World cinema received sound in the 32nd year (1927) of its birth and color in the 43rd year (1938). Since then, the vivid screen has shown countless inspiring stories for human beings. In the early 1950s, television began to be popularized in the West, and with its unique viewing form such as economy and convenience, it pulled a large part of the audience from the cinema. For the first time in more than half a century, a film faces a huge challenge. The epic blockbuster "Holy Robes" is the first film to answer the TV challenge.
Films prior to the early 1950s used ordinary screens that were basically in line with the golden ratio. In 1927, Professor Henry Cladion invented the lens that could shoot widescreen films of the Sinema Scope system. The following year, France's Claude Oudan-Raha had tried this lens in his film. However, it wasn't until 1953 that producer Frank Ross and director Henry Custer really successfully and effectively used it in the film. On the one hand, the creator proclaimed the irreplaceability and constantly renewed vitality of film art with unique means of expression such as color widescreen and stereo. On the other hand, the creators have successfully explored the expression field of wide-screen film images, and have greatly enriched the expressive means of film art itself with colorful lens angles and movement forms, as well as a large number of open compositions.
Appreciation of the film should focus on its wide-screen composition and audiovisual composition that made the audience refreshing at the time. However, as the first wide-screen film, we can also get aesthetic enjoyment from the film's play structure, screen image depiction and open space and time.
The film's play and narrative structure draws on the composition of fugues and symphonies, consisting of a prologue, an epilogue, and four distinct narrative passages. At the beginning of the film, a slow mixed chorus sounded, and the maroon curtain on the wide screen of the Sinima Scope system was pulled from the middle, showing a living drama of human history. The voiceover introduces the historical context of the story: the apparent prosperity of the Roman Empire and the ugliness of slavery. Then, the film describes the reunion of the hero and heroine Marcellus and Diana after a long absence. The first paragraph focuses on the first separation of the hero and heroine, as well as what Marcellus saw and heard after he first arrived in Palestine, especially through the contact between the slave Demetrius and the local Christians and the crucifixion of Jesus, It shows the influence of Christianity as a new faith at that time. The second paragraph describes Marcellus' return to Rome as a tribune. The third paragraph shows that the protagonist arrives in Palestine again to investigate and destroy the growing Christianity there. The fourth paragraph describes the protagonist's return to Rome again, and finally martyrdom for rescuing Demetrius and converting to Christianity. Following this climax, the epilogue sings the hero and heroine's fearless spirit with optimistic brushstrokes and beautiful sound and picture.
There seems to be a lack of tight logic and dramatic connection between the third and fourth paragraphs of the film - it seems that Caligula shouldn't have sent Marcellus, a man with no record in Jerusalem, back to Rome to carry out the purge. The purging of Christians is a task with the same nature and goal. However, these four distinct passages are linked into a narrative whole through the character development and substantial transformation of the protagonist Marcellus. And the transformation of the protagonist is through two kinds of love as an opportunity and through. One is the unswerving love between men and women between Marcellus and Diana; the other is the holy love of Jesus and God represented by Christians represented by Demetrius. These two abstract concepts, in addition to the above-mentioned storyline, are mainly embodied by the vivid and meaningful concrete image of the Holy Robe. The robe appears repeatedly in the above four passages, always driving the character changes and the dramatic development of the story. In the first paragraph, the robe is Marcellus' "trophy" and an important foreshadowing of a substantial transformation in his spiritual world. In the second paragraph, the robe is the main reason for his tremors and unrest in his heart. In the third paragraph, he rediscovers the slaves and robes that were lost when he left Jerusalem for the first time, and is moved from doubt to Christianity, which is symbolized by the robes. In the fourth passage, the robe finally becomes the sacred banner of his own faith, and ultimately martyrdom for the Christianity that this banner represents. The life experience of a Roman official from persecuting Christians to becoming a devout Christian is represented by means of film, and the character transformation of the characters is closely linked, natural and fascinating. It is indeed inseparable from the above-mentioned narrative structure and ingenious use of penetration methods. .
Although the visual and auditory image of Jesus Christ appears only four times in this film, without him, the narrative framework of the entire film would lose its foundation of existence. To this end, the creator not only used his holy robe as the penetration, but also creatively used the wide screen's unique front and rear depth of field composition, open composition and female singers singing and vivid testimony of Christians to multi-faceted and multi-viewpoints to express his screen image. When showing the scene where he leads the disciples into the city of Jerusalem, the film adopts a composition method that puts Jesus and the disciples in the background, and Demetrius and the cheering crowd in the foreground. Although the image of Jesus is only a big vision, the charisma of Jesus as the embodiment of a new faith is vividly displayed through the chorus of crowds that fill the screen with the chorus. When showing the scene of Jesus carrying the cross across the street, the film places the slanted cross in the middle of the frame, while the head of Jesus is at the edge of the frame or even outside the frame, thus creating a suffocating sense of heaviness. When showing the scene of the crucifixion of Jesus, his upper body is always out of the painting. The audience can only imagine the tragic scene of Jesus being crucified through the reflection shots of his disciples and relatives, as well as soldiers and officials, and the blood dripping on Marcellus' hands, and through his plea on the cross to the Father's forgiveness The sinner's voice-over shows the magnanimity of Jesus. The scene of Jesus' resurrection after death is expressed through the singing of female singers. At a local Christian gathering, a female Christian who saw the resurrection of Jesus with her own eyes used a recitative solo to create the resurrection of Jesus Christ, appear to the disciples, and give them the "Great Commission" with voice and musical shapes. ” and other images that can arouse the audience’s rich associations.
This space-time open singing passage not only expresses the dissemination and development of early Christianity in content, but also appears in the form of music in the space and time of the screen, which effectively adjusts the narrative rhythm of the film and greatly enhances the audio-visual appeal of the screen. .
In addition to the examples mentioned above, the film has made many fruitful attempts to explore the composition methods of the wide screen, especially the horizontal long-distance movement shots that are more spectacular than ordinary screen composition. When Marcellus was sent to Jerusalem, he and Diana said goodbye on the dock. The film first turns into a busy ferry, and in the background is a sky inlaid with twilight clouds and mountains shrouded in mist; Diana emerges from the background and walks to the foreground to hug and kiss her lover, reluctantly. Then, the boatman laid down the cable, and the camera was on the boat to shoot the people on the shore seeing off, subtly creating a visual effect of "the eyes are full of storms and flickering, and the mountains seem to be coming to greet them. If you look carefully at the mountains and the mountains do not move - it is the boat traveling". When the protagonist rescued Demetrius and left the city gate in a white horse-drawn chariot, he was chased by a team of brown horses sent by the government. The film not only shows the pursuit of the two sides on the wide screen, but also through the subjective point of view of the characters and the upward shot of the carriage galloping past the camera, showing a specific and intense situation, which is exciting. In addition, the film also makes extensive use of double close-up shots that can only be expressed on the wide screen (Diana visits Marcellus in prison and finally they both go to the execution site) and high-view large scenes (After Jesus is crucified) All beings seen from the point of view of Jesus), etc.
It is undeniable that many pictures in this film still have traces of "artificial filling in the blanks". But neither film historians nor the general audience will deny its great achievement and important influence: just as Jesus Christ ushered in a new era for mankind (his birth is divided into BC and AD), color The wide-screen film "The Holy Robe" also opened up a new field for film art. In 1954, the same company filmed a sister film "Demetrius and Glatiates" based on the novel of the same name and the characters and materials provided by the film, which showed the execution of the protagonist Marcellus. The Fate of the Robe and Demetrius, as well as the wider development and deeper influence of Christianity, is still written by Donne, starring Victor Mathur.
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