If western aesthetics emphasizes imitation and reproduction. Then, under the influence of different cultural traditions, the oriental aesthetics represented by China emphasized lyricism and expressiveness, and finally developed into the theory of artistic conception. In the history of painting, Zhang Zao, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, recorded: "Zhang Zao, with clear pronunciation and mellow voice, is a unique painter. He can hold two pipes in his hand, one for a branch and the other for a dead branch, standing proudly in the shape of clouds and scales, and coming out of his hands at will. When Bi Hongshan painted a name, he was amazed at it, but he only used a bald pen or a hand to touch silk, because he asked what he had learned. Say:' learn from nature and get the source of your heart!' . The author thinks that Zhang Zao's "learning from nature" accurately reveals the essence of oriental aesthetics, especially China's aesthetics, that is, it pays attention to the imitation of nature from the outside, but it is ultimately determined by the internal "heart source", which is the preparation for the "heart source", and the "heart source" is the foundation on which artists finally rely. Just like the difference between "bamboo in the hand" and "bamboo in the chest" in China's paintings. This aesthetic view is closely related to China's emphasis on the creation of artistic conception.
These differences are also reflected in the expression of eastern and western film images.
Differences in theoretical frameworks
Bazin, a French film critic and theorist, put forward the foundation and core of his film theory system in What is a Film, namely the film image ontology and the long lens theory. Bazin believes that movies are essentially "real art".
Siegfried kracauer is a German-American scholar. He adopted Bazin's theoretical premise, and based on his 40-year experience in watching movies, he wrote the book "The Essence of Movies-The Restoration of Material Reality", and stated in the preface that this book "is a kind of substantive aesthetics, not formal aesthetics, and it cares about content. Its argument is based on the fact that film is essentially an extension of photography, so, like photography, it has obvious affinity with the world around us. When the film records and reveals the material reality, it becomes a veritable film. "
The documentary theory represented by Bazin and kracauer is a return to the western traditional view of art-art is an imitation of nature. Although there was a new development in film theory, a new school of film theory appeared. However, whether in the field of theory or film practice, the influence of their documentary theory has never been interrupted.
There are no far-reaching film theory works in the East, but the classic film theory works are basically produced in the West, which may once again confirm the cultural differences between the East and the West. However, this does not mean that the East does not have its own film theory. For example, from 1905, when China people made the first film "Dingjun Mountain", the film gradually began to learn from the traditional art forms of China for thousands of years, such as drama, thus theoretically producing the concept of "shadow play" which had a far-reaching impact on China films. Hou Yao, an early film artist, once said: "Shadow play is a kind of drama, which has all the value of drama." The core of "Shadow Play" theory is to grasp the film mode based on drama narration, which is a kind of China film ontology completely different from western film theory.
Differences in theme selection
The influence of Greek culture on the whole western culture is universally acknowledged, and the spirit of scientific rationality has also had a far-reaching impact on the western world. Therefore, westerners pay special attention to the cultivation and development of logical thinking and rational analysis ability, showing a completely different way of thinking from orientals. At the same time, the Hebrew spirit in Christian belief also profoundly affects the western world. The combination of the two has produced a large number of rational philosophical works in the western cultural tradition, which exudes strong concern for human nature.
This has a great influence on films, especially European films that inherit the essence of western culture. On the choice of theme, on the one hand, it is a metaphysical "philosophical film", which gives people the feeling of exploring philosophical propositions with movies as the carrier.
The oriental culture mentioned in this article is represented by China, Japan and South Korea, especially China culture. As we all know, Japanese and Korean cultures are deeply influenced by China's traditional culture. Regarding the composition of China culture, Mr. Li Zehou thinks that the complementarity between Confucianism and Taoism is a beautiful process. At the same time, it is acknowledged that the historical position of Confucius in shaping China's national character and cultural psychological structure is an undeniable objective fact. It is no accident that Confucianism has become synonymous with China culture in the world. " It can be said that throughout thousands of years of traditional literary works in China (except some lyric literary works such as pure love poems and pastoral landscape poems), the political stance, personal ideals, thoughts and feelings, psychological reflection and lifestyle of literati in past dynasties are deeply branded with Confucian ethics.
This is also evident in oriental films. Yasujirō Ozu, a famous Japanese director, has made more than 50 films in his life, most of which are records and reflections of ordinary daily life. There are no conflicts and violent events in drama and movies, only a plain description of family relations in reality.
In fact, even when dealing with the same theme, eastern and western films show different cultural brands. For example, both of them are love movies, and western movies show intense and unrestrained feelings. In the romantic movie Titanic, when Jack and Ruth encounter external distress, they pay tribute to love in a stirring way. In oriental romantic movies, the hero and heroine often face love in an implicit and restrained way, such as China's classic film Spring in a Small Town, Korean film Photo Studio in August and so on.
Differences in image presentation
Western culture attaches great importance to accuracy and scientific rationality, which makes the images of western films have their own unique characteristics, such as long shots and depth-of-field shots, to promote "fuzziness of reality". Bazin believes that if the film wants the audience to "realize" its "exact meaning" from the ambiguous real things, only the uncut depth of field lens can give the audience this right. Taking orson welles's films as an example, Bazin pointed out that the director used the depth-of-field lens in Citizen Kane to stimulate the audience, because this technique forced the audience to use their free attention, and at the same time made them aware of the multiple contradictions of facts, which made his depth-of-field lens have triple reality, namely, ontological reality, dramatic reality and psychological reality. There is a classic depth of field shot in the film. In the foreground, little Kane's parents in the room are discussing with the agent to send him out, while in the deep background, little Kane is playing with the snow carefree outside the window, unaware that his fate is changing. This depth-of-field lens expresses the "fuzziness of reality" emphasized by Bazin simply and has multiple meanings.
After Bazin's long shot theory entered China, it was also appreciated and practiced by filmmakers. However, the long shots in oriental movies seem to have only the appearance of long shots. Careful analysis shows that the use of long shots in oriental films obviously contains and embodies the meaning of oriental culture, and Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien is one of the outstanding representatives. In Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies, we often see long, slow long shots moving slowly. It is just a form, not a mechanical description of an absolutely objective scene, but a reflection of the spiritual realm, which is realistic and vivid.