[Keywords:] female political commissar; Montage; Female identity; mankind
There is such a movie, which was ordered to stop shooting before it was finished; The film crew was desperate and filmed in secret, but it was banned before it was reviewed. There is such a director who was persecuted for his first film and was almost imprisoned and expelled from the film industry in the past 20 years. This film was directed by the former Soviet Union, right? Political commissar, the only work handed down from generation to generation in Askoldov. This film reappeared on 1987 and was banned for 20 years. In one fell swoop, he won the Silver Bear Award and 1990 Lenin Awards at the West Berlin International Film Festival in the same year, becoming one of the most legendary films in the film history of the former Soviet Union.
First, the centralized use of montage techniques.
As one of the representative works of realism in the former Soviet Union, Female Political Commissar epitomizes the use of montage techniques in the former Soviet Union. Montage is a transliteration of French montage, which was originally an architectural term, meaning assembly and installation. Film and television theorists extend it to the field of film and television art, which refers to the editing and combination in the process of film and television works creation. As early as the birth of film art, pioneers of film practice such as May Li Ai and Griffith began to look for the unique structure of film. They tried to connect different shots to narrate and realize the decomposition and combination of the film. However, Griffith's application of parallel montage is in the unconscious stage, and there is no systematic and organized discussion. After the First World War, the film workers in the former Soviet Union developed montage into a complete theoretical system on the basis of the practice of Griffith and others. The Soviet Montage School, represented by Eisenstein, pudovkin, Kuleshov and Du Furen, produced new meanings and achieved different performance effects through the combination and connection of different shots and paragraphs. Who is the director in "Female Political Commissar"? Askoldov paid tribute to his predecessors by using black-and-white movies and lots of montages.
A scene at the beginning of the film reflects the expression effect of comprehensive use of various montage techniques. In the first paragraph, from the perspective of the picture, a statue of the Virgin Mary stands alone, and then the camera moves away, and a column of soldiers marching silently in the desert appears. At first glance, this picture is abrupt, but it is a typical montage relationship. This technique comes from pudovkin. In George? In the History of World Cinema written by sadoul, he commented on pudovkin: "In pudovkin's works, objects play an important role outside the human body." The function of these items is beyond the scope of props, and their use sometimes imitates Kuleshov's method (1). As sadoul said, pudovkin often uses symbolic images related to scenes to express emotions, and these images are mostly natural landscapes. A similar technique also appeared in his famous film Mother (1926): revolutionary Barville imagined the scene of being released from prison, and the camera switched from his smiling face to the melting mountain stream. The surging snowflakes in the stream complement each other with the hero's joy of longing for freedom; When expressing the homesickness of Barville and his cellmates in prison, pudovkin used a series of pastoral images, such as fields, horses, farming, touching the soil with both hands and so on. The beginning of Political Commissar is similar to many fragments in Mother. The sharp contrast between the Virgin Mary and the army constitutes a symbolic montage that deviates from the narrative ontology, which not only expresses emotions, but also explains the theme.
In addition to the picture, sound is also an element that cannot be ignored in the opening paragraph. Picture and sound also constitute the counterpoint of montage effect. The main sound element in the opening paragraph is the lullaby hummed by the female political commissar, which is opposite to a series of soldiers marching. The lullaby is sung by the postpartum female political commissar to the newborn baby, which symbolizes the exuberance and warmth of life, while the soldiers in the desert symbolize the desolation and killing of life. "Filmmakers can also deliberately compare the rhythm of sound with the rhythm of pictures. For example, if the sound source is mainly outside the painting, the filmmaker can use the behavior of the characters in the picture to create expressive opposing rhythms. " ② Here, the voice and the Virgin on the screen are different images under the same theme, while the voice and the soldiers on the screen constitute a strong theme contrast. The principle that the conflict between positive and negative questions leads to the combination of questions is advocated by Eisenstein in "Montage of Intelligence", and this combination of questions refers to the maternal love and human nature's accusation of cruel war represented by "Lullaby" and "The Virgin Mary". The first few short shots, director? Askoldov skillfully used the skills learned from the montage masters Eisenstein and pudovkin, which not only constituted the counterpoint and metaphor of sound and painting, but also highlighted the theme through the combination of symbols and positive and negative questions.
The most typical montage scene appeared in The Birth of Vavilova. When Vavilova shouted "Help me" when the pain kept coming, there were cracked land, soldiers with different postures in the desert, and people struggling to push chariots trapped in the sand. The voice groaned during childbirth. In this counterpoint of sound and picture, sound and picture content express their independent meanings. Voice is not an accessory or supplement to the picture, but explores the inner activities of the female political commissar from another angle, creates nervous and depressed emotions, and implies the difficulty of production and marching. At the same time, the opposition between sound and painting has produced a new look, formed a new quality, and formed a metaphor montage here. Then, her lover appeared in Vavilova's memory. The first paragraph of the film basically didn't explain the information of Vavilova's husband, until this flashback shot showed the love between Vavilova and a male officer. They trudged, hugged and fought side by side in the desert. Later, her husband was shot, and the frightened horses ran, followed by the horses running, and the sound was Vavilova's long cry. In the water, all the horses lined up in two rows, bowed their heads and drank water, and the water was sparkling. The appearance of water in the desert symbolizes the birth of life. Maria rushed out of the room excitedly and said to Effim, "I have a boy." At first, the blacksmith was shocked, cried with joy, touched his head and said, "God won't deceive me." Later, a church of the cross appeared on the screen, and the blacksmith family baptized the children of the female political commissar with the birth ceremony of Christianity. This episode is classified by the alternate performance of scenes, which implicitly and vividly expresses the pain of the female political commissar during childbirth and the outbreak of all her repressed emotions at the moment of childbirth, thus arousing the audience's association, understanding the director's moral, and then appreciating the director's subjective emotional color contained in the incident.
The montage technique in Political Commissar basically covers all the research results of Eisenstein and others, and is handy in the film. The centralized use of montage fully reflects the director's respect for montage predecessors and his persistence in the montage tradition of the former Soviet Union. It is in this way that the theme of this film can be highlighted, the return of female identity and the criticism of war can be fully expressed.
Second, the identity and return of women.
Equality and difference have always been a debate between men and women, and it is also a long-standing issue of feminism. In a male-dominated society dominated by male-centrism, women's nature is regulated and restricted by the values of male-dominated society. The process of women's growth and development in a patriarchal society as a sub-cultural vulnerable group is actually the process of women's mixed cultural identity as a philosophical centralism. "Feminism believes that all patriarchy, such as language, capital subject and monotheism, only expresses one gender. Since the beginning of human history, everything has only been the projection of the male libido mechanism, and women are absent and silent in this system. " (3) A habitual expression of gender makes women automatically avoid or absent from many social activities, or be required and measured according to male standards, especially in male-dominated social activities, such as politics, war and sports. The monism of gender is also reflected in film and television works. In film and television works with war themes, female images are often masculine and symbolic. The cruelty and hardship of the war have made women gradually weaken and hide their gentle, quiet and weak side in the baptism of iron and blood, and even exaggerate their strong, decisive and cold side. The demands of war on men are rigidly transplanted to women, thus making women cold and powerful.
In Political Commissar, Vavilova appears as a typical masculine female image. She spoke gruffly, swore at the soldiers who reported to her outside the door, drank tap water like other soldiers, and behaved like a tough guy in the war. After Ai Meilin, a deserter, was arrested, Vavilova loudly ordered him to come out, angrily denounced his crimes, called him a hero of the Red Army in a sarcastic tone, and then accused him of violating the discipline of the Red Army and turning his back on the revolution, saying that Ai Meilin's behavior of going home to visit his sick wife was prostrated at his feet, and announced that he would be brought to justice. In this passage, the director created a fair and decisive female political commissar for us, in dealing with the problem of deserter Aimelin. She ignored the soldier's care for his sick wife and family, ignored all the natural things in human nature, and executed such a heinous soldier with harsh military discipline, while resisting the warmth between relatives. Here, Vavilova is just a war machine, a tool to enforce discipline. War requires her to take the initiative to ignore her sympathy and understanding as a natural person, and thousands of people implement the cold law and consciously safeguard the legitimacy of the war. From Vavilova, we can't see the shadow of women, and we can't see the unique characteristics different from men. It was not until later that her conversation with the person in charge explained the fact that she was about to give birth. She told the colonel that she couldn't take off her children, showing hesitation and embarrassment. At this time, Vavilova's female characteristics gradually emerged.
The mayor arranged for Vavilova to give birth at Effem the blacksmith's house. Through getting along with the blacksmith Effim's family before and after delivery, Vavilova gradually got rid of the single identity of a soldier and even became one of many unique mothers who could hum lullabies. The mayor took Vavilova to the blacksmith's house to discuss the delivery of Vavilova with the blacksmith. Vavilova first followed the mayor at a distance, and then timidly walked along the wall of the blacksmith's house. In the face of Effim's opposition and irony, she was silent and dignified, lacking courage on the battlefield and dignity when executing deserters. The blacksmith's dissatisfaction is also manifested in his actions. He removed the furniture from Vavilova's room and shouted, "Who stipulated that I should give her the bed?" Facing everything, Vavilova still said nothing. She looked at the family's attitude silently, and then got up and sat on the bed without bedding. Maria, the blacksmith's wife, said, "Mrs. Vavilova, you look like you're going to be a mother." Vavilova didn't like the expectant mother, but told Maria anxiously that she wanted to take it off, but it was too late. She said that the baby in her belly was like a knife stuck in her heart, which made her weak and sweaty. The implication is that this has affected her combat effectiveness as a soldier. At this time, Vavilova was full of contradictions. On the one hand, she accepted the arrangement of the organization, gave birth to a blacksmith shop and gave birth to her own children. On the other hand, she thinks that having children has affected her marching and fighting, and affected her courage and good fighting. Vavilova doesn't have the joy of being a mother like ordinary women. On the contrary, she thinks that the typical female behavior of childbirth affects her male expression as a soldier. Here, the basic needs of gender give way to the masculine performance of women required by war, and Vavilova is still a soldier image whose self-gender consciousness has not yet awakened under the requirements of identity.
With the development of the plot, Vavilova's female identity is gradually confirmed and returned. Under the dissuasion of the blacksmith's wife Maria, Vavilova did not do heavy work such as holding a kettle. Under the careful care of Maria, she began to gradually identify with her maternal identity and live like a parturient. Maria brought her Effim shoes to wear, and Vavilova finally showed a rare smile. She listened to Maria telling the story of her children, telling the hardships of raising children, telling the shortcomings of a woman's parents, and watching Maria make maternity clothes for herself, deliver babies for herself, and baptize newborn babies ... What the kind blacksmith family did subtly influenced Vavilova and promoted the change of her concept and behavior. The experience before and after childbirth is that she gradually recovered a woman's delicacy, virtue and diligence, helped Maria clean the floor, hummed a lullaby to the baby in her arms, and her face shone with maternal brilliance. The colonel came to see her and told her about the troop transfer. Vavilova listened to the speeches of the Colonel and his entourage and responded to the contents unrelated to the army. She was afraid that the attendant would wake up the child by talking loudly, and that the colonel's smoking was bad for the child's health. At this time, Vavilova has changed from an iron lady full of war to a loving mother centered on her son. She is no different from other mothers in the world and cares about her children. When the troops moved, Vavilova finished feeding the children with tears and went after the distant troops. She left more to keep the blacksmith family from being implicated. What she has done is no longer a simple political commissar, but a complex female image with multiple identities such as wife, mother and soldier.
"Identity mainly refers to the collective identity choice of a cultural subject between a strong culture and a weak culture, which has produced a strong ideological shock and great mental pain. Its distinctive features can be summarized as the subjective experience of anxiety and hope, pain and joy. We call this unique identity state a mixed identity. " (4) Vavilova's final choice is a soldier's choice, but she is a plump and vivid female image full of human feelings and realism. At the beginning of the film, the war covered up the female identity, and at the end of the film, Vavilova's female identity was recognized and returned. This is a difficult process of ideological transformation, and it is also a process of Vavilova's role transformation. In this process, the role of mother plays a decisive role, which is the key for the protagonist to realize the change of thought and role. Vavilova pinned the director's praise for human nature and acquiescence and compromise to mainstream discourse.
Third, the status and humanity in the war.
As a war-themed work shot in the mid-1960s, The Political Commissar not only inherits and develops the fine tradition of the Montage School in the former Soviet Union, but also is deeply influenced by the socialist realistic literary concept. Socialist realism is a literary school developed under the guidance of the Soviet Union's questioning policy in the 1930s. Socialist realism, as the basic method of Soviet literature and Soviet literary criticism, requires artists to describe reality truly and historically from the revolutionary development of reality; At the same time, the authenticity and historical concreteness of artistic description must be combined with the task of transforming and educating working people with socialist spirit. Socialist realism ensures that artistic creation has a special possibility, which can give full play to the initiative of creation and choose various forms, styles and genres. Under such circumstances, in 1930s and 1940s, some films reflecting class struggle and supporting Soviet regime came out one after another, and the film creation of the former Soviet Union gradually became formulaic and conceptual, while the films of Eisenstein, Du Fu, Ren Ke and other masters were severely criticized by the government. The film industry in the former Soviet Union once entered a period of "poor film harvest". It was not until Stalin's death (1953) that this situation improved.
However, the short-term prosperity of literature and art cannot fundamentally reverse the rigidity and dogma of Soviet film policy. After several changes, after Brezhnev came to power in the 1960s, the Soviet Union's literary policy changed again. While emphasizing the promotion of the prosperity of literary creation, the implementation of various measures has further brought movies into the party's policy track. Director? Askoldov's Political Commissar was shot at this time. The film's criticism of war and thinking about human nature are obviously different from the party's policy and do not conform to the main theme of the authorities' propaganda, so the film was banned before it was released. But? Askoldov's reflection on the war, which is focused in the film, still has far-reaching significance today, which is also an important reason why the Political Commissar made a blockbuster and shined after 20 years of silence.
Vavilova first appeared as a soldier. The duty and position of a soldier requires her to be brave and good at fighting on the battlefield and fight like a man; When executing deserters, they carry out a mountain of military orders without mercy and without thinking. This is the position of soldiers, and it is also the instrumental rationality required by war to stay away from flesh and blood. This position requires every soldier in the war, regardless of gender, to abandon emotions, forget individuals and join the revolution; However, Vavilova is a woman after all, and her experiences before and after childbirth gradually aroused her maternal consciousness and began to defend women's position. Women's position should be gentle and considerate, virtuous and capable, and teach each other. So she changed from a cold iron lady to a virtuous and capable mother. The blacksmith's life temporarily put Vavilova's military post on hold, and her female status was further highlighted. She helped Maria clean the floor, helped the blacksmith nail the window and hummed a lullaby to the sleeping baby. Later, the head of the film came to inform her of the transfer of troops, and the struggle between women's position and military position led to contradictions and choices in the later stage of the film. In the end, Vavilova chose the military post, but this was a choice made after considering the position of women.
As a soldier-centered film, the political commissar did not directly describe the war, and few fragments about the war only appeared in the flashback of Vavilova's childbirth. Surprisingly, the "war" about children appears repeatedly in the film. When Vavilova first arrived at the blacksmith's house, the blacksmith did not want to touch the furniture in Vavilova's room. His child shot at the window with a wooden gun and then took a doll as a target. Several children learned to aim and shoot in turn like adults. A child behind imitated the tone of the military leader and said to another little Jewish girl with a wooden gun, come out, we will kill you. The two brothers and sisters gave a fierce look, and the little girl shrank back and called for her mother. They threw the cotton wool in the quilt on the girl's head, threw her doll on the ground and stepped on it hard: they completely ignored the little girl's begging for mercy; They tore the little girl's clothes, tied her to a board and threw her into the air with all their strength. Here, the little girl's fear of flying in the air is vividly expressed in slow motion. Her hysterical cry became so weak that her expression of extreme pain made people condemn the maker of the prank. The children's "war" didn't stop until the blacksmith appeared. There is no distinction between ideology, position, class and camp in children's games. They don't have any political differences or conflicts of interest. They like to play similar games just because they are novel and exciting. However, the nature of bullying and fear of hard work in the game, as well as the sincere yearning for conquest and victory, are precisely the possessiveness of the people the director wants to whip. If the tone of speech, aiming posture and means of punishing the weak are all learned from adults, then the indifference and unburdened laughter when attacking and punishing are the inherent darkness and violence of human nature. This gloom is exactly what the author wants to condemn. In this sense, the value of "female political commissar" lies not only in anti-war, but also in reflecting and lashing the evil and darkness of human nature. This is a rare type under the influence of the mainstream of socialist realism. Its otherness and untimely doomed its twists and turns and contributed to its success.
Precautions:
1[ France] George? Sadoul: A History of World Film (2nd Edition), translated by Hu, China Film Publishing House, 1995, p. 222.
2 [America] David? Bodwell, Christine? Thompson: The history of world cinema. Trans. Peng Jixiang, Peking University Publishing House, 2003, page 3 18.
③ Min Xu: Feminist China Road ―― Zhou Zuoren's Feminine Thought during the May 4th Movement, China Social Sciences Press, 2006, p. 83.
④ Tao Jiajun: Introduction to Identity, Foreign Literature, No.2, 2004.
[Author Brief Introduction] Song Yanli (1978-), female, from Changyang, Hubei Province, holds a master's degree in communication from Sichuan University, and is a lecturer at the School of Literature and Media of Hubei University for Nationalities. The main research direction is feminist media.