The beginning of this year was probably my slowest walk since I arrived in Sydney, and every billboard on George Street was plastered with a poster of Nine , the high expectations for this movie made me want to stop and stare at the faces of the protagonists every few steps. The poster proudly reads "Five Golden Globe Nominations" and "The Work of 'Chicago' Director Rob Marshall." Daniel Day-Lewis in the poster is enjoying the honor of the stars and the moon - four top beauties are lined up on the left and right, reporters holding cameras around the front and back, while Lewis wearing sunglasses has a slight corner of his mouth. Sagging, not a trace of enjoyment. For a moment, I felt a bit of disappointment, and I saw that the poster seemed to be covered with a touch of pomp. I hope this is a movie about pomp and not the movie itself is pompous.
1. Gorgeous Age
This film is full of selling points and gimmicks: a huge cast, the unprecedented success of the director's previous work "Chicago", the enduring "brand effect" of one of the screenwriters, Anthony Minghella, There is also the fame of the deceased great guide Federico Fellini (Federico Fellini). All of these are enough to convince a movie lover, especially a musical lover, to pull out the money in his wallet to contribute to the movie box office.
When introducing the star of this movie to my friends, I only used two simple words - national treasure. This is a film with a little red in the green bushes. The hero, the lost director Guido (Guido Contini) is the core character of the whole film, played by British actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Although he is a powerful actor, Lewis's appearance can also be called handsome, so such a handsome and acting male protagonist is undoubtedly a reassurance. Women who are willing to be green leaves are not inferior: Marion Cotillard, a French national treasure who won an Oscar at a young age, Penélope Cruz, a Spanish national treasure sexy actress, Nicole Kidman (Nicole Kidman), who is regarded as Australia's national treasure by Australians, and Sophia Loren (Sophia Loren), a national treasure figure in the Italian film circle. Several other supporting actresses should not be underestimated: Judi Dench, the old British drama, Fergie, the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas, and the famous actress Goldie Hawn. Baby girl Kate Hudson. With the foil of these heavyweight green leaves, it injects a booster into the film.
What is even more irresistible is the gold content of the film behind the scenes. "Nine" is a remake of the late Federico Fellini's "Eight and a Half" ("8½"), Fellini's "Eight and a Half" tells the inner struggles of a talented director and the intricacies of real characters relationship, Fellini made a movie about making movies, analyzing the loss and panic of a director who couldn't make movies, and the main story line of "Nine" basically followed the narrative direction of "Eight and a Half", with the intention of presenting Give the audience a vivid director's life. "Nine" is not Rob Marshall's first musical, his previous "Chicago" can be said to have become a classic in the hearts of the majority of musical lovers, and the bleakness of the subsequent "Memoirs of a Geisha" let Marshall taste it The taste of failure, this time he picked up the sign of the musical that he was good at is undoubtedly wanting to continue the brilliance of "Chicago" and prove to the audience that his talent is still there. Anthony Minghella, one of the screenwriters of the film, has created classic films such as "The English Patient" and "Cold Mountain". The names of people in front of and behind the scenes have attracted the attention of countless people, and it is also enough to reflect director Marshall's ambition to recreate the classics of musicals.
2. A few days after the gloom ended
, I walked into the screening room, waiting to enjoy the double feast of sight and hearing. Every actor's performance is very dedicated, and the gorgeous stage background really overwhelms my eyes. The singing of several actors is not inferior to the current idol singers. Penelope Cruz's provocative ditty, Nicole The nobility of Kidman's muse, and the image of Marion Cotillard's sometimes wild and sometimes sad wife are all portrayed in three parts. Maybe it was the big names in front and behind the scenes that made my expectations too high. I realized what is called "the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment", and I sighed after walking out of the cinema - "Nine", maybe you have endured too much.
Remaking Fellini's "Eight and a Half" is not an easy decision. After all, the predecessors made it so shiny. Marshall may choose this film to pay tribute to Fellini, but it is more likely that he watched it. Having reached the greatness of the film, he wanted to continue the brilliance—both the brilliance of "Eight and a Half" and his own brilliance. "Eight and a Half" is an old black-and-white movie. It's a dull movie, but the essence of it is the state of life, the state of mind when you lose your most proud talent. , A sense of loss, a sense of frustration, a star at a loss, a little helplessness are all branded into every inch of the protagonist's skin. There are many friends who haven't read "Eight and a Half". It may be that it is too dull and the narrative rhythm is not intense enough, so Marshall added singing and dancing elements as a matter of course. On the one hand, the participation of singing and dancing elements can improve the viewing degree of the film, and you can make a big fuss about the music and scenery to remove the gloomy atmosphere; Success, Marshall wants to use his housekeeping skills to let himself taste the sweetness. This is understandable, why not do it?
However, the reality is always not as perfect as imagined, and the implantation of singing and dancing elements makes the plot lose its tension. "Eight and a Half" is different from "Chicago". "Chicago" is a movie that requires singing, dancing and a strong sense of rhythm. The integration of singing and dancing can be said to be a natural match with the plot setting; and "Eight and a half" The plot and The idea is to calm down and think carefully. After implanting the song and dance, it becomes "Nine". It feels like a person who is carefully studying the cell reaction under the microscope is suddenly hit by an earthquake, so abrupt and unexpected. Maybe it would be better to completely change the entire narrative tone of "Eight and a Half", but Marshall wanted to retain the original deep charm, but also wanted to implant all kinds of loud or noisy music (in fact, the music itself did not fail, It just doesn't match the tone of the plot), so it ruins the script and ruins the music. It can only be said that Marshall's attempt to create a "hybrid" this time failed. "Nine", maybe you shouldn't bear so much "blood".
The overall tone of the film is gloomy and bright. The reason why it is gloomy should be to match Guido's lost mood and the retro beauty of Italy, and the reason why it is bright is to increase the visibility of singing and dancing. Makes sense, but Kate Hudson's runway sing-along was especially dazzling. Kate Hudson's role as an American female reporter didn't exist in "Eight and a Half", so why did Marshall want to add it to "Nine"? A low-key guess: Marshall deliberately added a role because of some interpersonal relationship behind it, just to show Kate Hudson's face? An elegant guess: Because Marshall wanted to embody Guido's sublimation of the ideological realm of finally restraining his desires in the face of temptation? We don't know. What I do know is that that song and dance may have shown the energy of the United States, but it was out of tune with the whole style of the film - both the musical style and the color composition. "Nine", maybe you shouldn't bear so many different styles.
When I count the "national treasures", it is not difficult to find that the complex nationalities of the actors can form a small "United Nations". Daniel Day-Lewis specially learned Italian for this film. Even if he speaks English in the film, he strives to have an Italian accent. The other actors are both authentic Italians and Spanish whose native language is similar to Italian. The most are Americans... Maybe it is to be consistent with "Eight and a Half", maybe it is because of the cultural precipitation in Italy, the background of the story is set in Italy, so I heard Italian and English with various accents . It's not that every movie should have a unified accent, but at least don't artificially create some auditory discomfort, or try to avoid such scenes as much as possible. During the entire viewing process, the audience was in a confusion of hearing, and I, a non-native English-speaking child, briefly entered a state of schizophrenia when switching between various accents. "Nine", maybe you shouldn't bear so many messy accents.
The final ending of the film is not the same as "Eight and a Half". "Eight and a Half" can be said to be a tragic ending. A gunshot ended the life of the down-and-out director Guido, and also ended all the grief that reality brought him. Nine" can be regarded as the end of the comedy. Guido finally found himself after overcoming many barriers and returned to the studio to start his ninth movie, and this is the "½" that "9" is more than "8½". . Guido in "Eight and a Half" chooses to solve the problem by pulling the trigger himself, which is a kind of bravery and an escape; Guido in "Nine" may be Marshall's expectation of himself, not to cruelty He bowed his head to the reality, but chose to continue to fight until he crossed the bottleneck of his career and the trough of his life.
It's hard to tell whether this gorgeous feast brings us splendid satisfaction or bleak disappointment, I look forward to the next work of Marshall and the actors.
View more about Nine reviews
