Experience the Similarities and Differences of Narrative Grammar from "For All Humans"

Kennith 2022-04-06 08:01:01

One of the shortcomings of this play is that while trying to create an open experience, it also wants to create a closed experience, but the two experiences cannot be perfectly integrated, resulting in a split in perception.

In fact, the two use different narrative grammars, and the two grammars are contradictory - we can think of the former as a third-person narrative grammar, which allows the audience to cycle between many characters, examining each one like an exhibit. characters, and at the same time can observe the interaction between characters, in other words, the operation of the mechanism, it is an event-centered narrative grammar, which we call "distancing grammar"; the latter is obviously a first-person narrative grammar, It requires the audience to go deep into the heart of the character, explore the motivation behind the character's every move, and empathize with the character on this basis. The audience sees themselves in the character and finds the answer to real life in the same experience. It is based on the character The centered narrative grammar, we call it "immersion grammar".

Representative works of alienation grammar, such as "Game of Thrones", "Wire of Fire", "Atlantic Empire" and a series of HBO's own historical/alternative dramas; representative works of immersion grammar, most of Bergman's films use immersion grammar.

The Wire Season 1 (2002)
9.4
2002 / United States / Drama Crime Thriller / Clark Johansson Peter Medak Clement Viggo Ed Bianchi Joe Speer Gloria Mazio Mirko Manchewski Rad Anderson Steve Hill Timothy Van Patten / Dominic West John Dauman
Wild Strawberry (1957)
8.8
1957 / Sweden / Drama Love Family / Ingmar Bergman / Victor Sjostrom Bibi Andersson

We can see the consistent grammatical features of HBO, that is, by showing the representatives of each social class/group evenly, we can get a glimpse of the operation mode of the whole society, revealing certain social laws and life wisdom. Bergman's films have no intention of pursuing such a grand pattern. His eyes are always focused on a limited number of characters and explore the operation of small groups. However, this does not mean that the ideological will he conveys is weaker than that of HBO. The fact is The thinking about individual existence in Bergman's films is beyond the reach of many grand narrative films.

In order to clearly compare the similarities and differences between the two grammars, we list two films under the same theme, "The First Man on the Moon" and "Apollo 11", which happen to be very compatible with this drama.

First man on the moon (2018)
7.7
2018 / USA Japan / Drama Biography History / Damien Chazelle / Ryan Gosling Claire Foy
Apollo 11 (2019)
8.8
2019 / USA / Historical Documentary / Todd Douglas Miller / Neil Armstrong Michael Collins

"The First Man on the Moon" uses a lot of shallow focus and close-up shots to show the mental state of the protagonist, and through a lot of indoor dialogues/scenes to show what the protagonist is thinking, his views on spaceflight, space and family, and how he faces How to face potential risks of loss. The whole film focuses on creating [Neil Armstrong], the first person to land on the moon, and the others are Neil's reflections, and they are all "prompting machines" that question Neil on behalf of the audience. Finally, we see ourselves in Neil, and we see that Armstrong, the first man on the moon, also has an id that is very similar to us, an ordinary person, but has a superego - or quality that ordinary people can't match.

The ingenious thing about "The First Man on the Moon" is that she gave up the grand narrative that is common in films of the same theme, gave up the display of the Cold War background, gave up the presentation of NASA's management, and gave up the act of landing on the moon to the world. , while focusing on the impact of the moon landing on the protagonist himself - Neil standing on the moon is relieved and he heals himself. In the end, we will find that this is a universally applicable story, and the protagonist himself is the epitome of each of us. What the film wants to convey is how a person should face the past and loss, and how to heal the pain - this It's a theme that everyone has to face. In a limited scene, we get an infinite field of view.

In "Apollo 11", we can't see the Gaia-style humanistic care mentioned above. What we see more is the Zeus-style Olympian spirit, cold, direct, and brutal. The pride of the man who looked him in the eye - this is not to deny the artistic achievement of Apollo 11, in fact the reason for this very different look is that the film faithfully presents the moon landing. Every link, as a documentary, he doesn't even need to restore, what the audience sees is 100% real, and the impact it brings is something that other types of films cannot give.

On the other hand, we can't see three-dimensional characters in "Apollo 11", and the film doesn't intend to show too much of it. The film is aimed at the "moon landing" event, not the characters who landed on the moon. We don't need to know too much about the characters' families, backgrounds, and personalities. These details are not conducive to the construction of the whole event. We see more of the characters' immediate reactions to the events than what they thought about the events - in fact their only view of the "moon landing" came from a short conversation on the way back.

Compared with "First Man on the Moon", the narrative grammar of "Apollo 11" is obviously event-centered, which creates a unique sense of alienation in third-person narratives, or a sense of indifference - more often we feel that we are in Witnessing a man-made spectacle, not actually participating in it, we are the observers, not the participants - this is the complete opposite of the look and feel of First Man, which has us involved in various ways The hallucinations of the screen, in order to kill the existence of the screen, let us empathize with the characters.

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  • Tina 2022-04-06 09:01:07

    I especially hate films that promote ideology in the United States

  • Brent 2022-04-10 09:01:08

    Kind of like that. Another possible timeline, frenzy and fear, and innocence as a knight, of course just being like that isn't enough.