This work, which won the best director at Cannes last year, is undoubtedly another great opportunity to showcase his mashup skills. Judging from the opening paragraph, it is clearly a story with a horror and supernatural theme: the old house, ghosts, and psychics. The common elements of these genres have constructed a very high degree of horror introduction under his lens. However, the story soon turned to the fashionable Parisian fashion industry, and the heroine's work had the meaning of "media" to some extent: acting as a private buyer for female employers. Then, unexpectedly, another suspenseful anonymous text message was inserted until finally the supernatural event surfaced again...
However, the audience who wanted to experience the supernatural thriller might have to return in disappointment, because the only one appeared in the film The image of "ghost" is a bit ridiculous and generous. In my opinion, the director wants to use this spiritual story to illustrate the process of a woman recognizing herself and facing reality. This is the biggest ambition of Assayas. Similar themes can be found in several of his previous works: the mistress who was exploited and finally awakened to give up revenge in "Boarding Gate", and the single mother of drug addicts who finally gave up revenge in "What About Missing".
In this film, Kristen Stewart plays an American girl who wanders alone in Paris (this is similar to her identity in real life). After the death of her twin brother, she cannot let go. She is convinced that his ghost will give She "signaled"; she encountered all kinds of difficulties from the female employer at work; later, she encountered an anonymous text message hookup on business trips. This not only caused the intersection of the front and the back, but also revealed her inner loneliness. The confusion and fear caused by this loneliness are the focus of the film.
The heroine was unable to find a snuggle in the face of the departure of her relatives, and the feeling of loneliness was born from this. The unsatisfactory experience at work deepened this sense of loneliness. In addition, being in a foreign country made her mentally depressed and troubled. . As a result, it is necessary to secretly change into fashionable clothes and become "others" to obtain mental satisfaction and balance. After experiencing the anonymous tracking incident, finally let go of the knot and go to Arab countries to start a new life. In the last scene, facing the reappearance of the brother's soul, she finally wakes up and asks: Is it you? Or it's just me... It completely shows the process of a young woman recognizing herself.
Assayas is also constantly pioneering and innovating in terms of director skills. In recent years, I am afraid that it has been difficult to see such frequent display of mobile phone text messages on the screen. Through this narrative method, the director effectively projected the sensitive changes in the heroine’s inner emotions, and added the tension of the plot invisibly, especially the scene where an anonymous person told to come to her at home through text messages. The text message made the degree of horror rise sharply. Another way is to show her inner heart through clothing. She easily faded away from her simple and monotonous dress and changed her naked body into dazzling fashionable clothing. The whole person regained her confidence and got rid of fear in the completely renewed dress. At this point, the director seems to be deliberately introducing materialism (materialism) to thinking about the mentality of young people in today's society, which also gives the film a deeper sense of discussion.
In the post-screening director’s master class, I even heard the director’s live analysis of multiple key points of the film. The analysis of the star's identity seems to have something in common with his predecessor, Sils Maria, because I haven't seen that one and can't compare it. Another point is about the film's use of black and white silent films, which I find quite interesting. The heroine in the film does not have many dialogues, and many scenes are a person, such as driving a motorcycle on the streets of Paris, and stealing new clothes at the female employer’s home, all of which give Stewart a good opportunity to fully demonstrate his personal acting skills; and the classics Actress Marlene Dietrich’s old German songs and Hugo’s psychic anecdotes can make the audience smell the invisible power of silent films.
Finally, I have to mention the acting of Kristen Stewart. Under the guidance of Assayas, she rebornly demonstrated the wonderful interpretation of naturalistic tendencies, which really impressed me. The delicate emotional interpretations and the paragraphs without lines left a deep impression on people. This reminds me of the actress award she won with "Sirs Maria" at the French Caesar Awards last year. Congratulations to Asayas, after Maggie Cheung and Aisha Aquido, finally found a new muse!
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