colorful wooden houses by the roadside, and finally found a golden wheat field after harvesting. the painter. Throughout the search process, the background music was Chopin's "Raindrops" composed on a rainy night, when Chopin was waiting for George Sand in a leaky room. The opening part of "Raindrops" is pure and fresh. It should be in harmony with the sunshine and wheat fields in the small town of Arr in southern France. It is quiet, bright and beautiful.
Next, the man had a dialogue with Van Gogh, the music stopped, and images such as the sun, wheat fields, nature, etc., which were of great significance in Van Gogh's life, appeared in the dialogue. More importantly, Van Gogh said after saying that he could not restrain himself from expressing the beauty of nature: "I work hard and drive myself like a locomotive." After that, the deep and strong part in the middle of "Raindrop" sounded, and the axles of the train kept turning and moving forward. The imagery of the artist appears repeatedly, and Kurosawa seems to convey a dark night-like mystery, depression and fear through music and imagery.
Van Gogh was clearly aware of the end of his life: after referring to his famous ear-cutting incident, he said he was running out of time to paint—meaning that there was not much time left for his life. Then he left. The man walked in the fantasy painting and came to the wheat field where Van Gogh ended his life the next day. This is a picture full of unease and gloomy madness, with crows dancing wildly, large fields of wheat, gloomy blue sky and the back of Van Gogh who is leaving this world decisively - and he is about to leave this world decisively. .
In this dream, a large number of expressionist paintings, Chopin's mysterious and deep music, and highly allegorical dialogues and other factors have jointly constructed such a magical dream of understanding Van Gogh's death, which is concise, clean, pure and super-elegant. Akira Kurosawa used a dream to let himself and us understand the reason for the death of spiritual idols - he overloaded his paintings to express his love for the beauty of nature; at the same time, he also expressed his awe for his life and works, a kind of Deep reverence for great souls and art.
2011.7
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