Sunday, March 18, 2007

How To Use Cheats Silver Soul

Cinema as perfection: the use of color nei film di Zhang Yimou

[-13 films]
Adoro il cinema di Zhang Yimou , per me rasenta quasi la perfezione. Mi piace quell’intreccio di storie, colori, fotografia e coraggio che è poi la cifra stilistica di questo regista che è uno dei maggiori cineasti cinesi ed oserei dire mondiali.
Nato a Xi'an, nella Cina sud-orientale, dopo un’infanzia travagliata, da studente viene costretto dal partito per motivi politici ad abbandonare la scuola e successivamente a lavorare dapprima come operaio tessile e poi come contadino, prima di essere ammesso con pieni voti all'istituto di cinematografia cinese. Zhang Yimou è uno dei maggiori esponenti della cosiddetta “ quinta generazione ”, ossia quel gruppo di registi cinesi che ha scelto il cinema per esprimere la propria esigenza di libertà e per criticare la realtà. Nel Suo cinema la volontà di rinnovamento e lo spirito di denuncia si fondono con i caratteri tipici del teatro cinese, così come è presente una straordinaria capacità di creare immagini forti, sia dal punto di vista cromatico che da quello della messa in scena.

Sorgo Rosso, 1988
Esordisce alla regia con Sorgo Rosso nel 1988, vincitore dell’Orso d'Oro al Festival di Berlino, storia violenta ambientata in una Cina feudale piena di usanze e di imposizioni, che appaiono molto strane ai nostri occhi di occidentali, but in fact are still alive today in some areas of China. The main protagonist is a beautiful girl, forced from its contingency to marry a rich old man and still, suffering from leprosy. After the violent death of her husband, she married a worker who behaves heroically at the time of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. "Red Sorghum" is a "kind" of symphony in red, a fine country trip in which rural life is marked by violence that is adventure. "Red Sorghum" mixes moments of folklore to other dramatic and violent.
The story told in part in the twenties of the twentieth century, when a group of men carries in crude a red sedan the young nine flowers for a lonely valley, heading towards the house of her future husband and unknown. The man who is waiting for is an old and rich leper, owner of a grappa distillery red blood, obtained from plants of sorghum, the only wealth of the area.
This old landowner was unable to get the girl from her parents in exchange for a mule. While the small group through the fields of red sorghum, commenting on the fate of the young man will be faced with a horrible husband, one-armed bandit catches them by surprise, rob the porters and attempts to rape the girl, but one of the porters, Yu , to rescue nine flowers. On the third day after the wedding, as wants to custom, the bride goes to visit her parents, but during the trip, that Yu had saved her, the door in a field of sorghum which owns it. The return trip from the new bride finds new widow, as the old husband was mysteriously murdered. Nine Flowers assumes that the direction of the distillery leading it ably and treating employees with fairness and respect, Yu's wife from whom he has a son and lives happily with him for years. When their child is nine years the area was invaded by the Japanese, they require the destruction of the farmers fields of sorghum for the construction of a road. The terrible scene where a Chinese worker is forced by the Japanese at skinning alive a rebel.
Gli abitanti del luogo, stanchi di queste continue angherie, si uniscono per difendere il loro paese e preparano una trappola mortale contro gli invasori, useranno la grappa di sorgo per confezionare bombe incendiarie. Ma l’attentato finisce in una strage, in cui muoiono sia Nove Fiori che Yu. La strage è resa ancor più drammatica ed epica da un'eclisse di sole che accentua questo triste epilogo. Questa opera cinematografica è molto interessante per la sua favolosa fotografia, che pone la massima attenzione ai dettagli ed ai particolari. I colori sono veicolo di comunicazione nella loro valenza simbolica, il rosso è la chiave delle vicende legate alla vita del villaggio in ogni parte del racconto: all’inizio con i campi di sorgo che sono anche la ricchezza del villaggio, poi la grappa rossa che è la ricchezza dei lavoratori delle terre. Il vento tra gli steli del sorgo, il calore e il colore di una natura rigogliosa, la violenza e il desiderio in un incontro di insolite premesse per una storia d'amore. La giovane donna, nel corso del suo tumultuoso viaggio verso la casa del promesso sposo, comprende che il futuro che l'attende sarà tormentato da dolore e passioni: il marito che l'aspetta è un vecchio lebbroso, la distilleria di sua proprietà è punto di riferimento per vagabondi e briganti. Il racconto procede tra squarci elegiaci in un crescendo di tensione.
Alla scomparsa del vecchio marito la bella Nove fiori ha saputo come destreggiarsi: ha preso in mano l'azienda, facing with cunning bandit raids of three guns, put the bad guy in line suitor who had owned, tying him with the birth of a child, he could finally taste the grappa sorghum, fruit of his labor and its employees , in a harmony of man and environment happily restored. But the Japanese invasion explodes suddenly a new violence in the community who also lives around the distillery, the red of fire, blood and pain are connected as a metaphor for a strong visual impact.
In common suffering, men and women emphasize opposing roles in society and in a wrenching transformation of the brutal course of history seems to know no mercy, leaving the heart and in the eyes of the survivors just a hallucinatory landscape of death and desolation.

Raise the Red Lantern, 1991
All the work of Zhang Yimou is characterized by attention to detail and an absolute dedication to photography and the use of particular colors, especially red. In 1991, out Raise the Red Lantern, award-winning film made internationally. It is still a tragedy in a feudal society characterized by rigid rituals. We are in the twenties of the twentieth century in China. The young and beautiful Song Lian leaves the house and the university to become the fourth wife of the wealthy Mr. Chen. It 's the number four, the youngest and therefore the favorite. Every evening, the bride Mr. Chen decided to spend the night with placing a red lantern at the door of his wife. Song Lian, however, fails to accept the violent logic of servility that is hidden behind the patriarchal order. Having staged a fake pregnancy, ends marginalized and abandoned by all and everyone, and soon finds hostility, envy and treachery of the other wives. This murky atmosphere involves Song Lian in a spiral of violence that leads to madness. And perhaps at the end also to understand other women like her who share the same role as wife of the man himself. So the nineteen Song Lian, in contrast with his stepmother, left the university and agreed to marry a fifty-rich, master of an ancient house that already has three wives, an elderly lady who gave him a son, another woman ambiguous and finally a former singer still attractive. The sign of privilege are the red lanterns that her husband - is master lay burning in front of the room in which the bride will spend the night. Has chosen the best of the maids, an invigorating massage of the feet and even the right to decide the meals of the day. Song Lian soon discovers that all the fires smoldering under the ashes of a world that seems to make everything in the rectangular courtyard and elegant architectural decorations of the ancient palace. The plot flows between false friends that hide the death wish, strong jealousies and intrigues which led to several deaths and violent punishment. The next summer comes the "fifth lady", a girl who notices a young woman who wanders like a sleepwalker in the courtyard: Song Lian is gone mad. And now the red is the color of insanity, however. In "Raise the Red Lantern" is the staging and everything fits perfectly in harmony. In short, a masterpiece entrancing, a summary of stories sublime sounds color photography and courage. Red lanterns are giving the title as red sorghum was his first film. The red part of the history and culture of China. And 'present in its ceremonies and in his popular painting. It is also the color that symbolizes the three stages of life that is born, matrimonio e morte. La trama appare costruita intorno al colore rosso, colore della vita che ne “Lanterne rosse” appare trattenuto a forza nelle mura di una ricca residenza della Cina feudale, in cui tutto è rituale ed al contempo tutte le comparse di questo film appaiono per così dire “spersonalizzate”. L’uso del colore fa parte di una ricerca della perfezione, presente poi anche in molta parte della produzione successiva dell’estro creativo di Zhang Yimou … rappresenta una cifra del Suo immenso talento
by Mariano Lizzadro

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