My article is not a film review. It just started from the theme of the movie and sorted out its content more straightforwardly. In the process of sorting out, I will share with you the many moving things I felt from this movie.
1. The three themes of the movie are
"Birdman" as I understand it. Among all the clues and contradictions, there are three themes running through: birdman, ignorance, love&beloved.
1.1 The first theme,
the main title Birdman Birdman, has a double meaning in the movie.
The first layer of implication, the most conspicuous, is of course the superhero movie "Birdman", and the character's shape is highly similar to that of Batman. Combined with the actor Michael Keaton starred in Batman 1, 2, the audience can easily understand the meaning of birdman here. On the one hand, it symbolizes Reagan's former glory; on the other hand, it is the split personality in Reagan's heart that yearns for vanity.
However, the first layer of implication is just an illusion. This illusion not only obscures everyone’s eyes in the movie, but also prevents them from seeing the protagonist Reagan’s true love for performing arts; more importantly, this illusion also obscures. Watching movies in the real world, let us take preconceived stereotypes and repeat the blindness and prejudice of the public towards Reagan in the movie. Thus broke out a stronger drama than the movie itself.
Birdman's other meaning is "Icarus", the man who flew to the sun with waxy wings in myths and legends, and finally fell. Icarus is a classic character in Western culture, similar to China's Yugong Yishan or Jingwei Reclamation.
Talking about Icarus in Chinese culture is often a representative of failure due to pride, which is in line with the spiritual core of Chinese culture "allowing for the dead." However, in Western culture, Icarus is the representative image of idealism, representing the pursuit of the scorching ideal without hesitation.
I use a description from the comic book "As God Says" to introduce Icarus again:
Somewhere in Crete, ancient Greece, there was a famous craftsman named Daedalus. He was ordered by the king and involved a labyrinth that trapped the monster Minotaur in it. But... he later angered the king and was imprisoned in the labyrinth along with his son Icarus. The two collected the fallen bird feathers and fixed it with wax to create "wings." They cleverly used their wings to successfully fly out of the maze, but... the young Icarus forgot his father's advice and flew higher and higher. "Fly close to the gods" was an act made by experiencing the sense of omnipotence. As a result... the waxy wings melted because of the high temperature of the sun, and Icarus fell and died. At the moment he was about to die, what on earth was he thinking? The answer was—feeling life.
The movie "birdman" tells the story of a contemporary Icarus, actor Reagan. This mood has been clearly given in the opening title:
The two falling flame tails are the burning wings of Icarus. He fell from the sky, and the screen instantly switched to the back of the protagonist Regan. Reagan is actually Icarus. His dedication to performing arts cost him too much. In the end, he burned his wings and fell from the sky like a meteor.
1.2 The second theme of the film, the opening
paragraph about Love & Beloved, is a famous quote in the works of Raymond Carver. And what is love is also the theme in the drama "What Are We Talking about Love". It’s just that the play in the play explores the love of men and women, while the film "Birdman" explores the broad sense of love and desire to be loved, especially Reagan’s love of performing arts and desire to be loved
Let’s talk about it first On Reagan’s love of performing arts
1.2.1 The theme of love -Reagan’s love of performing arts.
Audiences are easily misled by the director’s elaborate plot, and they have three unshakable prejudices against Reagan:
frustration
The middle-aged man whose family and career of Hollywood stars are in crisis
is dominated by utilitarianism
In fact, Reagan is a good actor who really loves acting. This can be seen from several links.
1.2.1.1 Reagan’s love for performance is better than his love for his family.
Reagan is a play idiot. His love for acting even exceeds his love for his family. This is easy to see from the relationship between Reagan and his daughter Sam. Sam’s biggest grievance against Reagan is that he is not by my side.
Another more important piece of evidence is: How did Reagan divorce his ex-wife?
In fact, Reagan and his ex-wife’s relationship is very good. How good is it. On their last wedding anniversary, Reagan, an asshole, slept with Jeanne Rothbach in his bed. Even so, they reconciled. There is no divorce.
The reason for the real divorce was that Reagan’s ex-wife scolded him during a quarrel and scolded him and Cody Horn for a bad comedy. This really angered Reagan and made him throw a hand at his wife. Kitchen knife. And an hour later, he apologized to his wife and said how he loved her.
This is not to show that Reagan is a liar, but to show how obsessed he is with his performance.
The ex-wife's love for Reagan originated from Reagan's persistent pursuit of ideals and the charm produced by his own talent. Therefore, when Regan talked about the importance of this performance to his ex-wife, the ex-wife once forgot the reason for the divorce. It is precisely because this love for ideals surpasses love for family members that the ex-wife is determined to divorce him.
1.2.1.2 The various crises encountered by
Reagan in this play The play rehearsed by Reagan is advancing with difficulty in crisis after crisis. Taking a look at these crises can help us see how hard and persistent Reagan must be.
The first crisis: no good actors can be found. The supporting male acting in the crew was rubbish, and he checked with the producer and found that all the familiar Broadway acting schools actually appeared in superhero movies. Superhero movies are considered to be the most anti-artistic (the main performance is to put on airs and poses) cultural rubbish, while the most exquisite members of Broadway performing arts are in droves. The commodity economy has eroded performing arts to such a degree, only the reality needs to be presented. There is enough irony.
The second crisis: lack of money. The crew not only has no reserve funds, but can't even afford the actor's work-related injury expenses. They have to rely on rehearsal ticket sales to keep it going.
The third crisis: the big names that can't be suppressed. Finally found a Mike who has both acting skills and attention to join the group, but he unexpectedly acted madly and recklessly, blatantly sabotaging him again and again.
The fourth crisis: family crisis. The daughter who has been rehabilitated is hanging around in the crew and lacks the care of her father. The ex-wife came to discuss with Reagan and also faintly revealed that her daughter had plans again. When Reagan was struggling with a series of crises, he suddenly discovered that his daughter was secretly smoking marijuana again. It's not over yet. What's even more annoying is that bastard Mike, who not only hit the court several times, not only deceived the media to claim honor, but also got his own daughter.
The fifth crisis: media suspicion. All the media couldn't understand Reagan's pursuit of performing arts, and regarded this scene as a personal advertisement for a dead Hollywood star to stand up. The most authoritative drama critic Dickinson, but without watching the performance, regards Reagan as one of the actors in the bad Hollywood movie, threatening to destroy the show.
The above are the five main crises in the film, so I won't repeat them. These crises promote the development of the plot, making Reagan pay a greater price again and again in order to achieve his ideals.
1.2.1.3 Reagan's struggle with his vanity
One thing Reagan told people repeatedly, but no one wanted to listen. That is, in order to pursue the performing arts in his mind, Reagan took the initiative to give up participating in Birdman 4. Although he retained his sincerity in performance at this sacrifice, he also paid a painful price. Reagan's acting career has been in a slump for more than two decades. So far, the impression of him is still on the birdman in 1992. .
This contrast between ideals and reality, and the pain of vanity swelling to the top and falling into the water, caused Regan to fall into a long period of depression, and his personality split. The cold voice lingering in his ears from time to time was exactly the vanity that Reagan broke and separated, birdman.
Whenever Reagan's stage play encounters a major crisis, birdman appears in Reagan's mind-sometimes questioning how Reagan fell to this point, sometimes making fun of today's untalented superhero actors, and sometimes missing the original glory. It is always persuading Reagan to give up his empty ideals and give up this difficult stage scene that no one cares about. Persuaded Reagan to return to Hollywood, return to the entertainment industry's industrial chain to accept the processing and packaging of the commodity economy, and seek to become popular again and rejuvenate again.
This birdman even has the same sexy jaw as George Clooney, the same charming smile, and the same magnetic voice. Words are full of temptation, and every time I spit on the point. Reagan was shaken by Birdman's several persuasion.
Regan may ultimately did not give up in the face of setbacks, he did not betray their ideals, the theater still persist in the end
1.2.1.4 Regan why so much importance to this drama
film directors continue to use all of prejudice against Regan to induce the audience, Form a stereotype of an old salted fish about to turn over to the plot. However, the director also gave Reagan a limited opportunity to express why he attaches so much importance to this drama.
First of all, from the quarrel between Reagan and the producer, we learned that Reagan said to the producer that this play means respect (respect) and authenticity (validated), and it is this persistence that draws friends closer. In the crew.
In the conversation between Reagan and his ex-wife, Reagan also said that this is an opportunity he must seize, and that he is doing something really right.
Why did Reagan shoot Raymond Carver's work? It's because when Reagan was a kid, Raymond Carver gave him a handkerchief signed and encouraged for one of his performances. This kind of respect gained through hard work inspired Reagan to pursue his career in acting.
What does it mean to arrange a drama to explore the root of one's acting career?
As Reagan later said to his daughter, this is his entire career, a really important thing, at least for himself. He was finally able to do some work that actually mean something.
The career here is not a "utilitarian" career, but an "ideal" career.
These words mean that Reagan's real purpose is to get out of the confusion of life, to regain his original intention of being an actor, and to regain the sincerity of acting when he did not hesitate to play birdman. From this point of view, this small drama is precisely Reagan's road to self-salvation.
1.2.1.5 Reagan's dedication and persistence
for this play is precisely because this play is the final key to Reagan's self-salvation. As he told the drama critic Dickinson at the bar, he bet all of his own for this. Of course, it is money first. In the case of a critical shortage of funds for the crew, he even wanted to sell the house he left for his daughter. He put all available contacts and resources into this drama.
The dedication is especially manifested in Reagan's dedication to acting. The most brilliant expression of this perseverance is of course the scene of running naked in Times Square. Reagan, who was resting between the performances, was angry when he saw his daughter hook up with that bastard Mike. He asked for a cigarette and hid outside the theater door to worry, but unexpectedly the door closed suddenly, shutting him out who was about to appear in the next scene.
Reagan took off his robe and was wearing a pair of underwear, crossing Times Square in embarrassment, hurried back to the theater anxiously, and appeared in front of the audience with an extremely ugly and embarrassing appearance. The conflict broke out so fiercely and deeply captured me as an audience. Normal people’s first reactions were ridicule, self-deprecating, and apologizing, but Reagan’s reaction was unexpected-he continued to act, naked and wearing underwear, stretching out his palm as a gun, under the extremely funny image, but serious and nervous The land trick continued. This amazing scene fully embodies Reagan's sense of responsibility and perseverance for this performance.
This series of scenes, bright or dark, all reflect Reagan's love for acting. This is a kind of love in a broad sense, and it is the bright side behind this kind of love. The other side of yin is the common anxiety of all people who long to be loved.
1.2.2 The theme of desire to be loved-the common anxiety of all characters.
The other side of love is desire to be loved. This is also the theme of the play "What Are We Talking About When We Mention Love". There are only three scenes presented to the audience in the play: four people discuss what love is at the wine table; the role of "Laura" confides in the misty night jungle about the complex feelings of "Nick" and the child; and then "Ai Di" finally caught the rape in the bed and committed suicide in a daze.
However, the story of all the characters in the play extends to the life of the actor. The overlapping of the actors and the roles in the play makes the contradictory development in reality and the emotional outburst on stage ingeniously integrated. It also expresses the same life theme: the desire to be loved.
This is a unique way of expression in drama and literature. Although the main characters have different personalities, they interpret essential contradictions. The contradiction and tautology embodied in the experience of each character brings the drama conflicts to the same problem, and this problem is finally focused on the protagonist's story, so that the conflicts and conflicts are concentrated and then sublimated.
At this point, we have to look at
1.2.2.1 MIKE from the character
As soon as the actor Norton appeared on the stage, I knew that this movie would be particularly good. The appearance of the character Mike in the movie also gave the director and producer the same excitement. We later saw Mike's inspiration and talent on stage performances, and then we were surprised to see all aspects of Mike's asshole performance, which almost insulted everyone. In the scenes between Mike and Sam, he showed intoxicating tenderness and thoughtfulness. The contradiction of this character does not stop there. He is full of confidence on the stage and acts almost crazy, but in reality he has not acted for six months, implying extreme inferiority... What kind of character does this all have to explain? ?
Mike's role is a classic role in film and television literary works, so it doesn't need much analysis. He has a talent for theatrical performance, and his performance has always been praised by the industry for his sincerity.
However, Mike can indulge in the sincere performance in the spotlight, and the same sense of reality is not to be seen in the intriguing reality. Mike in reality is lonely. Once he leaves the spotlight, Mike can't feel who he is. He can only be accepted by others by disguising himself as a social man in reality. Otherwise, people will be disgusted because of madness.
Mike's emotional self hates the pretense in life, but he can't find a way to escape, and he is afraid of loneliness. The result is like a sulking child, constantly mischievous, angering everyone around him, and finding his own presence in the curses of others.
Mike desires to be loved and rejects intimacy. In fact, he is afraid that the closer he gets to others, the more hated he is for his true self. When Mike's true side is understood and disgusted, he will feel abandoned and fearful. The inability to get an erection for six months is a subconscious reflection of this inferiority complex. This low self-esteem made him accustomed to using his talents to gain the respect of others and to protect himself with social resources; on the other hand, he used a joking gesture to keep mischievous and anger everyone. Without being understood, you will neither be tortured by loneliness, nor be truly abandoned.
Mike like this can't find the sincerity he was when he was young
1.2.2.2
All the main characters in Lessely's "Birdman" will have a prominent scene, using sharp dramatic conflicts to set off a strong emotional collision to portray this character. Leslie's scenes focused on the second preview, she was almost raped by Mike on the stage. Her emotions collapsed, and while crying, she had to wipe away her tears for a second, pretending to smile and coming to the curtain call. The actor's skill was amazing.
The film's emotional expression of Leslie is relatively straightforward, and it clearly stated that her dream since childhood was to perform on the Broadway stage. However, she has yet to get a chance to perform on Broadway. As a female actor, despite her great efforts, she was not respected everywhere (including the previous producer kissed her on the mouth when she heard that she could invite Mike).
More importantly, Leslie has never received enough respect and true compliments to allow her to fulfill her childhood dreams. She felt that she was still the little kid waiting to be affirmed, and had never really grown up.
1.2.2.3 Laura
's roles are relatively small, and the drama conflicts experienced by the characters are more direct. She and Laura in the play face the same problem. The man they love doesn't really love them; she is very eager to become a mother with her lover's child. But when he pretended to be full of joy and tempted the man, the other man's face was ashamed. This makes Laura in and out of the play feel angry and hesitated.
All this shows that people like Laura are accustomed to caring for others. She sincerely cares about the protagonist Reagan, and especially hopes to be a mother, and ambiguously appease Leslie when she is wronged and pained; seeing the vulnerable and injured will stimulate the desire for love of this kind of person.
Such Laura, the biggest dissatisfaction in the movie is also the desire to be loved. She is not only good at giving, but also eager to get rewards. She longed for Reagan's care and respect, and wanted to hear her praise from Reagan; she wanted to be a mother and worked hard for a long time, but without God's care, her body could never be conceived.
1.2.2.4
The existence of Sam Sam and Mike is the main conflict factor for the sharp changes in Reagan's mood. Mike is an actor that Reagan really admires, and Sam is Reagan's beloved daughter. The two of them rebelled against Reagan's desire for control during the development of the plot, and finally broke the tension of Reagan's maintenance of rational self.
After watching a lot of movies, you will feel that Sam's character is not complicated. The divorce of her parents from an early age has dealt a big blow to her. Following a father who is too busy with his ideals, he is less concerned about him. Sam's growth is indispensable to being ridiculed, ignored and bullied. Her rebellious period was particularly rebellious, and she became addicted to drugs. After detoxification treatment, he returned to his father to do some boring work. The people around her were also whispering about her drug history.
Sam's heart is very eager to be cared for. But she knows that she can't show it easily, because showing her not only won't let her really get care, but will expose her fragile side to the eyes of the indifferent people around her. Sam, who has gone through a detour, has no reason for being as strong as Mike. She can only act cynically and insensitively, making herself invisible, so as to avoid all kinds of judgments that people around her sympathize with, blame or dislike her. ).
Sam is eager to be loved by people she trusts, especially her father. Sam thinks that the worst thing his father has done is not to be by her side. It is precisely because of this that when Reagan found out that Sam smoked marijuana, his first sentence "how can you treat me like this" but not "how can you treat yourself this way" touched Sam's sensitive nerves and asked her to say The cruelest words broke the last support in her father Sam's heart.
1.2.2.5 Reagan
Therefore, although the main characters in the movie are quite different, the contradictions they face are common. To put it simply, in this era where the commodity economy rules everything, the more art workers cater to the market for success, the more severely they will encounter self-disruption. Under the excessive dominance of the utilitarian rational self, the perceptual self that seeks to liberate is greatly suppressed. Once this distorted lever is completely broken, the character's perceptual self will be subversively sprayed out, showing clear emotional expression and fierce stage conflict.
The main conflicts in the film all stem from the same theme, the same anxiety-the desire to be loved. This theme was repeatedly strengthened by different characters, and then converged and mapped to the protagonist Reagan. Reagan was the one who longed to be loved most, but was the least loved by the world.
Because he was once contaminated with the original sin of the commodity economy in addition to his pursuit of performing arts, he starred in one of the founders of superhero movies, "birdman", and was once a big hit. This once glorious image deviated from Reagan's original intention. He decided to retreat from the rapids at birdman 4.
However, this is not believed by anyone. Various prejudices against Reagan are intertwined, making it impossible for people to perceive his desire for real art, which constitutes an unshakable ignorance-this is also the third theme of the film "Birdman". Let us first discuss the theme of the movie Ignorance, and then go back and see how the three themes finally come together.
1.3 The third theme,
the subtitle of the Ignorance movie is "the unexpected virtue of ignorance", which is usually translated as "the unexpected beauty created by ignorance".
My English is not good and I can't accurately understand the meaning of this subtitle. But it can also be understood that the Chinese translation does not reflect its multiple meanings. In my opinion, the "ignorance" in the subtitle is another key to the movie. It does not indicate who is ignorance to whom, and therefore contains multiple meanings. In my opinion, there are at least three meanings:
1.3.1 The first ignorance: the prejudice and blindness of everyone in the movie towards Reagan.
As mentioned above, Reagan, the protagonist of "Birdman", is an idealist who truly loves performing arts like Icarus. However, after the whole movie, almost everyone did not really realize this.
why?
Because of this modern society, everything in people's lives has been controlled by the claws of the law of commodity economic value, and even the so-called art cannot escape. Fame and fortune turned into small leaves in front of people, but they obscured the real existence that was as majestic as Mount Tai.
Reagan used to be the star of the Hollywood superhero movie "birdman" and became a big hit. This obscured everyone's eyes and made everyone unable to understand Reagan's pursuit of art.
Let us briefly list how many times Reagan tried to explain his ideals to people in the movie, but was interrupted impatiently and arbitrarily concluded:
1.3.1.1 When
Reagan was interviewed by reporters, he thought Explain seriously why he wanted to rehearse a drama as a former Hollywood movie star. He tried to explain that the rehearsal of this drama is the same as the original resignation of "birdman 4", both for the same pursuit. However, he would be interrupted every time he didn't finish speaking. What the entertainment reporter really cares about is whether Reagan has beaten piglet semen to beautify it.
1.3.1.2
After the rehearsal of the first meeting with his ex-wife was disturbed by Mike, Reagan met his ex-wife who came to visit him in his lounge. They had a wonderful conversation, and the ex-wife finally gave Reagan a sentence:
ex-wife said to Regan, "You never know what love is and what is worship." This is very dramatic, because the drama Regan, who "does not know love", is rehearsing exactly about what love is-"What are we talking about when we talk about love". In the eyes of his ex-wife, Reagan was only after being admired by others.
1.3.1.3 The conversation on the street and in the bar
Mike and Reagan’s wonderful conversation on the street once again spoke out everyone’s prejudice against Reagan through Mike’s mouth. They always believed that Reagan was a Hollywood movie star who came to Broadway because of unwillingness, trying to rehearse himself to accumulate a reputation.
And Mike thinks that unlike Hollywood stars, he is a drama actor who really wants to press his soul to perform. He despises Reagan, thinking that Reagan will return to the movie set at any time to make those garbage movies that make culture suicide. There are still people in line. Go see.
Reagan understood that Mike's hostility towards his Hollywood identity was the reason he deliberately hit the scene. So Reagan tried to explain his true thoughts several times in the bar, and wanted to introduce what this play is about. However, Mike never let Reagan finish speaking, and immediately interrupted Reagan, saying that he had no idea what the play was.
While Mike tried to tell Reagan "what the play is about", it was another matter: the purpose of the rehearsal was to get the critics to make an evaluation, and the critics’ remarks determine everything and decide "what the play is about" . Mike, who has always been sincerely acting as "putting on the soul", suddenly said such utilitarian words.
1.3.1.4 The quarrel with Sam
In addition to them, his daughter Sam also has the same deep-rooted prejudice against Reagan. In the quarrel between Reagan and Sam, Regan found the marijuana hidden by his daughter and said angrily, "How can you do this to me!" This sentence made Sam intolerable. Sam felt that his father always only cared about himself, but never cared about Sam, which aroused anger.
In this conversation, Reagan's most critical sentence is: This is my business! I can finally do something that really makes sense (mean something).
However, even Reagan's daughter could not understand him.
Sam said that you had a so-called "career" when you made a comic movie, and after that you were forgotten. And this play is outdated a long time ago. No one cares about
Sam. Continue to say: admit it, you are not doing this play for art, but you want to return to this circle.
Every sentence It was inserted into Regan's heart like a knife. Even the daughter couldn't believe that her father was really pursuing his ideal of art, thinking that he just wanted to return to Hollywood's Vanity Fair by relying on the advertising effect of the drama. This cruel ignorance caused tons of damage to Reagan.
1.3.1.5 Fight with Mike
After the second preview was successful, the reports that Reagan read from the newspapers praised Mike's performance and his erect genitals, but completely ignored Reagan's choreography and performance. Even more cruel is that Mike plagiarized Reagan's experience and ideals in an interview, using it as Mike's own moving story, selling an image of an actor who loves art to the entire audience. When the reporter asked Mike what he thought of Reagan's performance, he even used "waltz with a monkey" to tease.
The success of the performance did not help Reagan to get rid of the prejudices of the world, but the dance of public opinion further deepened the prejudices of the world against him. An angry Reagan couldn’t help but find Mike for a fight, during which he showed one of the most wonderful acting skills of the show: Reagan pretended to be horribly abused by his father, a drunkard, with his sister when he was a child, and deceived all the audience, including Mike who claims to master the truth on stage.
Reagan's acting skills are so superb, but he still can't clear the world's prejudice against him. Audiences and film critics agree that Mike, who is full of sincerity, is a scum who will steal other people's lives to earn his reputation.
1.3.1.6 Underpants crossed Times Square.
The scene where Reagan walked through Times Square wearing a pair of underpants and returned to the theater to continue his performance was the best reflection of his perseverance and sense of responsibility for performance. However, what really caught fire was the video of Reagan's underwear crossing the square. In a short period of time, the number of video clicks reached hundreds of thousands, further exceeding one million. Daughter Sam told Reagan, who has always despised the Internet, whether you believe it or not, this is power.
However, under the guidance of this extremely powerful force, all the media focused on this crazy "hype" by the predecessor birdman, just as the world paid attention to Mike's erection during the second preview. The drama itself was once again forgotten.
This kind of "ignorance" torture, as Reagan said, is like a spoon-murderer constantly beating his eggs.
1.3.1.7 The execution notice
in the bar finally crushed the straw of the camel, which was the denial of Reagan's paranoia by the critic Dick +inson in the bar.
Dickinson has never seen Reagan's performance, but vowed to destroy Reagan's play with drama reviews. Dickinson unreservedly expressed his hostility to Reagan: Reagan is just a Hollywood clown in Lycra birdman costume... Dickinson thinks Reagan is a representative of Hollywood-style actors-cheating money through commercial movies, self-righteous, The actors who robbed the public opinion and the audience, but destroyed the real living space of performing arts. They are privileged, selfish, and spoiled children who are not ready to try real art at all, and even use the weekend box office to measure the so-called value of art.
Dickinson believes that Reagan is just one of these Hollywood actors, pretending to be able to write, direct and act, but actually just want to perform a personal advertising show for himself through Broadway.
Dickinson's reputation as a drama critic determines the success of the drama. Reagan turned his face in disappointment and despair, suppressing a great deal of resentment and gritted his teeth to Dickinson: These drama critics are just putting labels one after another, without the analysis of the drama structure, and no subject matter. Discussing is just lazily labeling the drama without paying any price.
Even though Reagan ranted about his ignorance (prejudice and misunderstanding) in the face of the world, Dickinson's declaration of war made him feel the final despair of the success of the show. He drank his sorrows by drinking, but he felt more and more that the world was more crazy than his drunk.
After sleeping in the garbage all night, Reagan's depression and consciousness reached the climax at the same time. After not knowing whether it was a madness or a thoroughly enlightened baptism, Reagan finally boarded the stage of the performance and staged the final wonderful and "real" performance for the audience.
1.3.1.8
Reagan, who had a thorough understanding of the first performance , thought about everything clearly. He realized his dedication and sacrifice for acting, and realized what he really lost outside of this obsession, including all the beauty of his wife, daughter and family. And his pursuit of ideals only paid for endless ignorance. He not only had the determination to leave the world, but also awakened his nostalgia for family affection.
After confessing to his ex-wife, Reagan took the real gun and walked onto the stage. His mood is exactly the same as the mood of the characters in the play, except that the love of men and women has been replaced by the love of ideals. Reagan gave a performance of the unity of soul and body to the audience
Reagan said: Why do I always ask others to love me (always begging others to love me who insists on pursuing performing arts)
Reagan said: I just want to be the kind of person you want, but now every minute I try to be Other people, instead of being myself (want to please the audience, please the media, please the public opinion, but increasingly lose the true self)
Reagan said: You don’t love me now, and you won’t love me again in the future (audience I only love watching noisy and fast popcorn movies. I no longer love pure performance art, and I will never love it again in the future)
Reagan smiled bitterly and said: I don’t exist, I don’t exist, I am not even here (stage The me in the audience and the me in the eyes of the audience are all illusions. The me who really pursued art no longer exists in the viewer's world)
Reagan drew his gun to Mike and said in fright: bang! (Go to your Mike, you are just a member of the bluff in this world)
Reagan drew his gun to the audience and said weakly: bang. (I’ve been pursuing the audience’s approval for my whole life. But forget it now, I understand love and being loved, I don’t need you anymore.)
Reagan pistol against his head, pulls the trigger, and the flames and blood splash together, all People are stunned.
However, a very absurd scene appeared. Audiences who had never recognized Reagan, faced a man who committed suicide and bleeds because of the intertwining of despair and consciousness, no one to rescue, no one showed the slightest sympathy and introspection, but they all clapped comically. . They still think that Reagan is going to perform to please them. This kind of ignorance is so cruel.
To say what unexpected virtue is created by this kind of ignorance, it is that the spiritual feeling of the protagonist Reagan is getting closer and closer to the role of the drama, the performance is getting more and more exquisite, and finally a spirit is given. The perfect performance of the unity of meat.
1.2.3 The third Ignorance, Reagan's liberation
I wanted to get rid of all shackles by suicide, and achieve a high degree of unity between my artistic ideals and the audience's praise by perfect performances. Reagan regained unparalleled attention and prestige.
However, has the world's "ignorance" of him so ended? not at all. As soon as Regan woke up, his producer rushed over to tell him the good news—he became the headline of the newspaper again, man of the hour. Next, the producer made a prediction that should have been more fearful (in fact, more calm and firm):
This play (Ignorance, which can never be shaken off, will always be the utilitarian of society for the true love of drama) Blinded by the heart, not recognized) will be staged again and again, and will continue to perform, in London, in Paris...
Reagan’s greatest hope is to let people see the real him and pursue the ultimate pursuit of performing arts. He, not the exaggerated comic image "bird man". For this reason, he did not hesitate to perform with a real gun and committed a failed suicide. And the reality to the utmost ridicule is that Reagan, who is most eager to get rid of the identity of the bird man, now not only his identity, but also his appearance is more like a bird man than ever before.
The whole movie tortured Reagan's sincerity to ideals time and time again. And this moment is the final test. Reagan paid such a high price to set aside fame and fortune and pursue his ideals; now the incomparable fame and fortune are in sight, and the price is to change back to the birdman. How should Reagan choose?
We know that Reagan chose to open the window and jumped in depth.
At the end of the movie, Reagan, who is truly liberated, falls to the ground while his body is sublimated (the only ending is not an open ending at all). The movie gave a picture of magical realism. Reagan’s daughter Sam looked downstairs anxiously, showing a glimmer of pain, and seemed to see something. Her eyes followed it up, as if she heard a bird cry, Sa There was no trace of sorrow, and he looked up at the sky and smiled heartily and happily.
This implies that Sam finally realized Reagan's ideal pursuit, witnessed Reagan's final soul sublimation, and was happy that he finally gained freedom like a bird.
Regard’s final response to the masses’ ignorance was also ignorance—ignoring others’ ignorance of you, free from the shackles of public opinion and interests—so Reagan not only reached the ultimate state in performance, but his soul also gained true The sublimation. This is the second type of "unexpected virtue", which is to sacrifice one's life for justice.
Similar meanings, similar spirits, there are several tautologies in the movie:
1) The subtitles at the beginning of the film are also the subtitles that should have appeared at the end of the film. It is the line in the drama in the movie, and it is also the final answer that Reagan left behind what he thought when he fell like Icarus:
At this point, have you achieved what you want in this life? ——Yes,
but what are you looking for in this life? ——Can claim to be loved and feel loved
2) After the first act, Reagan returned to the stage and saw the flowers his daughter Sam gave him——“they didn't have whatever you wanted ”, "What you really ask for is not what they can give."
There is also the words in the mirror: "A thing is a thing, not what is said of that thing"-things are things themselves, not evaluations of things.
This truth is used in the words of the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, "If things are not in things, then the human can get it and the evil is exhausted!". Teach people to pursue their sincerity and not to be swayed by public opinion and foreign objects. What Reagan really wanted was his love and appreciation of performing arts, and he finally fulfilled his inner realization. All this is not what public opinion and praise can give to
this unexpected virtue of ignorance, which entrusts Reagan's ultimate understanding of love and being loved, and finally conforms to the fate of birdman Icarus. The three themes are integrated.
At the end of the movie, Reagan, who is truly liberated, falls to the ground while his body is sublimated (the only ending is not an open ending at all). The movie gave a picture of magical realism. Reagan’s daughter Sam looked downstairs anxiously, showing a glimmer of pain, and seemed to see something. Her eyes followed it up, as if she heard a bird cry, Sa There was no trace of sorrow, and he looked up at the sky and smiled heartily and happily.
This implies that Sam finally realized Reagan's ideal pursuit, witnessed Reagan's final soul sublimation, and was happy that he finally gained freedom like a bird.
Only when we, as audiences, understand the main point of the movie, can we feel the "unexpected virtue of ignorance" free from the shackles of society. The experience given by the movie "Birdman" reminds me of the shock when I watched "GATTAGA", "Little Sunshine" and "21 Grams".
1.3.3 The third ignorance, the blindness of movie audiences due to prejudice.
This movie revolves around a play in play—a Broadway drama. I personally call this kind of movie a mirror movie. The director tried to turn the screen into a mirror, allowing the audience, the media, and the film critics to see themselves in the movie, without realizing that they were themselves in reality. (Recently, a Chinese director also made a similar mirror play in his movie-Jiang Wen's "One Step Away". In the movie, he portrayed Wang Tianwang, who represents the media and public opinion, and he just wanted to "shoot the horse to kill you". Populist public opinion. Then he used these scenes to criticize the audience who could not understand "One Step Away" in reality.)
As mentioned earlier, in the "Birdman" movie, all the spectators, whether colleagues, audiences, film critics or the media, did not realize Reagan's true love for acting. Why can't I realize it? Because they are all submerged in the value law determined by the commodity economy, whether they obey or resist, their eyes are blinded by utilitarianism. "One leaf is blind, but Tarzan
is not seen." What is interesting is that the "Birdman" film uses clever narrative techniques to cover the real theme (continuously interrupting Reagan so that he can't explain what he really thinks), and the prejudice is mainly used The mouth of the character appears. The audience outside the screen naturally accepts all prejudices, making it difficult to understand this acclaimed film.
The audience outside the movie, "a leaf blinded, no Taishan", and the audience in the movie gave exactly the same "ignorance".
This ignorance creates a strong distortion field, distorting reality as dramatic and as ridiculous as the world in the movie.
Where is it ridiculous? It is ridiculous that when a large number of film critics introduced the film, "The male protagonist once appeared in Batman 1, 2, but resigned in 3. Since then, the path of acting has been sluggish. The success of the film "Birdman" allowed him to reopen the situation. "
Or "This is a movie about a midlife crisis. The actor is a dead Hollywood star. When he reaches his middle age, he encounters career setbacks and family breakdown. He is eager to recover through the success of the stage play." Everything"...It is
exactly the same as the public's speculation about the protagonist Reagan in the movie. The public in the real world did not see the idealistic brilliance of Reagan (and the actors), but regarded him as a commodity economy dominated. A loser in juan's entertainment circle (juan). The public in the real world does not see this drama's exploration of human "ideal" and "true love", but regards it as a work about the crisis of midlife. For example, the introduction of Baidu Baike:
The director did not direct the audience in the real world, and the audience in the real world danced burlesque like the public in the movie, repeatedly performing the "ignorance" (ignorance and prejudice) of the theme of the movie. This kind of ignorance not only creates a wonderful movie-watching experience for the audience, but also creates a satirical landscape that closely matches reality and the movie. It is also one of the “unexpected virtue” wonders brought by “ignorance”.
2. The magical realist approach in the movie Appreciation
2.1 The birdman metaphor and the falling meteor have been
systematically discussed before, and I will mention it here. Birdman has two sides in the movie, one is Icarus who fell in pursuit of his ideals, and the other is a superhero illusion created by the commodity economy. At the same time, it also symbolizes the vanity that violently conflicts with Reagan's ideals.
fallen Icarus appears at the beginning and end of the movie. At the beginning is the burning wings, and at the end, after Reagan shot himself on stage, the meteor that traverses the city sky accompanied by drums
2.2 Suicide and Jellyfish Metaphor There
are four suicides in the movie. First of all, of course, the husband in the play shot suicide, but failed (the gun was missed); then Regan pours his ex-wife to suicide after the anniversary of the divorce (failed because he was stung by a jellyfish); then Rui Gen's suicide on the stage of the performance (like the person in the play, he missed and hit his nose); in the end, Reagan jumped deep from the hospital window.
Jellyfish from the sea appeared at the beginning and end of the film. What does this scene mean?
This metaphor is also very interesting, but I didn't have the opportunity to discuss it. It is about the struggle between human ideals and instincts. People often laugh at a person who has failed suicide. He is not afraid of death, because he is afraid of ×× so much. In fact, this is the fact. Whether it is from the pursuit of ideals or the end of life, people still have to struggle with instinct. The instinct of desire hinders success, and the instinct to survive even hinders death. It takes courage to overcome instinct.
I think the metaphor of jellyfish is the instinct to be loved. Reagan went to the beach to commit suicide because the jellyfish stung too much and fled ashore. And why couldn't Reagan always be free from the ignorance of the world? Because even though the world always ignores his pursuit and hard work, he still reluctant to be loved (belove). Whether it is leaving the stage or ending his life, the deep sense of loneliness that no one cares about is a pain that hinders Reagan from taking action.
This kind of pain made Reagan unable to give up his dream of acting. He chose to rehearse the drama "What Are We Saying When We Mention Love" as the last fight for self-salvation.
In addition, the director seems to particularly like the theme of redeeming the soul through suicide, and he particularly likes to use the element "jellyfish". In the director's "21 Grams", Will Smith also used jellyfish to end his life. I don't understand the reason for this.
2.3 Long shots The
first thing that made this movie stand out was its outstanding long shots. Some people say that taking these long shots is just to show off their skills and has no other value.
I personally think that long shots are necessary for this film. It tells the background of the story, is a drama staged on Broadway, through the drama to show these actors' pursuit of artistic ideals, as well as the spurning of the commercial waste culture. If the play is still made by editing and collage from the camera, and it does not reach the height of Broadway, then it should be the first to scold itself.
We imagine the two characteristics of a stage play. Firstly, it is divided into several scenes, each of which requires the actors to do it in one go; then, the sense of time and space within each scene is continuous and stable, and only jumps sharply during the transition.
Birdman's narrative structure is deliberately imitating drama, and each long shot is a scene. There are no slow motions, fast motions, cuts and jumps, no flashbacks in each scene... but continuous and stable. When transitioning, he deliberately maintains the continuity of space, ignores the continuity of time, and only pursues the continuity of the dramatic conflict.
From this point of view, "Birdman" must use a long lens, and only a long lens, the most suitable film language at this time. What's more, it allows the actors to take extremely difficult acting skills to the extreme, without letting go, and is brilliant, and has caught up or even surpassed the level of Broadway stage plays.
2.4 Why use the follow and rotate lens
Reagan actually suffers from depression and is always tortured by anxiety. Therefore, the film repeatedly uses these two languages-characters have a lot of movement, each strong emotional expression must be moved to a certain fixed scene (lounge, coffee shop, stage), and excessive emotional communication means Keep walking around.
Once walking around, follow the camera to instill a lot of noisy and meaningless scene information into the audience; when the characters are still, the camera continuously rotates around them, and the information in front of them can never be well organized.
This is the director's deliberate creation of an experience where one cannot concentrate. The anxiety in Reagan's heart is mapped to the audience's heart. If the audience cannot understand the plot of the movie, they will only feel irritated and dizzy under this lens language.
If the audience can understand the plot of the movie, then these shots are also delicious like aging, which is worth tasting carefully. The language of the lens creates a lot of visual and auditory noise, paralyzing our senses. Once the lens stops suddenly, the people and events in focus will become particularly prominent at this time, like a shock in the silence of all things.
2.5 Why use endless drum beats as background music
drum beats are similar to the lens. They both create an emotional atmosphere of irritability and reflect the mood of the protagonist Reagan and others onto our audience.
Near the Reagan Theater, there is a street performer beating the drum endlessly. The drums in the background music are also the auditory hallucinations in Reagan's mind, reflecting Reagan's chronic anxiety state. Everyone has auditory hallucinations. We often walk on the road, but a certain melody is playing repeatedly in our minds. Which melody will automatically play in our minds is closely related to our mood. This is also the reason why the film and television arts use background music.
When the inner conflict was particularly intense, the drumbeats in the background changed from a person’s drums to the drums of a group of people on the street (Reagan appeared when he crossed Times Square and also appeared when he committed suicide on the Reagan stage)
Why did the artist who beat the drum appear in the aisle the last time Regan took a real gun and walked onto the stage? This is a common technique of magic realism. Reagan's mood at the time was too calm, just like water that exceeded the boiling point without boiling, waiting for an instant explosion. In this state of mind, all people will have the illusion that what they think is what they see (such as auditory hallucinations, vision hallucinations), if it is true. Therefore, the moment when the drummer appeared is to show us Reagan's mind feelings.
2.6 Superpower metaphors
This movie has superpowers from the very beginning, and they continue throughout. Each super power scene is in line with Reagan's subjective imagination. It was not until the next two scenes that he saw the truth from the third person's perspective (Regan was in the rest room by himself, and he returned to the theater by taxi).
Why render superpowers? I think there are probably four reasons.
The first reason is the Ignorance that the director deliberately created. Because superpowers are the most common and trademarked elements of popcorn movies. The introduction of this element can well induce the audience to establish a presupposition of a "superhero movie" in their hearts, so that the eyes of the public who misunderstood Reagan in the movie are covered, and the truth of Reagan's idealist cannot be seen. This is a trick used by the director.
The second reason is that Reagan has been suffering from depression. He has auditory hallucinations of drums, a split personality of birdman, and he is always surrounded by suppressed anxiety. Superpower is a brain supplement for his emotional outburst, and it is also an illusion. This kind of illusion is a psychotic episode in adults, but it is very common in children (gesturing to imagine that you can send out shock waves). The
third reason, the illusion of superpower, is a metaphor for the self-deception and arrogance of commercial cultural garbage. It appears at the same time as birdman and reflects the most common phenomenon in superhero movies. It allows a virtual hero to go to the sky and omnipotence. Countless adults queue to pay to watch it. Isn't this a group mental illness in itself?
The fourth reason is the magical expression of the protagonist’s vanity. The Chinese language evaluates people who are full of vanity, saying that they are "floating", which is a false experience that describes the inflated vanity and conceit, which makes people feel that they are omnipotent, can fly, and can destroy things with their minds. . The language of the film materializes this experience of vanity and becomes a mental illusion with superpowers.
2.6 Summary of Various Magic Realism Techniques
With the help of the film "Birdman", we can have a good understanding of the expression techniques of magic realism movies. The most essential one is that movies can only present the objective world (visual and auditory) to the audience, while magical realism uses objective elements to describe the subjective world of people.
To put it simply, it is nothing more than materializing emotions, feelings and imaginations that humans can only experience in their minds into the pictures and sounds that can be seen in movies.
The easiest way is metaphor. Materialize a perceptual knowledge, such as Icarus or a superhero junk movie, into the image of a birdman.
Then came the lens language and background music. Anxiety is Reagan's main experience, so the movie allows us to see non-stop rotating shots and hear non-stop drum beats. When Reagan's emotions erupted, we heard birdman talking to him, saw him smash objects with superpowers, and even saw drumming artists who shouldn't exist in the aisle. These hallucinations were materialized before us.
The magical transition in the movie is also an example. Laura slapped Reagan a second before, and after a second Laura had walked onto the preview stage with a charming smile. This transition splits the audience's perception of the continuity of time in the objective world, in order to ensure the continuity of the character's mood between the two scenes.
I personally think that the director’s magical realism skills are stronger than our Jiang Wen. Jiang Wen can do better audiovisual effects, and the artistic conception of the key scenes is not lost to others (a step away from the study memory); but to repeatedly create these artistic conceptions in a movie, the director of "Birdman" is more arbitrary.
3 The film's criticism of reality
"Birdman" has a lot of criticism of reality, and it is also very sharp. But I personally think that behind the criticism of this movie, the main purpose is to celebrate the ideal. Unfortunately, many audiences and film critics only noticed those criticisms. Therefore, in the critical section, I will not analyze it in detail here, but simply list it to make up for the omission.
Criticizing the merchandise economy is only for the destruction of culture and art.
Criticizing Hollywood actors (Bar dialogue between Reagan and Dickinson)
directly criticizing superhero movies
Criticize those acting actors who are also involved in junk culture to make money.
Criticize that utilitarian values replace the values of art and ideals.
Criticize the indifferent public who only cares about interests and popularity (especially the pursuit of viral videos), and they have lost their piety to learn from art
. The full text is over. Please forgive me for too much space. In addition, it is not professional writing, just do whatever you want, it is inevitable that there will be a lot of wordy and repetition, please forgive me!
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