马路天使1928

Minimal Plots Embellished with Imagery
 Light and shadow

Intensive Visuality
 He is an auteur who is all about the visual.
    Push all story information he can into the visual plane.

Transcedent Romance
   Up and down

Operatic melodrama
  A close-up of a character gazing upward with light in their eyes

Emotiaonal and Poetic motifs:
   window, whistle, fog
   painting: a carrier of emotion


"Make the audience sentimental, not the player."

最近刚刚看完Black Mirror，里面一块块的大小屏幕吸引着我们，又让我们不那么投入。

最早电影屏幕就是一张简单的床单，甚至连音乐都没有。欣赏之余，人们也在惋惜：要是。。。就更。。。了

人类的欲望推动着电影工业的技术，屏幕越来越大，3D的效果越来越逼真，音效场景震撼着我们，但也束缚了我们。

开始看Street Angel完全是因为Coursera的课程要求，起初还担心看不进去的问题。

可是不知不觉竟然看完了，而且丝毫没有出戏，也未觉冗长。（最近去电影院都有不断吐槽和出戏的情况）。

默片给了我空间，让我自己把故事完整化，Angela的眼神，动作，表情传达到我这儿的时候，我自然而然地读懂了，也感动了。

故事很简单，但我依旧想要知道结局会如何，看过太多精心铺垫的片子，大多时候我总能按编剧的路线猜到了结局，或者吐槽结局突兀狗血，不合逻辑。

Street Angel把我单纯的变成了一个观影者，电影用心的讲故事，我用心的听故事，返璞归真，真好。

我也是因为coursera的要求来看这片的。

看开头的时候就被吸引了，十分舍不得看，1928年的片子，用电影的方式记录下来，时隔80多年，人类文明进化的速度真是快得惊人。

影片里的点点滴滴都是历史的痕迹，马车，马戏团，画家，以及警察戴着的可爱帽子。

故事简单明了，全片都由女主支撑，放在如今来看，我可以毫不犹豫地说句，我就是看美女来的。

默片的对话就是把字幕整个地贴在屏幕上，告诉你一个大概意思，可有趣的是许多时候，他们根本没有给你贴字幕。嘴巴却呱啦呱啦地不停说话。这个时候，你就很想知道究竟他们在说些什么，然后会有一些想象的语句在空白的脑子里冒出来。

女主的表演能力很强，而且长得没话说。在那个技术简陋的年代，电影经由无声到有背景音乐，再到有对话，有色彩，一步一步的，人类把电影推向了如今的3D。

我想未来的电影还会更好，甚至可以直接给你触觉，嗅觉，味觉的全方位体验。让你彻底沉浸在一起全新的世界之中。

可那又怎样呢。

这部黑白默片让我们放弃了一味追求感官享受的机会，而把更多的注意力放到故事本身，去观察演员的一颦一笑，去体会每一句台词背后的感情。或许慢下来，简单一点，甚至简陋一点，才能更接近生活的真谛。

  片中是以angle为视角的女性视角故事。片中反映了当时女性的社会地位。

  其一，电影中反映了当时的街上会有许多女性做妓女以此谋生。而当时却又因为社会政策问题，当妓女是罪行，是要坐牢的。

  而且有一个细节是angle一开始是为了给母亲治病才会萌生出当妓女赚钱的想法。

  可是在法庭审理这个案件的时候angle根本就无法辩护，法官不回去听她的说辞。所以可看出当时女性的社会地位是较为低下的。

  其二是angle在最后求gino不要离开自己的时候是整个人趴在地上，抱着gino的腿求的。或许有部分原因是默片的缘故，所以肢体动作语言也会相对浮夸一点，以此达到超越语言画面令观众理解的目的。

  可是angle匍匐在地祈求爱人的动作真的很虐心。

  而由gino画的angle的画像被人修改成一幅大师的作品，还放在教堂里受万人敬仰与angle现实当中匍匐在地祈求爱人的画面形成了一个强而有力的对比。

  对比当时的女性地位，画中的angle就可以受人赞美注目，而画外面的angle却受尽磨难。

  而画画的gino是身无分文，为了生计廉价地把画卖出去。而别人却能廉价地买gino的画然后修改一下再高价卖出去。

  也能感受到当时社会底层人民是怎样受欺压的。

也是从 Coursera 好莱坞的语言：故事、声音与色彩 这门课过来的啦。

片头部分看不懂，需要一点时间才能融入剧情。
剧情设计的很妙，特别是女主角要去监狱却瞒着Gino，Gino 激动的描绘幸福的未来的情节，反差很大。

正如课程中指出，默片比起有声电影，在神态动作上面更加到位。

An angel is not necessarily pure or perfect. The most, no, the only, significant thing, should be her heart.

It’s the first time I took 1 hour 41 minutes without any interruption to watch a movie, a silent movie. And, it is totally worth it.

Without sound, without fantastic modern technologies, nor dazzling colors decors, in general, nothing to abstract me from the basic story telling. Every subtle change on the countenance of the actor and actress, what the director wanted to tell on a particular shot, “enter her world and follow the path of the movie”, it was definitely an a little tiring (at some points, painful) but still enjoyable course.

About the story and characters

Angela, a self-redeemed angel.
She reminded me of a lecture when I was in college. My philosophy teacher once said: It’s nonsense to judge a student good or bad now, cause none of you have been tempted. You’re just sitting inside of this “ivory tower” living a simple life and judging the outsiders with your own imagination, for granted. Only after you experienced the complexity and living pressure of the real life, could you make such judgment about yourself or others.

Someone sank; most drifted, yet a few, survived and reach out for the shore. Like Angela.

Forced by poverty, she made a shamed attempt and ran away from the punishment she deserved. Yet, she always kept her faith—principle for herself, hope for life and love, guilty for wrong-did, believe for tomorrow, and, forgiveness to the others.

We could tell these easily, from the embarrassment of her soliciting attempt, her sticking to separate living before marriage; her upset peering at policemen during her show (which directly led to her accident); She fought with her fear to workhouse and showed enormous courage to leave at that special day, despite of the lose of her love and bright future life with Gino…And at that very moment, the only thing she was worrying, was not her life, but Gino’s.
After released from the workhouse, the really “street angel” asking her to “come down, with me”, yet she refused and chose her way, literally, the high way.
At that time, she became an angel.

While for Gino. He had been a coward.
He attracted by Angela’s hot appearance and character, and lived with this pure image in his imagination, totally unable to extricate.
That’s why he painted her with the Virgin’s feeling. He sees through her, however, he could only understand the appearance, not her kind heart that he should have cherished. When facing misery, he could only solve it with anger, with the desire of total rejection and perish. He seemed talented, well mannered, considerate, like an angel. But what about his inside? The selfishness, narrow and limited mind, was his only inner.

People fooled by the painting, I don’t know what if they found out that the model for that “precious old painting” was just a poor criminal girl, how ironic!!
A street girl could be Mona Lisa, with her purest smile that light up directly to our deepest emptiness.

Every one could be sublimed to an angel, for the force was, is and will always be deep planted in our heart. It’s just too painful to let it grow. Poverty, or suffering could change our life, but the quality of life, happy or misery, are always chosen by us, ourselves, only.