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Essay cinematization
Essay cinematization
Importance of cinematography
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Analysis of Red Sorghum
WHEN Zhang Yimou made his directorial debut, Zhang Yimou made his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, in 1987, he was better known as a cinematographer whose talent had been crucial to the success of critically acclaimed films like Zhang Junzhao's One and Eight (1984, released 1987) and Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984). Not only did Red Sorghum become a seminal film of the Fifth Generation, it also won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 1988, becoming the first mainland Chinese film ever to be awarded the highest honour at a major international film competition.
Set in the 1920s and '30s in northern China, Red Sorghum's narrative centres on the fate of a young woman who is forced to marry a rich old leper but who eventually falls in love with a younger man. The motif of female oppression in feudal China is repeated in Zhang's next two films, Ju Dou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991). The films form a loose triptych, linked not only by similar thematic concerns but also stylistic elements. The latter include the luscious use of colour, lighting and bold composition to create the sensuous images and metaphors which have distinguished Zhang as an original auteur. Equally prominent are the silences and spare dialogue; music and sound are used with precision -- nothing extraneous is added.
This article focuses on how visual and aural components in Red Sorghum are employed to enhance the dramatic aspect of the narrative as well as to convey philosophical and metaphoric meaning.
RED SORGHUM is narrated as much through its storyline as by its splendid images and aural qualities. The film is photographed by Gu Changwei (who also shot Chen Kaige's (Farewell, My Concubine) in Cinemascope; the music is composed by Zhao Jiping, who has since composed the rest of the music scores for Zhang's films. The opening sequence establishes the vibrant mood and mythical atmosphere of the film and introduces the themes of passion and freedom through powerful imagery and music. It also establishes Zhang Yimou as a visual sensualist.
In a deserted setting comprising mainly sand and stone, a strain of wedding music grows progressively louder. A traditional red sedan chair carried by a group of shirtless men, followed closely by a retinue of trumpeters and drummers, enliven the harsh landscape. Inside the covered sedan chair, the pretty face of a young br...
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...vineyard. The workers revolt against the Japanese, and after their uprising is crushed, the Japanese order two of the local people skinned alive in front of the others. This sequence, shocking in its detail, is a dramatic change from the fable that went before.
"Red Sorghum" perhaps can be read as a parable of China's development, or as a hymn in praise of the way the workers resisted the Japanese invaders. Western audiences probably are going to be more interested in the melodrama and the overwhelming visual quality of the film.
It is some kind of irony that when Hollywood switched over to cheaper and faster forms of making color films, classic Technicolor equipment was dismantled and sold to China - which now makes some of the best-looking color films in the world.
The cinematography in "Red Sorghum" has no desire to be subtle, or muted; it wants to splash its passionate colors all over the screen with abandon, and the sheer visual impact of the film is voluptuous. If the story is first naive and then didactic, that is one of the film's charms; Hollywood doesn't make films like this anymore, because we have forgotten how to be impressionable enough to believe them.
The phrase “history repeats itself is quite evident in this film. Currently, China’s economy is in a massive industrial revolution, similar to the American industrial revolution of the early 19th century. After three years of following the Zhang family, first time director Lixin Fan released The Last Train Home, attempting to raise awareness to the down side of China’s powerful economy. While the film The Last Train Home seems to just depict the lives of factory workers, it is also making a political statement about how western capitalism exploits factory workers to produce cheap goods. The film makes this exploitation evident by depicting the fracturing of the Zhang family and the harsh working conditions they must endure.
The Sun of the Revolution by Liang Heng, is intriguing and vivid, and gives us a complex and compelling perspective on Chines culture during a confusing time period. We get the opportunity to learn the story of a young man with a promising future, but an unpleasant childhood. Liang Heng was exposed to every aspect of the Cultural Revolution in China, and shares his experiences with us, since the book is written from Liang perspective, we do not have a biased opinion from an elite member in the Chinese society nor the poor we get an honest opinion from the People’s Republic of China. Liang only had the fortunate opportunity of expressing these events due his relationship with his wife, An American woman whom helps him write the book. When Liang Heng and Judy Shapiro fell in love in China during 1979, they weren’t just a rarity they were both pioneers at a time when the idea of marriages between foreigners and Chinese were still unacceptable in society.
Color symbolizes a lot in the story. In the story you see excessive use of colors. The first most clear color symbol is white which doesn't express the purity but the false purity and goodness in the people. The next is gray, valley of ashes, which expresses the lack of spirit in that area. The green shows the hope of a new start, or to work for something. Red is death , or blood. Yellow expresses the corruptness in society and dishonest behavior in society. Also yellow represents the coward image of characters.
In the silent film Broken Blossoms, the lighting, setting, and color change drastically. D.W. Griffith manipulates the mise-en-scene, altering the lighting, setting, and color change drastically not only connecting scenes but also to creating clear separations. The film breaks Cheng Huan’s first encounter with Lucy Burrows into three different colored segments: yellow, blue, and purple. These tints paired with other elements of mise-en-scene convey a seemingly dichotomous message regarding the nature of kindness and of their relationship.
...ear and listen. That’s why most of the Chinese youth were inspired to join the army due to the books that were sold and the song that was written just for the Red Guards army. The book’s name is “Little Red Book.” The song’s name is “Red Guard Song.” For the members, the “Red Guard Song” reminds them of their purpose of why they joined the Red Guards. To add on, two young women had wrote their own memoirs to explain what their life was when the Cultural Revolution was happening and how their life was changed when they joined the Red Guards and started to rebel against their parents and their own teachers. As they grew older, they soon realized that everything that they’ve been doing the whole entire time was wrong and regret joining the Red Guards. They realize that all these time, they were killing innocent people that clearly was doing nothing to harm the country.
In the beginning half of the 20th century, China experienced an intellectual revolution, known as the May Fourth Movement. Among other things, May Fourth thinkers were passionate about women’s rights, and fought for equality between the sexes. Like in any school of thought, ideas about women and their roles evolved over time. In 1925, Lu Xun wrote “Regret for the Past”, a story about Shih Chuan-Sheng and Tzu-chun, a modern couple whose relationship falls apart. Ten years later, in 1935, the film “New Woman” was released. The film follows Wei Ming, a music teacher whose life begins to crumble due to the machinations of a lecherous businessman. Both Tzu-chun and Wei Ming represent a version of the “modern woman, but their similarities and differences illustrate how the idea of the modern woman changed and stayed the same over time.
In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.
“All the Pretty Horses”, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy tells the tale about a man and his friend travelling the plains of Mexico after leaving their homes in Texas. As the novel’s name alludes to, horses are a central theme in the story as they represent manhood and freedom when John Grady, the protagonist, and his friend Rawlins get thrown in jail. McCarthy’s novel became critically-acclaimed which gained him more recognition, as well as a movie adaptation directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Even though Thornton’s adaption has the basics of the novel’s story it does not appropriately grasps its depth. While Thornton’s version stays faithful to the dialogue from the book’s included scenes it does fall short by having an erratic pace, having
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Translating Emotion to the Screen with Composition and Shot Variation In A Raisin in the Sun
Mao’s Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford, is driven by Li’s experiences in the clash between American and Chinese culture and the journey to discovering his own identity. Through Li’s eyes this film shows us his search for identity which can sometimes be helped or hindered by the difference in cultures. These themes are shown during the film through the use of Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical conventions (SWAT).
Adaptation is an essential part of the motion picture industry, with a majority of films based on literature and other forms of source material coming out of Hollywood every day. One of the most controversial examples of adaptation, at the time, was the great Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 dystopian drama A Clockwork Orange, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess. In a futuristic society ruled by gangs, corruption, and “ultra-violence,” psychotic teen Alex (wonderfully portrayed by Malcolm McDowell) volunteers for a government-regulated experimental treatment to rid himself of his wrongdoings after committing an act of murder. Through the film, we follow this tragic anti-hero’s journey to discover the central theme of fate - whether the government controls human order, or if there is a freedom of choice. Although the film was originally blasted by critics for its excessive use of violence and sexuality, it has since become recognized as one of the most psychologically captivating pieces in cinema, earning its place among AFI’s “100 Years...100 Movies” list. Clockwork Orange’s fascinating mise-en-scène (staging, lighting, costuming), cinematography, music selection, use of voice-over-narration, and narrative structure brilliantly establish the novel’s realistic satire of the dystopian future, making the film one of Kubrick’s most successful adaptations.
Pollack, Allan W.. “Notes on "All You Need Is Love".” soundscapes.info. 1996. 2 October 2009 .
The ballroom at the Yacht Club was decorated with deep red roses and black ribbons, the perfect combination of colors for a winter wedding. Long, tall windows covered the walls to let all the guests experience the view of the nearby ocean. Each round table was decorated with a long black underskirt cloth, a shorter bright white tablecloth, with each placemat arranged around a beautiful vase full of red roses. The wooden dance floor, full of chairs for the ceremony, took up half of the room, while the other half was occupied with 15 round tables and one rectangular Head Table. As the guests walked up the stairs to our ballroom, they would see a guest book that was decorated with pictures and captions and ready for their signatures.
The first ever successful full-feature film was named Birth of a Nation. Running just over three hours long and taking nearly 100,000 dollars to make, this movie made over 18 million dollars in revenue and set a standard for future movies to come. This highly racist story was considered very powerful and deep. The movie adapted most of its story line from the book The Clansman, by Thomas Dixon. Controversial, exciting and interesting, this movie showed every reason to be one of the best of the 1920’s.