EAST 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Fei Mu, Semiosis
15 May 2018
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Lecture 5
February 6, 2018
8:20 AM
Ruins and Revolution: The Postwar on Film
Spring in a small town - Fei Mu
The movie is very insistent that we are within one of the characters mind; there's a narrative paradox
happeneing in the film in which she narrates what has happened, what is happeneing and what will
happen all the while being present in the film. There's a loop quality where the film begins and ends
with the same frame. A retrospective narration is included the whole film. The film was made in three
months, it was a side project to 'eternal regret'. This is a transitionary film; we're starting to move away
from a studio dominated film making production and reception influence.
David Der-Wei WANG reading
Eternal regret made by Fei Mu was the first colour film about an opera. The movie turned out pale, the
soundtrack was off, delay between movements and the singing, in terms of Fei Mu's career he didn't
really make films after this one.
Semiosis (semiotic) - symbolic (Signs), the idea that everything read semiotically is read for what it
signifies, what is it a sign for? In terms of realism, the aspects of a performance that symbolise
something rather than portray it for what it is.
Mimesis (mimetic) - something imitating something else. Imitation of a quality or a feeling or
semblance.
The tension between these two drives an interest in Fei Mu in this tension between theatre and film,
types of theatre. POV shots are a kind of mimesis, encloses the distance between the audience and the
film itself.
Opera ("theatre") - Peking (Beijing) and Cantonese
Cantonese was the supressed other to Beijing. Opera created a lot of semiosis in itself. When you get a
perfect semiosis, you get a pleasure in seeing the mimesis come out of it.
Vs.
Films
Film acting was presumed to have a natural relation to mimesis
Vs.
"new theatre"
Theatre that looks like daily life; vernacular
Signified the idea that the stage was were you could have mimesis, women actors played women roles.
Shot - duration from one edit to another
Spring in a small town is know for its use of long shots
Cinema represents time to you. It is edited towards the important and more significant moments in such
a way that time passes quicker.
In post-war films, the experience of WW2 gave a world-wide phenomenon of a real kind of feeling that
everything given to them was a lie covering a world-wide trauma.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Spring in a small town - fei mu. There"s a loop quality where the film begins and ends with the same frame. A retrospective narration is included the whole film. The film was made in three months, it was a side project to "eternal regret". This is a transitionary film; we"re starting to move away from a studio dominated film making production and reception influence. Eternal regret made by fei mu was the first colour film about an opera. The movie turned out pale, the soundtrack was off, delay between movements and the singing, in terms of fei mu"s career he didn"t really make films after this one. In terms of realism, the aspects of a performance that symbolise something rather than portray it for what it is. Imitation of a quality or a feeling or semblance. The tension between these two drives an interest in fei mu in this tension between theatre and film, types of theatre.
