The difference between linear narrative and non-linear narrative Realistic affair structure-unrealistic psychological structure Causality-accidental closed ending-open ending Time and space unity-time and space chaos-plot coherence-plot fragmentation
(1) The narrative characteristics of "Magnolia"
1. Structure polyphony Combining two or more narrative chains to form a contrasting tension movement and construct polyphonic themes. The unique narrative structure helps multiple parallel development events to have a sense of hierarchy.
Multiple voices, multiple clues, multiple stories, multiple narratives; voices/clues/story are equal in status, juxtaposed and parallel, and any clue or story cannot simply serve as an accompaniment and foil;
The whole is indivisible, and any one missing can no longer constitute the text itself;
In addition to the abstract thematic connection, the vertical development of the clues should also have horizontal resonance and interweave contrast.
2. Real and trivial "Describe the trivial and familiar life", weave various complex emotions in the familiar life, and finally come to a curtain call with the storm subsiding and all order returning to normal.
3. The time of occurrence of the "Film of the Century" story is fixed as a day at the end of the 20th century. In a three-hour-long page, five narrative clues and nine characters go hand in hand, using the parallel insertion multi-clues narrative technique to cleverly divide a day's 24 hours. The multiple events in the film are intertwined, comparing the end of the century, the beginning of the century, and the middle of the century across time and space, trying to find the common ground among these trivial events. This is the feature, review and summary of this film as a millennium film.
(2) The narrative structure of "Magnolia"
Film composition
◆Overture: (accidents) The director's arrangement is not for curiosity, but for people to understand: whether it is a coincidence or fate, no one can escape the dialectics of life: accident is not purely accidental, it is composed of various accidents After a certain kind of necessity, when accidental and inevitable meet, does the choice of man have meaning? ◆Rain: before the rain (laying out), in the rain (unfolding), after the rain (change), frog rain (turning), every event It is labeled as the weather forecast, and the rain and the rain stop signify the changes in mood and atmosphere. This method makes multiple parallel development events more layered. ◆Ending: Restoring the peace of life and soul
Visual Arts Symphony
The maze of intertwined story structure fully reflects Anderson's fascination with narrative skills. The characters in the movie are not closely related. The seemingly chaotic interpersonal relationships are actually carefully arranged for a series of amazing effects that shock the soul. The fate of the nine people is orderly woven together by a three-dimensional network structure, interlocking. .
Reality, past events, expectations and memories are organically fused, and beside the fragile and pitiful family affection and love, there are a lot of ugliness in the world. At the turn of the century, the complex psychological experience and hidden collective emotions of modern people are displayed vividly in a highly condensed time and space, strangely forming an impressive abstract collage. The overall editing of the screen looks like a smooth symphony. The beginning of the development climax and the ending, and finally reached the end, it is a very good visual symphony demonstration.
(3) "The Magnolia" character image and character relationship setting
1. Three families, nine characters
2. Characters
The restraint of patriarchy The biggest inequality in human society is the inequality between the sexes. Patriarchy is made as an invisible hand, which puts men in a dominant position in society. The father’s evil gave the children (1) The rich old man abandoned his wife—the son Frank was mentally unsound (2) The host Jamie violated his daughter Clity—the daughter’s psychological shadow and indulged (3) The prodigy Stanley was forced by his father— As soon as I was on TV, I resisted my father in my heart.
Children’s world ◆Comply with what the grown-ups require, what is influenced by society, children become mature, lose their childhood as they should be, and are affected by entertainment media ◆I am not a toy, just because you feel cute, I’m just like this Why do I have to be seen by others when I am smart
3. The concept of marginal character "marginal person" was first proposed by the German psychologist Kurdish Lewin. It generally refers to people who have incomplete participation in social groups and are among the groups. Broadly speaking, a marginal person refers to a person who has his own uniqueness in a certain aspect, which makes it difficult for others to understand and accept in a short time. In a narrow sense, marginalized people refer to people who are separated from the mainstream social group in all aspects.
How difficult it is to bear in the world, few people understand. When a certain factor inspires his will, he will jump out and let others admire and respect.
4. The emotions carried by the characters ◆Fictional joys and real pains. They all fall from the height of self-fiction, or come to the end of a period of life, and then everything falls into a state of silence and almost collapse.
◆Broken life, complete picture. All nine characters have gradually fallen into trouble from the initial blind pain. Waiting for fate is also the judgment of time, and then burst out at the moment when they can no longer bear it. Finally, lives intersect, overlap, and change, through a sudden change. The rain of frogs relieved everything and calmed everything, everyone regained a new life and faced their own life again. The seemingly scattered plots gradually come together and pieced together into a complete, mysteriously beautiful picture.
(4) Filming skills of "Magnolia"
1. Rotating follow-up long lens The follow-up long lens in the early works has become an iconic code that the audience talks about. The long shot implies a kind of reality. Anderson's follow-up long shot is good at using rotation techniques to complete the connection and space transition of the characters in the play, and complete the non-interference of several characters in a smooth long shot. Narrative.
2. Gray and cool tone. In the design of the tone, the overall tone of "Magnolia" tends to be low-key. The black tone on the screen occupies a large area, and the white area is small, rich and deep.
McGee's stage is built into a dark, forested space; the host McGee has a cult-like distaste for women, and he always wears black clothes when he appears on stage.
3. Transitions and scene scheduling He reuses the intertextual form of media such as TV props and TV shows. Convert a movie or TV into its own image file in the form of a film-in-a-picture. ① The TV show is the gifted child Stanley, Stanley participated in the show hosted by Jimmy, and McGee's "Trap of Temptation" was promoted on the TV in Stanley's home. ③In the TV show, the characters introduced are the talented children's champion Stonen, and the picture turns to the grown-up Stonen...
A large number of shots, from one scene to another, complete the rotation of characters and the transition of space.
4. Emotional music ◆The interdependent plot clues in the film are placed in the music produced by Emmy Mann, which strengthens the rhythmic characteristics of the film and makes the film full of rhythm and relaxation. ◆According to the clues of time, the three-hour film has a rhythmic tension every hour, and the music becomes a part of the creative process of the film and the overall packaging. ◆Later, Anderson asked everyone to hum along with Amy Mann, and the shots were constantly switched, which strung the climax of the film. ◆Music eases the inner rhythm of the movie, and also completes the expression of the mood and content of the entire movie, achieving a successful ending.
(5) Cultural symbols of "Magnolia"
1. Magnolia Flower Everyone's life is like every magnolia petal, pale with blemishes, tender and weak. These petals are complicated, overlapped, gathered in the stamen, and the fragrance floats in silence.
A world of flowers, flowers blooming and fading, and endless, even if we are well versed in endless and trivial pain, the collection of life is always accidental and inevitable, love and hope go hand in hand, and joy and pain blend together.
2. Weather forecast The weather is an irresistible biological law. People live under the same sky, and feel the clouds and rain together. There are impermanence and interleaving; there are accidents and coincidences.
Behind ordinary life, there is always a potential rope connecting everyone. The commonality of human nature makes everyone not exist in isolation in this world. Life itself is a labyrinth full of mysteries and paradoxes, with similarities and differences in all shapes and colors. The people here have turned the world into a "garden of crossing paths\paths". All of this is "not all accidental". The line of life is always going on in a staggered way. Anything can happen—"Some stories are coincidences, accidents, and some stories are staggered and unbelievable." And this is life, whoever Can't escape either. 3. Rain ◆The raining time is as long as their painful time. The rain can't stop, and the pain can't stop. ◆The plight of their fate has unfolded for the first time in the rain. ◆Some people seek forgiveness, some people try to escape. Whether it is a person seeking forgiveness or a person trying to escape, they are living in precariousness, experiencing pain from the mind and body. 4. TV media culture is pervasive. Use the form of TV media to introduce characters: the main venue is the TV station studio; an important basis for the conversion between scenes and scenes is the TV screen. The media permeates people's lives. Some people dominate the media, while others are controlled by the media.
Mass communication embodies a kind of practical value. In fact, what mass communication provides is not just "service", it also serves as a transformative force, the consciousness of modern people: 1. The host of male programs, Frank-yes Manipulation of the audience's thoughts 2. Jamie, the host of the intellectual competition-audience's entertainment requirements for the program 3. The film just started to appear on TV shows-blind date shows
The concept of media frequently appeared on the scene and flooded the screen, implying the opposite of this concept-reality. The pain, resentment, stalemate, and fragility of people in reality contrast sharply with the brilliant and mythical characters on the TV screen. The media concealed the real existence of a person, and promoted the disguised image of a person to others in a form of mass communication, and repeatedly stated his authenticity until this image was portrayed as a real idol. The mass media obliterated the human history and the origin of its birth, praised symbols, and consumed the present, so that people in a funny and grotesque situation can not feel the grotesque and become numb.
5. Frog rain originated from the "Bible", frog rain is impossible. As a way of punishment in the Bible, frog rain also has the nature of atonement. Here heralds retribution, destiny, punishment and redemption.
(6) Theme of the film "Magnolia"
1. Accidental and inevitable life
The narrator at the beginning recounted three coincidental cases, the deaths of a hanged person and a diver, which occurred in 1911, 1961, and 1983, respectively.
"According to the evidence of the destiny of civilizations in history, the goddess we must fight against is not a fierce inevitability carrying a deadly weapon, but contingency.
"Every day there are stories full of intersections and weirdness. No one can predict it. We might say that that kind of thing will only appear in the movie, but such strange things happen every day, day by day. In the past, although time has passed, we will not change. 2. The overall and individual involvement
Each person is an independent individual, just like the petals of a magnolia flower blooming, one slice per person. However, in the complex events, it is an interconnected whole, and all branches have the same root. Everyone is not an isolated person, and everything that happens to everyone is not an independent event. Life itself is intricate and cumbersome. The whole world is interconnected, symbiotic and indivisible. All kinds of people and everything are intertwined to form this world.
3. Introspection and confession under the envelope of death. The director relentlessly exposes the weakness of human nature, and shows the pain of life to others, so that everyone can count the scars of the past in a peaceful moment.
People only think of regretting the things they have done in their lives when their lives come to an end. In the face of death, everything seems to be no longer important, and his own relatives are the only ones who think of it. (1) The rich old man Paige confessed before death and abandoned him. (2) The host Jamie went to his daughter Kletty after suffering from a tumor. Liberation
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