A trip back to hometown——The anthropological narrative strategy of the film "Short Cape Village"

Chad 2022-05-10 22:17:38

Anthropology again, is there anything in this world that has nothing to do with anthropology? This time, it is the movie "Short Cape Village". This film is the first work of Varda, the grandmother of New Wave movies. From the perspective of expression, it is a movie with anthropological implications, and anthropological issues are full of issues throughout the film. The film opens from the perspective of an intruder who wanders through the village. The bland village life is presented as the main line of the film, and the rural life scene presents a strange still life-like appearance. With the slow movement of the camera, all aspects of rural life, such as livelihood, kinship, birth, old age, sickness and death, ritual carnivals, these classic anthropological scenes are all captured on camera. This work is reconstructed from the perspective of anthropology. This anthropological style not only emerges in the lens and picture, but also has a certain presentation in the film structure, presentation method, problem awareness and theme. The anthropological temperament of the film "Short Cape Village", whether by coincidence or intentional, inspires us to re-understand the film through the lens of anthropology, and re-understand the theory of anthropology through the expression of the film.

1. Ethnographic presentation of village life

Perhaps due to Varda's background as a photographer and journalist, many of his films have a documentary style, [Z1] [cf2] films that emphasize natural expression also more or less express the style of anthropological visual images. Some researchers have noticed that the truthful presentation of rural communities in "Short Point Village" has obvious anthropological implications. The shots at the beginning of the film are not romanticized in the slightest, nor do they shy away from the roughness of daily life, nor are there any top-down criticisms. Instead, they always maintain a level-headed view, realizing a subtle viewing and expression. The details of life unfolded slowly, the children who were waiting to be fed in the dilapidated house, the woman who cut off the noodles on the plate with her hands, the wood piled up everywhere, jumped up the wall and crossed the roof of the house, it is said that the actors are Varda's Acquaintances and friends [cf3] , this performance is the presentation of their daily life. When the hero and heroine appear, the village life is relegated to the background, and the sense of existence is still strong. In the eyes of the hero, the economic attributes of village life gradually appear, from houses, fishing nets, skeletons to docks. The primitive and rough fishing village style is gradually opened, which is not only the background of the protagonist's feelings but also the soil.

When Lewis appears, the roadside footage of chatting with villagers is reminiscent of "Street Corner Society."

The research framework of traditional cultural anthropology ethnography includes aspects of livelihood, kinship, religion and culture, power structure, etc. It pursues a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of village life, and finally tailors materials to show it according to a certain logic. All the content of life, old age, sickness and death is the material waiting to be given value. The way of livelihood is the traditional observation object of anthropology, the shipbuilding workers, the salvage fishermen, these seemingly trivial and trivial details will eventually serve the theme. But this kind of connection with the theme is not necessarily the interlocking of plots and logics, but the long-distance connection in terms of atmosphere and meaning.

Kinship is another important research theme in anthropology. The film features an enlarged family as the protagonist, showing their relationship, partnership, marriage, and let me see the way people connect in traditional society. And this way, although not delicate, but without loss of warmth. A scene about the death of a child is shown honestly enough without exaggerating emotions, and the real texture of village life is conveyed in a convincing way. The camera seems to be watching calmly, at a reasonable distance that has nothing to do with value. Forgotten children are the scars of village life, but with such scars, village life can still roll forward day by day.

Rituals are the classic research objects of anthropology. Whether they focus on the relationship between rituals and myths, or regard rituals as the explicit expression of people's sacred concepts, or consider rituals as a way to integrate social order, rituals are very important concerns of anthropology. The climax of the film is a fun-filled cruise, in which rural life presents a state of radiant spirituality, and the relationship between people is rebuilt in this field. The cruise party is a transitional ceremony like a coming-of-age ceremony for the middle-aged man. He got rid of the prisoner and criminal who had come down like a disaster, and showed his strength and wisdom on the bow of the boat. After the ceremony, he regained his dignity. The presentation of this ritual achieves a dark harmony and mutual reference with the anthropological interpretation of the ritual function.

The love relationship as a metaphor

If the clues of village life are more cross-references with anthropological research methods, then the emotional line expressed by the main idea is more in line with the classical theory and problem consciousness of anthropology. The film's presentation of the love line is in the form of a drama stage, with a sense of photographic modeling, drama-style lines, like an expression of an idea, and ultimately points to a very anthropological problem consciousness, a bland village life. , and because it saved the love between the male and female protagonists, its meaning gradually emerged.

Against the background of endless village life, the process of love between men and women is revealed. With the literary dialogue of the hero and heroine and the realistic village life, a journey back to the hometown quietly begins, and it is also a process of emotional restoration or evolution. Jiao Xiongping believes that wood is the attribute of the male protagonist, while the attribute of the female protagonist is iron. This is the root cause of the conflict between the two. However, whether wood and iron can have fusion, combination and new creation, this is an answer that can be expected The problem.

wood pictures

As soon as the hero and heroine appeared, the heroine wanted to end the relationship. She expressed her many dissatisfaction with the relationship and the inability to reconcile it.

"I like to see the scenery"

"I do not like"

"You mean I forced you to travel with me"

"I am very happy with you"

In similar conflicting dialogues, the contradiction between the two is revealed little by little. The heroine thinks that their love is gone, so she must admit it and then separate. Since youth is no longer, passionate and romantic love has disappeared, and there is no need to go deceived each other, and then the male protagonist showed a gesture of acceptance and embrace. The heroine's despair was also interrupted by the scenery of the village, the cute little room, the hull like a mother's womb, and the interesting folk activities, and gave birth to new understandings.

The first obvious turning point appeared in the hull. In the hull like a mother's womb, the attitude of the heroine changed. The hero grew up in the countryside and was the son of a boatman. The heroine grew up in Paris. The heroine felt that , There are a lot of attractive things, and she used to think these things are very important, but the boys made her feel calm. The second obvious change was at the cruise, because the girls showed that they were very excited about this kind of rural culture. This excitement was related to the satisfaction of the heroine's desire to travel, and it gave birth to a period of emotional growth. And in the brewing day, a declaration of love was issued, which also marked the transformation of their relationship, he said that their love had transitioned to a mature love based on reason, "their relationship is more than They themselves are more important." Finally, they passed through the lively dance scene and left the village to start a new sailing.

In the process of emotional evolution, the male protagonist has always faced the turbulent emotions of the female protagonist with a calm, tolerant and accepting attitude like the earth is like the sea. This characteristic of him comes from the shaping of his temperament by rural life, which makes it easy for people to think about the relationship between people and their hometown and the relationship between people and lovers. We see that the male protagonist has a strong sense of identity with his hometown. He has seen these people play tricks and tricks, and he has seen their unbearable and savage, but at the same time he has seen their cuteness, the vitality of yearning for a good life, an ability to be happy, joyful, and peaceful. He brought this feeling for his hometown to his lover, and from this stable connection with his hometown, he grew an ability to establish a stable connection.

Looking back at these two main lines, the village life is like the presentation of a natural chaotic reality, and the expression of the emotional line is like a refined concept, which precisely comes from this chaotic and disorderly village life. . The male protagonist symbolizes the traditional civilization of the countryside, and the female protagonist represents the modern civilization of the city. The urban civilization is constantly changing and colorful. The rural civilization may seem boring and plain, but it is nurturing and feeding the modern civilization of the city, which makes people re-understand the relationship between tradition and modernity. relation.

3. Double-layer main line and main and guest perspectives

The two-line narrative of Short Point is credited with inspiring the respective developments of New Wave and Left Bank films, and appears in a juxtaposition in this earlier film. [Z4] [cf5] With the help of the classic anthropological concept of subject and object, we can have a new understanding of the two-line narrative of this film, and we can also have a concrete understanding of this pair of abstract concepts. The subject-object is an important concept in anthropological fieldwork, which is a pair of concepts from linguistics, emphasizing the internal and external perspectives of understanding culture respectively.

The two-line narrative strategy of the film is very obvious. One main line is the demonstration of village life, and the other main line is the display of the love process of the hero and heroine. The styles of the two main lines are very different, which is obviously a deliberate arrangement. The village clue is basically a style of new wave movies, which uses a more primitive and objective lens language to express the silent majority. Perhaps due to Varda's experience as a cameraman and reporter, he used a lot of still lifes, and the rhythm was slow. [Z6] [cf7] [cf8] And the clue of love [cf9] , both in terms of language dialogue and image, is a tendency to compare the style of drama, and it is very literary. As the film progresses, the two lines are often intertwined, and in the end they are found to be closely linked. And in a sense, a mutually reinforcing effect is achieved.

The male protagonist first appears waiting for her wife with a group of local young men, who grew up in the village and can represent a thematic, insider's perspective. The film expresses a deep understanding of the village through the emotional exposure of the male protagonist. During the cruise ceremony, he said that he understood the people he knew here, that he knew the horrible things they had done and their secret deeds, so he could really understand the ceremony. Relatively speaking, the perspective of the lover is a kind of metric perspective. She looks at it from the outside, and may not really understand the village, but it also forms a conceptual understanding. And formed an emotional resonance with the male protagonist, and also through the understanding and love of village life, entered the next stage of the love relationship between the two, and pursued a rational, stable and accommodating relationship.

Epilogue

The emotional crisis of the hero and heroine seems to be resolved in a trip back to their hometown, the film ends, and the story seems to continue. This kind of truthful presentation and conceptual expression of life is a feature of this film. The dark harmony between "Short Cape Village" and anthropology may be an accidental connection, not the director's intention, but this usual perspective, Observation from a distance, natural expression, may give us a possibility to re-enter life. Someone once said that an anthropologist is almost a novelist, so through this film, we can also see that the boundaries between film and anthropological visual presentation are not very clear.

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