Director: Jim Jarmusch Writer: Jim Jarmusch Starring: Gena Rowlands , Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller- Starr , Rosie Perez De Banker /…
Year of release: 1991
Before watching the movie, I accidentally learned that the director of the film is called Jim Jarmusch. From the comments everywhere, it can be seen that this film master has a very high talent and a unique perspective. The keywords of his works, "humanity", "independence" and "artistic manipulation", are the basic impressions of him by fans. The most valuable thing is that behind all these creations, Jim Jarmusch insists on low The cost of making, of course, is the price of not following the commercial flow. Many of Jarmusch's works are produced by his own company. " Night On Earth " is the first of his directorial and screenplay I've watched, and of course, low cost!
Entering with the strange music of Uncle Sang, the camera unfolds from a world map. Earth Night tells the story of joy and sorrow that happened to 5 taxi drivers at the same time at night in 5 different time zones on Earth. Then, five symmetrically placed world clocks appear in the center of the screen, and the story unfolds like a novel.
1
"Literature" with a very personal style
Jim Jarmusch worked with literature before studying film, and he majored in English at Zhu Xiu in college. Therefore, its literary elements in "Earth Night"
At the beginning of each story, Jarmusch used a fixed camera and long lens to shoot the appearance of different cities, beautiful wide-angle night scenes, sometimes dirty streets, or simple folk bars, seemingly random editing, But it contains the humanity of the theme of the story. Taxi drivers are everywhere, sometimes traveling through the bustling, sometimes escaping into simplicity. After describing the clips of the city street scene, the film subversively put the main part of the story on the inside of the car, 3/4 of the inside of the car, and 1/4 of the outside of the car. The story rises and falls, and all 5 clips are In this way, it is unified and harmonious, and the film's special description of the five story protagonists enhances the story of the film and adds a unique intrigue.
"Earth Night" is full of personal and unique photography style, but carefully abides by the guidelines of literary works, rigorous and symmetrical.
2
The unrestrained "photography feast"
Shots are the language of cinema. After seeing Jim Jarmusch's perfect "literary" in " Night On Earth ", the lens and shooting techniques of the film let me appreciate what everyone calls "artistic manipulation", honestly Speaking of, when I was reviewing a certain documentary in film history, I vaguely remembered that "Earth Night" was named when talking about the rapid development of modern photography! It seems to be a compliment of how the film used Steadicam's innovative use of fixed lenses, and how it led the modern road film and so on.
Now that I see it, it's really amazing, and that's the main motivation for me to write this review. Living under a minimalist literary shell, the photography techniques of "Earth Night" are so rich and rich enough to be written into "film history"—,—
Next, let's take a look at the lens language of the film. In particular, the camera lens on the car is a classic.
City Phantom
Steady fixed shots, sometimes aimed at the modern scene of the city in the eyes of outsiders, under the concise and lively editing, it suddenly turned to the most ordinary corner of the city, dilapidated cars, dim street lights, deserted bars... A lot of rendering, just by the color of the sunset in Los Angeles and the cover of the night, it has created such a warm feeling.
In my understanding, this type of screen switching with fixed shots and other durations is probably due to cost issues, because it is not difficult to shoot such a shot. Thinking about it carefully, it is precisely the most suitable for this movie. On the one hand, The slow rhythm brought by the fixed lens makes it easy for movie watchers to blend into the surrounding scenery, and recalling the dazzle brought by the current high-frequency lens, this simplicity instead highlights the feelings of the film itself.
Character Dialogue & Performance
Symmetry and coordination of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
All these rigorous compositions are indeed different from today's era of casualness. The effects created by this 1990s film give people more of an artificial sense of art. In the Los Angeles story, the driver and the passenger finally walked into the same screen from their own sub-shots and met in the phone booth. Love the drama!
In-car photography (focus!!)
Three-fourths of the film was shot in the car, which, for Jarmusch, was the "sound set" of the film.
behind the scenes
In order to reduce the cost of the film, Jarmusch chose an old police car, painted it the color of a taxi, smashed the glass of the doors and windows, set up a camera, and all the filming was towed by another car. This "studio" is completed, and the actors sit in it and are dragged forward.
What's more amazing is that this broken car was dragged all over the world by the photography team and traveled across the five cities in the film.
Creative use of "Steadicam"
In that period when there was no three-axis stabilizer and various intelligent "gimbals", the appearance of Steadicam was of epoch-making significance. Movies were no longer limited to one viewing angle, and the appearance of various sports lenses benefited from this. The concept of "stability" has since become familiar. Many photography enthusiasts still think that the Steadicam is still irreplaceable!
The application of Steadicam is especially common in various action films, and in this film, Jarmusch creatively applies this stabilization technology to the fixed position of motion - in the car. As a result, many unique angles have evolved, and they still have a profound impact on the current "road film".
it's here. I'll compare some in-car shots with this year's Oscar-best film, Green Book, which many critics call "the new benchmark for road movies." Where the "new" is, I won't go into details here, but the elements of its road film can still be borrowed to play.
There are many scenes in the car in this film, and I will not list some of them that are not surprising in today's movies~
Personally selected the following unique style shots to share with you.
1. Street View on the "hood"
This kind of seemingly cheap photography feels like we can take it in the co-pilot, but this lens is not blocked by glass, and the depth of field is also very beautiful, especially the part of the hood exposed at the bottom, which deepens the sense of reality.
2. "Fancy Angle" & "No Windshield" Interior Lens
This is a multi-person shot in the car in "Earth Night". The camera was shot from the front to the left, and the camera did not focus on one person. The movements and expressions of the passengers in the back seat can be clearly seen from the picture, which makes "Earth on Earth". The interior of the car is more like being in a "photo studio" rather than simply "in the car".
Similar footage can be found in Green Book.
The same angle, the same seating position, but you can obviously find that the doctor in the back seat is a little out of focus, and the lens is obviously focused on the driver, so the picture can't help but be a bit monotonous (although the pixels go up...)
In addition, it can be seen from the comparison of the above pictures that all the in-car shots of "Earth Night" have no "windshield".
Without the obstruction of the "windshield", the picture becomes very clean.
Compare the picture below, which one do you like? ?
Compared to the relatively single (but I have to say, more mature) in-car camera angles in "Green Book", "Earth Night" shows Jim Jarmusch's crazy use of this space, whether it is now The popular elements of road films, plus some personal "visual experiments", this film has it all!
There are most of these scenes on the road in "Green Book", and it will be boring to watch for a long time.
The same shooting angle, the camera position is always placed in the middle and bottom, and there are always two people in the car. These conditions clearly limit freedom.
Having said that, "Green Book" has elements of traditional road films, but it is not entirely a road film, and we only take a part here to express our views.
In any case, "Earth Night" not only made a simple foreshadowing in the shooting of road films, Jarmusch was already ahead of a large number of current directors in innovation in the 1990s.
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