The masterpiece of the group drama, Robert Ultraman, can also be regarded as the masterpiece of Ultraman, from which we can see and understand all the elements and styles of Ultraman movies. Altman's best game is to tell fragmented stories that reject grand narratives in a grand narrative structure with many characters, which is quite postmodernist. This also reminded me of Roy Anderson, a master of postmodernism in Europe. The characters in Ultraman movies always exude a unique sense of decadence and emptiness, which coincides with the era full of hippies and beat generations. The numerous televisions and TV programs that appeared in this film also reflect the era of the rapidly developing cultural industry. Everyone in the film is more or less directly or indirectly connected with other characters, and countless characters take turns to test the audience's concentration. And Altman's unique sense of humor also adds to the film a lot. This film reminds me of Michael Haneke's "Ukiyo-e in Paris". It has a similar narrative structure and a patchwork of life fragments, but it is completely different in terms of image style and character shaping, and the interlaced relationship between the characters is more complicated. Altman's enthusiasm for music is also reflected in many of his works. Jazz, blues, spiritual songs, these free and arbitrary forms of music also strengthen the film style and temperament of the characters, laziness, decadence, dissociation, and wonderful. Word.
The driver, Earl, played by Tom Witz, is an alcoholic, and his wife, Doren, is a waiter in the restaurant. The relationship between them is not harmonious. Doron dislikes Earl for drinking, and Earl sees three middle-aged men sitting next to him in the dining room peeping at the bottom of Doren’s skirt on the grounds of letting Doron take butter. He is jealous. In the RV where he lives, he complains why Doren wears a miniskirt. Dorren revealed that he drove into a little boy, Casey. She wanted to send Casey to the hospital or home, but Casey refused on the grounds that she did not take a stranger's car and said that she was fine. Dorren told Earl about this, but Earl was indifferent and continued to drink heavily. Of course they finally reconcile as before, and Tom Witz even has a singing voice!
The boy Casey’s father, Howl, is a TV commentator, and Howl has also been involved in a car accident. His wife Finika is going to order a birthday cake for Casey, but everyone is anxious because of her son's car accident. The injured Casey walked home by herself and eventually passed out on the bed. During his stay in the hospital, Casey's grandfather, whom Casey had not seen for many years, appeared in the hospital. The grandfather told his son Howe that the day when Hower was in a car accident, he had an affair with his wife's sister, who was also Hower's aunt. He said that his wife's sister took the initiative to seduce him, and it only happened once. And when his wife ran into them cheating, the wife didn't get angry, but asked why he lied that he went to work... In the end they got divorced. Father, mother, and grandfather witnessed Casey’s death in the hospital, and the pastry chef who helped Casey make birthday cakes was met by anxious Hower because he called to ask about the specifications of the cake. So he always held a grudge against him. Phinega made a harassing phone call and cursed Casey. Finally, when he learned that Casey had passed away in a car accident, he sadly gave Finiga and Howe the bread in the shop, and sadly said that the customized cake had been discarded...
Feiniga’s neighbor Zoe is a young violinist. She lives with her mother who sings jazz in the bar. My mother always mentioned her deceased husband from time to time, and Zoe had no impression of his deceased father. Zoe has a tendency to masochistic, such as breaking a glass, pinching the glass slag and letting blood flow. And the drunkard Earl is often seen in the bar where his mother sings. (Earl’s behavior of letting other people in the bar listen to songs quietly feels like Tom Witz’s sentiment...) There are also two couples of regulars in the bar, one is Earl’s wife Doren and The daughter of her ex-husband, college daughter and special effects makeup artist boyfriend Bill (Robert Downey) helped a black couple who invited them to drink in a bar to look after the house, especially the tropical fish in the fish tank. They have a habit of taking SM photos. The other couple are pool cleaner Joe and his wife Tracy. Tracy found a job for a pornographic customer service to subsidize the family. She was feeding her children all day while talking obscene words to the phone... Husband Joe was helpless and depressed. But his wife's high income left him speechless... After the violinist Zoe learned of the death of his neighbor Casey in a car accident, he went to the bar to tell his mother the bad news, but his mother was unusually indifferent and didn't care. Depressed in the end, the sad Zoe committed suicide in the garage.
At the beginning of the film, in the auditorium of Zoe’s violin recital, Clay, who played the role of a clown for the children in the hospital, and her husband Stua, who loves to fish, met the painter Marianne and her doctor boyfriend Raf, Raf. He is the attending doctor of Casey, the boy in a car accident. Stua and his fishermen found a naked female body in the water while fishing in the wild. They were at a loss, but they still fished as planned. One of the fishermen Gordon even took photos of the female body to enjoy... At night, they tied the female body to the river and called the police. (These three fishermen are the erotic men in the restaurant who peeped at the bottom of Duolun’s skirt...) And after Clay learned of this, because her husband did not salvage the female body in time, he left the body alone. The practice of soaking in the water felt cold-blooded and angry. Love is in the heart because of Marianne's derailment many years ago. They had a fierce quarrel at home, and that day was the day when Clay and Stuah visited their home. Marianne explained and restored the romantic affairs of many years ago with her naked body (Julian Moore’s orange yin hair is almost...) After hearing Marianne’s confession, Laf calmly went out to buy groceries... ...That night, the four had a pleasant dinner and table game.
Mary Ann's sister Shelly is a beautiful woman, but her husband, Sheriff Jean, has cheated and has a grumpy temper at home. Shelly's sixth sense made her aware of her husband's cheating. (Thanks to his career, Genn stopped the car driven by Clay disguised as a clown, and asked for Clay’s phone call, but it was because of this side.) Genn was extremely tired of the noisy dog at home, so he secretly Abandoned the dog on the street far away from his own home. The children were heartbroken about the dog's disappearance, but Gene didn't care. Jean's lover is single mother Betty, and Betty's ex-husband is helicopter pilot Stormi. Stormi learned from his son that Betty had a new lover, and Betty's indifferent attitude towards him, so Stormi took advantage of Betty's opportunity to take her son out of the country and used various tools to demolish Betty's house. It was devastated... and Shelly became a nude model in order to help her sister create, and this nude painting was recognized in the circle. After learning of the incident, Gene, who had been cheating, brought the abandoned dog back uncharacteristically, and his relationship with Shelly improved.
In the end, Joe and Bill took their wives and children on a trip. (Bill’s girlfriend had a face-to-face with Gordon who came to take photos of the female body in the water while taking SM photos. The two took each other’s photos...The next two Personally embarrassed and shocked to exchange photos. This paragraph is really humorous...) Then Bill and Joe left their wives and children, strike up a conversation with two girls who were riding outing on bicycles, and they have been subjected to pornographic work by their wives. The suppressed Joe stoned one of the girls to vent his grievances and hatred towards women. As a result, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck, turning this murder into a natural disaster...Everyone has experienced this earthquake, and there have been so few seconds in a life of calm, boredom, emptiness, depression, sadness, and helplessness. Vacuum, and then return to the dog days of mixed flavors again.
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