Why group play? After watching "Gosford Manor" directed by Altman, I have a general understanding of this term. Most of the film's scenes are in the living room, and the director doesn't focus on people and single events, but on everything. In one shot, there are often two groups of people in the foreground and background, and their dialogue is so fast that before you have a chance to see the actors, the camera shifts to another group of people.
This is a bit like a "panoramic scan". The director wants to show the audience as much information as possible, which is helpful for the details, but the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. Panoramic scans cannot shape characters. The audience can't grasp the main line of the narrative, and it is difficult to see who is the most important person in the film (especially the portrayal of the old man of the manor, there are only a few strokes, even less than the dragon actors).
It can only be said that Altman went too far in the "group play" in "Gosford Manor". If he was a painter, it would be fine if he didn't pay attention to the main line of the narrative. Renoir has a famous painting called "The Ball of the Moulin Rouge". There are more than 30 figures, the people in the foreground are drinking, talking and laughing; the people in the background are dancing, there are more people in this painting than in any of the shots in "Gosford Park", but the viewers look at it. When the time comes, you won't get dizzy because of "what the author wants to express", because the picture is still, you can appreciate everyone to the fullest, and then choose one as the focus (narrative main line).
The biggest difference between film and painting is this. Altman's mission is to lead the audience into a flowing picture, which must firmly grasp the main narrative line, otherwise no one will know what your film is mainly about. . Altman's treatment of the film is more like a stream-of-consciousness writer, trying to present a state, a feeling, and what he wants the audience to pay attention to is not what the film is mainly about, but the social atmosphere of the 1930s. What puzzles me is that if you don't want to tell the story well, why do you have to have two police officers to investigate the case, pretending to be a suspense movie? (The two policemen found nothing in it, and they look like SB, because the director's mind is not at all about solving the murder case.) If it is really a Ukiyo-e-like film, it is enough to describe the style and details in detail.
Speculation about the film's creative intent aside, the scattered narrative and unclear center is an unforgivable failure for a major director. You can say that it is because there are too many group dramas and it is difficult to control. But there are not many group scenes in Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander", but he can respect the audience's feelings and grasp the main line of the narrative in a disciplined manner. , to bring the audience back to the center point. With Altman's reputation in the European and American film circles, the narrative failure of "Gosford Manor" can only show that he had no idea of what type of movie he wanted to make, and in the end, he lost his talent in prose.
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