Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository

This is articulated in the scene depicting the young Pu Yi being dragged from the family
home and taken to the Forbidden City. Viewers are introduced to this mythical environment
through dramatic nocturnal images blurred by the use of filters that bathe the scene in red
light. With the visual field partially obscured, the viewers' comprehension of events is
restricted, (Branigan, 1992: 76) and their perceptions become sensitized to interpret the
turmoil that characterizes the sequence, thus mirroring the disquiet occurring in the fictive
world. At the same time, the refined decor and the sensuous colours of the costumes of all the
social classes involved in the scene - for example the close-ups of Pu Yi's family's
embroidered velvet clothes, the imperial soldiers' elegant uniforms, and the sedan-bearers'
bright silk clothing - engage the viewer's senses while inducing reflections on the aesthetic
difference created by multiform expressions of human creativity.
The sense of amazement increases as young Pu Yi is brought into the presence of the
dying empress. In the throne room, the magnificent interiors with their gold and red patterns
give the scene an aura of fantasy. But the polichromy reaches its peak in the long take of the
coronation day. In this sequence, the grandiose nature of the Chinese empire is displayed
through a massive, stylized display of all Pu Yi's subjects - portrayed in their colourful
costumes - who kneel before the child emperor who himself evokes a beautifully decorated
doll. To achieve maximum impact, Bertolucci initially uses a tracking shot to follow Pu Yi as
he runs outside, and then the camera displays a
POV shot from the child's perspective, so that
when a curtain waving in the wind slowly lifts
up (see image), the disclosure of the grandiose
spectacle is experienced by viewers with the
same sense of overwhelming wonder felt by
the child.
226