Still Life

Zhang Ke Jia - 2006
Shot on DV video, this is a film that challenged my expectations of cinema. For perhaps the first time, I understood how some people, intelligent and good, could, for example, reject early neo-realism. The type of film used, frankly the weirdness of it, what I would call a kind of ugliness, though I now disagree with myself here, can be tough. The video does make it look slightly like a TV soap, as does the lack of studio lights, furnishings. And yet, perhaps partly through these means, this film can do so much.
Using long takes, as before, with long shots where the camera almost always moves, often in very clean and clear horizontals, although it can move elsewhere too. It uses some sensational shots of place, of crumbling, of dirt, of building sites; this is primarily a document of that. Yet it saves up these shots, not overwhelming; there is a lot of more personal stuff, closer, in confined rooms or spaces, usually following the 'action' through these.
With the video, this is extremely contrasty, which really unnerved me. The director chooses to light people well, a rare choice for video and, frankly, much of the modern cinema I hold dear (I'm thinking chiefly of 'Eloge De L'Amour' as an example). This made me think 'ugly'- and yet. The place is something else, off centre compostions as people watch crumbling and falling, that change.
What is acted out in front of us is just that- acted out in front of us. We're basically here for the location, but the director (or at least so his statement says) is interested in the people; and the quiet respect, kinf of affection with distance, he reserves for them is extraordinary. Cinema finding people, showing people. Yes, they can be cruel, but well... It is also frequently very funny, mild absurdist bits and bobs. The spaceship, as well as strange and oddly beautiful (though, again, 'ugly'; in most cinema this would be something called 'crappy CGI').
This film is difficult, and I coulnd't quite stick with the whole thing, more the worse for me. I like to think that I can still say though that, if we still have a modern cinema, this is one of the fisrt examples of how to do it. Get a camera, any camera; you can probably 'only' afford digital. Find a place, find people there. Make it look like it should, it is.

Dong

Zhang Ke Jia - 2006
The camera here adopts a mixture of huge, long scrolling horizontal pans, on landscapes that often dwarf the figures, with closer, much more intimate shakier (though not too much) looks along bodies, paintings, people. The big long shots and takes, often with the person just in the bottom of the frame, looking away from us, at a spectacular, often misty, landscape of the dams is thus avoided from being impersonal, as the director does study people; he can use medium shots and even close-ups, can stay far away but still focus on a very particular person, their face.
As he quietly does this for the people of the dams, people one is not used (for me...) to seeing, to listening to, to let exist in front of all, the cinema opens a new path for me. Clearly a kind of development of neo-realism in its own way, at once heavily unstyled but deeply beautiful in that place, such a place.
Great colours of umbrellas and clothes, of lights. There is a certain amount of overexposing outside and underdoing in on the often unbalanced frames, but this isn't too extreme; he generally will light the insides as well.
There is very little dialogue here, generally preffering to look at the remarkable landscape, people, life. Of what there is I was rather unsure about the rather sharp and pessimistic artist. Yet, he shows kindness; it is though acts of kindness that save the world. At sixty six minutes, this is a masterwork of modern cinema, for all its slight meandering scratchiness.

Not One Less

Zhang Yimou, 1999
Aesthetic steps backwards; use a few of the long shots, and a fe close ups, but otherwise dull
Many medium shots that really don’t succeed
It could be argued the film relies on close-up at the conclusion, but too little
Really, the film is a piece of straight=up old fashioned neo-realism, which of course was very special, but can’t just be repeated
Use of disconnected located (one space: school), elliptical narrative, journey theme
A few slow pans, long takes, all very much classic neo-realism of the city
Themes of the country meets the city. Accentuated by clothing/ conformity versus ‘naturalness’
Has similar themes to recent Iranian work (and shares a screenwriter)
And the huge guilt-trip at the end, but this isn’t at all social criticism; everyone’s very good, but just on occasion mistakes are made
A pretty disappointing work as compared to ‘Raise The Red Lantern’
Not a really poor film; some nice details, the neo-realist actions revealing situation is still a superior narrative model, but you’d really be hoping for a bit more

Raise The Red Lantern

1991 Zhang Yimou
Straight on framings, straight on space, confined views, even from on high don’t get their view
Mixture of close ups, with straight on, frontlighting
And long shots, pretty long takes, with some depth. Nice and cool
Film does lapse into some not quite-anything medium shots, which aren’t so great
Nice use of colours to convey inner and external states, and all the mixtures
And some nice rhythmic stuff too; on a few occasions it would have been better to stick with the close-ups longer, though, and get away from this mid stuff
Passings-on of oppression in the situation, clearly allegorical
The use of the first eyeline shot to indicate the ‘now you see...’ is added in well
An impressive piece of work, though a little underpowered, could have done with bit more exploration of the close-up and a little more willingness to stick with the long as opposed to the medium
All told, a good modern picture