Director Jia Zhangke once mentioned in an interview that he liked Brecht's drama "Sichuan Good Man" very much, and the title of the film was originally "Sichuan Good Man", but later, due to the filming of the documentary "East", he learned about the filming location near the Three Gorges. Due to the situation, it was decided to set the filming location as the Three Gorges, and the title of the film was changed to "The Good Man of the Three Gorges".
What is the inheritance of "The Good Man in Three Gorges" to "The Good Man in Sichuan", I think it should be the eclectic expression (combination of realism and surrealism) in the film. Comparing with the domestic realistic film works of similar themes in recent years, this is also the biggest shining point of "The Three Gorges".
Brecht has his own unique understanding of realism. He has repeatedly emphasized that realism is not a matter of form, and whether or not realism is not a matter of using a form of realism or not. In the creation of realist works, the author should have the freedom to create fiction, fantasy, etc., not limited to what form, technique and means of creation. Because works written in non-realistic methods can also be very realistic.
In "Sichuan Good Man", Brecht put his aesthetic thought into practice. "Sichuan Good Man" is an allegorical drama. There are surreal fairy tales and other plots in the play, but the connotation of the film is real realism. And because of these surreal representations, reality is more powerfully presented, and they also make the drama more engaging and thought-provoking. As Brecht said: "Actors can perform 'completely naturally' with little or no make-up, and everything may be fake, but the actor puts on a grotesque mask and acts real."
Jia Zhangke in his speech In the movie "The Good Man in the Three Gorges", it inherited Brecht's aesthetic spirit and boldly integrated realism and surrealism. The reality expressed by the ideological approach is a more powerful reality.
The following is my personal understanding of several surreal techniques in the film:
one. UFO. The role of the flying saucer in the structure of the film is to connect the two stories. We can compare it with the three gods who descended from the sky in "The Good Man of Sichuan": the three gods in the play "The Good Man of Sichuan" also play a role in the structure of the story; The effect of alienation and alienation. I think the appearance of the flying saucer here can also be understood in the same way: it provides us with a completely detached spectator's perspective in the film, so as to calmly and objectively examine the reality inside and outside the film.
two. Rocket ascension. That building (an unfinished building) was really odd. In the dark sky, those cubicles of light and shadow remind me of the shape of a motion picture film. I think this can give us an inspiration for interpreting this film (whether the screenwriter has this intention or not): in this type of realist works (buildings in the shape of film films) that combine reality and surreal expressions, the surreal part (The building turns into a rocket) appears to sublimate the connotation (the unfinished building) to be revealed in the real part of the work (the unfinished building), so as to draw a highly concentrated and universal theme (the emergence of the unfinished building, Influence, the problem reflected - some people are corrupt and corrupt, and they are rich and rich; some people work hard, but they are poor and difficult. This is also the theme of Brecht's performance in "Sichuan Good Man". This reveals that this Deformity of society: good people do not get good rewards, bad people do evil things but they are free, such absurd reality can only be considered normal in this degenerate world.)
Three. Next, we can use the above revelation to analyze the "surreal" scene at the end of the film: a steel wire hangs between the buildings with the empty sky as the background; the black figure walks like a villain in a shadow play holding a bamboo pole on the wire. This scene is a general summary and sublimation of the reality shown in the whole film: Zhao Tao and Han Sanming play strangers who go to the Three Gorges to find relatives, representing that countless voices in China have been drowned out in this huge society. the "good guy". Such "good people", their lives are extremely difficult and fragile in such a turbulent and closed social environment. Not only their life is like a mustard, but their strength is like a gossamer, and they are powerless to change their destiny and situation. They are a vulnerable group, their voices are missing in society, and people are often invisible to their bodies. They were as silent as a gentle vegetable.
Director Jia Zhangke has been paying attention to the living conditions of this group of people since his first work. He is letting more people see their figures and let more people hear their voices, their demands, their pain, and their helplessness. This may be the most noble conscience of a film worker, and the unique gentle temperament presented in the film naturally radiates from this, which cannot be imitated.
The English title of the film, "Still Life", is very memorable. In my opinion, it not only shows the confidence of the filmmakers in the tenacity of life and the expectation of the influence and reflection that this work will bring: "Life is a reed, which can be bent, but cannot be broken." , but also contains a kind of helplessness and sadness that "everything grows and falls, the earth still exists".
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