Early Work of Zhang Yimou and the Art That Inspired It
Abstract
We are used to the fact that an artist, being representative of a given culture, will use that tradition, the patterns of native painting and visual symbolic representation as a resource and inspiration in his or her film making. However a problem arises, when we consider the relationship between art coming from “different” cultural sphere and Western culture, where the art of film making was born. Helman writes about the incompatibility of the traditional Chinese system of representation with the system one inherited by film makers, with its roots in the culture of Renaissance. The author describes the rules present in Chinese painting (especially landscape painting) and their relation to Tao and Confucianism, and then considers whether these rules could be applied in film making. She bases her analysis on the early work of Zhang Yimou, an artist whose work is on the one hand deeply grounded in the Chinese tradition, but on the hand unique and escaping simple classification.
Keywords:
Zhang Yimou, Chinese cinema, paintingReferences
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Authors
Alicja Helmankwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Filmoznawca, wykłada w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych na UJ. Autorka m.in: Słownik pojęć filmowych (1991-1998), Historia semiotyki filmu, t. 1-2 (1992-1993), Twórcza zdrada. Filmowe adaptacje literatury (1998), Urok zmierzchu. Filmy Luchina Viscontiego (2002), Ten smutek hiszpański. Konteksty twórczości filmowej Carlosa Saury (2005).
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Copyright (c) 2009 Alicja Helman
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