After watching it repeatedly for nearly 20 times, I will not come to a conclusion that a distorted painting is actually much smarter and more profound than the seven deadly sins. Many film critics like to compare the distorted painting with the seven deadly sins. For comparison, in fact, except that the two films are both criminal themes, they have nothing in common (about the comparison of distorted paintings and the seven deadly sins, this article will also do some analysis at the end),
but as a psychological film A super masterpiece of crime themes, it can even be said to be a rare masterpiece like a work of art. It is not normal for "Distorted Painting" to be neglected. Here I would like to make a profound analysis of the film and make a recommendation by the way.
The soul of "Distorted Paintings" lies in the word "anamorphosis" reflected in its title. Literally speaking, "distortion" refers to the murderer behind the whole film. , the avid underground artist "Uncle Eddie", who used the special painting techniques of the Renaissance to deliberately leave clues at the crime scene.
The killer artist "Uncle Eddie" had his first clues when he committed five murder cases five years ago, that is, he left strange pictures and words with inexplicable meanings at the crime scene.
And 5 years later, when he committed the crime again, the distorted painting technique he adopted was finally discovered by the actor, detective Carl accidentally, that is, the clues of the next crime scene were hidden in the photo of the previous crime scene. This is the surface meaning of the so-called "distortion".
In a deeper sense, distortion (gradation) refers to the psychological process of the protagonist, the police detective Stan, and this is what this film really wants to express, that is, the process of gradual, distorted, and distorted psychology of a person who is heading for destruction. .
Here is a temporary interjection, the actor who plays Stan is the famous actor Willem Dafoe. In this film, Dafoe contributed what may be his most perfect performance since filming, although many critics think that he is dull and boring. . In fact, these critics did not observe Dafoe's performance in depth at all. It can be said that Dafoe's performance in this film is definitely the Oscar-winning actor. Terman's performance in Black Swan is extroverted, that is, a breakthrough in acting is achieved through intense facial expressions, exaggerated emotional release and strong visual contrast between black and white swans, then in "Distorted Paintings", Dafoe It just does the opposite, throwing a spirit into a huge crisis, including being surrounded by confusion, fear, emptiness, remorse, and a sense of guilt and powerlessness, gradually heading towards the inner world of a destroyed police detective. Changes in facial expressions, obscure movements and details are shown, and the difficulty and success of the performance are only above Portman. In the following, the correlation analysis will be carried out.
Next, I will use the bright line of the plot and the dark line of Stan's psychological change process to explore the wonderful points of this film.
Considering that many people reported that they did not understand the plot, I will write more details according to the timeline.
1. Introduction
The opening introduction of the film is a hearing. Three public officials questioned Stan in the case of the killer "Uncle Eddie", focusing on the last victim, the prostitute Christo. This prostitute was actually hired by Stan. When Stan learned that the killer "Uncle Eddie" might commit another crime at the dock, he chose to use the prostitute as a bait under the great pressure of being unable to solve the previous five murders. He hoped to lead the snake out of the hole and capture "Uncle Eddie", but it backfired. When Stan and other police officers arrived at the scene, Christo had been stabbed several times and was thrown into the river to die.
"When I arrived, they were salvaging her ashore. At that time, there was more water in her body than blood."
This is the opening line of the whole film. Stan is expressionless and mechanically answers the questions of three public officials. inquiries.
And the result of this interrogation was because "Uncle Eddie" was later killed (actually, Stan's teammates killed an innocent suspect named Eddie by mistake, which will be discussed later), and there was no reunion for 6 weeks. The same case happened. The police believed that the case had been solved, so the questioning was finally put down gently, and the government no longer pursued the root cause of the death of the prostitute Christo.
At the end of the interrogation, the civil servant in the center told Stan that although there were many vague and unsatisfactory aspects of the interrogation, it was okay, and he congratulated Stan on being promoted to a first-level detective for cracking the case.
Stan, who heard the other party's compliments, still had no expression on his face, but the thumb of his left hand kept digging at his right hand. This small movement showed that he was not proud or smug after his promotion, but vaguely revealed a kind of feeling. anxiety.
With the end of the introduction of the inquiry, the whole film officially begins.
2. The opening
opening is a 3-minute replay, which introduces the cause and effect of the "Uncle Eddie" case. Through the introduction of the voiceover announcer, we can roughly know that 5 rare murder cases with a mysterious atmosphere occurred in New York City. , while Stan is the detective in charge of solving the case.
As the music with the same mystical inclination sounded at the beginning, five murder scenes emerged one by one: a man's body was wrapped as if he was sleeping, with the words "In his dream I found him" written on the pillow next to him. The body of another man was found by the river bank with his hands dangling and the words "I found him when lost on land" written behind him. A woman was killed in a church with a body placed in a prayer position with the words "I found her when it rained while praying." Then a man and a woman hugged naked, with the words "In the day they were born." That day" and the last case was a woman who looked like a prostitute had her throat cut, with the words "In the end I found her." All the victims were sprayed with the words "Death" with red paint .
In the opening scene, the subtitles introducing the cast and crew and the murder scenes in the picture keep changing and twisting. Each murder scene gradually evolves into the next murder scene through different compositions, revealing the hidden clues in these cases until they finally emerge. The title of the film is "Distortion".
3. The first painting The Hanged Man
At the end of the opening, the film officially begins. A drunk male and female couple accidentally knocked open the false door of the neighbor's house when they were entangled in love. With the unpleasant smell, they discovered the first murder in 5 years. , which I call the Hanged Man incident.
As soon as the scene changes, Stan is training police officers at the police station. In this paragraph, Stan tells a lot of eloquent theoretical knowledge of handling cases, which seems to be quite professional, but the fact is that he is indeed very professional, not some people commented, Stan He is a mediocre person, as will be explained below.
After the training, the picture shifted to Stan getting off work and buying daily necessities in the supermarket. Here comes a detail that many people noticed: he has obsessive-compulsive disorder and is obsessed with the order of the sundries. In fact, this detail is very important. Stan's obsessive-compulsive disorder shows two of the most important points in his personality, one is perfectionism (things should be in order, things should be orderly), and the second is that once perfectionism is broken (things are out of order, things are out of control), He would be anxious and overwhelmed.
The countless details that follow strengthen the description of Stan's personality again and again, and Stan's personality ultimately brings his inevitable destiny.
In the supermarket, Stan receives a phone call, and the dialogue in the film below implies that the call was from his boss, and the police chief called him.
Stan then drove to the scene, where he started drinking with a blank face.
As a police officer, drinking while driving is unbelievable, but in fact, drinking is a way for Stan to escape when faced with stress. Throughout the film, drinking almost becomes a hint of his fragile nerves.
Drinking here means that in his daily life, he has been under silent pressure and could not be released because of what happened 5 years ago, and the second reason is that the Hanged Man incident brought him an uneasy premonition.
After arriving at the scene, his colleagues, eager to show their abilities, expressed their dissatisfaction with Stan, who had always been unfriendly to Stan, because this should be his case, and Stan, who had been idle for a long time, should not intervene (5 years ago). After the "Uncle Eddie" case, Stan actually stopped taking the case and was raised by the police station, only responsible for training and other idle jobs)
Stan says that's what the director meant, and Carl makes a sarcastic remark, implying that the director called Stan because the new case now looks a lot like "Uncle Eddie."
Hearing this, Stan was extremely shocked in the depths of his heart. The thing he feared the most seemed to be happening again. Finding out where the murder scene was, Carl immediately taunted him, saying he was out of state.
The recovered Stan began to show his professionalism. He saw that the perpetrator used the principle of pinhole projection to map the Hanged Man and locate the pinhole. After that, everyone entered the scene and was stunned by the sight in front of him------ ---The peculiar death posture of the hanged man and the messy arrangement behind him, which seem to have no logic at all, made the people present feel unspeakably strange.
And the most shocking thing is Stan, who immediately realizes from the deepest part of his heart that "Uncle Eddie" has appeared again.
Stan hurriedly left the scene. When Carl questioned him, he almost missed his mouth because he never showed his emotions and true thoughts---he admitted that he was not in the state, so he wanted to return first. He took a nap at home ------- In fact, because of the reappearance of "Uncle Eddie" in his heart, he was so frightened that he couldn't stay any longer.
When he left, many of his colleagues behind him were surprised by his appearance, because in these people's minds, after the "Uncle Eddie" case, Stan should have been semi-retired.
Back at home, Stan appears to have a second obsessive-compulsive disorder, holding a wine glass, and facing his collection - an antique chair (this chair is a vital prop, meaning that Stan's Fate), he seems unhappy with the placement of the chair, moving it slightly.
Throughout the film, Stan moved the position of this antique chair several times, which actually foreshadowed the unease in his heart. His current life and mental state, like the position of the chair, deviates with the emergence of new cases. The perfectionist moved the chair unconsciously, looking for an outlet for the pressure.
The next day, Stan went to Sandy, a young woman who had been friends with prostitute Christo, whom Stan had met at the AA (both had been drinking), because of Christo's death, Stan had Feeling guilty all the time, he found a chance to get close to Sandy, and the two sides established a peculiar relationship that seemed to be between father and daughter and friends, even a little ambiguous.
Sandy saw that Stan seemed to be anxious, and Stan, who had been buried in his own heart, replied that he was worried about the wear and tear of the fabric of his clothes, which seemed like boring nonsense, but it actually represented that Stan could not reveal his true emotions anyway, The two sides communicated for a long time. Sandy hinted to Stan that he hoped that the two sides could further communicate and develop their relationship, but Stan politely refused. Although he had a good impression of Sandy, he actually regarded Sandy as a substitute for Christo. , subconsciously confides her as Christo and indirectly repents.
That afternoon, in the police station, the chief expressed his hope that Stan would assist Carl in the investigation of the Hanged Man incident. Stan specifically stated that the case had nothing to do with "Uncle Eddie", and he even said some awkward technical terms to try to explain the hanging. The difference between the male incident and the crime scene of "Uncle Eddie", the director told Stan very shamelessly that he thought there was no difference. The director did not say that the hanging man incident and "Uncle Eddie" were done by the same person, but The highly sensitive Stan becomes extremely unnatural and awkward (Dafoe's acting is a highlight here, please pay attention to his control of his demeanor).
Stan arrived at the forensic doctor's place and listened to the forensic doctor's introduction to the anatomy of the Hanged Man with Carl. Stan keenly discovered that the murderer deliberately left no blue paint on the side of the corpse, and everyone was confused. Stan accidentally told the murderer The reason for doing it————Only observe from one side, that is, to see the scene from a changing perspective————The meaning of the distortion method. The cluttered set behind the half of the corpse, which is actually unpainted, can be seen through an oblique field of view, and you can see the scene of the second crime scene, which is a clue left by the murderer on purpose.
Stan, who was rushing home after finishing work, accidentally discovered that a painting appeared in the window of an art store in front of his house. Bureau of Investigation, requesting a full analysis of the painting.
When talking with the investigators, Stan directly told the other party to go to the evidence office in the "Uncle Eddie" case to collect evidence and compare whether the paint on the painting was consistent with the "Uncle Eddie" case. This shows that he is actually very clear in his heart that the new case is probably done by "Uncle Eddie", and the investigators told him that through X-ray analysis, the bottom plate of the picture is another painting, a bird standing on the back of a chair superior.
Many people do not pay attention to this detail. This is a hint left by the murderer to Stan. The bird in the painting is Stan, and the chair is his antique chair. The murderer deliberately left the oil painting of the scene of the Hanged Man incident at Stan's door in order to help realize the ultimate motive of all his crimes---complete Stan's psychological distortion.
At this time, Stan didn't think so much. He felt weird and he returned to the police station. Carl told him very unfriendly that he was studying all the files of the "Uncle Eddie" case, implying that he didn't believe that Stan really broke it 5 years ago. When the case was over, Stan avoided talking about it. After being questioned, he simply left in a hurry. Before leaving, he tore up a business card left by a certain reporter—the reporter wanted to interview him and talk about it. What to talk about, Stan left the business card at first, but soon changed his mind and tore up the business card--------- This represents the kind of psychology that Stan is unwilling to face the past.
After leaving, Stan went to meet a friend of his, a trader who sold antique chairs. He was quite knowledgeable about art and had a deep friendship with Stan. Stan picked a chair and showed the painting of the Hanged Man incident to the trader. The other party couldn't say anything, but expressed sympathy for Stan's experience over the years. Stan replied indifferently that he was used to it and just wanted to mess around. Retirement pension.
This echoes what the killer later called Stan, who told Stan that if it weren't for his subtle crime, Stan would be doomed to do nothing and mess around to death.
That night, Stan returned to the scene of the Hanged Man incident. After some layout and restoration, he found that the scale of the painting was exactly the same as that of the secondary pinhole projection at the scene. In other words, the person who painted it was the murderer.
The scene turned into a carnival scene in the police station. It turned out that Carl was officially promoted. Carl, who was well-liked, was surrounded by his boss and colleagues to celebrate at a banquet. The atmosphere was lively. I got an invitation from my colleague to drink beer, wiped the knife and fork like obsessive-compulsive disorder, hesitated to give up when I wanted to eat a buffet, and no one responded when I wanted to add milk to coffee. These details show his withdrawn and indecisive inner world, and he refused to be with others. Contact, self-isolation and want to protect yourself, Dafoe's acting skills here are very good again, and the expression of being out of harmony, loneliness, and loneliness is vividly performed.
The reporter who left him with his business card came in and tried to inquire about "Uncle Eddie" and Christo. Stan, who was exposed to the pain, immediately turned and left.
After returning home, Stan received a call from the Bureau of Investigation. After verification, the paint on the painting was exactly the same as the "Uncle Eddie" case.
Stan starts moving the furniture again, he moves the sofa, and then completely changes the antique chair to a 180-degree angle.
This detail shows that Stan has realized that his nightmare has finally reappeared. "Uncle Eddie" is really alive and has come back to commit the crime again. He completely changed the antique chair to a 180-degree angle, which means that he is unchanged. In the five years of life, there has been a turning point, and it is no longer a slight turning point, but a 180-degree turning point.
Stan took out the previous newspaper reports and began to study the case again, recalling the scene of Christo's falling into the water before his death and his helpless and confused state of mind at that time.
The phone rang a second time, and the second act, the bird of corpse incident began.
The second picture, Bird of Corpse The
next day, Stan and Carl rushed to the new crime scene, and Carl fired directly at Stan on the boat halfway, saying that no one understood what Stan was thinking, nor did he know where he lived, or even did not know Is he married, but now it's Carl's case, and he's not happy with Stan's indifference. Facing such an attack, Stan remained silent.
When they arrived at their destination, the two were shocked by the horror and bloodshed on the scene (I won't say much here, the bird of corpse created by the murderer using the angle and visual difference is indeed quite shocking, and it is one of the climaxes of the whole play), Stan, who is almost nauseated. There was a rare look of fear on his face.
After returning to the police station, the two communicated with the forensic doctor about the victim's situation again, but they did not gain much.
Back home, Stan unexpectedly finds that his home has been invaded, an antique chair has been stolen, and a player is left on the empty floor.
Stan listened carefully to the content on the player, and found that it was the recording of the questioning meeting initiated by the three civil servants in response to the Christo incident at the beginning. Stan sluggishly listened to his familiar voice and rigid defense at the questioning meeting. When asked if he had been in contact with Crystal before the crime, Stan hurriedly turned off the player.
This detail shows that Stan does not dare to face the fact that he hired Christo and indirectly killed the other party.
The next day, Stan returned to the place where "Uncle Eddie" was killed, and recalled the situation at that time: under the pressure of solving the case, without sufficient evidence, Stan identified a man with a criminal record named Eddie as the man with a criminal record. The suspect, during the arrest, a colleague of Stein mistakenly killed him by using the TV remote control held in the suspect's hand as a pistol.
Faced with this situation, the four arresting police officers fell silent. Finally, Stan's partner spoke up. He said that the other party was stubbornly resisting arrest and was killed. In fact, it was evading responsibility and lying. Those present, including Stan , out of their own consideration, and finally acquiesced to this lie.
Eddie's death, like Christo's, was the cause of Stan's inner guilt, because he knew he had killed the wrong person, but he didn't have the courage to admit it.
After completing the recall, Stan went to his former partner and talked about the incident again. His partner was transferred to another post after the case that year, and he was basically raised (indicating that the senior police officers also felt Most of them understand the truth of the matter), the fast-talking partner spoke directly with Stan: he said that Stan was too obsessed with Christo's death and too obsessed with the past, and he comforted Stan, saying that there was always One day to find the real murderer, Stan lightly put aside the topic.
Judging from this plot, in fact, all the parties involved in the incident at that time knew in their hearts that they killed the wrong person, but others forgave themselves, but Stan could not get out of the shadows.
Stan met with a friend who was a trader of antique chairs again to discuss buying antique chairs. Stan concealed the fact that his chair was stolen, and only said that he would buy another chair of the same type. He couldn't let go, and forced himself to do the same thing, just like that Crystal, which took root in Stan's mind, a memory that couldn't be shaken.
Stan felt very uncomfortable, because he was told the pain point, and the two sides quarreled. Stan stammered and refused to admit that he killed the wrong person, while his friend told the truth with a little pity: "This time you deal with Yes, it's the same murderer." The
speechless Stan could only feign anger and leave the table.
Dafoe's acting skills in this section can be said to be wonderful, and it portrays Stan's inner weakness and forced to rhetoric, and his appearance of being strong outside and in a mess.
In this conversation, the trader friend said something very interesting. Due to the artistic accomplishment brought by his engagement in the art exchange, the trader friend believed that these cases were like retrospective exhibitions. connect.
In fact, this detached friend can be said to be the incarnation of the director. From here on, every time he appears, he inadvertently tells the truth of the incident and the real motive of the murderer.
After leaving, Stan found that he was being followed. After a chase scene, Stan lost the other party, but he could clearly see the other party's appearance.
This chase scene is the most criticized part of the whole film. The murderer's pursuit and anti-tracking by Stan are obviously illogical, obviously abrupt and unclear. This may also be one of the reasons why the film was left out in the cold.
I agree with this (it's really abrupt), but fortunately, this problem is the only one in the whole film
. Instead of catching up with the other party, Stan, who accidentally fell and injured himself, returned home dejected.
The next day, Stan, who was eating alone, showed his personality again——folded his clothes and napkins neatly, and his perfectionist personality appeared again.
Unfortunately, things backfired. Stan, who had not yet settled down, received a call for the third time (one call per case). In his helpless sigh, the third act, the pantograph incident began.
The third painting, the pantograph
Stan, who arrived at the scene, had already learned that the victim of this case was his former partner, George, whom he had just met a few days ago.
Faced with Carl's question about whether he was familiar with the victim, Stan blankly replied that the dead partner was just a colleague at work.
After arriving at the scene, the two were shocked again (this time the crime scene can be said to be a "pen").
Looking at his former partner who had been dissected into a flesh-and-blood inkwell, Stan was silent for a long time, while Carl had no clue about the three huge paintings on the side.
Stan, who understood the potential meaning of the murderer, suppressed his emotions, slowly picked up the blood-stained paintbrush from his partner's corpse, and began to use the giant pantograph left by the murderer to complete the half-painted painting.
Here, when Stan begins to paint, his expression is that of an almost completely sunk in, focused, even frenzied.
When the painting was over, Karl, who was looking at the painful portrait in front of him, couldn't hold back and said to Stan that the murderer was writing a love letter!
This is another profound sentence, because it is indeed a blood-based love letter, and it is the murderer who confesses himself to Stan.
Back at the police station, the chief found Stan, Stan still forced a calm explanation, how is this case imitating "Uncle Eddie", but the chief no longer hides it, and half-directly tells Stan what he thinks, he asks Stan to stand up Pressure, not to admit that they killed the wrong suspect earlier.
Stan, who suffered the loss of face and shattered self-esteem, was speechless about this, and his inner suffocation and emotions that could not be vented poisoned his heart.
In the following training, in a state of confusion and depression, when analyzing how to look at the scene of the case from a different angle (a different angle, that is, distortion), Stan, as the lecturer, said something that the students may not understand at all. But suddenly reminded him of his own words.
Stein judged that what the murderer was looking for was the so-called decisive moment, the scene of the crime, where deconstruction and connotation were unified.
This passage is the most important sentence in the whole film. The behavior of the murderer behind is the best footnote to interpret this sentence, but what he wants to interpret is not the case, but Stan's psychology.
Stan, who learned about the murderer's motive, approached his trader friend and provided a photo of the third drawing drawn by the pantograph.
A friend told him that the murderer, like the great painter Bacon, was obsessed with something. Bacon repeatedly copied a painting depicting the Pope, and the result was more and more terrifying. The Pope became a devil, and the murderer was probably Take Stan as his client and source of inspiration. Without a client, there is no creative motivation. Stan is the pope of the murderer.
In this section, the friend told the director the real motive of the murderer, Stan's psychological imbalance, and the final moment of collapse, which was the "decisive moment" that the murderer was searching for.
A friend took Stan to visit an underground cultural exhibition. As a result, Stan was stunned to find that these exhibits were almost the same as the previous cases. What shocked him even more was that his stolen chair was also exhibited. Named "Fate",
this is the murderer's suggestion of Stan's final destination, and this is echoed three times in the following plot, which can be said to be a very delicate design.
Stan and Carl used the fingerprints on the exhibits to find clues to the murderer. When they rushed to the abandoned warehouse, there was only a dummy and a business card.
The experienced Stan saw at a glance that the name left by the murderer on the business card was a string of misplaced characters, and the real meaning after recombination was red herring.
In English, red herring means "the fallacy of shifting focus". In literature, drama, especially the creation of mystery novels, red herring usually represents a bait that misleads readers, making readers mistakenly believe that a certain A person or an event is the key to the murder or solving the case.
The design here is also quite ingenious. The murderer uses this misplaced word, and then reorders the misplaced word to form the potential meaning of the new word red herring, telling Stan that their previous way of looking at the crime scene is wrong and must be changed. To look for clues is like reading a misplaced word.
Left at the scene, there was also a magazine and some clippings from the newspaper. Stan found that the murderer specially framed the photo of Christo, which was a blatant provocation. Seeing this scene, Carl also understood that the murderer was telling Stan. Provocatively, Carl makes a mockery of Stan, implying that he has killed the wrong person before.
Feeling the great pressure, Stan began to drink a lot while driving home. The street lights on the street began to flicker uncomfortably. His eyes and movements began to go out of shape, showing a state before the collapse.
The next day, Stan found Sandy, and the other party saw that he was in a wrong state. Stan finally summoned the courage and told Sandy the truth of the Christo incident. Sandy suddenly understood a lot of things. Sandy expresses dissatisfaction with Stan, who is not forgiven.
Back at the police station, Stan was on the verge of collapse. He even started drinking secretly at work, unaware that many of his colleagues had noticed his abnormality.
At this moment, the phone rang, and a strange man spoke a string of strange language, which seemed illogical. When Stan was feeling strange, the other party reported himself to the mountain gate, and it was the murderer's call.
The murderer tells Stan that they both like blue, the color of narcissism, and the murderer asks Stan if at the end of his life, Stan will sit on a chair that symbolizes destiny, looking at the crystal clear under his feet (pun, crystal i.e. Christo) of the water, feel remorse.
Half intimidating and half begging for mercy, Stan asked the murderer to stop now, and the murderer replied that good artists will never stop, they will only keep looking for new materials and new creative inspiration.
This paragraph is the key to understanding the whole film. It is consistent with the words of Stan's antique dealer friend. Stan's psychology is the source of inspiration for the murderer, and Stan is the increasingly terrifying and distorted Pope described by the murderer.
In the end, the murderer gave Stan an address and told him that there was another piece of work that he would ask Stan to see.
Stan rushed to the address left by the murderer and saw a lot of photos of the scene of Christo's death. Recalling the night he always wanted to forget, and the newspaper where the murderer stayed at the scene mocking him, Stan's mood was completely confused.
After leaving, Stan hid in a small shop he frequented and drank to numb himself, but found that Carl was secretly stalking him. "The case is wrong.
Stan was powerless to deal with it, so he could only avoid it blindly, and Carl left in dissatisfaction.
At night, Stan sat alone at home to eat, with the antique chair in front of him. This time, the chair was placed facing him.
This shows that Stan started his last struggle. He chose to face "destiny".
Then, Stan, who has been studying the misplaced words left by the murderer, recalled the inexplicable words at the beginning when the murderer called him during the day. In a flash, he reassembled the three words that made up the sentence by using the misplaced word again, and found that the true meaning of the sentence was: anamorphosis, distortion.
Rushed to a friend with doubts, a friend who has a deep understanding of the art form explained the so-called distortion painting technique, Stan did not understand the meaning of the murderer, and the friend pointed out that he must return to the scene and look at the problem from a different angle .
The next day, Stan went to the abandoned warehouse, looked around, found nothing, and finally sat down on the chair where the dummy was found, looking at the pool under his feet and his face reflected in it, remembering the murderer's words- -------- Looking at the crystal-clear water (Christo in English), did you recall your sins?
Stan finally collapsed, covering his face in pain, his emotions almost out of control.
At night, he was walking alone on the road. Several prostitutes on the cold street were touting him. Stan took out a large bottle of wine and drank it.
Back home, Stan, who was tossing and turning, heard Sandy's phone message. He was sluggish and accidentally discovered that the person on the far right in the photo of the Mountaineering Club event that Sandy had previously mailed to him was the one who had followed him earlier. The man he chased back.
Stan realizes that something is wrong and hurries to find Sandy. When he arrives at the sober sorority he and Sandy frequent, several sorority members tell him that Sandy has left with her patron. Yes, the patron left a letter to Stan.
Stan opened the letter and found that it was a comic book. He flipped through it quickly, and the face of Christo painted in it gradually changed to Sandy, and the background was the old warehouse.
Stan rushed over immediately, but was designed by the murderer in the abandoned warehouse. After being shot, he was stabbed by the murderer and passed out.
On the other side, Carl, who was contemplating in the police station, accidentally found that he had placed it on the metal coffee cup on the crime scene photo of the Hanged Man incident in the first act. The appearance of the bird of corpse in the second scene, Karl, who could hardly believe his eyes, immediately reflected the picture of the bird of corpse in the second scene with a metal cup. As expected, the belly of the bird of corpse was distorted and reflected by the metal cup. In the third act of the pantograph incident, the murderer left a painting of a painful face.
Carl then distorted and reflected the painting of the painful face in the pantograph incident through the metal cup, and found that the bottom of the painting, after being distorted by the distortion method, was the figure of the mermaid statue placed in the abandoned warehouse.
When he recovered, Carl immediately realized what he was doing, and he started to act.
In the fourth drawing,
Stan wakes up with three faces in excruciating pain and finds Sandy's body face down in the sink, just in front of the chair he sat on.
Stan grabbed Sandy's hand in grief. The mental pain completely knocked him down. His last hope in life was shattered. He was destined to never get rid of his guilt. At this time, he found that Sandy had an extra tattoo on his back. Looking down the tattoo, it is an independent tattoo mark in the shape of an eye.
Stan put his eye on the eye-shaped tattoo and looked at it from a very unique and extremely biased perspective. He found that Sandy's back tattoo and the oil paint smeared on the ground in front of him together formed a painting. The three faces of a man with a similar appearance showed expressions of pain, anger and sadness respectively, and at the bottom of the picture was a bloody word "death".
Just when Stan saw this "painting", the murderer came out slowly and stood in front.
Realizing that his life had come to an end, Stan shivered, moved back in fear, and sat down on the fateful chair, while the killer pulled the trigger and gave Stan a fatal bullet.
Stan, who was dying, gasped and looked up, there was no light, no hope, while the murderer silently looked at Stan who was about to die. At this moment, Carl arrived, three shots were fired, and the murderer fell to the ground. .
Carl looked up at Stan, and Stan let out a last gasp of pain, and his life disappeared.
In the eyes of the murderer who fell to the ground and was also in a dying state, Stan's face, which let out a last painful gasp, began to twist and deform, repeating the painful gasp again and again, and finally deconstructed into three Stan faces, Stan in the center screamed in pain, Stan on the right roared angrily, and Stan on the left shook his head in frustration and sadness, and then the picture was frozen, and the whole film ended.
For Carl, he saw the moment of Stan's death, and for the murderer, he saw his ultimate work - the decisive moment when death came.
The murderer has insight into Stan's psychology, so he finally painted three faces, which are Stan's three emotions, the sadness of his suppressed life, the pain of being powerless in the face of sin, and the anger of the death of Christo and Sandy, And all this is completed by the murderer gradually. When the scene, deconstruction and connotation are unified, it is the moment when the three emotions are perfectly combined, the moment of death, the decisive moment, the murderer has completed his eternity.
Moment and eternity are the core of this work full of distorted beauty. The murderer's methods are brutal and bloody, but have a twisted and mysterious beauty.
The core of the seven deadly sins is that the murderer used seven appalling bloody cases to complete his sermons to wake up the society that the old police detective said had been degenerate and gloomy. When the naive young police detective triumphantly satirizes the murderer and the world will soon forget you, he does not know that the murderer's plan is to sacrifice his own life to elevate the "meaning" of the whole case, so the seven deadly sins At the end, the murderer completed the whole layout with his own death, which played a role in shocking the world for a long time, and he succeeded.
In the distorted painting, the murderer is not for preaching, nor is it to wake up the society.
Unlike the murderer of the Seven Deadly Sins, what he pursues is not long-term, but instant beauty. His purpose is not to alert the society through violent preaching, but to realize his ultimate interpretation of death through crime, and his methods are more sophisticated, because He understood the changes in his unfinished work---Stan's inner world, and completed this work step by step. When death came, he would forever imprint perfection in the eyes of his artist.
Although this beauty piled up with negative emotions and bloody scenes is full of evil, distortion, and paranoia, when the final decisive moment is forever fixed, the eternity of that moment is indeed as delicate as a work of art.
Although this film is a bit dull and depressing, it doesn't seem to be as exciting as the Seven Deadly Sins, or rather, commercialized, but the film's ingenious conception, rich details, and artistic beauty, whether it's the artistic arrangement of the crime scene The "beauty" of the form or the psychological "beauty" of the character's distortion, gradual change, and split are extremely rare. Dafoe perfectly interprets Stan's repressed inner world and the delicate dark emotions in this character's lonely heart. The gradual process, and that kind of darkness, is more difficult to express than the fiery emotion, and it is worth savoring again and again.
As for what many people have criticized, the motives of the murderers are unclear. I feel that this is the director's brilliance. In fact, the motives of the murderers are explained in the whole article. ), lost (loss of self), prayer (oneness of consciousness), lovemaking (peak of consciousness), and prostitution (loss of personality) are in a unique state that is linked to death (physical and spiritual) state, which implies that the murderer's purpose is to find beauty and moments related to death (note the words left by the murderer, "I found him in his dreams", "I found him when I was lost on land", etc. What I 'm looking for is the so-called moment of a certain state)
and throughout the whole article, Stein's two lectures and several exchanges with friends from antique dealers, the director repeatedly used the mouths of the characters to explain "the decisive moment" and "the deconstruction of the picture" "The meaning of distortion", "Artists can only create the most inspiring pictures when they become obsessed." "Distortion destroys your usual vision and subverts your old views." These words are actually Help us understand the motives of the killer.
Perhaps, for those who did not understand the film, it is time to use the distortion method to watch this rare masterpiece again carefully.
Recommended again.
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