An Analysis of the Narrative Structure of Peacock

-In 2005, the internationally renowned photographer Gu Changwei's directorial debut Peacock came out, and then it appeared? There are two fragrant flowers in the wall? Great situation. Internationally, the film Peacock won the jury prize of the 55th Berlin Film Festival? Silver Bear Award? Also called once? The triumph of art? ; At home, the film Peacock is also competing in various places? Open the screen? At that time, it became a hot topic, which satisfied the visual expectation of appreciating local art films in China. As a movie? Things are rare? Peacock, an art film, has attracted much attention, especially its unique and novel narrative structure. Although there are different opinions, it is still worth our repeated aftertaste and in-depth study.

First, the surface structure

The narrative structure of Peacock? Polyphony? That is, the story is divided into three independent parallel and intertwined parts, three flowers, one for each table.

Polyphonic music, also known as polyphonic music? Multi-voice, originally a musical term, refers to playing two or more melodies with relatively independent meanings at the same time. ? Polyphony music has different rhythms, dynamics, strong notes, climax, termination, beginning and end, as well as the ups and downs of melody lines, and each part has its own independence. In the vertical relationship, a good harmonious relationship has been formed between the voices. ?

What happened afterwards? Polyphony? Bakhtin was introduced into literature to describe the narrative characteristics of Dostoevsky's novels, such as multi-character-centered, multi-angle and incomplete knowledge. Subsequently, polyphony, as a narrative technique, was adopted consciously or unconsciously by many writers at home and abroad, enriching and expanding the expressive techniques and ideological connotations of novels, such as The Scarlet Letter, The Sound and the Fury, A Traveler on a Winter Night, Shaanxi Opera and The Dust Settled.

The pioneer experiment of polyphonic novels provides examples and enlightenment for film narration. Visual images are the media and expression language of movies. Saussure pointed out: Visual signifier can coexist in several dimensions at the same time. As a result, there are many well-conceived films in the world that use polyphony mechanism, such as Love in Hiroshima, Lola Run, Dawn in Shanghai and so on.

Inspired by the narrative structure of foreign films, Peacock, a domestic film, consciously applies and practices the polyphony principle to treat the stories of elder sister (Gao), elder brother (Gao Weiguo) and younger brother (Gao Weiqiang) into different parts of the orchestra, which can be played in unison, counterpoint and fugue. Maintain independence and form a dialogue, thus forming a sad harmony.

(1) The three stories in Peacock are independent and parallel.

Peacock tells the story of a family of five who lived in a small city in the north in the 1970s and 1980s, and what happened to everyone in a period of time. It consists of three sections: a fantasy-obsessed and stubborn sister, a fat but smart brother, and a negative, depressed and rebellious brother, each accounting for one section.

1. Sister: Parachute of paranoia

My sister is a paranoid romantic. She, fantasizing about the romance of flying in the sky, often lies on the balcony on the roof, staring at the blue sky and looking forward to life as a paratrooper. Although she tried her best to join the army, she was eliminated in the end. But her imagination didn't stop. She made her own parachute, rode her bike and walked very fast. Behind the car, she dragged a parachute that opened with the wind, screamed and laughed wildly, and flew in the street, attracting countless surprised eyes. Stopped by her mother's madness, she fell heavily to the ground. In order to get her parachute back from the village hooligans, my sister took off her pants without hesitation. In my elder sister's opinion, nothing is more important than ideal, including my own body. She, imagining the romance of being loved. Deceive the old people's ambiguous feelings by fabricating the plot of being beaten, and comfort each other in the artistic peach blossom garden they jointly fabricated, but they are? Dry dad? The family thought it was a fox and was severely beaten. She, fantasizing about the romance of free work, wanted to get rid of the repetitive work of washing bottles mechanically, so she took marriage as a bargaining chip, but still couldn't get rid of the fate of dealing with bottles, and finally divorced her husband. She, fantasizing about the romance of happy love, has always loved the male paratrooper who speaks standard Mandarin, but many years later, the married male paratrooper who has a poor life is hesitant to recognize his sister in the street. Finally, my sister couldn't help crying. She began to understand real life and had a child who looked like her, but she said to her daughter when she saw a peacock in the zoo? Your father's hometown is full of peacocks? . Unexpectedly, my daughter really told her sister from the perspective of a child? Are all the peacocks here fake? .

In the film, my sister's passage is the most fully developed and the time ratio is the largest. The story of my sister can be formed into a single-line sequence through the narrative of my younger brother and simple narrative sentences: First, in the summer of the 1970s, my parents were in good health and my three sisters were still young. This is the initial state of equilibrium. Second, my sister met a male paratrooper, lit up her dream and signed up for the army but was eliminated. This is an imbalance. Third, does the elder sister recognize it? Dry dad? But he was misunderstood and beaten. Fourth, my sister got married and divorced a few years later. Thirdly and fourthly, my sister tries to regain her balance. Fifth, my sister's dream was shattered and she finally got married and had children. This is a new negative balance.

2. Brother: Sunflower with congenital stupidity

Brother is one? One-step logic of realists. Because of his brain damage, he was loved by his parents and taken care of by his younger brothers and sisters. But brother, pursue all the beautiful things. My brother wants to pursue friendship. He is willing to help him learn Chinese characters in the rice factory that his parents found for him, but he was beaten and laughed at in the end. My brother wants to pursue a plump and beautiful girl. At the gate of the factory where the girl worked, he stupidly held a sunflower and waited for her to get off work, but in the end he was rejected and lost his job. My brother's beautiful voice stood in front of the ladies' room for a long time, but in the end he was beaten as a pervert by the teachers and classmates of my brother's school. Finally, my brother stopped pursuing, married an ugly lame girl in the country, started a small business and made a fortune. When I was watching peacocks in the zoo, my brother said? Why don't we build our own zoo, live in it and watch it every day? .

If the story and image of my sister are abstract, my brother is definitely a realistic image with strong contrast. Brother's story can also be separated into a single line sequence: first, parents love, younger brothers and sisters take care of. This is a state of equilibrium. Second, work in a rice mill and get in touch with the outside world. This is an imbalance. Third, pursue friendship and be bullied. Fourth, the pursuit of love is rejected. The third and fourth is that my brother tries to achieve a state of balance with the outside world. Fifth, get married and start a business. My brother has reached a new positive balance.

3. Brothers: The Shadow of Silence

My brother is a realistic escapist. The whole movie is shown from the perspective of his younger brother. He sees the disillusionment of his sister's dream, the reality of his younger brother's life, the loss of his values and his inability to find his core value orientation. Perhaps, my brother always wanted to be the shadow of a brother and sister quietly. Parents' preference neglected his brother's existence, and his luxury of feeding sugar to the white goose hurt his heart invisibly. The mentally retarded brother gave an umbrella and was regarded as a pervert, which made him laughed at by his classmates and pitied by the girls he liked. My brother's perennial anger accumulated into an attempt to poison my brother, which was finally discovered by my mother. My brother deeply blamed himself in her sobbing. In adolescence, he was curious about the opposite sex and drew a nude picture of a woman. His father found him and drove him out of the house. A few years later, my brother strolled home with his dusty wife and her children. My brother no longer works, takes care of the children at home and eats soft rice. Seeing the peacock in the zoo, my brother thought coldly? Peacocks don't open their screens in winter? .

When it comes to telling the story of my brother, the plot of the film is very jumping, but the story of my brother can also be summarized into a single line sequence: first, be the shadow of my brother and sister. This is a state of balance. Second, because my brother is mentally retarded, my brother is laughed at by his classmates. This is a kind of destruction to the balance of my brother's life. Third, my mother found out that I wanted to buy rat poison to poison my brother. Fourth, forced to run away from home. The third and fourth are my brother's efforts to pursue life-life balance. Fifth, eat soft rice. My brother's life has found a new negative balance.

All three stories follow a unified narrative structure, that is balance? Imbalance? The relatively parallel development of rebalancing is to express the disillusionment of dreams and the pain of growing up. The three stories are like three sad notes, which are constantly reappearing, just like the complex parts of the song, constantly singing and strengthening the impact on the audience.

(b) The three stories in Peacock intersect.

Screenwriters connect the stories of elder sister, elder brother and younger brother through blood relationship. They have the same father and mother. And parents are indispensable in the stories of all three of them? Action element? , to promote the story of three brothers and sisters. For example, in my sister's story, my mother is an obstacle for my sister to pursue her dreams; In my brother's story, my mother is the driving force of my brother's real life. In the younger brother's story, the father is the life changer of the younger brother. In addition, the three brothers and sisters are also interrelated in each other's stories. In fact, it was the director who showed the stories of these three people in three times through different details through direct narration, flashback and interpolation. The story context of the three men is gradually clear in the narrative time and time again, the characters are gradually highlighted, and the suspense of the story is also solved. This cross structure makes the three stories form the same chord.

Second, the deep structure

As a literary film, Peacock's low-key image, calm narrative and distinctive color of the times constitute an implicit expression. Peacock didn't appear until the last moment of the movie. Why is the movie called Peacock? What is the deep meaning under its ingenious surface structure? Different audiences interpret the film from different levels and angles, and get different results. Even Gu Changwei, the director, and Li Yong, the screenwriter, have great differences in their understanding of the deep structure of the film, and they have not yet reached a unified understanding.

I think the deep structure of Peacock still represents an eternal classic proposition in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literature and art: the struggle between strength and life. Force represents personal ideals and ambitions; Life represents factors beyond human control. In the history of literature, the ancient Greek tragedy King Oedipus is a typical embodiment of the struggle between power and life. In this myth, life refers to the power of prophecy. In China, the struggle between strength and life is the most intense and comprehensive in Qu Yuan's Li Sao. Qu Yuan expressed it through the description of time dimension and space dimension? Nami? And then what? Is it easy to repair? Force, unable to resist the tragedy of life. At last, this thought evolved into fatalism in China's traditional culture, such as wealth and destiny, which Confucius also said? If you don't know your life, you don't think you are a gentleman. ?

The film Peacock is obviously influenced by the traditional culture of China, and it also expresses the tragedy of the struggle between strength and life in two dimensions: time and space.

First of all, from the perspective of time, the climax of my sister's story is that when my sister and brother choose tomatoes, they can't help crying silently. Why is my sister crying? Because she began to realize her ideals and beliefs, her love could not stand the erosion of time. The male paratroopers who once touched my sister have become old and wretched, and my sister seems to see the destruction of time in the wrinkles of male paratroopers. Once, she was so bright that she shouted in the street with a homemade parachute for her dream. Now, the loose clothes have disappeared from my waist. Even though my dream has never changed, time has stopped. Now I am no longer as fresh as these picked tomatoes. Starting with my brother's story, everyone's story begins with a monologue of my brother. Every time I think of the scene of the whole family having dinner in the corridor in the summer of 1970s, my heart is still sad. Today, many old people still remember the past of our three sisters. ? The reason why my brother is sentimental is many years ago? Mom and dad are still in good health, and our three sisters are so young. ? It can be seen that my brother once struggled with time, but in the end he was only sad, so he thought? Woke up sixty years old? So you don't have to fight or suffer.

Secondly, from the perspective of space, the story of Peacock takes place in a closed town in the north. Although some die of old age, some leave and come back, the story space remains the same. ? This space is not only a real material space, but also a spiritual home or a philosophical living space. ?

My sister's tragedy is that she lives in this small town, and even the biggest and most prosperous street in the town can't hold her parachute. The tragedy of my brother is that even though my body left this small town, my spirit still couldn't get out, and I tossed and turned back. This is their irresistible space tragedy.

Third, look at the end of the film triumphantly. Proud as a peacock is to attract the opposite sex and show off her beauty. But in the end, proud as a peacock missed the opportunity. The mother peacock beside her didn't look at it, and the viewer had already gone away. It can only endure narcissistic sadness at the wrong time. On the other hand, the peacock in the cage is like a brother and sister who can't live without the town. It has its own beauty and can't resist the bondage brought by the cage.

Personally, a film has its unique charm and style because of its profound cultural background. Its surface structure is only the fuel of the flame. The essence is the plain face after washing away the lead. However, for the audience, the unique surface structure may attract their attention and stimulate their interest more easily. Therefore, it is a good way for art films to gain more attention and create a novel and unique surface in today's prosperous business.