From "I'm Not Pan Jinlian" to "Lucifer", look at the wonderful use of circular compositions in movies

Why was "I'm Not Pan Jinlian" filmed in a circular format? Feng Xiaogang has been asked the same question by waves of media. His answer was different every time. He once said gently that "it doesn't matter how the audience interprets it." He also said swearing, "I just want to film it as round." He also cleverly avoided the topic: "You didn't say it was round." I forgot about it."

In fact, the reason for making the film into a round shape is very simple. The story of "Pan Jinlian" has the original novel. The movie "Pan Jinlian" must be unique and of course be faithful to it. The original work must also be higher than the original work, so that the artistic method of film can maximize the expression of the truth and absurdity between the characters and the story.

1. Want to distinguish it from Zhang Yimou's "Qiuju's Lawsuit"

Director Zhang Yimou has filmed "Qiuju's Lawsuit", and on the surface, the themes of the two are somewhat similar. A very realistic movie that accurately reflects the current situation of Chinese society, but the whole movie makes you feel very absurd. In terms of the format of the recording plan, it is very popular now to carry the camera on your shoulders and follow the actors casually. .

And Feng Xiaogang watched the movie "Mommy" shot by Canadian director Dolan, which used a 1:1 square format to express the repressed living space of teenagers. When the plot developed to the most cheerful stage of the whole film, , the male protagonist is facing the screen on a flying bicycle and slowly "opens" the frame with his own hands. This ingenious design caused a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival. He was inspired by it.

In the end, Feng Xiaogang chose the circular format, perhaps hoping to remind the audience who are spoiled by the wide screen that realist stories are not fairy tales or fables, but the reality that happens around us. That circle is to clarify the neutral role played by the audience in this film - the audience is both a God's perspective (knowing everything) and a passerby's perspective (witnessing everything), neither here nor there.

As the frame becomes smaller and the content becomes less, the audience will unconsciously focus more on the stories happening within the square inch. At the same time, it gives the film an extra sense of sophistication.

2. The circular frame is more Chinese from a visual perspective

The composition of the picture can often reflect the rhythm, rhythm, concentration, density, amplitude and other aspects of the image in the picture. describe the form.

Circular composition usually means that the subject in the picture is round. Visually, it gives people the aesthetics of rotation, movement and contraction, generating a strong centripetal force. Therefore, circular compositions often appear in Chinese paintings. If the application in painting alone is not enough to explain the problem, then the round fan that appeared as early as the Shang Dynasty actually applied circular composition to life.

The literati paintings in ancient China are round, and the circular format is very Chinese, which will make Li Xuelian's story more visually Chinese. In order to make the content in the circular composition fuller and more Chinese-style, the crew chose to shoot in an ancient town in the south, so that the film, coupled with post-production color correction, would have a stronger sense of classical painting.

Structurally, it is quite interesting to see Pan Jinlian from the Song Dynasty and Li Xuelian from the modern era overlap each other through the sense of picture.

Feng Xiaogang believes, “China uses the words square and circle to describe rules and regulations, so I think it is particularly good to use the conversion of square and circle to express this story. China has been a humane society for thousands of years, and this circle It’s about making everything smooth, unlike the law, which is very restrictive and rigid. The story of Li Xuelian is the story of the transition period of Chinese society from a society of human relations to a society of rule of law.”

Rural vs. urban (circle vs. square) compositions are essentially impressions of different places.

As Li Xuelian went to Beijing, the painting became square to express the "rules" in the center of power.

After discussing the Chinese-style circular composition, let’s talk about this film which was released in October 2014. It is earlier than "I'm Not Pan Jinlian", but it is very different in flavor. This is the first feature film to use a circular composition.

1. Close integration of story content and presentation method

This is the last part of director Gust Van den Berghe's "Religious Theme Trilogy". In order to delve into unknown areas, the film uses The new technology of circular lenses was developed specifically for this film in conjunction with the University of Brussels.

Using physical methods to polish the lens, it generates a 360° reflection/refraction optical cone reflection lens for performance, euphemistically called "Tondoscope", like an iris image, which completely transforms the director into The mental concept of a closed paradise is transformed into an image.

2. Inheritance and Expression of Western Aesthetics

Speaking of the concept of this enclosed paradise, the first thing that comes to my mind is the church ceiling painting. The circular composition is even more magnificent. Scenery and multi-dimensional perspective space. Moreover, the form is more suitable for the core value of the church itself, and at the same time, it adds a romantic color to the more serious background of the church.

Then we entered the Renaissance round relief (tondo, a common style of interior decoration painting). The tools that painters use when painting are the main source of inspiration for this shot.

According to the director, he imagined what God would have looked like before he created it, so he only used a circle to show it.

This method has philosophical thinking to connect the microcosm and the macrocosm. When we look at the world from the perspective of heaven, it should look like a planet. At the same time, it is also a way to see the world through a microscope and experience the molecular structure of the world.

Unlike "Lucifer", which was all shot using a circular frame, "I'm Not Pan Jinlian" was shot using a circular masking method in post-production. Even with a circular frame, the picture remains the same. is complete, while "Lucifer" is more like a square frame being forcibly cut into a circular frame, with parts of the characters often appearing outside the frame. As an art film, this implicitly echoes the philosophical point of view the director wants to express.

No matter how the form of the film changes, first of all, the content is the main line, and all changes must be better integrated with the content, and the two interact with each other to express. 2. Cultural accumulation will eventually affect you and even your works. Except, these two films mainly use circular compositions.

I have a few other films with very different compositions. From the earliest 1.33:1, such as Griffith's 1915 The Birth of a Nation. From Anderson, a "late-stage patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder" who is obsessed with composition and frame, the progressive "The Grand Budapest Hotel" begins with a little girl opening the novel in front of the writer's statue, then the writer appears and begins to introduce the character Zero, and then Zero begins to tell The story of him and Gustav... also uses various proportions of paintings.