MOVIE 01: 霸王别姬（farewell my concubine）
Film studio:
Year of release: 1993
Director: Kaige Chen
Staring: Zhang Guorong/Zhang Fengyi/Gong Li/Ge You/Ying Da/Jiang Wenli
Farewell My Concubine is a 1993 Chinese historical drama film directed by Chen Kaige, starring Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, and Zhang Fengyi. Adapted for the screen by Lu Wei based on the novel by Lilian Lee, the film is set in a politically tumultuous 20th-century China, from the early days of the Republic to the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. It chronicles the troubled relationships between two Peking opera actors and lifelong friends Cheng Dieyi (Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Zhang), and Xiaolou's wife Juxian (Gong).
The movie is about confusion of identity and blurred lines between real life and the stage, portrayed by the revered opera actor Dieyi, whose unrequited love for Xiaolou persists through the movie. Scholar Ying notes that in order " to attract the international audience, Chinese history and Peking Opera are drawn close while homosexuality, individual perversities and moral dilemmas are transposed distant".Commentators also noted themes of political and societal disturbances in 20th-century China, which is typical of the Chinese Fifth Generation cinema. (cited from wikipedia)
OPENING ANALYSIS
From the perspective of camera shots, at the begging, we can see 2 person walking along a hallway filmed from low angle shot. The Chinese name of the film come from a famous historical allusion which tells: after the overlord Xiang Yu was defeated in the war against Han Gaozu to seize the feudal rule, he had to say goodbye to his loving concubine, Yu Ji. This is a story about departure and separation in the mood of tragedy, foreshadowing the overall plot and tone of the movie which tend to be interwoven with sad, bitterness and love according to the concept . The low angle shot suggest the valiant appearance that “overlord” give to the audience as first impression.
When looking at mise en scene, The overlord and the concubine both wearing traditional Peking opera costumes, the costumes represents 2 typical type of character in Peking Opera, “dan” and “Jing”, differentiate by the main difference, sex. This suggest not only within the character of opera, actors themselves has different personality and life experiences based on what role they played. Character on the left tend to be more soft and tenderness and features more femininity, tend to be passive. However, The character at right is more strong and is higher in status somehow as he is presented more powerful with masculinity. Therefore, we can tell they are character binary opposition based on Strauss’s theory.
Die Yi is holding Xiao Lou’s arm and positioned a little bit behind his back, Xiao Lou does not refuse at all. This is a action code according to Barthes’ semiotics. This suggest they must have close relationship, and Die Yi relies on Xiao Lou more because he built the connections of holding arms. The setting is inside a dim gym, the hallway that they walked through is foggy with full of smoke, this create a deliberate ambiguity and hazy feeling. Also, the natural light through window is backlighted, so the characters are not in clarity with the relative low-key lighting. This suggest that the hallway might symbolized a time tunnel through 20 years, 2 characters are interdependent and have each other take an important role in their life in the pass decades.
The camera movement uses handheld tracking, after the guard has called their name, the shot turns to a wide shot and has two characters standing at the middle. This suggest that they are dominated by the environment surround them. The size of characters in camera is small, could also implies that they might be minorities at that time. This create a sharp contrast and shows the weakness of individual power inferno of the whole society. After few lines, we finally get to know that the two characters are both male. A male plays a female role is against stereotypes, so this is a representation of Hall’s theory. Two man holding arms could be easily interpret as a unconventional behavior, this might suggest that they portrayed to be LGBTQ. As we can see, half of the auditorium is absolutely inside shade, this might suggest the pressure that the feudal society give them. However, half of the seats are under lights, this could symbolizes some acceptance, happiness and the positive side of the relationship.
The shadows of the two in the gym looks like parallel lines. This means that whatever how close the two parallel line to each other, they can’t intersect permanently, this might inferring that the story between them might end with tragedy.What is interesting is that both of them are behind the light, not facing the light.
When the filter changes to black and white, it demonstrate a non-linear timeline. With full historical atmosphere. This could also foreshadow the overall tone of the movie is rather sad without the uses of color. The handheld tracking here follows the character’s movement. A handheld tracking could use to present the crowded and busy market, however also to highlight the chaotic of society under political control at that time. The clothing of kid hide him from the external world completely, there is no way the audience can see his face and body features because he is wearing a gown with hat and mask. This means his mom is trying to protect him because of her identity of being a prostitute.
At the beginning, there are mainly diegetic sound and use of foley because we can hear every single noise made. The echo made by the footstep became louder as the characters walking gradually towards us.This is crucial because the pitch is quite low and heavy which insinuate a heavy atmosphere and the sense of hollowness. This is crucial at the beginning of a movie to establish characters and overall tone and mood of the movie. The fact that from their lines, we get to know that they have not been perform together for about 20 years. However, we can tell Dieyi cares more about the relationship as he can state clearly how many years of separation between them without hesitations.
The distance between them is close but also far away. The social distance between them is quite far. The posture of holding arms at the beginning tells the audience that they are comfortable with each other, but the distance that they made now also suggest an unbridgeable chasm due to variety of reasons and obstacles. The tone that Xiaolou use when he speaks is quite modest and humble, event to a guard. This shows that his personality has been shaped and all the sharp angles of his are all smoothed by the pressure of life. Additionally, Xiaolou is playing the role of the overlord in the Beijing opera “Farewell my concubine”, it is suppose to be a aggressive and predatory character with strong aura. Therefore, when he behave such lowly, giving audience a substantial psychological disparity between the actor and character. The is incorporate a binary opposition to give audience a sign of those difference and similarities between Xiaolou and the overlord. They’ve mentioned about the “Gang of Four” to be the reason of they are not performed together in the past 20 years without giving any further information. This is appears to be a enigma code which intrigue the audience to keep watching and find the answer of the question.
This is a very interesting dissolve using racking focus of the spot light. Highlight the characters’ life under spot light also give the sense of a little bit of mysterious and magical. This is transition from reality to a distant time period at the back with a sense of time and space. The ambiguity of the light suggest everything is like a dream, the artistic light dissolves and takes the audience back from when the dream has started.
The meaning of this shot conveys a echoing meaning with the hallway at the start. The keyword here is “time”. They both shows the elapse time and sending messages through a time tunnel.
The boss of the theatre I see him as a symbolic code of strong political authority. Because he dose not show his face and present the voice by a voice over. He is the representative of the social environment, which influence the reality and fantasy of these actors. As I mentioned above, the “overlord”speaks to him with a inferior status and tone showing fully respect. Therefore, I interpret this character to be the social obstacles to him and represent the majorities which opposing to them.
After the dissolve, The title sequence showed up with a traditional Beijing Opera background musics. The music consists of Beijing opera fiddle, single - skinned drum and small cymbals.The low string music overlaps with the percussion music at the fist when the title appears then, the Beijing Opera fiddle enters with a high pitch to heightened the whole section of music. From my interpretation, this piece of music contains both high pitch and low pitch if harmony, symbolized 2 different characters and two very different lives intertwined with the inescapable twist in life(entering of JInghu). Transferring message of “life is like a play”.
MOVIE OPENING02--BLACK SWAN
Film studio: Universal Pictures
Year of release: 2010
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Staring: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder.
A psychological thriller.
PlotSummary: The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina Sayers is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities better embodied by the new rival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by a feeling of immense pressure when she finds herself competing for the role, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into madness.
From the perspective of Mise en scene, there is mainly chiaroscuro lighting. Chiaroscuro lighting makes a sharp contrast between light and dark and this is causing a lack of verisimilitude. This shows an effect of a dream but not reality, also suggesting this is the ideal state that Nina wants to achieve as an elegant swan dancing on the center of the stage. From the frequent changing of Nina standing under the light and shade, we could interpret that she is a self-contradictory character that might have 2 personalities with a potentially negative one. The fact that this opening scene is placed under a spotlight shows that she is rather egocentric and wants to be the attention.
The color of her ballet costume is white, which suggests purity, and swan itself is a sign of elegance and classy. This is according to Barths’s semiotics. However, when the male with a black feathery costume comes on to the stage and dances with her together, we can see the sense of domination. Black and white, powerful and powerless, male and female, are all examples of Strauss’s binary oppositions. All of the examples above is suggesting a rather patriarchal society of setting within the movie. This implies that there must be a male character is propelling the plot and controlling the character’s life as a puppet. This could also suggest the obstacles which hindered Nina’s way to success and the pressure that has been applied to her. This is the theory of intersectionality, the fact that our character is a white female, she tends to be both privileged and discriminated in the setting of the society.
When the man comes out, there is a handheld OTS follows him toward the girl. The shaky camera suggests a sense of nervousness and the build-up of tension. Also makes the male character intimidating somehow. The walking in the movement of the man suggests threat and the overwhelming atmosphere that he brings on to the stage. If we see the opening sequence as a short story, this is the disruption of equilibrium based on Todorov’s theory. The handheld OTS also means the upcoming danger and depression as the man is introduced with his back at first. Also, the shaky handheld adds to naturalistic feels, gives a feeling of real audiences witnessing the performance, and follows the dancers’ movement on the stage.
There is panning around the two dancing characters. This movement of the camera creates a comfort zone for the characters, the track of camera panning is a circle surrounding the area under the spotlight. This could suggest safety but can mean they are being trapped in limitations. Also, this is a left panning which creates a deliberate discomfort when the man comes in. A wide single shot showed up when she flies away, this creates a sense of loss and lonely but the hollowness also means that she breaks free from obstacles and finds her true self.
The scene begins with the classical music of the ballet, it is quieter and rather peaceful at the begging when she was by herself. and This sets the background of ballet up and shows her potential ambitions of dancing under the spotlight. However, when the male character comes in, the music is more intense with the adding of percussion, creating a chaotic and heavy atmosphere to signify that he is dangerous and threatening, it crescendos until she files away which builds the drama and intensifies throughout the sequence. The music piece of Swan Lake is used as a representation of ballet and feminine image. Therefore, when we see the entrance of the male character, the audience will not feel harmonious and raise questions about the counter sex of stereotype. The use of classical music under low-key lighting with a quite intense atmosphere to express certain emotions also categorized the genre of Black Swan into drama—thriller genre due to Steve Neale’s genre theory. The presence of the male character leaves the audience an enigma code and the music adds the sense of suspension even further to intrigue the audience about the relationship of theme and the next step plot.
The use of non-diegetic sound and foley which the audience cannot find the source on the sequence creates the sense of ambiguity and unnaturalness. The audience would not expect to hear the sound of bird wings flying in a ballet performance. Therefore, the sound of wings when she flies away at the end makes a connection with the girls that she is expecting freedom using the invisible wings, but the lack of visual images also tells us that her potential must have a stimulus, therefore to emerge (real wing), or she will disadvantage by hallucinated of those utopians. And this might foreshadow that she might have a tragic ending due to those extreme and maybe unnecessary acts that she might take to reach the ideal of herself. In the end, she filed away means could mean the escape or salvation from the current situation. Additionally, the sound of her breath is intensified to emphasize her fear of the circumstances and the masculinity surrounding her by foley. van Zoonen mentioned in his feminist theory in masculinity in media, male is often portrayed with strength but not weakness. The fact that the man is standing in a stronger position with absolute strength in actions proved that the male image is deliberately used to symbolize aggressive and assertive with oppression ad domination stereotypically as we see in the film.
From the perspective of editing, the opening is composed of long takes. Long takes build up tension and the absence of cuts shows continuity. The rather slow-paced editing when she was by herself creates a tranquil and peaceful circumstance and her internal mindset. However, when the man comes in, the long take is creating a vice versa effect which gives immediacy to the audience. The lack of cuts draws the viewer deeper into the girl’s situation, which is fear from a greater sense of scope, allowing viewers to catch every detail without interruptions. We can see that a paler filter is added to the image with desaturated use of color. This filter made the girl’s skin even lighter and paler in terms to give her a pathological feeling by the torture. It could also suggest a lack of verisimilitude
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