(Spoiler) How many can you go for to be pretty? "Fulfilled food and clothing, and then know the honor and disgrace." In "The Bling Ring", a group of young thieves broke into the star's home and stole property, not for "food." They have no worries about food and clothing, but they know their honor and do not know how to shame (until they are arrested and sentenced). "Rong" is to let people see the beautiful side of oneself, and the definition of "beautiful" is controlled by the media. Simply put, it is to be "beautiful" like a celebrity. "Beauty" only needs to be judged with the eyes, starting from the epidermis and building outwards-who else cares about the inner "essence"? "Self-cultivation" and then "Qijia" today means that without self-cultivation and beauty, it is difficult to find the other half to get married.
Several protagonists of "Flash" entered the room as thieves, behind them all for the approval of others: the perpetrator Rebecca longed to become like her idol Lindsay Lohan, and simply went to Lohan's house to steal her clothes, but her favorite was Paris Hilton's house. ; The actor Marc is emotionally dependent on Rebecca, needs her approval, and becomes fateful (and his family is not as rich as other characters, so he steals the fashion that he can't afford); Nicki and her sisters were determined by their mothers since they were young Cultivated as a star and full of "positive energy" tutoring, Nicki has no shame in his heart, and hypocritically pretends to come from the heart.
"The Shining Thief" is a real-life adaptation. The detective who was investigating the case, Brett Goodkin, was involved in the production of the film. The socialite Paris Hilton who was burgled the most not only lent a house as a set, but both of them made guest appearances in person. The movie adds a sense of reality. in addition,. The irony is that the actual case is so incredible: there are so many celebrities who have not been highly fortified for their Millennium Mansion House, and even the door is not locked; there are people who are brave enough to go straight to the mansion, without thinking. Whether there is a dog and an automatic alarm system inside; and the most unbelievable thing is that the above two happen at the same time, which will make the serial burglary case come true.
The most interesting part of the movie is that it is difficult to distinguish between the illusion and the truth. If the "real people and real things" are so bizarre that they are adapted into a movie, even if they are made with a "realistic" technique, the result will be illusory. The audience can compare the movie with the "real", but they must rely on the relevant media reports (including the news published by the parties themselves using the Internet). However, how true are those interviews and reports? The reality in developed societies is that media information has become a major component of social reality, and countless virtual and copied images have become a major component of people’s life experience. Compared with a portrait of a person, which one is more real? The traditional view is that portraits are just reproductions, not so real. However, the protagonist of "The Shining Thief" was deeply attracted by the celebrity images seen in fashion magazines, and then walked into the homes of those celebrities, stole the latter's clothes and accessories, and put on himself, which is both a reproduction and a reproduction of the media. The image of is turned into a concrete thing.
What Rebecca and Marc are pursuing is not the star’s acting talents, but their external appearance; the image of the latter is created by the joint efforts of fashion brands and the mass media, so that celebrities and celebrities have become sales assistants. In the end, the model will also ask consumers to buy an upper body. Therefore, what the "beautiful thieves" copied is not originally the "real person" of a celebrity, but the image that fashion companies hope to be copied by consumers-only when they are copied, those images will come true.
The Nicki family is the other main axis in the play, and it also fully demonstrates the indistinguishable situation of true and false. Nicki's live-action blueprint is Alexis Neiers. Just like in the play, the three sisters are trained by her mother to become a star. At the time of the theft, Nicki/Alexis and her sister were participating in the reality show Pretty Wild . Later, when the East Window incident occurred, Pretty Wild simply played the Alexis case as the content of the program. Nicki/Alexis did not admit their mistakes, saying that they were taken to the scene of the crime by a friend after being drunk. Outside the play, Alexis has always insisted that the official accusations against her and the media reports on her are biased and fictitious, and she will write a book to expose the truth.
These materials are of course distributed through the mass media and the Internet, but Alexis's image is "hypocritical." The interpretation of Emma Watson, who plays Alexis, has been appreciated by many film critics. The authenticity of the interpretation is compared with the clips of Pretty Wild and Alexis' interviews in the media. How can an actor "realistically" play a hypocritical person? Both Alexis and her mother's performance are very contrived, so Emma Watson's pretentious exaggeration has the magical effect of "negatives make positives." There is no family relationship between the three sisters Nicki and her mother. The latter just wholeheartedly portrays her daughter as a hollow person like herself.
Although the first paragraph of this article mentions that the protagonist is like a thief for others' recognition, except for Marc's feelings for Rebecca, the need for recognition does not come from the heart. Among the Rebecca group, only Marc was full of the sense of crisis and self-consciousness of "we are committing a crime" at the time of the burglary, so he is also the only person who can truly introspect after being arrested (contrast with Nicki's hypocritical introspection). Perhaps it was because Marc had the worst family background, and the clothes he wore at the beginning were still in tatters, and his theft had concrete material significance. But other people are insatiable, and the recognition they need is just the external need to "be seen." And this kind of "being seen" is not the understanding of inner thoughts and feelings, but just the display of appearance: pretty, not in-depth understanding and communication.
Their imitation is like a star, and "star" is a direct metaphor for "being seen." "Not being seen" is more shameful than being a thief, so they take the stolen business as their upper body, and post selfies on Facebook, and even publicize which celebrity's home they have been to among their friends. They want to be known as well as others. See. Seeking for benevolence, after they were arrested, they really became public figures under the spotlight-but their images were beyond their control. Paradoxically, Rebecca steals in order to imitate her idol Lindsay Lohan; but Lohan has become a star, and as a result, he also went to jail for the theft. Then, maybe Rebecca's behavior is not just a kind of imitation, but a deeper thing, which is the common source of the pleasure of crime and the desire to be "identified."
In July 2013, the American "Rolling Stone" magazine took the head of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a cover photo, treating him like a rock star. "Rolling Stone" suddenly became a target. But before that, the handsome Tsarnaev had already attracted countless fans of girls, and the action of "Rolling Stone" only followed.
There is something more primitive and thorough than the desire for fame and crime. What is that?
(The revised version was originally published in "Times Forum" Issue 1359, September 15, 2013)
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