This article is from WeChat official account:Gyro movie (ID: toroscope), author: Enlightening, editor: cool dog, drawing from the title:” 1917 “still
Editor’s preface
No one will disagree. “1917”, which will be shown in theaters on August 7, is a movie that must be seen in the theater.
In fact, I don’t want to spend too much effort to “recommend” this movie. In the “story” link that most theater audiences value most, “1917” does not have an advantage either. However, in the cinema, especially watching movies like “1917” on the IMAX screen, the unprecedented “immersion” you get, to exaggerate, must be one of your most important screen experiences this year.
But at the same time, “immersion” is not all good for “1917.” At the beginning of the year, we translated Stéphane Delorme, the former editor-in-chief of the “Cinema Manual”, to “1917” “violent essay”: won three Oscars, so it is the same kind of movie as “Avengers”? The comment area also “fighted” very lively.
What exactly did “One Mirror to the End” bring to “1917”? Is “1917” a superbly immersive movie? Or a cunning RPG game?
Today’s article may give you some new thoughts and feelings.
The “pseudo-one-shot” of “1917”, is it a virtual game or an immersive reality?
Since “1917”, which was nominated for 10 Oscars, was released in China, praise and criticism of the filming technique of “One Mirror to the End”, “Pseudo-one shot to the end” or “pseudo-long shot” is not news.
After “Birdman” won the Oscar for Best Picture, fans discovered that “Birdman”‘s “Pseudo One Shot to the End” actually used the editing techniques of the pre-digital era, including misalignment, cutting black, dark turning, etc. ;
The novelty of “1917” is actually to create “continuous” time and space through digital technology.
Birdman, which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 2014, is also a “false mirror to the end”
The film industry’s obsession with “continuous time and space” originated from the French film theorist Bazin’s discussion of the true aesthetics of films. Bazin advocated the use of long-lens and depth-of-field lens structures. The long lens maintains the integrity of time and space. Sex and the continuity between the two to reflect the ontological position of the film;
This stance extends to the debate of “false one mirror to the end” in the digital age, which is reflected in the divergence of opinions on whether this photography technique, which was originally intended to maintain the continuity of time and space, will cause temporal and spatial distortion at the audiovisual level.
We mentioned in the preface that Stéphane Delorme, the former editor-in-chief of the “Cinema Manual”, made a violent criticism of “1917” in February this year.
He believes that contemporary Hollywood movies are increasingly becoming a medium for spreading “fantasy” (fantasy), as Scorsese said “Theme park-style movie (movie)” constitutes the art of film ( cinema)’s colonization, “fantasy” has also begun to get involved in movies that have nothing to do with fantasy themes.
Delorme’s criticism of “1917” focused on the “pseudo-one mirror to the end” used in the film grafted the audience to the perspective of the game characters, the protagonist of the movie becomes a doll wandering in the exquisite setting, which finally leads to a “virtual feeling without the slightest sense of tension”.
Some film critics hold similar views, and believe that “false one mirror to the end” does reflect a certain “game feeling” as Delorme said.
Even many people are beginning to worry–
Is the boundary between games and movies blurring? Is the colonization of “fantasy” destroying film art?
“1917” stills
Before answering these two questions, let us first return to the respective characteristics of games and movies.
The viewers who describe the “1917” movie viewing experience as “game feeling” actually think of a specific type of game, namely “role-playing games”(Role-playing game, RPG).
RPG players often overlap with the perspectives of the characters they play, and cannot observe the dangers around them from an omniscient perspective, which makes the players feel nervous.
The most important difference between role-playing games and movies is: The former does not have a camera, while the latter uses a camera to show the audience the people/objects/scene in the frame.
What is involved here is actually the discussion of the second cinematic semiotics.
“The desire to watch/gaze” is carried by the camera. The eyes of the audience sitting in the dark theater are guided by the camera and identify with the characters on the screen, not the first point of view” “Watching” keeps a mysterious distance between the audience and the characters on the screen.
This inaccessible but fascinating distance is precisely an important source of the pleasure of watching movies, and games that simulate the subjective point of view of the characters from the beginning to the end cannot achieve this.One effect.
“1917” stills
In “1917”, we see that the camera is always moving around the two male protagonists Schofield and Blake, and the distance between them and the two screen characters is sometimes close and long. This is a far cry from the virtual sight of RPG.
The most thrilling scene in the whole film is the passage where Scofield crawls out of the trenches and runs in the dust from the charging soldiers and bombs. The camera retreats at a constant speed, while Scofield is caught by the soldiers. Tripping and getting farther and farther from the camera——
The reason why this passage can impress the audience so deeply is precisely because the camera imitates the audience’s viewpoint.
Schofield is getting farther and farther away from the audience, until he runs to “back” to the audience, and the audience’s moral sense is satisfied.
It can be said that the reason why the “pseudo one mirror to the end” of “1917” can get so many exclamations, Its very important point is the subtle relationship between the visual law of distance and the desire to watch movies. Relevance-This is beyond the reach of role-playing games without a camera.
Scofield is running on the grass
Secondly, when people use “game sense” to describe the “pseudo-one-shot” of “1917”, the space-time vector that the director is committed to scheduling and the extremely important sound department of the movie are completely ignored.
“One Mirror to the End”Although the effect is achieved by the “pseudo-one mirror to the end” editing method which is different from the long shot discussed by Bazin, it still retains the continuity of time and space in the sense of methodology, and the long shot reconstructs the scene scheduling. The relationship between time and space.
Berguson believes that there are two kinds of time: spatialized time and pure time –
The former is artificially constructed time, that is, the time that people perceive through the movement of clock hands and the movement of sand in the hourglass; the latter is time in the true sense, constantly changing and unable to be perceived.
Just after the only time distortion in the film mentioned above, Scofield woke up realizing that the time for transmitting the message was almost exhausted. He dashed through the ruins, flashing flashes and flames composed of changing light and shadow It constitutes a staged space and also metaphors the passage of time.
The relationship between time and space as mutual reference is constructed in this freehand long shot.
Ruins illuminated by flash bombs
In addition, when we generally link the “pseudo-one mirror to the end” and “game feeling” of “1917”, the sound narrative of the film becomes the absent presence. In fact, the sound narrative of “1917” and the sound and The relationship between the “pseudo one mirror to the end” technique is also an important factor that distinguishes the movie from the game.
When Blake and Scofield entered a claustrophobic dark cave, Scofield accidentally stepped on