“To the attic alone, preferably at night.”
“Flowers” ushered in the finale, countless feelings and tears into the reinforced city and historical torrent, alone in the attic, as if nothing had happened, with the end as the beginning, the new story is about to unfold.
In “Flowers”, the story on the Yellow River Road is beautiful and full of desire. The story of the Peace Hotel is restrained, but it is also closer to the real junkie.
Looking back on the early days of “Flowers”, some people laughed and said that Bao was always “Gatsby on the Yellow River Road”. Perhaps this is not a joke, from the motif to the aesthetic form, to the spirit of the times, are worth a good taste.
When the posters for Flowers and The Great Gatsby appeared at the same time, we already felt that if we told the story, it would be a similar story.
The Flowers poster (left) and The Great Gatsby poster (right)
“The Great Gatsby” is a New York-style drunken fan throughout the film. From the character modeling, interior design, architecture, posters, the film has a unified “metal mechanical sense”, and “Flowers” is also charming.
“Flowers” and “The Great Gatsby” are the same aesthetic style as the main tone-Art Deco, also known as art decoration or decorative arts.
01 Art Deco The “flowering” era of the 20th century
The main visual characteristics of Art Deco are derived from the repeated use of linear and geometric shapes, including triangular, zigzag, trapezoidal and V-shaped pattern forms
Art Deco originated around 1910, and the aesthetic tone was laid by the “Industrial Revolution” and the “Fantasy of the Far East.
The “Industrial Revolution” gave Art Deco a mechanical aesthetic, expressed in more mechanical, geometric, purely decorative lines.
✦ Min Min stands in front of a door with obvious Art Deco style
In terms of materials, Art Deco loves to use metal and glass in order to continue to highlight the mechanical and industrial sense, especially interior design. In short, it is a key point, can reflect light.
Art Deco lamps
The interior design of Zhizhen Garden is mainly in Art Deco style.
The era of Art Deco was accompanied by the export of values to the United Kingdom and the United States, which began the first industrial revolution. The ancient culture or totem of the Far East, especially Egypt, this “Far Eastern whims”, all became the source of the Art Deco decoration at that time.
The front of the 1920 luxury car was marked.
Many have a pharaoh or Sphinx head
It is worth mentioning that in the 1930 s, when Art Deco’s aesthetic was extended to planes and magazines, he liked “contrasting colors” very much and used strong primary colors and metallic colors. Like bright red, bright yellow, fresh blue, orange, gold, silver, copper, etc., this coincides with the photography style of Wong Kar-wai’s works.
The “American Dream Era” created by Art Deco and the “early stage of reform and opening up” of the high-desire protagonists under the lens of Wong Kar-wai are obviously in a similar amplitude.
Reiko dressed in Issey Miyake in “Flowers”
As an aesthetic trend of thought, Art deco started from decorative aesthetics and gradually spread to the field of print media and fashion.
The discussion on fashion in “Flowers” is first of all Li Li’s various exaggerated jewelry and earrings, which give everyone a little shock in the “1990 s.
In “Flowers”, Li Li’s Geometric Jewelry and Versace Earrings
There is no doubt that all kinds of Vintage jewelry worn by Li Li are directly or indirectly influenced by Art Deco jewelry design.
Beautiful jewelry with geometric lines and patterns, exaggerated colors, is the biggest feature of Art Deco jewelry.
Red Geometric Necklace
✦ Classic Art Deco Style Vintage Jewelry
Due to the role setting, Reiko’s jewelry is obviously not as eye-catching as Li Li, but Reiko still echoes Art Deco aesthetics in her dressing style.
02 Art Deco Women in the “Bustling” group of women
Reiko often wears geometric shirts. Everyone says that Reiko bought Issey Miyake after returning from Tokyo after Reiko “disappeared” for a period of time.
Geometry is also an important element in Art Deco clothing.
The headscarf and dress of the heroine in The Great Gatsby are typical Art Deco style.
Do in response to the overall aesthetic tone at the same time also echoed the times. (In 1993, Issey Miyake had just launched the “Pleats Please Pleat” series of garments, which caused a sensation in fashion circles, when Reiko returned to Japan in 1993).
“Flowers” stills
Wong Kar-wai has always been good at making women, and the female characters in his films all have self-evident feminist implications. Li Li, Ling Zi and Bao Zong’s first love Xue Zhi in “Flowers” all have short hair.
The trend in the 1990 s was to cut short hair.
In addition to the influence of “Industrial Revolution” and “Far East fantasy” in Art Deco, the feminist movement is also an important part of Art Deco’s era.
Most of the female characters in The Great Gatsby also have short hair.
“The Great Gatsby” in the 1920 s and “The Flowers” in 1993 have a strong resonance to some extent. Although the difference is several decades, they are so natural.
The concept of Art Deco has never really disappeared. Through urbanization, its vitality has lasted for 100 years in the world, and what makes Art Deco shine most is the largest “art installation” of mankind-the city.
The most classic Art Deco building: Chrysler Building, New York, USA
Art Deco’s architecture is solemn, tall and straight, and is basically a symmetrical geometric classic building.
In terms of buildings, industrialization has concentrated a large number of the world’s population in cities. One by one, skyscrapers, large theaters, and large buildings that can accommodate multiple people have rapidly emerged in cities such as New York, Paris, and London.
New York’s Empire State Building, Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building) and Rockefeller Center (Rockefeller Center) are the most representative of New York City’s art deco historical heritage.
The Rockefeller Center, New York
Next: Chrysler Pavilion, Chicago
In “Flowers”, as the elevator in white uniform and white gloves open the door of the old elevator, Bao and Uncle Ye appear at the door of the legendary English suite together, and the first climax of “Flowers” has already arrived.
“Flowers” stills
The British Suite, which requires 80 US dollars and two packs of China, is one of the top nine “Nine Country Suites” in the Peace Hotel today, and the Peace Hotel is also a classic Art Deco building.
The Peace Hotel
Shanghai is the earliest foothold of Western culture in China and has always been regarded as the most international city in China. The earliest Art Deco style building in Shanghai was built in 1920, which is now Huaihai Road, and was first directly copied from Paris. Art Deco style was gradually introduced to Shanghai.
03 Shanghai, the Art Deco capital of China
“Flowers” stills
Shanghai is the second largest city in the world in the total number of existing Art Deco buildings (after New York). According to reliable statistics, more than 1000 Art Deco-style buildings have been built in Shanghai.
Shanghai’s Cathay Pacific Cinema is also an Art Deco building
From a hundred years ago to the present, from New York to Shanghai, Art Deco exists in every detail of urbanites.
So when we really try to describe and think about the concept of Art Deco, we find that it has been firmly bound to our common statements of “modern city” and “modern tall buildings.
World-renowned Art Deco architecture
Art Deco was born at the beginning of the industrial age, and it has another name in art history, “the elegy of agricultural civilization”.
This mixed with people’s nostalgia for the lost time at that time, but they were duty-bound to turn to the new century, new industries, and urbanization with infinite possibilities.
“Flowers” stills
No matter what Jin Yucheng wrote at the beginning of “Flowers:
“The radio in the 1960 s was a jade edict, which was ordered to be honored and elegant. After that, it reappeared the Shanghai night of” Guangshi “. There was a trace of moisture in the wind from Suzhou River, the taste of pickle soup and yellow croaker, and it was dense. I heard a female voice repeatedly in the music. I went to Paris with you. I went to Paris with you. There are new tenants across the street. The small clothes hanging from the window are eye-popping. On the black tiles, several white wings fluttering.”
“Flowers” stills
As Fitzgerald wrote at the end of The Great Gatsby:
“The saxophone played the melancholy tune of Bill Street Jazz all night, and hundreds of pairs of gold and silver dancing shoes raised the shiny dust. At late tea, there were always rooms that kept trembling with this low and sweet warm rhythm, and fresh faces came and went, like rose petals blown down by a plaintive saxophone.”
The Great Gatsby.
We are always obsessed with injecting human soft stories and emotions into tall buildings and cities, from new stories to old stories, from old stories to history.
The 1990 s in “Flowers” have passed, and romanticizing an era means that it has really left an era.
“Flowers” stills
But “Flowers” is still here, and there are memories of Shanghai that people collectively stayed here in that era, which can be recalled and experienced repeatedly, private Shanghai.
(Source: Cc doctrine)
