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If the talented Hollywood director Tim Burton is a master of Gothic movies, in 1999 Burton put the long-circulated legend of the Broken Knight on the screen. The movie "Broken Valley" produced by Burton is the representative work of Burton's gothic movies.

Under the influence of Gothic art, darkness and elegance are no longer absolute contradictions, and beauty and evil are no longer completely opposite.

Gothic art style can always make people realize the existence of truth, goodness and beauty in human nature from the most desperate and darkest situations.

Gothic absurdity, tension, warmth, warmth

Generally speaking, Gothic movies often describe persecution, murder, etc. caused by satisfying personal passions or fighting for property. Unusual story. The stories are scary and exciting, with ghosts, gods or other supernatural phenomena often appearing.

This movie is no exception. The story takes place in a secluded village called Sleepy Hollow in the United States in the 18th century. In order to investigate the serial murders here, young police officer Klein came all the way from New York.

The townspeople firmly believe that the murderer is a "sleepy man" riding a fast horse and holding a sharp sword.

Within two months, three people had been killed in the town.

After peeling back the layers, the case was finally exposed. It turned out that the wife of local rich man Van Tasso killed Van Tasso's wife in revenge and occupied the lair. Later, in order to inherit a huge inheritance, she used witchcraft to manipulate Sleepy Hollow and committed countless crimes.

In the end, Burton gave her a prank-like funny ending. The sleepy Hollow Man wakes up and falls in love with the evil woman, forcing her to flee to the base of a dead tree, leaving only one hand exposed in the dirt and missing the world.

In addition, Klein and Van Tasso's daughter Katina fell in love and eventually got married.

The story of the film is absurd and tense, with witchcraft as the theme and case detection as the clue. It is bizarre, complex, ups and downs, and the essence of Gothic runs through the entire film, thus composing a tragic Gothic lament for the audience at the end of the century.

This series of mysterious murders caused by revenge and competition for property shrouds the film in a gloomy atmosphere and is full of suspense.

Also, almost all of Tim Burton's movies have Gothic story scenes. Black-and-white scenes and color scenes often appear in the same film, and cold and warmth blend harmoniously.

These are two sides of Burton's work, like night and day in the same sky.

In Broken Valley, the secluded place is foggy all day long. Lightning flashes across the sky from time to time, and the "traps" that may appear at any time are frightening. The scary forest outside the town is also full of unknowns and fears.

In order to present the mysterious town of Broken Valley, Burton and the crew traveled to the UK to find the most suitable place. They spent three months turning the entire valley into a small town, giving every detail of the film a strange medieval feel and faithfully presenting the appearance of the time.

Similarly, every scene, from setting to lighting, was carefully designed to match the film's Gothic darkness and unease.

The real world is gloomy, and the story in Broken Valley is mysterious and terrifying, but the world in the protagonist’s dream is gorgeous, bright, and warm. The beautiful courtyard has a row of white fences, petals falling in the wind like rain, and a gentle mother dancing around the green trees. Reality and dreams are in stark contrast here.

The appearance of warm scenes is mainly to distinguish time and space and express the protagonist's dreams and psychological emotions, such as the infinite garden in spring and the fairy-tale mother, which not only dilutes the horror atmosphere of the movie, but also creates a fairy-tale atmosphere. The atmosphere brings more mysterious artistic conception.

In the main scene, that is, the Gothic black and white scene, sub-scenes, that is, colorful scenes, appear from time to time and are constantly intertwined with each other, guiding the audience to pay attention to both the plot development and the inner world of the characters, in conjunction with the complex reasoning and characters of the plot. Complex relationships expose the ugliness in human nature and show the beauty in human nature.

Tim Burton's Gothic film shows the strong contrast between cold and warmth, the sharp conflict between darkness and light, and the confrontation between evil and justice through two stories of different styles.

The film narrative art of Gothic elements

Gothic elements can be seen everywhere in the film: wind-eroded tombstones, dark forests, branches like devil’s arms, vines wrapped around branches, distant The fog everywhere, the sloping roof, the cloudy sky, the flickering light and shadow, the strong red and black colors, the pale and slightly neurotic characters, the gloomy and heavy soundtrack, etc. These gothic elements fill the film with a deep and dark atmosphere, allowing the audience to experience Burton's consistently gothic death.

Cemetery

In the movie, when Officer Klein first arrives in the ancient town of Deeje, he is greeted at a large cemetery at the entrance to the town. The wind-eroded tombstones are crooked, and the gray-black cold land is desolate, barren, and lifeless. Klein carried two large suitcases and walked slowly along a muddy path in the center of the cemetery. His back was tense and there was no trace of fear.

The cemetery symbolizes death, and its appearance means that the road ahead is dangerous and life or death is uncertain.

Klein’s arrival did not stop the bloody killings in Sleeping Valley.

At night, the fog swallowed up the torch, and another living life flew away.

The townspeople looked sad as they gathered around newly dug graves and newly made coffins to mourn the dead.

Three new graves are clearly visible in the cemetery, a reminder of the murderer's cruelty. Who will be the next victim? An atmosphere of despair and terror spread.

In order to find clues to solve the case, it was already dark. Klein dug three graves, took out the coffin, and opened the coffin for autopsy. The headless body lay quietly inside, without the breath of life. , but still provided crucial clues for solving the case.

Death may wish to save the lives of others.

In the dark night, "Sleeping Valley" wanders in the cemetery like a ghost. Amid the lightning and thunder, he galloped on horseback with his sword in hand, and a large cemetery behind him was clearly visible. His shadow and the shadow of the tombstone lengthened. Every time he appeared, it meant death and new graves were built in the cemetery. This scene brings Gothic horror to a climax.

The cemetery symbolizes "death", the absence of life. Cemeteries appear repeatedly in movies. On the one hand, it promotes the development of the story; on the other hand, it expresses the desire for life, the cherishment and love of life through the description of death.

Death is the denial of individual life, but it is this denial that in turn affirms the endless life of human collective life.

Insight into the subtleties of death may reveal mysteries, save innocent lives, demonstrate justice, and eliminate evil as Crane did.

Gothic movies show the truth, goodness and beauty that are more valuable than life through death.

Fog

There is no sunshine all day long where the movie takes place. Whether it is a small town, a valley or an endless black forest, they always appear in the mist, hazy and mysterious.

Fog comes in many forms. The existence of "fog" makes the whole movie gray, mysterious and dark, creating a gloomy atmosphere full of suspense.

It is not until the end of the movie, when justice is done, that the movie truly clears away the gloom and shows the bright colors of the new millennium.

Dense Fog - Chaos, Mystery and Darkness

Klein and his assistant Thomas broke into the black forest regardless of the danger, in order to solve the case and find the legendary "Sleep" Valley”—the burial place of dead trees.

The endless forest under the thick fog is eerie and terrifying, and every dead branch looks like a devil. Heavy fog made progress more difficult. They rode through the forest, trying to find their way. They even mistook Katrina, who came to help, for "Sleepy Valley" and almost accidentally hurt her.

The light that swallows the fog that is the precursor to death

The first night that Klein came to Broken Valley, it was a dark night without moonlight, and the night watchman was waiting at the observatory with a shotgun.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the forest, and the sheep stood up uneasily. Like a spell, several clouds of mist drifted towards several torches accurately, swallowing up the only light in an instant.

At night, there was silence. Suddenly, the "Sleepy Valley" appears again. He rides a horse and holds a sword. It is conceivable that the Night's Watch is doomed to fail.

The fog in the distance - unreal, unreal, real

Almost all the foregrounds of this movie: hillsides, wheat fields, streams, cemeteries, houses, are shrouded in fog , mysterious, unreal, and dreamy, as if the broken valley town is not a real existence. Perhaps the land itself is a mystery, waiting for Klein to solve and uncover it.

Color

Black - unknown and fear

Black is the color of night, symbolizing filth, evil, death, mourning, stiffness, solemnity, conservatism and individuality .

Burton deliberately minimized color elements and combined the plot with black and white contrast to create bright and cool colors and highlight the shocking effect of bloody scenes.

Scenes in Gothic films often unfold in darkness.

Darkness symbolizes the unknown, and the unknown means fear.

Those who bring death are all dressed in black, such as Sleepy Hollow.

Symbolically, black represents ugliness and denial. Black can invert the positive symbolism of any other color.

In the movie "Sleeping Valley", the trees, cemeteries, houses, and clothes of the deceased all chose a dark system with black as the main color, because the tone of the whole movie is weird and the story is full of suspense.

In order to reflect this atmosphere, the overall tone is mainly gray and black, but the color levels are rich, making this combination not only boring, but also very delicate and layered, making the whole film full of nobility and elegance. Oil painting texture.

Blood Donation and Death

In order to create a strong Gothic atmosphere and minimize the color of the set and costumes, the film suddenly flashes bright red strokes on the almost single-color black and white screen, making it even more dramatic. Shocking.

Red represents blood donation and death.

Every time "Sleepy Valley" appears, it happens as fast as lightning. When the sword falls, people fall like melons and fruits. Donated blood poured out, and it was blindingly red at night. A few drops of donated blood slowly dripped along the blade, creating an atmosphere of horror and suspense.

Each hue has its own narrative meaning, emphasizing the independent expressive power of color to divide the differences between narratives.

The contrast between red and black is very sharp, and the combination of red and black represents another emotion: hatred.

The preference for these two colors determines the tone of the film: darkness, blood, hatred and horror.

Shadows

In the use of light and shadow, almost all Gothic movies have their own unique patterns, and the effects of light and shadow are closely related to the style of the film.

Generally speaking, light symbolizes safety, virtue and happiness; darkness represents fear, evil and the unknown.

In Tim Burton's movies, light and shadow have atmosphere, and the full use of light and shadow creates Tim Burton's unique light and shadow effects.

In the film, "Sleeping Valley" often depicts the mystery of the characters through unstable shadows, and outlines the silhouettes of the characters through backlight, showing a dark and mysterious magical artistic conception, with strong artistic expression. ;

At the same time, every appearance of "sleepy depression" is accompanied by lightning, making the characters in the picture appear looming, nervous and scary;

In addition, the image of the town is always Appears in fog, because light cannot penetrate directly in fog, which increases the hazy feeling of the picture. The diffuse light reflects the black houses in the villages and towns, making them pitch black and silent;

Furthermore, the ferocious facial expressions are shaped by the background light to express the characters' crazy and angry emotions.

Profound themes under Gothic art

Flanery O'Connor, the famous creator of Gothic novels, said: "For people who are hard of hearing, they should shout loudly; for people who are hard of hearing, they should shout loudly; People with poor eyesight, you have to draw big and shocking numbers."

"Broken Valley" is about the conflict between light and darkness, good and evil. On the surface it seems to show depravity and evil, but as Hegel said: "Pure light is pure darkness"!

The film is actually obsessed with the smell of death and weird appearance, staying on human attention, metaphorically expressing faith and spiritual connotation, trying to awaken the soul with a powerful cry. Burton is using his own way to analyze the sorrow of human nature and society. Only by exaggerating and powerfully rendering dark things can people think about life, death, happiness, pain, immortality, and loneliness. This is the true intention of the creator.

Tim Burton's Gothic movies amplify the dark side, making the light appear brighter and allowing the hard-won warmth to reach the heart.

Burton can dig out the shortcomings and defects of human desires, sins, social values ??and ethics from horrifying images and horrific stories without being limited to simple bloody sensory stimulation.

The film explores the world we live in from an unconventional yet human perspective, analyzing and expressing the dark, painful, and desolate emotional world, which is full of people's yearning for beauty.

Klein’s persistence, Mas’s bravery, Katrina’s kindness, justice can ultimately defeat evil precisely because of these valuable qualities.

Gothic art style can always make people feel the precious warmth from the most absurd things, and realize the existence of truth, goodness and beauty in human nature from the most desperate and dark situations, which brings great joy to the soul. of comfort and purification.

Blackness and cruelty are attractive, innocence and warmth are touching. This is the purpose of Tim Burton's gothic movies. Just like in the dark world of Broken Valley, he made the red-crowned bird appear on the branches, very precious. This bright color makes people see hope and feel warm.

Although Burton's movies have scary atmospheres, unhappy lives, and lonely and melancholy characters, they are always difficult to communicate with people.

But in any case, Burton tells us through the movie that no matter how scary the atmosphere is, a bright ending can be born, no matter how unsatisfactory life is, we can face an optimistic face, no matter how lonely the character is Even if you are depressed, you can show a smile. No matter how difficult the communication is, you can communicate across the board.

Like red in black...hope is everywhere.