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genre of movies is almost as long as that of Hollywood. It usually means formulaic plots, stereotyped characters, graphical visual images, and even a group of based on preferences They are divided into different categories, waiting for movie companies to invest in their favorite audiences. In this way, the genre seems to be somewhat boring. Old bottled wine, no matter whether the bottle is new or old, the bottle is always old. However, genre movies can become the pioneer of Hollywood sweeping the international market, so it must have an irreplaceable unique charm. In fact, genre movies are quite open and dynamic. In the long history of development, it has continuously blended various elements, and has developed from the earliest westerns, musicals, bandit films, and comedies to more than a dozen genres such as romance films, political films, and thrillers. And dozens of sub-types of complex systems. After all, since the market is the main goal, the audience's love must occupy an indisputable position. The audience itself is closely connected with the development of the entire era, the changes in the social environment, and the influx of new trends of thought.
As the veteran and one of the most prominent types of Western films, bandit films should almost only be produced in the United States. To a certain extent, the history of the robber's family is the realization of an unglamorous American dream. But like other types of movies, bandit films have also experienced the brilliance of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the transformation and self-breakthrough that did not lag behind. Rather than saying that the subsequent frequent film movements such as the New Wave completely affected and changed the bandit films, it is better to say that the mutual absorption and mixing of the two have made each other.
"Outside the Law" is a film made by Godard in 1964. As a new wave of chess player, Godard is also a fan of genre movies. And his best "Exhaustion" and "Madman Pierrot" have profoundly influenced the new Hollywood movement and the resulting genre changes. "The Law" was born out of a robber film, but under Godard, who is good at subversion and deconstruction, it is full of elements of anti-robber films. Therefore, it can be said that it is a destroyed robber film.
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Character setting: The image of the robber in the traditional robber film is generally romantic, and generally adopts the dual protagonist model. This method is also used in the Law. At the beginning of the film, we can see two young people-Arthur and Faz, and as often appear in bandit movies, they drive a high-speed car. But unlike the big criminals who endangered the whole world in this type of film in the past, Arthur and Faz are just two young people wandering around, not tall or handsome. They are fascinated by American culture and English. They are very interested in Billy Boys and dancing. They even participated in English tuition classes. But they don't like a rigid life, but they don't have clear ideals and goals, and they don't have a career to make a living. Most of the time, live by stealing money. Stealing is like driving around in the street, it's just a part of their lives, the need to survive rather than a bigger conspiracy, which in itself is different from traditional bandit movies. We may be able to see in them the shadows of the heroes and heroines in the new and good Hollywood masterpiece "The Male and Female Thief", which was all the rage. Bohemian, abomination of ordinary and boring life, crime is only a temporary act, completely unable to arouse any moral disgust from the audience.
They imitated the shots in Billy Kid's legend and played around on the side of the road. They live in a self-made virtual gangster world, with the humor and wit of their own small group, and their disdain for this world.
Like other bandit movies, there is a woman who makes them fall in love in "The Law." They met a young girl, Audrey, in the cram school. She lived like a lamb in the house of the aunt who adopted her. Just like Su Lizhen was infatuated with ALFY, Audrey was quickly attracted by the ruffian Arthur, and in order to please him, she even prepared to help them rob her rich aunt.
Here, Audrey is not a symbolic character, but is actually added to the narrative-the whole movie is just a movie of the three of them. Like characters in New Wave movies usually show, they also do things suddenly and without reason. They are not characters in a compact dramatic story full of twists and turns and intense conflict. Absence is their usual state.
Godard uses the usual character images of bandit films as a template to set up a huge cover, but inside the cover is a new thing that escapes and is not tame.
Narrative mode: In this film, there is always a voiceover that goes through to the end. The voice-over means another point of view, but we still cannot find the narrator hidden behind the sound. Sometimes he calmly narrated the progress of things, and sometimes used poetic sad language to tell their inner emotions. This kind of telling from beginning to end often separates the audience from the plot and tells people that this is always just a story to be told. If the traditional bandit movie is to use the twists and turns of the story to draw the audience firmly into the film so that he and the protagonist become one, Godard is obviously more willing to interrupt the audience’s thoughts and let them jump. Away from the movie.
From the acquaintance of Audrey Faz, the whole movie slowly revolves around the three of them who agreed to rob Audrey’s aunt. If this is the main plot of the film, Godard added a lot of things that have nothing to do with it. The details dilute its tension. A large description of the flirtation between Faz and Audrey. Audrey fell in love with Arthur. She lay on Faz's bed in a curled up position and was afraid that she would be abandoned by him. And more is about the description of the subtle but interesting atmosphere when Faz and Arthur Audrey are together. Faz took out a pack of cigarettes to Audrey, but she refused. When Arthur also took out the cigarette, Audrey took it over with joy, although she had obviously not smoked before. The part where the three people danced together in the bar became a classic segment in film history, and was later used by Quentin, who is good at collage, in Pulp Fiction.
As the climax of the whole movie, the final crime was put to the end like a normal bandit movie, and Arthur and Faz finally decided to act on a certain day. But before letting Audrey go home to start, Arthur stopped her and told her to take off her socks. "What are you going to do?" "Just let you take it off." The two put black socks on their heads and buttoned their original hats. Two well-dressed black heads appeared in front of the audience. Black-brained people, the huge comicality weakens the tension that steals completely deserves.
The end of the film ended with Arthur and Arthur’s uncle shooting each other and killing each other. This is a common ending in robber movies, but ironically, after Arthur fell to the ground, the owner of the villa returned home and found Ya Before the money was stolen, Audrey's aunt, who had died before, suddenly woke up miraculously and quickly rushed into the arms of the host. But Audrey and Faz, who had witnessed all this, had undergone tremendous changes. They went to other places and prepared to live together sweetly. No one in the world understands the preciousness of love better than them.
In the usual bandit movies, the death of the bandit strengthens this genre’s praise of social order and community morals, but in Godard’s case, this hard-fixed ending makes a new life dazed and surprised, breaking the audience’s viewing experience. It destroys the satisfaction they deserve from the closed ending.
Audiovisual and environment: Just as Godard subverted the crime in the bandit movie, he also subverted the fixed shooting and editing methods in this genre. The looseness and dissociation of narration is similarly manifested in editing and the use of sound.
In this movie, Godard chose a large number of jumpers. We can often see the same sound and the same action being re-screened by Godard in different positions and angles after it happened. The repetition of time and space brings a powerful soul shock.
And what can be called a magical pen in the film is a minute of silence. Faz said, I know you have nothing to say, so let's be silent for a minute. Then Godard removed the audio of the movie, and we saw a completely silent movie, with no dialogue, no music, no ambient sound, all we heard was the rustle of the projector. Like the Fazi Audrey and Arthur in the movie, we fell completely into silence, and we fell into the movie.
This is freedom like never before. Freedom of film, freedom of story, freedom of director. In this film born out of a bandit movie, we see a powerful irony of this type.
The background of the story is set in Paris, but there is no such thing as the usual robber movies. The intersecting slums and the prosperous communities that seem to be separated from each other brings strong visual and psychological impact to people. The beginning of his tragic fate was when the robber walked from the slum into the bustling community. They closely connected the fate of the robber with the transformation of matter.
In "Outside the Law", Paris is just a background of life. We can often see Faz and Arthur driving aimlessly on the streets of Paris. They are not intruders who expect to be among them through hard work and hard work. They are both integrated with this city but at the same time incompatible with it. Godard didn't want to express his trust or doubt in the protective role of the current civilization in it. There is no law enforcement agency in the whole film, and Arthur, who was shot dead, only died under the gun of his uncle who was also a gangster. He twisted exaggeratedly, and died drastically with energy far more than a man weighing several guns could show, just like he once performed with Faz.
The outer shell of the bandit movie is nothing more than a model for Godard's own ideas. Hollywood’s classic type traveled across the ocean to France and completely changed into another look. But the value of Hollywood is that it is always willing to adapt to this era, rather than stubbornly resisting.
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"Outside the Law" was filmed in 1964, at the end of the New Wave. At that time, television had become the enemy of Hollywood, taking away a large number of viewers. The younger generation who walked into the cinema to watch movies are mostly called the Beat generation, hippies. Influenced by various thought waves, upholding liberal beliefs, and refusing to accept the outdated Hollywood aesthetic model, they need new movies. In order to gain market share, Hollywood had to change its existing model.
In 1952, the transformational work "Noon" of the Western film had appeared. The sheriff in it was no longer an omnipotent superhuman hero who was loved by people. He was abandoned by the people he once dedicated to, and arrived at noon. At that time, she waited for her enemy in a dazed but sorrowful manner. The image of the traditional hero gradually collapsed, and cracks appeared in the fortress of the genre.
In 1967, the third year after the shooting of "Outside the Law", Arthur Payne's "The Male and Female Thief" came out, marking the official rise of the new Hollywood movement. The cynical robber couple replaced the popular heroes on the screen as the idols that everyone chased, opening the era of anti-hero aesthetics. The dismissive attitudes of Bonnie and Clyde are very similar to those in New Wave movies.
In fact, the New Hollywood Movement is a learning from all aspects of the New Wave. Hand-held photography, live shooting, authentic aesthetic principles, and more open and diversified narrative techniques. So later, the epoch-making "The Godfather" and "Once Upon a Time in America" came into being.
I really don't want to write the end, so let's do it first.
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