Casey Affleck, who played the male lead, won the Best Actor Award for his superb performance in "Manchester by the Sea" at the 89th Academy Awards. In this film, Casey's character does most of the shots, but 90 percent of the time, he appears as a ghost in a bed sheet. Not even the eyes were exposed, just two black holes. In addition, this character has no more than a dozen lines from beginning to end. Even so, the ghost's character is still full of tension and appeal, especially the precise control of the last few shots, which is just right.
Although the first half of the plot has a lot of super long slow motion, the rhythm makes some viewers unable to keep watching, but the wonderful development of the second half completely makes up for this. If you look closely, you will find that the plot before and after is closely linked by key clues, emphasizing the sense of fate and emptiness that the film wants to express. The behavior echoes, the fate of the neighbor ghost and the male protagonist's ghost is finally similar, and the second half of the story of the destruction of reincarnation and the remarks of the bald man who talked loudly at the party in the middle.
In addition, the soundtrack of this film has a degree of relaxation, which is well matched with the long shots, which emphasizes the delicate emotions that the long shots want to express, and also enhances the observability, which can well bring the audience into the emotion of the scene. Many people criticized the scene where the heroine in the film for five and a half minutes sat on the ground crying and turned into a chocolate pie was redundant and boring, and many viewers left the scene early because they could not bear it.
I don't like long and slow shots that specifically depict emotions, which may be caused by differences in people's personalities. Some people are naturally rational, do not like to indulge in emotions, and at the same time lack the ability to detect delicate emotions. So this lens is really hypocritical and tasteless. But for the emotional audience, it is easy to be brought into the shot by the small details carefully arranged by the director, resonating with the characters in the film, and thus be moved. Then the five-and-a-half shots don't seem verbose.
In my opinion, for five and a half minutes, the hostess stabbed the chocolate pie with a fork, the fork collided with the plate, the hostess slammed it hard without chewing, the pieces of the pie fell on the floor, and the hostess shed tears silently. She tried her best to restrain herself, but the tears still dripped down her nose and onto the plate. The heroine didn't care that the snot and tears dripped onto the plate and continued to eat. The ghost of the hero stood in the upper right corner and watched silently... Five and a half actually has a lot of details. , which allows you to deeply experience the grief of the heroine.
The long takes actually fit the theme of the film well. The film is discussing the nihility and meaninglessness of existence. Aside from movies, what is the most emptiness in the content of life? It's just such a slow-moving "lens". Maybe it’s a brokenhearted walk on the street aimlessly, maybe it’s sitting on the train at night when the phone is out of power and staring at the dark outside the window, maybe it’s driving back to the garage and sitting for ten minutes with the steering wheel in hand… these Moments are real in everyday life. Since this film discusses life, it is to narrow the distance between film and real life, so using long shots to portray these real moments can be described as a bitter pill.
The only flaw in the film is the bald man's rhetoric in the middle. This is the place with the most dense lines in the film. Except for this one, almost all other plot advancements and hints are completed by the language of the camera lens. This paragraph alone is a nice speech, but its significance seems to be only to explain the gist of the film, but in fact, the audience can fully understand the gist of it from the second half. Such a clear statement seems to frame the thinking, so that the audience cannot freely interpret it, which seems a bit superfluous. But maybe the director is worried that the constant dull narrative will make the connotation too obscure and difficult to understand, and he is also well-intentioned for the audience. Moreover, this kind of speech with delicate words may be very suitable for some audiences (it is very suitable for memorizing it to make X capital after dinner, hahaha). Anyway, I can't think of a better way to handle it.
And my favorite part is the ending. After the ghost of the male protagonist finally took out the note, there was a detail that was likely to be overlooked. It was he who was holding the note when the door suddenly opened, and the male protagonist quickly looked back at the door, as if he was expecting to see someone. At this time, the male protagonist went around in circles and reincarnated, and finally got the note. He should be most concerned about reading the note. Why does he care so much when the door is opened? (Casey's turn is full of anticipation that is almost jumpy, and he can't help but praise Casey's acting skills...) Actually, think of the neighbor's ghost who has also been waiting for reincarnation in the second time. The ghost communicated with the male protagonist At that moment, the plot will come to a realization. The neighbor ghost was sitting by the window, and the male protagonist walked to the window and startled the neighbor ghost, he asked: Who's there? (Who's where?)
Male lead: It's just me. (It's just me.)
Neighbor: Oh. I though maybe... Never mind.
He hesitated, but he was actually waiting for someone who never came back. The male protagonist suddenly came out. Later, the house was leveled, and the neighbor ghost said lonely:
Then it disappeared.
So the male protagonist who got the note at this time, when he heard the door open, probably thought that the beloved person he was waiting for had returned, and probably thought that the time that had passed could also come back.
But there was nothing outside the door.
The man opens the note.
The film doesn't give an exact shot of the content of the note.
Just read this note.
The ghost of the male protagonist also disappeared instantly.
I don't think it is because the content left by the female lead in the note is heartless or hurts the male lead and makes him disappear. In fact, the content of the note is not important. After so long, I may have forgotten who I am waiting for, and why I can't let go of obsession, but obsession and waiting skills have become the meaning of existence. And when the obsession is finally opened, the waiting loses its meaning, and everything disappears. Disappeared suddenly, quietly, without leaving a trace, without being remembered by anyone.
The film's director David Lowery's control of the beauty of the lens and the quiet and steady narrative technique are excellent. And in this age of popcorn, daring to use long shots in series to create delicate emotions is really not easy.
PS: Although some scenes with weird dubbing are really a little scary, the ghosts in the film are really cute. But I think besides being cute, there are probably two reasons for using this shape: First, the faceless shape represents a state of being forgotten without identity, which is in line with the nihilistic tone of the film; second, it is probably to create ghosts Let's get rid of the heartache that the bed sheet suddenly fell to the ground.
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