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Intro to Magical Realism and Color in FilmUnderstanding Hero (2002) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

+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 García Márquez Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

+Magical Realism in Art

• Gonsalves’ Bedtime Aviation

• Gonsalves’ Making Waves

+Magical Realism in Film Paul Thomas Anderson’s

Magnolia (1999)

Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rogue! (2001)

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010)

Can you think of any examples?

+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

+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

+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!

+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?

+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

+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

Rashomon Trailer: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

+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?