Akward Predicament Of Art Film Development In Contemporary China

By analyzing the art of adapting literature to film concerns, the author aims to explore the awkward predicament of art film development in China after the Communist taken-over in 1949.In this thesis, the author analyzes the cinematic adaptation of the latter generations of Chinese filmmakers, which are the Third, the Forth, the Fifth and the Sixth generations. They are constituted into four sections.In the first section, the author concern about the Third Generation of Chinese Filmmakers and their works. The Third Generation is the main filmmaker after 10-year Culture Revolution in mainland China. They are the pioneers of mainstream ideology and they started their filmic work by literature. Zhang Junxiang, one of the famous filmmakers of the Third generation, started a discussion between film and literature among the cinematic professionals, when he published a thesis, named "Literature Accomplishment in Using Cinematic approaches". The Third Generation was deeply influenced by New Literature Movement and "Left-Wing" films. Thereby their adaptations are relatively based on literature text. On the other hand, at that time, modern cinema had not been introduced into mainland China. Their adaptations are based on classical Hollywood techniques, with no exploration by other filmic elements. Therefore, modern literature works are the main objects of their film, for instance, The True Story of Ah Q, , The Medicine, , The Border Town and Other Stories, Camel Xiangzi and Passing Away, etc. However, due to the tradition in propaganda and melodramatic narration, the works of the Third Generation cannot explore rich meanings of these novels. Consequently, their cinematic adaptations are not successful.The second section presents the main concern of the author's work of the Forth Generations. They were educated in Beijing Film Academy before the Culture Revolution. During the education, they adopted many Soviet filmmaking techniques. Moreover, the creation and the criticism of Soviet film are edified by Soviet literature. Therefore the relationship between literature and the Forth Generation filmmaking are proximate. The Forth Generation showed their respect to the literature as well as the timeliness in their filmic works. Hence the regression of cinema noumenon is the main contribution of the Forth Generation for Chinese filmmaking. Nevertheless, under the strong propaganda pressure, the exploration of their works is more technical than essential.The third section is focused on the Fifth Generation. They are the first group who extricate themselves from literary restriction and use literature as an element of film rather than a text. Influenced by European artistic film, the filmmakers of the Fifth Generation extend Chinese cinematic representation. Comparing with the former generations' work, anti-traditional narrative structure and audio-visual expression...