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The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Continue to watch the movie in AFI100, this one The film ranks 51st, and I am more than half of this series.
The film tells the story of a wealthy daughter before the second wedding. The heroine is the eldest lady of a wealthy family. She is very strong and is not gentle with men, so he divorced his first husband. Two years after the divorce, she is going to get married again. A well-known magazine in the city wanted to cover the wedding. The magazine manager found the woman's ex-husband and hired two reporters, one man and one woman. The magazine manager asked the two reporters to pretend to be friends of the heroine's younger brother under the introduction of their ex-husband to attend the wedding to take pictures and write reports. After the three came to the heroine's house, they were seen through by the heroine, and then the heroine's family also performed a scene. The reason why both parties are acting is because the heroine's father has an abnormal relationship with a dancing girl, and the magazine manager has the information, so that both parties have to follow the magazine manager's arrangements, otherwise the father's scandal will be exposed. The next day, in the library, the male reporter happened to meet the heroine. The two began to talk enthusiastically and gradually got to know each other. Later, after talking with her ex-husband and father, the heroine finally understood how she felt, and she felt a little sad. The male reporter who had a good impression of the heroine borrowed wine to drench his sorrow at the pre-wedding dinner and went to his ex-husband’s house. While drunk, the male reporter let his ex-husband know the handle of the magazine manager, so his ex-husband planned to use him to relieve the magazine manager's threat to the heroine's father. The heroine and the female reporter came to look for the male reporter, but the ex-husband asked them to use a typewriter to type. The alone male reporter and the heroine talked enthusiastically and swim together until the early hours of the next day. The next day was the day of the wedding. The ex-husband and fiance all saw the intimacy of the heroine and the male reporter. The fiance decided to cancel the wedding, and the heroine readily agreed. Because she now feels that this man is not suitable for herself. The male reporter asked the heroine to marry him, but was rejected because the heroine knew that the female reporter loved the male reporter. Finally, after her ex-husband proposed to the heroine, she agreed. The prepared wedding continued, but the bridegroom was changed. And all this was filmed by another reporter on the scene, and the "Philadelphia Story" was still published.
The story of this movie is a bit messy, there are many side plots, and the direction of the story is always changing. One is that the reporters conceal the truth, the other is that the heroine’s family members hide the fact, and the ex-husband and fiance appear in the story from time to time. All this makes me unable to guess what the main line of the movie is, but it can give people some unexpected stories. In addition, who the heroine is going to be with is also unpredictable for the most part of the movie. According to the plot of the movie, the chances of the three men are the same, and everyone is likely to get the love of the heroine. In general, the story set by the director makes the movie look a little tired, and whether they did it intentionally or whether the story line was too messy and they couldn't figure it out. Now they don't know.
Even so, after watching the entire movie, I found the main point. The story of this film can be said to be the American modern version of "Pride and Prejudice", but the story is set in the 1940s in the United States, and some side plots have been added. In the movie, the heroine represents "arrogance" and the male protagonist represents "prejudice." The arrogance of the heroine can be understood in the conversation with her ex-husband and father. She is as inaccessible as a goddess and empress, and has the arrogance of Darcy. The prejudice of the heroine can be read through his book "With wealth, If you are in power, you must be more patient." It can be seen that his prejudice against the rich is the same as Elizabeth. The setting of the movie is exactly the same as "Pride and Prejudice", the biggest difference is that the roles of men and women are exchanged. However, the ending of this American modern version of "Pride and Prejudice" is far from the original. Of course, the story in the original does not have the setting of an ex-husband. Therefore, in the heroine's story mode, the film basically copied "Pride and Prejudice".
The role of the heroine is mainly portrayed in the process of abandoning her arrogance and finding true love after she gradually understands herself. The three men in the movie are the keys to her inspiration in the process of seeking love. The most important man is of course the role of a male reporter. It’s just that the heroine did not choose him in order to take care of the female reporter. As for whether she loves a male reporter, there is no way to know. In the second place, the heroine ate the grass and chose her ex-husband. The heroine still has love for her ex-husband, otherwise she will not get married, so it is reasonable for her to choose her ex-husband. So far, when "Pride" met "Prejudice", even if "Pride" did not choose "Prejudice", she still found true love.
Other aspects of the movie are full of the characteristics of Hollywood golden age movies. What impressed me the most was the super fast speech speed. The actors are quick to talk, and they keep talking, I have to keep pressing the pause button to understand the plot. It's really not easy to watch movies of that era. Another thing that impressed me in this film is the magnificent decoration and furnishings in the heroine's home, which is so luxurious! The furnishings of the entire interior give people the feeling of a palace, which is extremely luxurious. Could it be that this was the environment in the homes of rich Americans in that era? Life is so superior that China has not been able to keep up for hundreds of years!
The actors brought together three classic Hollywood stars. There are two leading actors in the film, Cary Grant and James Stewart, both of Hollywood's leading male stars. Both of them performed very well. Cary Grant seemed to be a calculating man in the movie, and James Stewart was like a poor writer living at the bottom, and the two were perfect performances. Actress Katharine Hepburn, this is the first time to see her performance when she was young. It turns out that she was not beautiful when she was young, and her appearance is very suitable for the role of the film-noble and inviolable temperament, combined with the role, is also a perfect performance. In addition, I admire the three of them for their ability to speak dialogue. Each of them speaks faster than a machine gun, which is not comparable to the current Hollywood actors.
In general, a modern American version of "Pride and Prejudice" tells the process of a woman's search for herself. However, the clues are a bit confusing and seem a bit laborious, requiring careful chewing.
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
sequence: 0556
TLF.IMDB.Top235.Philadelphia story.The.Philadelphia.Story.1940.D9.MiniSD-TLF
2011-09-20
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