The purest era of cinema

Turner 2022-01-27 08:02:54

After watching The Artist today, I was deeply shocked. Even for the final project of this semester, I wanted to use the ratio of 4:3 to make a black and white silent film, not to follow the so-called retro trend, but today I discovered that the original silent film It is a form that is closer to the essence of film. Today I understand why so many older film artists, including Chaplin, stood up to oppose when the sound film appeared.

Before I went to see The Artist, my classmates "told" me that I had to watch this movie when I was in good spirits, otherwise I would definitely fall asleep, because it is a silent film, and it is black and white, and it is 4 :3's! The truth is that despite being very sleepy (only 4 hours of sleep last night), I finished the movie in great spirits and enjoyed the process. I can say right now that the Artist is definitely my top 3 favorite movie of the year!

The Artist is a complete imitation of the silent film of the 1920s. Silent film is not only silent and black and white, but also has a distinctive feature that the black and white film in the past was 18fps, that is, 18 frames per second. The current movies are all 24fps. The difference between the two is that the former records less action pictures per second, so the naked eye can detect obvious movement incoherence during continuous playback. Personally, I think silent films are more suitable for comedy because of the fact that past movies were shot in 18fps, so the actors' movements always gave a comical feel. The Artist is a romantic light comedy. In fact, the story is very simple and a bit vulgar. However, it is very successful in that the performance of the actors can be described as "excellent". Just imagine, a movie without sound, the plot is completely expressed by the actors' body movements and eyes, and there are really few actors who can do it. Therefore, I think the era of silent films is the era of superstars.

Although the Artist is a silent film, it is not completely silent. There are two places where sound is added to the film, and these two are simply magical, and without these two details, the film would not be so highly regarded. The first is that when recording technology was first used in movies, George, the silent film star played by Jean Dujardin, thought it was ridiculous, and he firmly opposed it. But when he went back to the dressing room, he put down a cup, and suddenly realized that the action itself has sound, and then he realized that everything in the world he lived in had sound. The second is at the end of the film George finally let go of his stereotypes about sound films and accepted Miller's help to star in sound films with her. The producer shouted "perfect" after a terrific tap dance performance by the two. The era of musicals has come.

The ending of this movie is that the opinionated silent superstar finally accepted the new form of film and created a new type of film, and the more paradoxical thing about this film is that it made me realize what is the purest film. Of course, I'm not saying that the development of technology has destroyed the nature of the film. I admit that without technology as a support, those wild ideas cannot be turned into reality before the eyes of the audience, but I have to sigh that with the development of technology, the audience has become only Satisfied with sensory stimulation and no longer pay attention to the artistry of movies, such as the current 3D trend, audiences often enjoy watching in the movie theater, but they can’t remember the storyline when they walk out of the movie theater, let alone being moved by the movie.

Maybe I’m still very traditional in nature. Most of the directors I admire are academic directors, and I learned the most classic film technic in the film school. In class, students often challenge those classic film theories, and they can’t argue with the teacher. . But I think, no matter whether you agree with those theories or not, or they seem to be old-fashioned today, but for a director to break the tradition, you must first understand these theories, otherwise you will always be an amateur director.

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Extended Reading

The Artist quotes

  • Peppy Miller: [trying to pressure the studio into letting her do a film with George] I won't work anymore. It's either him or me.

    [Zimmer appears bemused]

    Peppy Miller: What I mean is, it's him AND me! Or it's neither of us!

    [everybody is still looking at her blankly]

    Peppy Miller: Hey, I'm blackmailing you! Get it?

  • Al Zimmer: Perfect! Beautiful! Could you give me just one more?

    George Valentin: With pleasure.