Similar to David Lynch's "Mulholland Road" that once stunned the Cannes Film Festival, when Agatha (Mia Wahikowska), a girl from Florida in "Star Map", stepped into the car When the driver (Robert Pattinson) was in the back seat, just as the dream chaser Betty (Naomi Watts) in "Muholland Road" saw Hollywood characters, they began to enter and touch This strange and even gloomy soul world.
The 71-year-old David Cronenberg is very worthy of the award given to him by Martin Scorsese, "an artist between the surrealist Luis Bunuel and the rationalist Francis Bacon" . He continued the mysticism that permeated all his works, and in the geographically conclusive Beverly Hills and the Avenue of Stars, he permeated the elusive emotions that did not belong to this planet. These emotions are associated with ultra-modern architecture. , The ethereal soundtrack and the exquisite and grim shots crown the characters in the story with a strange halo.
In fact, this film, which has a total investment of less than 13 million U.S. dollars but has gathered many stars, also made some beautiful tricks on the filming location. Most of the film was completed in Toronto, where the production cost is much lower, with only 5 days to shoot in Los Angeles. For this reason, Cronenberg chose to shoot in the summer because the palm trees in Toronto looked a lot like Los Angeles at that time, and those ultra-modern hospitals and private houses only available in Toronto were more suitable for the soul inhabitation in "Star Atlas." Surprisingly, although the five days of shooting in Los Angeles were extremely critical, this turned out to be the first time Cronenberg shot in the United States in his shooting career.
Although screenwriter Bruce Wagner is a professional novelist, he has contributed a completely original script in the style of Cronenberg. Because such a family story is set in Hollywood and revolves around the flashy celebrity culture, the celebrity names and behavior gossip that float from time to time can also cause the audience to roar with laughter and direct the film's superficial meaning to a kind of ironic coordinate.
The relatively larger protagonist in the story, Agatha, is not a girl who went to Hollywood to chase her dreams. On the contrary, she returned to a family that rejected her. Because she was not a normal child when she was a child, she was sent to Florida to grow up alone because she lost her parents’ mansion where close relatives were married. Today, her father Sanford (John Cusack) is already a writer who relies on his soul-style chicken soup to learn the best-selling book, and also serves as a spiritual therapist for some Hollywood celebrities, but those with fragile souls When the actress blindly believes in that distant lama, he knows that the place is never free (Not free, but expensive), at least on Amazon products; mother Weis (played by Olivia Williams) is She often breaks down emotionally, hides in the bathtub, howls, and slams her mind on the 13-year-old son Benja (Ewan Bird) who became famous early for starring in "The Badass Little Nanny". Benjie has been spoiled by Hollywood's pampering life. He went to the intensive care unit to visit his little fans step by step, but he didn't know what kind of terminal illness they were suffering from until he was haunted by the ghost of the dead child. Cronenberg built a problematic family with a huge beautiful courtyard and high-tech furniture. I believe that no audience really wants to live such a luxurious but terrible life.
On the other side of the problem is a star family separated by yin and yang. Sanford’s physiotherapy guest, Havana (Julian Moore), is an actor who hasn’t taken a show for a long time. There is a certain year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on the table. And her once really big-name celebrity mother, Claris (played by Sarah Garton), is another ghost that haunts this house. Actress Havana met and hired a problem girl, Agatha. At first, she was happy and smooth, but she was gradually interfered by the ghost power entangled in the two families and led to the abyss of destruction.
The imagery of mysticism is strengthened before destruction arrives, providing multiple outlets for the audience to interpret in multiple dimensions. In this way, from the surface satire of Hollywood life to the deeper psychological problem mechanism, "Star Atlas" has also established a curious and inexplicable signifier and signifier system. Of course, Cronenberg took Hollywood as a sample, the method of shaping the dimension of psychoanalysis and the corresponding narrative strategy behind it are destined to be far less than David Lynch’s psychological thriller masterpiece "Muholland Road", but it is also confused and confusing. The Hollywood starry sky adds a beautiful illusion.
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