Friday: From the perspective of the film’s anti-inspirational concept, the American movie "The Wave" released in 2019 is another version of "Burst Drummer"-they all use a bloody fighting spirit to stimulate the protagonist. He gritted his teeth and rushed forward until his head was beaten and his dream was shattered. However, "The Tide" is different from "Blasting Drummer" in that these inspirational, struggling and even struggle to disintegrate scenes only accounted for half of the movie's length-the protagonist in the opening chapter has retired from the movie's protagonist position and became a supporting role after his dream was shattered. . So what did the other half of the movie play—obviously, it was a sequelae caused by the shattering of the "American Dream"...
This article is not focused on analyzing the plot, because compared to the movie plot, those "movie techniques" that explain the plot seem to be more worthy of our study! How should I put it, these techniques make this cliché anti-inspirational youth movie look more attractive and up-to-date!
(Note: This article is a purely analytical article. Reading before watching the movie will seriously affect your thinking ability and the enjoyment of watching movies)
One or two characters + two colors
From the perspective of the script, "The Tide" tells the story of a boy and a girl (the two protagonists of the movie just turned 18).
Note that we mentioned the word "separate" here, that is to say, the whole movie does not take a certain protagonist as the axis to the end like a traditional commercial movie, but split the movie into two parts——
In the first half, the elder brother lost his way in front of love and ideals, and finally fell into the abyss;
In the second half of the part, the younger sister reaps love from the setbacks of family changes and regains her life...
The above is the setting of the movie as a story on the horizontal timeline. However, from the perspective of visual storytelling, the movie also has two protagonists. These two characters are no less than the style and appearance rate of the two characters. Yes, the two protagonists are: red and Blue (or reddish and bluish).
First look at the following set of pictures:
▲ Almost every lens in the movie is composed of red and blue series, and it always reflects the antagonism between red and blue
If you can realize the effect of these two colors on the mood of watching the movie, it is not difficult to realize that they appear throughout the film without interruption! It is no exaggeration to say that the stories told by these two "color protagonists" (red and blue) are more exciting than the performances and experiences of the two protagonists!
So what kind of story does the two colors tell? It is actually very simple. To sum up one word, it is "youth".
In other words, the film director divided "youth" into one red and one blue——
In the first half, red is accompanied by his brother's fighting spirit, passion, hormones, and impulse. Blue is attached to the red, accompanied by loss, perplexity, decadence, and melancholy;
In the second half, the same two colors also appeared on the younger sister, but at this time the "blue" seemed to be the dominant one. It filled the girl's entire life (including family life, school life, and love life). The red color at this time is very interesting. It has not disappeared. It is attached to the younger sister like a faded color. The feeling is no longer the kind of "chicken blood red", but it is warm and lively...
In this way, the two colors blended, interspersed, and symmetrically finished the movie, expressing the theme of youth—passion, melancholy, impulse, perplexity...
What a simple and direct visual expression, it directly touches the consciousness of the viewer and makes it resonate.
Of course, there is more than one color involved in the visual narrative, and another technique makes the author even more curious——
Two or three frames, four changes
The movie frame is the aspect ratio of the movie screen. For example, 16:9, 2.35:1, 4:3, these numbers are used to describe the size of the movie frame. Usually a movie has a fixed frame size, but have you noticed (it is not difficult to see through the above video screenshots): The film "The Wave" actually changed the frame size four times, using three pictures Frame specifications.
Obviously, the director has made a lot of articles on the picture frame. As for what the director's intentions are hidden in these "articles", it is difficult to say, it depends on everyone's understanding and preference. Let's look at the movie plot that accompanies several changes:
▼First change:
The movie starts with a size close to 16:9, showing us the black guy (male protagonist) who is fighting spirit, passionate, and healthy.
When our male protagonist was found to have a problem with the shoulder axis (biceps tendon) and was declared unable to participate in the professional league he dreamed of, the state of our male protagonist began to change——
Pay attention to the conflict of colors at this time: yes, blue sadness gradually replaced the red passion and prevailed.
The scene of the male protagonist playing a plane in the house couldn’t be better to illustrate this problem-
▲Note: A large area of blue wall covers the red medals and photo frames
After that, the male lead took a bath in the bathroom and ate hamburgers. He fell asleep and woke up again. The screen changed its size unknowingly (probably a size wider than 2.35:1) and became bigger than before. It's flat!
▼The second change:
Misfortunes never come singly. After suffering a loss in the game, the male protagonist then suffered a breakup and a love affair. Then, under the double stimulation of red anger and blue sadness, the male protagonist rushed to the location of his ex-girlfriend. The two quarreled, and the male protagonist drove his ex-girlfriend. Hit it with one punch.
Next, the screen became close to 4:3, and the entire movie world seemed to be turned over.
After that, tragedy came-the ex-girlfriend died without rescue, and the male protagonist was sentenced to life imprisonment. At this point, the first half of the movie is over.
▼The third change:
When the movie enters the second half, when the actor’s sister starts to change from the previous supporting role to the protagonist, the size of the movie at this time still stays at the ratio of 4:3, which is very simple. At this time, the family is still immersed in the elder brother’s brewing. The tragic pain and sequelae of Cheng Cheng.
Until my sister met the boy who pursued her, the two began to fall in love, and the screen size changed again, back to 2.35:1.
Note that this size is not the size at the beginning of the movie, but the size after my brother woke up from the bathroom after the first change.
▼The fourth change:
After the third size change, the movie naturally played the process of a sister and a new boyfriend getting along and falling in love. The atmosphere in this process was pretty good, and it made people take a breather from the previous tragedy. But you know, just take a breath, the girl's heart knot and the heart knot of her parents are always hidden in the heart, and also hidden in the movie
Naturally, this knot still originated from the shadow of the pain of losing his brother and killing his girlfriend.
This knot took a turn for the better in another unexpected episode. After learning that her boyfriend’s father who had abandoned her was suffering from cancer, the younger sister decided to accompany her boyfriend to visit her father. And just as the two drove to the hospital where their father was, the screen size changed again unconsciously, this time to the size at the beginning of the movie.
Not only has the size changed back to the original size, but even the lens movement is in line with the beginning!
Okay, let's quickly summarize these four screen size changes:
◤ For the first time, the screen becomes narrower horizontally, and the male protagonist begins to move from health and passion to melancholy and depravity;
◤The second change, the screen is reversed horizontally and vertically, and tragedy occurs;
◤The third change, the screen returns to the horizontally narrowed size, the pain is relieved, and the heart is firmly attached;
◤The fourth change, the screen returns to the normal size at the beginning, and all the knots are resolved.
Having said that, can everyone understand the role of this frame change in the rhythm, emotional excess, and metaphor of the movie!
So, the whole movie uses such avant-garde visual expression methods, is it just to express a story of adolescence, I can't stop it, the director has higher intentions and perspectives.
3. The creator's point of view as a metaphor for "one go and one time"
Pay attention to the three scenes at the beginning, middle, and end of the movie that are easily overlooked but are super important for the interpretation of the film-that is the shot of my sister riding a bicycle. They seem to be similar but they are worlds apart-
At the beginning, the younger sister rode a bicycle slowly and laboriously forward under the backlight, and the camera also followed her younger sister forward slowly;
In the middle part (after the tragedy of the brother), the backlighting scene did not change, but the younger sister changed the direction and rode back slowly;
At the end of the scene, my sister is riding back in the sun, looking calm and relaxed. The camera gradually zoomed out, and the riding speed became faster and faster. In the end, my sister just left the handle with both hands.
Although the camera has changed to face the person back at this time, note that, relative to the speed of the camera's forward movement, the younger sister is still moving closer to the screen.
For an anti-inspirational movie, the above three sets of shots couldn't be better to express the director's intentions-one rushes forward with passion, one looks back sadly, and another stands still and feels contented.
Obviously he is opposing that kind of hard work, he is opposing the "American Dream" style forward, just like the joke in "Days on the Clouds": walking too fast will easily leave the soul behind!
4. "The Wave" talks about more than adolescence
Throughout this American movie "The Wave", regardless of its plot, thoughts and actor performance, from an artistic point of view, it has a strong sense of symmetry-this symmetry is reflected in the color and the lens. The above is also reflected in the paragraphs before and after the script. Regardless of the plots or the performances of the actors, they have become more refined and touching in these artistically symmetrical frameworks, and their thinking has become more and more profound.
This is also the charm of "movie language". It allows a simple youth story to be displayed in front of us so vividly, and it also allows us to get more thinkable things from this simple youth story. . "The Wave", as a work by the post-80s director of the United States, is worthy of reference for any director of us!
Here comes the question. In our movies, who is questioning those who are full of "can't lose at the starting line"?
Text: wuming Editor: Mr. Friday Picture: Video screenshot [Friday Art] Original film review, reprinting is prohibited.
View more about Waves reviews
