The Aesthetic Analysis Of Steampunk Movies

Steampunk style,greatly influenced by the first Industrial Revolution,was initially presented in the literary works produced before the 1970s,which was used to depict the“alienation history”in the writings of three American science-fiction writers,while the term“steampunk”was formalized in the 1980s.After that,besides developing in literary works,this style has permeated into multiple fields like movies,designs and games.The steampunk style film,which will be discussed in this thesis,attracts wide attention for its peculiar formal aesthetic feeling and modern introspection.With its focus on the texts of steampunk style films and the analysis of the films,the thesis explores distinctive aesthetic style and profound reflection in the films.The thesis consists of the following parts:The first chapter deals with the origin of steampunk style films.The word steampunk,composed of“steam”and“punk”,is a compound word.Steam represents the Victorian era of Great Britain in the 19^th century,namely the height of steam industry in human history,expressing people's identification of factorial aesthetics,while punk is an emblem of innovation and is full of people's dissatisfaction with reality and their determination to pursue a better life.Taking this as its spiritual core,the steampunk style film has experienced its initial period,maturity period,mature period and brilliant period from the beginning of the 20^th century to now.It has evolved dramatically in its theme and visual sense,and has been continuing to advance.In the second chapter,the aesthetic characterization of the steampunk style films is discussed.First,as an important element in a steampunk style film,machinery is integrated with camera language,light and shade and unique sound to show its magnificence and fineness.Second,in steampunk style films,elements with classical and punk styles are blended into characters'costumes and architectural model,which represents people's pursuit of retro aesthetic sense,while shows rebellion and revolt in their punk-style heart.At last,after the analysis of peculiar forms and interlaced space and time in steampunk style films,this chapter summarizes the splicing aesthetic sense that this type of movie seeks to present.The third chapter analyzes the space presentation and mirror metaphors of the steampunk style film.With the approach of multidimensional space blend,it integrates the real space of copying history with the imaginary space of depicting fantasy,and further creates a heterogeneous world with unique nostalgia and fantastic atmosphere.Through the mirror function of films,people takes an aesthetic view of the heterogeneous world in the film,thereby inspiring their examination and reflection on the real world.Besides,it also reflects the ambivalence of people's desire and fear toward science and technology.The fourth chapter seeks to explore people's thinking of modern contradiction based on the subjectivity of human beings in steampunk style films.It shows modern enlightenment in view of instrumental rationality,and people's aspirations and eagerness for scientific and technological forces represented by steam machinery.Moreover,it represents the other side of modernity:aesthetic modernity,namely the criticism of social alienation after the expansion of instrumental rationality.Finally,the steampunk style film tries to realize the reconciliation of social alienation issues with advocating people's subjectivity,and it also helps to reestablish people's confidence in technology development behind the instrumental rationality criticism of steam as its primary mechanical power.