Wieloznaczność sensów, sens wieloznaczności. Analiza przemian stylu Chena Kaige na tle rozwoju Piątej Generacji
Ambiguity of Senses, Sense of Ambiguities. The Change of Chen Kaige’s Style Analysed against a Background of Development of the Fifth Generation

Summary/Abstract: Michalak writes about changes of the style of Chinese film director Chen Kaige, a member of the Fifth Generation of filmmakers who debuted in the early 1980s by rejecting Socialist Realism principles and exploring national themes, and who re-interpreted China’s major historical events and searched the roots of the Chinese culture. The Fifth Generation modernised the film language, sending their message through images, sound and montage at the expense of dialogue, which lent their films an aura of ambiguity. Michalak divides Chen Kaige’s work into three periods. The first one, part of a new Chinese cinema, was characterised by ambiguity of senses and the carefully elaborated visual style. The second period includes a transgression of the style of the Chinese new cinema, and the transformation of intimate style into an epic one, the use of theatrical elements and possibilities offered by Peking opera. The context of Chen Kaige’s films was the artistic activity of the Sixth Generation that focused on the problems of contemporary China. The other distinct feature of Sixth Generation films is their social and psychological observation, and the use of documentary production and style techniques. Chen Kaige’s films of the period are said to employ the elements of genre cinema, or replace ambiguity with literalness and predictability, typical of this cinema.

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