The Sixth Generation Films Studies

This thesis aims at presenting a general overview of the sixth generation films with the film theory under the guidance of Marxism. It falls into two parts, the first which focuses on the external examination of the six generation while the second on the internal. The external examination lays emphasis on the overall background of the sixth generation films concerning political, cultural, social aspects in movie production, management and supervision. The internal examination is oriented to the analysis of such movie-language elements as the theme, materials and structure, etc. in the sixth generation films, and to the exploration of their artistic value and special contribution to China's movie industry.At the outset, this thesis gives an analytical review of the sixth generation films in terms of production, naming and definition. It concludes that the formation of the sixth generation films is not incidental but inevitable achievements made by the new force of movie producers in the struggle for the rights to express for the establishment of new order against the social, ideological, cultural and economical background. In comparison with the movies of French New Wave, similarities between the two can be seen. Both began to take shape around ten years after the domestic unrest. Motivated by the new political appeal, young people felt the need to demonstrate their attitude. Both were more or less influenced by the existentialism, taking as the main topic the individual life existence and living state. The biggest pressure upon the young film-makers comes from the speech hegemony and leading positions of the senior movie producers whom the young generation inevitably would challenge. Graduated from academic education in this field, they are more interested in"author-centered movies"and"movie authors". Both of the young generation film-makers of the two countries are confronted with the similar reality, that is, the markets of movie industry are in the state of depression. This comparison can well account for the assertion that the sixth generation films are associated in spirit with French New Wave.The sixth generation film-makers take three strategies underlying which is the process of fighting for the right to speak and that of entanglement with the then film system of management and supervision. The right to speak is the core of the problem. The sixth generation can not be truly understood until the problem is made clear.The first strategy of the sixth generation films is to make it in the name of independence. Many of them are closely related with the so-called independent films or underground films. The source of the investment comes from the outside of the official system and their making flow is quite different from those of official organizations. The directors give expression to their own will in the whole process of producing the films. Fresh or deep thoughts are regarded as the most valuable elements in them. However, what they are short of are deep thoughts. They have never been independent, or at the minimum they have never kept independent for a time as long as possible, that is, they have never tried to guard independence with loyalty. What they are doing for is not independence but films or profits with the hope to break away form independent films and return to the official system.The second strategy of the sixth generation films is to get out of line and hence to be prohibited from being shown. It is quite common for them to be killed before shooting or coming on the stage. Quite often the film-makers deliberately push into the forbidden areas. The most familiar cases are failures after official examination ,shootings without explicit approval and even participations in film exhibition held in the foreign land. Most of the sixth generation film-makers are lacking of the political intention, that is, their products are removed from politics in its narrow sense. Though at the outside there exist in the content the seamy side disclosed or something that is regarded as unhealthy by the supervisors. But this has nothing to do with politics as unhealthiness and politics as two concepts do not overlap. The film-makers do not take the traditional value system for granted or do not pay attention to it, which forms the commonly-seen tendency of removing themselves from politics. If this is linked with determination to politics, then it is non-political politics, that is, politics in its broad sense, not party politics. Many right-or-wrong arguments touch upon such an significant issue, that is, how to establish and practice film classification in China.The third strategy of the sixth generation films is to stow away to take part in the international film festivals. They are smuggled out to participate in the film exhibition without the permission of administration section. But this is only one type of violations. The organizations of the international film festivals are mostly local and temporary. The such events are implicitly based on some intended ideological values and the participant films are unavoidably oriented to the core of ideology the countries in which they are produced. If the differences and confrontations are big enough so that a wrestling situation is formed between the two sides, then artistic criteria will become secondary as pure technical targets. The westerners indeed evaluate the sixth generation films according to political standards and at the same time neglect or evade the artistic flaws. However, the sixth generation film-makers and theorists are not willing to admit this point. In the Western world, what the advocators of the six generation films pay attention to is not the fact of the films, even not the film industry as a whole, but something beyond the films. In addition, this is a"fact"that the sixth generation deliberately facilitate to exist. This strategy enables the sixth generation accomplish self-saving. They have gained rewards, raised funds, and also got a number of reputations. They and their films have become the heated topics among the theoretical and media critics. By means of these activities, they have established themselves for the acquirement of the qualifications to express their opinions. In contrast with their profits and gains, the prohibitions set by the administration are not worth mentioning.The external examination of the sixth generation film reveals the untiring efforts of the sixth generation directors for their dreams to become true, and the necessity and inevitability of China's film system. The production of the sixth generation films is at least a promotion to the pluralism of this country's film Industry.In the second part, this thesis comes down to the film-making itself. The first section of this part concentrates on several themes of the sixth generation films based on the analysis of some products in order to explore the underlying elements that give rise to the disharmony between the sixth generation films and the administration system. The observation also shows that it is not an easy job to realize pluralism in ideology of China's film production. The second section of is a comparison of the expressive means of the sixth generation films with their counterparts in theories and schools of the Western film history to trace the origin of the methods and discuss their practical appropriateness.Certain themes in the sixth generation is officially banned or treated as taboo which can be traced to fact that China's film production serves as ideological tools. This nature makes the management and supervision ideologicalized. The thinking inertia developed in history reflects the relationships between opinions and truth as are described by Hannah Arendt.Rock'n'roll is taken both as a theme and a type of materials which at one time dominated the sixth generation films. But by the analysis of Beijing Bastards the lack of Rock'n'roll spirit is can be easily felt. Rock'n'roll to the sixth generation directors is the cultural fashion they follow like a show for young girls. When things have changed with the passage of time, they will collectively get off the stage.There are only a few films about homosexual and lesbian life, but a well-known one is East Palace West Palace which provokes a lot of comments. This thesis puts emphasis of the formation and evolution of the film's theme and puts it into the category of rational films.The theme of youth accounts for two-thirds of the sixth generation films. Some of them is the review of the past and some are personal experiences or life episodes. There are films on love triangle and on cruel stories. The excellent ones among them are such films as the Making of Steel,Su Zhou River.Thematic analysis is only one facet of examining the sixth generation films. But two facets are what this thesis pays more attention to. They are the origins and structure of film art. The so-called mountain fastness is one of the features in the sixth generation. This feature is significant to China's film industry in that it is a process of making up the missed lesson through practice. This is true especially to the artistic films.The pursuit of on-the-spot record overall correction and criticism of fraud practice which is prevalent for a long time. The theory of on-the-spot record comes from on-the-spot record esthetics developed by Andre Bazin. The problem in his theory is that his theory is not that reliable because the nature of images is fabled after being assembled. The so-called on-the-spot record is only an approach rather than the nature of films. Some of the sixth generation directors are so much infatuated with it that they may not be aware of the trap they have dug for themselves under their feet.The sixth generation films have strong Europeanized in spirit, esthetic taste and stylistic structure. Italian Neorealism has direct and exemplary impact on them. This school of film art suggests that film-makers, armed with the spirit of social criticism, walk away from studios into the streets to record on the sport the real life of the lower-class people without employing professional actors. This thesis focuses its concentration not on the technical imitation of the sixth generation, but on their deviation from Neorealism in comprehension. Neorealism can not be reduplicated after all.The sixth generation film directors received their education in Beijing Film Institute in the way of centering on the introduction of film masters. One of them is Antonioni who exerted intense influence on the future Chinese directors both in technique and in something beyond technique. If it can be said that the sixth generation have come close to modern films, then Antonioni is something like a guide. Meanwhile, other film masters also influence them but mainly in the specific aspects such as film language, film structure etc. Among them, the most frequently-quoted ones are Krzysztof Kieslowski, Quentin Tarantino. The influence can be clearly seen through the structural analysis the sixth generation films.The efforts of this thesis is to come back to the facts of the sixth generation. If this generation of films are put against the world background, they are immature. However, their main contribution to China's film industry does not lie in the aspects that quite a few experts take delight in talking about, say, marginal or sensitive subject matter, characters, or events, but in something new they brought to this land, in form, style, and prospective or attitude. Ever since then, on the tree of China's film language, has sprouted a new branch called pluralism which till today, though sill tender.