| The topic of this paper is A Realistic Aesthetic Research on Chinese Movies in the New Period. It’s a monographic study about the realistic aesthetics, which is one of the pluralistic aesthetic forms of Chinese movies in the new period. There are several purposes of this paper. Firstly, it’s to summarize the ideals and practices of the realistic aesthetic movies in the new period. We could see the introspections and breakthroughs to the former ideologies and political aesthetics, which have important theoretical constructional significances to the aesthetics of Chinese movies; secondly, from the external and internal factors of the realistic aesthetics, we could know how Chinese movie returned to its body in the background of the reform and opening-up, how it got rid of the traditional and simple theories of shadow play and operas, and how it showed its natures and modern features; thirdly, it’s to extract and summarize the connotations of the realistic aesthetics of Chinese movies, according to the intergenerational conversion from the fourth generation to the sixth one and their practices; fourthly, it’s to find out the foreign influences on the development of Chinese movies’ realistic aesthetics, from the realism traditions of the world cinema and the theories of the realistic aesthetics, and to seek the Chinese movies’ characteristics on nationalization and localization; finally, through the introspections of Chinese movies’ tendentiousness during the process of the realistic aesthetic construction, we want to perfect the theory system and the rhetoric, to seek the possibility of the multiple coexistence of Chinese movies’ aesthetics, to promote the development of Chinese movies’ theory constructions and practices, and to show Chinese movies’ new look and quality to the world.This paper is divided into six chapters around the topic of realistic aesthetics of Chinese movies:The first chapter is the introduction. It’s further divided into three parts.Firstly, based on the comparison to the related aesthetic forms, some keywords are included, such as the modern aesthetic category in the realistic aesthetics, the connotation of the movie’s realistic aesthetics, the theories and schools of the world cinema’s realistic aesthetics, the connotations and explanations of the Chinese monies’ realistic aesthetics in the new period. Secondly, it’s the histories and current situations, achievements and problems of the studies made by the Chinese and foreign film critics on the movies’ realistic aesthetics. The achievements were made mainly during 1980 to 1990, and then it came to the reflection period at the turn of the century. In aspect of the research perspectives, the studies can be divided into four groups:to study the root of the realistic aesthetics from the perspective of the basic aesthetic theories; since the movies’ realistic aesthetics is a reflection of the modern aesthetics in the movie creation, to study the realistic aesthetics from the perspective of the modern thoughts of movies; to study from the perspective of the world cinema schools of theory, especially the influences of Bazin and Krakauer’s Ontology of Photographic Image and the Theory of Long-lens on Chinese movies’ aesthetics in the new period; and to study the theories, definitions and connotations of the realistic aesthetics directly. Finally, it’s the purposes, significances and research methodologies of this paper. This systematical and profound study was made with some research methodologies from different aspects, such as artistic culturology, film aesthetics, ontology of images, text interpretation and comparative study. The topic of this paper has both theoretical values and practical significances.For example, to better construct Chinese movies’ theories of aesthetics by the researches of the realistic aesthetics, to perfect the construction of contemporary Chinese movies through the studies of Chinese movies in the new period, to provide a reference for the creation of Chinese movies, as well as to record the national characteristics and global impacts of Chinese movies.The second chapter is an analysis on the socio-cultural context of the realistic aesthetics in the new period and the aspirations of the film aesthetic construction. The reform and opening-up has provided a historical opportunity for the rise of the realistic aesthetics. With the end of the Cultural Revolution in China, the renaissance ushered in. The movie field, which was severely afflicted, has gone into a new period after overthrowing the "Summary" and bringing order out of chaos. The realist tradition of Chinese movies has recovered, such as "the trauma movie","the introspection movie" and "the reform movie". In the trend of diversified literary thoughts, and influenced by the modern western philosophy, literature and aesthetics thoughts, the realistic aesthetic movies welcomed a new form and a new look. The rise of the fourth generation of movie and the successful practice of the realistic aesthetics ended the political aesthetic movies in the Cultural Revolution period and got rid of the image of a political tool.It returned to be true movie, and began to reconstruct the realism. The fifth generation of movie "the experimental movies"and the sixth"the folk events" Turther enriched the practical significance.The third chapter is about the foreign ideological and theoretical sources of the rise and construction of Chinese realistic aesthetic movies in the new period. The influences on the construction of Chinese movies’ theories are mainly from two aspects-one is the theory of realistic aesthetics by Andre Bazin ("the Master of Realistic Aesthetic Theory", who comes from France) and Siegfried Krakauer, and the other one is Italian Neorealist Film and French New Wave. Combining the theories and practices, we can see how much the Chinese movies have been influenced by the western movies. Bazin’s realistic aesthetics is said to be the second milestone in the world film history. Its core thought is the relationship between movie and reality-that is how the movies reflect the reality as much as possible. Bazin emphasized that movie should truly record the reality, i.e. the Ontology of Photograph Image; Krakauer even said that the nature of movie is the reappearance of the reality, which is more absolute. Luo Huisheng has summarized the ideas of Bazin:Bazin has summarized his own aesthetic thoughts into "the Overall Realism"."The photographer should record the target with his or her’daily life’, without changing the ’truths’, or’ intervening’ its ’progress’, or even dividing the target’s life into parts. Only this can be said reflected the life’realistically’, and only such clips connected together can become a true movie." The influences of Bazin on Chinese movies are objective. "As the master of movie theories, Bazin’s influences on Chinese movies are no less than on French movies. Especially around 1980, his realistic theory has affected Chinese movies a lot in the early years of the reform and opening-up. At that time, all the theory critics, directors, scriptwriters, photographers, art designers, mixers and actors have been enthusiastic to learn his theories. We can say that the innovation of Chinese movies has been triggered by the focus on the movie itself, the praise to the full-length shot and realistic aesthetic, and the discussion and practice to Bazin’s theories."; He"has refreshed the realistic thoughts of Chinese movies","reflected the thinking model of Chinese movie researchers","changed the viewing mode of Chinese audience", and also"changed the structural pattern of Chinese movies".The fourth chapter is about the theoretical connotation of Chinese movies’ realistic aesthetics in the new period, which is explained from several aspects, such as the Ontology of Photograph Image, diversified narrative styles, the modern concept of movie language, and the Theory of Long-lens. Through the theoretical connotation, we could construct a movies’ realistic aesthetic system with Chinese style.There are three theory props of Bazin’s Theory of Realistic Aesthetics-the Ontology of Photographic Image, the psychological origin of film and the modern evolution concept of movie language. Such ideas have been guiding the practices of the realistic aesthetics since his book quest-ce que le cinema? published.Some of his concepts are quite the same as the thoughts of new Chinese filmmakers, such as "movie is’equal’to the reappearance of the reality","a true movie is a perfect reappearance of the reality, which is a legend", and "existentialism is a kind of humanism".Krakauer even explained the Ontology of Photograph Image in an extreme way. He thought that the movie itself is an extension of the photograph,and also a reappearance of the natural world.The Chinese realistic aesthetics is reflected in three aspects:firstly, to stick to the principle of the Ontology of Photograph Image. They respect the independent utterance right of the movie, and believe that "my camera cannot lie". Secondly, diversified narrative ways are used, such as daily life descriptions, historical stories and allegories, and the bottom class narrations. Thirdly, they claim on the modernization of the movie language, and use the full-length shot mainly. They don’t exclude montage, since its function of film editing. All in all, they just want to keep the reality and completeness of the nature. What’s more, to keep the "proximity" between the screen and the reality, and to make a "true movie" under the guidance of realistic aesthetics, the full-length shot, natural light, actual sound and non-professional actors are usually used.The fifth chapter is about the generation of filmmakers, which is also a worldwide phenomenon. In this chapter, from the perspective of new filmmakers, it mentions the search and construction of the realistic aesthetics by the fourth generation directors to the sixth ones, and the achievements and characteristics of the local realistic aesthetics. Firstly, we need to analyze the main reasons of the intergenerational rise of Chinese movies in the new period. The rise is an important modern feature of the movie transition. In the traditional Chinese filmology, the thought of collectivism is prominent, while the director-centrism was denied, and both the core effects and the subject spirit of director were always ignored. In the new period, the subjectivity of directors is prominent, and it can also decide the character of the works. The innovative practices from the fourth generation directors to the sixth ones have verified the significances of the intergeneration on the transition of Chinese movies, as well as on going out to the world. Secondly, after understanding their concepts of film and declarations of theory, we could analyze their contributions to the returning of realism, to promote Chinese movies to the world, and to construct realistic aesthetic thoughts of national film. We could also distinguish the differences of each generation, from which we could see how later generation get ride of previous generation’s influences, and back on the road, explore new forms of the realistic aesthetics.The sixth chapter is about the text interpretation of the realistic aesthetic movies. In this chapter, the studies focus on the microscopic aspect. After analyzing the realistic aesthetic movies in the new period, we can understand the artistic form of such movies, and further show the embodiments through individual cases. The cases to be analyzed were chosen from the fourth, the fifth and the sixth generation movies respectively. The three generations of filmmakers in the new period have made a series of movies that reflect the thought of realistic aesthetics for the audience domestic and abroad. In this chapter, we can learn the creation experience and characteristics of the realistic aesthetic movies through some specific works, such as the "film prose" South of the Old (by the fourth generation director Wu Yigong), the "assumption documentary" Qiu Ju Goes to Court (by the fifth generation director Zhang Yimou), the"folk events" Pick Pocket (by the sixth generation director Jia Zhangke).In the conclusion part, the realistic aesthetic concepts of Chinese movies are reiterated. The realistic aesthetics has a root- the traditional realism. The Authenticity Principle of the traditional realism is also the basic principle of the realistic aesthetics. It’s a kind of modern aesthetic form out of the trends of modern philosophy, aesthetics, literature and art. The realistic aesthetics of movies is one of multiple schools in the history of movie. It can date from the original realist films, and it developed by absorbing the experience and thoughts of documentaries. It reached its peak when Italian Neorealist Film and French New Wave, as well as Taiwanese New Cinema and the filmmaking in mainland by the fourth to the sixth generation directors. Its theory can be derived from Bazin and Krakauer’s classic writings.The realistic movies follow the guidance of realistic aesthetics, and also use some special skills like the full-length shot, natural light, actual sound and non-professional actors. It should be a dialectical unity of documentary and artistry, and reflect the realistic aesthetics as well. Such movies are localizations of the world realistic movies, and also innovations of the traditional movies’ recovery and deepening in the new period. Without doubt, there must be tendentiousness and theoretical defects when we introspect the practices and the theories of the Chinese movies’ realistic aesthetics. At the turn of the century, with new theories and attitudes, Chinese movies are confronting the challenges from home and abroad. The filmmakers are exploring and practicing new ways and plans to realize sustainable development. |
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