Intro to Magical Realism and Color in Film

1. Intro to Magical Realism and Color in Film Understanding Hero (2002)and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

2. Magical Realism • Definition: aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world • The “real” and the “fantastic” are blended together • Is prevalent in literature, film and other art forms • Extremely common in Latin American Literature: • Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel GarcíaMárquez • Pedro Páramoby Juan Rulfo

3. Magical Realism in Art • Gonsalves’ Bedtime Aviation • Gonsalves’ Making Waves

4. Magical Realism in Film • Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (1999) • BazLuhrmann’sMoulin Rogue! (2001) • Darren Aronofsky’sBlack Swan (2010) • Can you think of any examples?

5. Magical Realism in Asian Cinema • Many scenes in Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in which magical realism is extremely prevalent • Scenes with magical realism are meant to emphasize or draw attention to characters’ fighting skills and talents, recognizing them as a true art form

6. Color in Film: History • First signs of color in film involved tinting and hand coloring • A Trip to the Moon (1902) • The Great Train Robbery (1903) • Then, additive film color was introduced (1906-1911): two-color system • Consisted of alternating frames of specially sensitized black-and-white film which were photographed at 32 frames per second through a rotating filter with alternating red and green areas

7. Color in Film: History (cont.) • Subtractive color • System used a beam splitter in a specially modified camera to send red and green light waves to separate black-and-white film negatives. From these negatives, two prints were made on film stock with half the normal base thickness, which were toned accordingly: one red, the other green. They were then cemented together, base-to-base, into a single strip of film. • First film with this process: Toll of the Sea (1922)- GOOD MOVIE • Model for the system we use today!

8. Uses of Color in Film • Symbolism: • Pleasantville: Apple symbolizes knowledge/ sin • Mood/ Tone: • Schindler’s List: Absence of color to portray a somber, depressing tone • Setting: • The Wizard of Oz: Abundance of color to create a magical place • Emotions: • Vertigo: Envy and eerieness • Example: Sin City • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFLrTYKIXk • What does color do in this trailer?

9. Chromophobia • Novel by David Batchelor, a Scottish artist and writer • Proposes that Western culture has a fear of corruption or contamination through color • Sees color as a device used to portray foreign bodies • Especially focuses on color as a device used to portray the foreign manner of women and Eastern culture • Example: Woman in the red dress in The Matrix- woman as an object of seduction and difference • Example: The House of Flying Daggers- Asian culture as foreign and magical

10. Background Information on Hero • Directed by Zhang Yimou • One of the highest grossing films in Chinese history • Film released in China in 2002, and finally released in America with the help of Quentin Tarantino in 2004 • Similar in many ways to Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon • Rashomon: a Japanese crime drama from 1950 that is comprised of the stories of various characters about a crime involving rape and murder • RashomonTrailer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZ9TguVOIA • Both films portray multiple versions of one story • Both manipulate the plot into a series of flashbacks about the same event told from different perspectives, complicating the story and characterization

11. While watching Hero. . . • What effect do you believe magical realism has on the story? • How is color used to differentiate between points of view? • For each main color that is used (red, blue, white, green), how does that color function? Does it effect the setting or characters?