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1

When Comedy Is Not a Comedy (Zhang Yimou's 'Comedies')

100%

Helman A.

Kwartalnik Filmowy

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2006

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issue 56

143-153

EN

The authoress examines three Zhang Yimou's films, 'The Story of Qiu Ju', 'Keep Cool' and 'Happy Times', from the point of view of genre affiliation. They are the only productions of the Chinese director, called comedies. As we can only view the issue from a European perspective, it is difficult to find out why the films aspire to be called comedies although it is also difficult to refuse them the right. Given all the differences between the three, the movies share the same controlling theme - the absurdity of today's life, which becomes peculiarly striking when we speak about life in the city, which in turn forces the heroes to take absurd attitudes and measures that are futile and lead to nowhere. In this situation the category of comedy may be one of possible interpretation keys. While the comic character of 'Keep Cool' is unquestionable and although the viewer from other cultures may miss its humour, the case of 'The Story of Qiu Ju' and 'Happy Times' is different. Genre affiliation acts like a kaleidoscope as very rotation produces a different image. We may watch the films either as black comedies, melodramas or dramas. The least is shown to the European from the angle of comedy. It probably happens not because the films contain least elements of comedy but rather because the culture gap is the hardest barrier to overcome.

2

Ethnographic Cinema of Tian Zhuangzhuang

100%

Helman A.

Kwartalnik Filmowy

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2008

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issue 62-63

91-102

EN

The aurhoress writes about Tian's film 'Horse thief' (1986), which usually is discussed within the context of the Fifth Generation. The film is characterized as an artistic, avant-garde work, although in fact above all it forms part of ethnographic cinema, or - to use the Chinese terminology - it belongs to the minority genre. She argues that within new films belonging to this genre, and 'Horse Thief' is such a film, there is a great deal of interest shown in traditional social structures and values of the minorities. The makers of these films are both respectful and admiring of ethnic minority cultures, and leave the ideology of class struggle far behind. However, the authoress argues that Tian's ethnographic films (such as 'Horse Thief' and 'On the Hunting Ground' (1984) are different from other representatives of the minority genre, and points to the features that make these films closer to documentaries (for example weak story line, or style close to cinéma vérité). She argues that 'Horse Thief' has to be recognized as a meditation on life and death, custom, beliefs and values of small Tibetan community. At the same time it is a film, which strongly stresses the otherness of the people, and thus in a way excluding the viewers from the spectacle. The film does not tame the Otherness, rather it serves it raw.

3

The Decade of Fear

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Helman A.

Kwartalnik Filmowy

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2008

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issue 61

123-136

EN

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) - one of the greatest tragedies experienced by the Chinese people, caused great losses and permanent changes in the political, social, cultural and the moral sphere of life. It devastated the great material and spiritual legacy of the traditional Chinese culture. The authoress of the article presents the echoes of this period in the films of the most important representatives of the fifth generation: Chen Kaige (Farewell my Concubine, 1993), Tian Zhuangzhuang (The Blue Kite, 1993) and Zhang Yimou (To live, 1994). Through the analysis of particular scenes, Helman points to the fact that these films do not speak directly about what happened during the Cultural Revolution, as of course this topic was strongly disapproved of by the Chinese state. That is why Cultural Revolution is barely a back drop for the lives of the main characters of the films. According to the authoress, the strength of these films lies in their many verbal allusions, subtexts, and a complex network of icons and meanings, that are also readable for the Western viewer, who is neither Chinese nor aware of the history of the Chinese nation.

4

On the Track of the Author

100%

Helman A.

Kwartalnik Filmowy

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2007

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issue 59

44-58

EN

The authoress begins her essay with a concise presentation of the category of the 'filmic author' which is of dual nature (the author as an originator of artwork, the person with biography visible in the text or the author as a unique system of symbols, 'style', 'structure' and 'working method'). She describes the ways the author is present in Zhang Yimou's films and argues that what characterizes Zhang's oeuvre is that the recurrence of underlying structure is hardly visible. On the contrary - what we see is the principle of constant change; in his films we encounter the polymorphic nature of the figure of the author/s in which the same person is incarnated in. Obviously, some 'common denominators' in Zhang's films can be found but they will be of different type that those that usually allow to apply a uniting formula towards the author-director. Believing that the author happens 'to be' rather than 'is' or 'is appointed' by some authorities, the authoress concludes that in the case of Zhang, the phenomenon of authorship lies in incorporating in the texture of the film of the so-called Chinese voices, author's traces (or signatures, signature-symbols, i.a. the functional use of red – field of waving sorghum in Red Sorghum or rolls of fabric in Ju Dou), that can be tracked down through an in-depth textual analysis of the film, which is something more than just an analysis of the artist's personality.

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When Comedy Is Not a Comedy (Zhang Yimou's 'Comedies')

Ethnographic Cinema of Tian Zhuangzhuang

The Decade of Fear

On the Track of the Author