| Drawing on Kracauer’s research approach of Psychology History of German Films which studies the important period from1918to1933in German history (the Weimar Republic reign), this paper focuses on the analysis of Chinese mainland films during the30years of reform and opening up. By adopting the analysis paradigm of Raymond William’s "sentiment structure", the paper tries to grasp the wholeness of life and experience through the "sentiment structure" presented by the film so as to shift art analysis from close textual analysis to open social and historical analysis. Through careful examination of the films’ form, this paper attempts to explore Chinese people’s innermost spiritual world and have a better understanding of the era we are in.Despite the long history it spans, in the actual unfolding of the writing, this paper follows the principle of "addressing the big issue from a small perspective" and explores three aspects of film, history and spirit via triple dimensions of form, society and culture. In different chapters,"sentiment structures" of different stages are summarized into "moral sense","sense of individuality","sense of reality" and "sense of wandering". Therefore the paper is divided into the following four chapters:Chapter One:"’moral sense’:between home and country". This chapter focuses on the analysis of films such as "Troubled Laughter","Shinobugawa" and ’Legend of Tianyun Mountain" and points out that the story of "reform" starts from the "Culture Revolution". The appearance of "ordinary people" in the film and the unfolding of conflicts between them are in line with the reform of the new age and the sentiment structure at that particular time. Unlike films about "Culture Revolution" which eliminate feminine elements and daily life portrait, these films aim to re-depict the Culture Revolution in the beginning of the new era by using the symbol of female and home to describe the individual survivor of historical disaster. Political depiction tolerates and even adopts the expression of "libido" to base the fissure and reconstruction of politics on the release of love.In this sense, the competition and dialectical production between " living world" and "political world" constitutes the basic element and core clue to contemporary China’s sentiment structure. As the combination of then sentiment structure, Xie Jing’s concept of "home" and "country" corresponds with that of "living world" and "political world". The strengthened morality in Xie’s film means the return of the living world. As the symbols of the living world, female, love and self-sacrifice in Xie’s films have overturned the "reversed world". This profound reversal can be regarded as an important node in the development of sentiment structure of the30years’reform and opening up period.Chapter Two:"’Sense of individuality’:modern awakening". This chapter focuses on the analysis of films such as "Evening Rain","Ren Sheng","The Troubleshooters" and "Black Snow". It discusses the shift from’Legend of Tianyun Mountain" to "Evening Rain" which purports the unfolding of a political world and the advent of an era of "reform" characterized with technology, professionalism and ideology of modernization, as well as signifiers such as "humanitarianism","conscience" and "beautiful soul". To some extent, the concept of modernity is the concept of time. During this period, reform movies such as "Bell Rings" have reinforced the concept of "time". The historical movement of evolution represented by the movies has determined the position and goal of the subject while endowing it with profound meaning. It is in such modern structure that anything at the service of efficiency, pace and other elements that can accelerate the concept of "time", such as technology and professionalism, has become the requirement for the individual. An important change in the firms at that time is that young people make contribution to their respective professional fields. As modernity evolves, films, being the auxiliary projects of "modernization", have faithfully recorded this historic movement’s development in three dimensions:knowledge (professionalism), legal (rules), class (reinterpretation of social differences)On this basis, as a new ideology, modernization is inquiring into the "sense of individuality" in the sentiment structure at that time. Individual’s breaking away from the "community" and its protest against homogenization is vividly presented in the film "Ren Sheng". In this increasingly modern world, the individual have wandered out of the community to look for the truth of life. The new political world is reshaping the living world, helping the wandering individual find a new position in life.Chapter Three:"Sense of Wandering:father, homeland and home sickness". This chapter mainly analyzes films such as "The Making of Steel","Dirt","Beijing Bastards ","Getting Home","Spring Subway" and "If You Are The One", pointing out that the breakage of "political world" and "living world" has produced another sentiment structure "sense of wandering"."The Making of Steel" depicts the search of spiritual father and one’s own place in the roaring era of great changes. "Growing up" means that every individual, amid the receding of revolutionary past and historical memory, can only identify the "self. The key lies in the fact that "self" in the final analysis is the subject of a historical structure.At the end of the chapter, the author analyzes the six films about migrant population in society and points out that from "Getting Home" to "If You Are The One", similar to the state of drifting around, these films are divided into several parts and one story after another take place without coherent narration."Wandering" is the shared background of the "sentiment structure" as large flows of Chinese are drifting around, looking for their ultimate conversion of value amid the country’s vehement transition.Chapter Four:"’Sense of Reality’:depiction of everyday life". This chapter mainly analyzes films such as "Looking for Fun","Platform","Xiao Wu" and "The Dream Factory". It points out that along with the enormous history changes in the1980s and1990s, a real sense of life is one of the great energies generated by the crack between"political world" and "living world". Life itself is treated as the purpose and its integrity and logic is respected. In the ontological sense, the practice of returning to life represented by Jia Zhangke is more of life’s poetic significance. The emergence of "Xiao Wu" and "Platform" directed by Jia Zhangke signifies the maturity of film aesthetics and the sentiment structure centered on "sense of reality".As another clue to "sense of reality", Feng Xiaogang’s comedy has completely left out the element of particular period and created a dream-like enclave or island where the audience could vent their emotions while the film is deliberately exposing to them human traces which conveys a subtle sarcasm against the era. Films directed by Feng Xiaogang have deconstructed past narrative model and subverted the sense of meaning such mode is dependent on."The Dream Factory" and other films are parody of revolutionary history which try to present the ambitious dreams of historical screenplay from the perspective of "home" or warm everyday life. |
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