Over time, by Peter Jackson (Peter Jackson) directed the film "King Kong" ( King kong ) has been regarded as a classic. This is not only because of the shocking visual spectacle of the film, but more importantly, the romantic narrative of the film has liberated the marginal love between gorillas and humans, and "King Kong" has thus become a touching classic romantic film. . At the end of watching the movie, many people have been moved to tears by this love movie, but why does a movie full of adventure, gunfights, and beasts have such a strong emotional tension? Behind the magnificent visual spectacle of the film, what is it that leaves the audience with warmth? To answer these questions, one must return to an old concept: narration. With the rapid development of film digital technology, film and television audio-visual language has been pushed to a path of innovation facing the multidimensional and unknown. "Digital technology not only affects the mode of film production, but its technological advantages have also been transformed into a new way of thinking, affecting the way modern filmmakers tell stories." At present, digital technology is almost omnipotent, so that actors, Restrictive factors such as scenes and weather can no longer limit the film narrative, and the incredible film narrative becomes possible. Therefore, the concept of "narration" has undergone a major technical shift, and the traditional concept of film narration has also disappeared with the "end of image ontology". However, new changes and new methods of narration rely on traditional narrative methods and still serve the universal narrative structure. The special effects of the movie "King Kong" completely serve the narrative grammar of Hollywoodism. So how does the romantic love in the film show up? What is the fundamental reason for its artistic charm? These issues are all necessary for further exploration.
Romantic Elements and Romantic Narrative
Romance is one of the most primitive psychological substrates of human beings. To experience romance, pursue romance, and create romance is the means and purpose of human development. But when did the romantic element appear? I am afraid that when human beings first carved symbols on a cave or a stone, it was already produced. However, with the progress of history, "romance" has gradually developed into an aesthetic category; as a way of artistic expression, the expansion of its subject matter, the deepening of the theme, the innovation of forms, and the accumulation of materials have made the emotional elements of the word "romance" A large number of works of art have been updated and superimposed, so that they have a broader concept. Therefore, elements that are often combined with romantic stories, such as mystery, adventure, and even horror, also join the romantic queue, such as vampires, detectives, and ghosts. Therefore, the characters, plots, images, environment, etc. with "intertextual" referential effects are all included in the so-called "romantic elements". The romantic narrative features in "King Kong" are brought into play in such a cluster of romantic elements.
The film "King Kong" showed us ancient maps, mysterious islands, and unknown seas at the beginning... These elements have been deeply accumulated in the romantic archetype memory, which stimulates people's curiosity and desires. The first forty minutes of the film is to explain the basic information of the story, and the psychological picture of the audience has not been bombarded with visual spectacles. It is not boring to let the audience watch it in these forty minutes, and the narrative skills are particularly important. American movies, or Hollywood movies, are almost entirely "classical Paradigm's story organization has a highly mature narrative convention. "The classical model originated from theater. It has conventions but no rules. It is based on conflicts between the protagonists. Most movies that use this model raise theatrical problems from the beginning. The audience wants to know whether the protagonist can get what he wants under the difficulties. In the later scenes, the conflict will be strengthened by the way of action promotion, and the way of causal connection will increase." We can see that the story of the film "King Kong" is told in parallel montages: the heroine Anne is unemployed, the director Carl lacks actresses in filming. These two crises are the most commonly used narrative techniques in Hollywood screenwriters: "interference events". After the film lasted for ten minutes, the two met and were ready to cooperate, but the negotiation between the two was not a snap. The twists and turns can be seen as the screenwriter deliberately "plugging in". These techniques have always been the main part of the narrative. Romantic elements are given to the details of these events, such as the appearance of the map, the rumors of the mysterious island, and the number of occurrences is increasing. In fact, the young and beautiful hostess has a strong romantic color. On the one hand, shooting romantic romance films on the boat centered on the love story between her and the writer, the beauty of the clouds on the sea extremely impacts the audience’s vision, imposing an aesthetic and romantic sentiment; on the other hand, the maritime crisis is deepening, the director Carl's lies surfaced, and the ship has gradually sailed into unknown seas. The rapid and slow rhythm of the two tuned up the appetite of the audience. The legend of Skull Island was finally confirmed in a stormy night: huge walls, totems on stones, turbulent waves, flashing lights on ships... The catastrophic typical scenes produced a small narrative climax. In order to create an atmosphere of horror, the director used special shots to show the terrifying scenes of bones all over the ground after they logged on to Skull Island, and then used montages in the battle between the crew and the savages, reed necklaces, and small skeleton pendants. And other very symbolic details are highlighted and enlarged. The main task of the story is to explore. While the heroine Annie is taken away by the barbarians and gorillas, rescue is added to the task of the story. Only with this simple narrative motivation, a visual spectacle has the time and space conditions for its full display. In the process of watching the movie, no one's eyeballs can leave those huge dinosaurs, disgusting worms, primitive dense forests, true and magical waterfalls and mountains. This is a real adventure, everything is full of unknowns, and wonders emerge in endlessly. Primitive dense forests, waterfalls and mountains that are both true and magical. This is a real adventure, everything is full of unknowns, and wonders emerge in endlessly. Primitive dense forests, waterfalls and mountains that are both true and magical. This is a real adventure, everything is full of unknowns, and wonders emerge in endlessly.
The other climax of the narrative occurred after Annie was taken captive by the gorilla. At this time, the fate of the crew and the fate of Annie are divided into two clues to be displayed in a cross-montage method. On Annie's side, the impossible happened: Annie amused the gorilla. Bergson put forward an incisive conclusion in his book "Laughs": "There is no such thing as being funny outside the realm of human beings." Animals do not laugh. Usually people laugh at animals because they have human-like factors. , But in the film, it was the gorilla who was amused by the musical comedy performed by Annie. Maybe the director also noticed the weird grin of the animal, only to make the gorilla gasp. For a ferocious gorilla living overseas, it should not have the "laughing point" like a human. On the contrary, the audience laughed when watching this scene-it should be said that the audience laughed at the gorilla. Laughing at Annie's actions like a human. Annie resisted the orangutan's ridicule and lost her temper at the orangutan. The dramatic scene began: the orangutan was grumpy and threw stones wildly, but did not harm Anne. With the sound of the soft background music in the movie, the warm sunlight shone on the orangutan, the dejected orangutan wandered around and looked around, but the camera kept switching to the close-up of Annie's face: tears filled his eyes, full of pity and sympathy. Music, pictures, and perspectives make gorillas no longer possess the characteristics of a beast, and replace them with personality and humanity. Isn't such a depressive and sad scene covered with a thick layer of aesthetic and romantic sentiment? In the following paragraphs, this orangutan behaves exactly like a human being, just like a prince who has been enchanted by a wizard. Although it is the appearance of an orangutan, because of its high IQ and high emotional intelligence, even if you fight for life. Rescue beautiful women from dinosaurs and humans. At this time, the beauty has also become an orangutan wearing a human skin. The partners pulled her on the boat. She struggled desperately and shouted: "No! No!" Let the cannon fodder and the supporting role be injured by the orangutan. The wounds, the deaths of death, the two of them want to be together at the ends of the world, as if they have already made a vow of love in the orangutan cave. Look at the tearful eyes of the orangutan and the beauty when they are pulled apart, and then look at the director Carl who only wanted to hug the camera and capture the orangutan. We can no longer tell who is the beast and who is the person. The great transformation of personality and the exchange of hearts and skins between characters make the emotion of beauty and beast possible. As for the leading actor writer, it seems superfluous.
After the gorilla was captured back to New York, it was quickly destroyed because it could not find Annie. The destruction it causes can be regarded as a man's temper tantrum because he can't find his beloved woman-this is completely excusable. Then, a classic scene was staged: in the mist, Miao Man’s music sounded, the heroine Annie walked slowly with light steps, the gorilla suddenly looked back, that familiar face became clearer and clearer... yes, that She is the one who thinks about it day and night! It slowly stretched out its big furry black hand, holding the beautiful woman in his hand, and the two looked at each other affectionately. The beautiful woman gently stroked the gorilla’s huge nostrils, the warm-toned light, the slow-paced front and back fight... a romantic narrative The repeated borrowing of patterns is the main reason that makes the whole film permeated with romantic sentiment. At this moment, the original "crisis" of the film has already turned. The driving force of the story narration lies in how humans treat the gorilla, the "non-human" beast. The fate of beauty and the beast has become the focus of the audience's attention. Afterwards, the gorilla and Annie danced "waltz" on the ice and watched the beautiful sunrise at the Empire State Building... These are all important narrative passages in the film to create a traditional sweet romantic style. In the end, the gorilla was knocked down by the plane, and the beauty returned to the arms of the "male protagonist". The narrative was almost over; but it was not the embrace of the two that fell into tears, but the death of King Kong.
Throughout the film, island exploration, rescue of beauties, and death of King Kong are the three major narrative passages of the film. Romantic elements are spread in a wide narrative space. Romantic audio-visual language organizes the way of storytelling and romantic narrative. The mechanism is formed. The main clues of the narrative are not complicated, but because of its powerful visual effects, small twists and turns, and the interspersed design of small paragraphs, the film becomes full of interest and tight rhythm. The powerful narrative skills of Hollywood movies are evident.
Breakthrough of restrictions and liberation of marginal love
Restriction is an important issue for characters in shaping their own image, moving from the screen to the audience's heart. "'Restrictions' for actors, there are several situations: (1) the limitations of life in the script; (2) the limitations of the characters; (3) the limitations of the script's style and genre; (4) the limitations of the actors themselves (internal and external skills) Limitations)." Carefully observe the two characters of the heroine Annie and Gorilla King Kong, we will find that their inner grasp and character creation are very difficult:
First of all, the film gives the heroine a basic image that can be played, but at the same time it sets a limit that is difficult to break through. There is a huge difference in species between Annie and the orangutan. Not only is there limited communication between them, but they can't make excessive physical contact. Secondly, for the gorilla, not only can it not speak, but it also has a hoarse and unpleasant voice. The huge size makes it difficult to communicate with Annie. It is very difficult to make such a ferocious beast cute. Therefore, how the characters break through these limitations is the key to whether the characters in the film can be successfully shaped.
Annie's understanding and love for the gorillas began when the gorillas watched her performance. When the gorilla was angry and threw stones, the camera continuously turned to Annie, and an invisible dialogue formed between the gorilla and Annie. Annie's expression was shocked at best, but she appeared relatively calm, and she was talking with her eyes. Speaking with your eyes is an excellent performance of an actor. So why do orangutans behave alone? When he finished falling the stone and slapped his chest to show off his power, a big rock slid down the mountain fell on its head, and the orangutan received a heavy blow. After being struck by the stone, his self-esteem seemed to have been hurt, and he didn't play a temper anymore, just shook his head. This formed a huge contrast with his impossibility just now. This is a close-up of an orangutan's face that lasts for 18 seconds: the soft music sounds, and the orangutan's eyes are full of loneliness and helplessness; its tearful eyes look around like a puppy in the cold. In reality, it is very difficult for apes to make such movements, but it is another matter to have computer special effects. Computer special effects can not only virtualize vivid characters, but also assist actors in their performances, such as makeup, light, tears, and even improper expressions. It can be seen that special effects are an easy breakthrough in terms of "limitations".
But no matter how the special effects are done, the plot and action must not exceed the audience's acceptance. The contact between the gorilla and Annie is expressed in several ways in the film: 1. Annie is held tightly on the gorilla’s hand; 2. Annie stands gently or sits on the gorilla’s hand; 3. Annie Gently stroke the gorilla's nose. These three methods are exactly the three stages of the emotional development of Anne and the gorilla: Anne went from being raped, to willingly being protected by the gorilla, and then to Annie actively looking for the protection of the gorilla. There will never be kissing and other behaviors between them, because after all, the gorilla is a gorilla. This kind of visual picture does not conform to the inner psychological mechanism that produces pleasure, that is, the "watching of desire" cannot be realized, and it may even cause nausea in the audience. feel. Therefore, their most intimate behavior is just light touch. The director used superb means to work hard on the first two contact methods, and used the different interactions between the two to show the changes and development of emotions, which became a powerful expression of breaking through restrictions.
Restriction is like a shackle, it has the effect of siege and self-protection. The love between Anne and the gorilla is liberated under the double effect of the shackles, that is, the establishment of Kant's so-called "legitimacy". The protective effect is embodied in that the breakthrough of restrictions requires the grasp of the "degree". If Annie and the gorilla have excessive intimacy behaviors such as kissing, it will arouse the audience's disgust, but if it is a moderate breakthrough, it will be firmly established. Grasp the possible conditions for a strong audiovisual performance. Rendering content through the romanticization of audiovisual language, gradually creating a sense of ambiguity in a moderate breakthrough, and even developing into earth-shattering love is the main grammar for realizing the so-called "legitimacy" of morality.
Kant’s "seriousism" philosophy strictly distinguishes between "legitimacy" and "morality". In moral behavior, it believes that only those behaviors that are "out of obligation" are "moral," and "compliance with obligations". The behavior is only "legitimate." "Legality" is a compromise between the "morality" that has purely moral principles and the "self-love" of the essence of human behavior. Human and animal love does not conform to the "moral law", but the proposition "love is free" is prescribed by the "moral law" in the public's "virtue value". This is the "selfishness" of human "self-love", "the selfishness (Philautia) who cares for oneself above all else", so it is "an object of respect", it is worthy of recognition, and it has "compliance with obligations." The "legitimacy". However, in the public’s thinking, “legitimacy” and “morality” are not strictly distinguished, but only two ethical behaviors of “conforming to morality” and “violating morality” are distinguished. Therefore, bestialism only needs to show “legitimacy”. It is moral, ethical, acceptable and even supportable. Therefore, no matter what the human animal love in reality is, what the audience sees in the movie has been characterized as romantic, beautiful, and "legal." Such romantic and beautiful things are not only the "virtue value" we understand for love, but also the pursuit of human beauty. Just like the story of the famous ancient Greek beauty Fryne: She was summoned by the court, the defender tore off her clothes, and the judges were shocked by her beautiful carcass and unanimously declared her innocent. Facing the movie "King Kong", the audience holding popcorn will only have a logic: because this kind of love is beautiful, it is just.
Therefore, "King Kong" completes our ethical identification and value identification of animal love through romantic narration. It can be said that this function of film not only changes our cognition, but also subtly changes our ideology, and even changes our real world, just like Baudrillard’s “parody”. Baudrillard believes that virtual symbolic information constructs a super-real simulacrum world. People use this ubiquitous virtual reality to understand the world, and use the description and imagination of the future world to design and construct the world. The peculiar subversion of reality imitating art. Many values that contradict our original value can be transformed or even reshaped through "simulation", so that they can be put into practice in reality. As far as movies on marginal love are concerned, gay men are like "The Love of Siam" and "Brokeback Mountain", lesbians are like "Adele's Life" and "The Angel of Sin", three people are in love like "Angel Sex", and brother and sister are in love. For example, "The Young Forbidden Fruit", the fetishes such as "The Love of Inflatable Doll", and even the love between humans and ghosts such as "Human and Ghosts Love Is Not Over" and "A Chinese Ghost Story", etc., have all adopted unique narrative methods and audio-visual to some extent. Language exaggerates and demonstrates the truth and freedom of love. While establishing the "legitimacy" of its own moral form, it has realized the liberation of the traditionally understood "deformed love" or "marginal love".
Concluding remarks
To sum up, the romantic style of the film "King Kong" is presented in aesthetic objects such as romantic elements with traditional psychological accumulation and carefully designed romantic audio-visual language. Marginal love has turned from an unethical abnormal state to a generally accepted normal state because of the moderate breakthrough of the "restrictions" of character performance and audio-visual effects, and the "legitimate" moral identity generated by the romanticized narrative language. Digital special effects have played a vital role in the realization of the film’s romantic narrative and the breakthrough of restrictions. Various entertainment elements are perfectly integrated with traditional Hollywood narrative conventions. This way, a fantasy love blockbuster has achieved a win-win situation in both the box office and the art. It is regarded as a classic in the history of film. As a Hollywood industrial film, the success of "King Kong" is not only because of its fantastic and beautiful digital special effects, but also not only because of the film's huge advantages in styling, marketing, and funding. What we should pay more attention to is how this movie uses audiovisual language to make narrative possible, and on what basis it impresses the audience. Obviously, our current thinking is still too little.
At present, there is no fantasy romantic movie in China that can match "King Kong", let alone a fantasy series that is like "Lord of the Rings". The separation of film and television criticism from creative practice, the weakness of critical theories, the chaos of the discipline system, the utilitarianism of the academic circle, and other problems are difficult to correct. The huge crisis of film criticism is really worrying. "Rebuilding the film criticism system and authority" is not only our urgent task, but also our responsibility. In order for film theory and criticism to truly "make a difference" in the development of Chinese film, we need to dive down, return more to the internal issues of art that are decisive for film, and study one by one. Reflect and criticize. The problems reflected in "King Kong" itself and its reference to Chinese movies require further research and discovery.
Originally published in the 18th issue of "Film Literature" 2016.
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