This is the long-awaited movie after Antonioni suffered a stroke in 1985, and it is also the one the author has been brewing for the longest time. People once worried that Antonioni had even lost the ability to communicate with others due to illness. Can he still make movies? But after ten years of preparation, after overcoming all kinds of unimaginable difficulties, after 13 years from his "Proof of a Woman's Identity", he finally made a great contribution to his student and friend, the German director Wim Wenders. With help, with the care and support of his wife Enrica Fico and good friends who have cooperated for many years, this masterpiece was completed in 1995-the century of the birth of the world movie. This is the master's victory over the disease to show himself The proof that there is still great energy is proof of his extraordinary courage and full of youthful vitality.
So what does "Above the Clouds" show? The role of the director (actually Antonioni himself) played by Markovic is the person who connects the pieces of the film together. So what is the connection between these four stories? The link that connects these four stories is Antonioni’s curiosity about the world of women, the exploration of the charm and mystery of women, and the incompatibility between men and women. Realistic exploration: The originally simple sex has also become an embarrassing form of mutual inability to give or accept to each other. In short, this film continues the style of the master, still showing the unpredictable and unpredictable feelings of contemporary people in life. In Antonioni’s films, the movement of the camera, the editing of the shots, the combination of scenes, and the application of lighting are all not to demonstrate the ability of technology. The ultimate goal is to show the unnarrative destiny and things of the characters on the screen. The unpredictable result of development, this is the charm of Antonioni's movies! It is said that the fate of the characters is unnarrative and the development of things is unpredictable because the final result is to be experienced and perceived in the usual vision, reflected in some seemingly accidental events in daily life. This is how Antonioni perceives things, shoots and observes movies. The production of the film is not only for aesthetic intent, nor for the use of beautiful pictures in vain, but to reveal the inner world and psychological state of the characters. Therefore, some film critics believe that the words used in Markovic’s connection process (the dialogue written by Guilla as a screenwriter), such as his exploration of the relationship between life and artistic functions, exploration of people and mystery Things, exploring God’s manifestations, etc., not only appear pale and weak, but also inconsistent with Antonioni’s film style, weakening the originality of Antonioni’s films: because Antonioni’s films emphasize expressiveness, highlighting the effects of the picture, from his " In each paragraph from "The Chronicle of Love" to "Eros", what is prominent is the picture rather than the language. But there are also admirers of Antonioni. For example, the famous director Bertolucci said: “We only have the right to appreciate the works of the masters, and there is no obligation to criticize.” Obviously, great directors such as Antonioni and Fellini are in Italy. Deified director. Therefore, despite this small flaw in the film, it does not affect that "Above the Cloud" is still a masterpiece of the master.
Secondly, the director with a camera, played by Markovic, claimed that he was looking for film stories and images. In fact, Antonioni borrowed Markovic’s words in the film to tell everyone frankly that he, as a film A worker, his vocation is to tirelessly search for film images, seeking the most authentic images, but he never finds the most perfect images. Antonioni's persistent pursuit of artistic perfection is inspiring filmmakers: never-ending to explore one picture after another that can reflect the truth. The facts have also proved this. After the release of "Above the Clouds", it not only won praise, but also achieved impressive results at the box office. It was especially favored by young audiences. This shows that Antonioni still has the spirit of innovation and is still Being able to radiate artistic vitality, and still seeking the most authentic pictures as always, it is this spirit of courage to explore that touches the hearts of the audience.
Antonioni published a collection of short stories "Bowling on the Tiber" in 1983 (the title is derived from a story in the novel). "Above the Clouds" is a selection of four stories from the book. And the director played by Markovic in the film is Antonioni himself in the first "Unquiet Horizon" in the novel. He was flying over the Soviet Union, flying above the clouds, and going to a certain place to film. The film, and at the same time, I am looking for and conceiving another film... Obviously, every story in "Bowling on the Tiber" was written for filming, but at the same time it has a very high level of literature. The value, from the "unquiet horizon" and the "four people going out to sea" depicted by the rigorously structured and quite colorful characters to some flashing fragments, it can be called an excellent work. As a result, people were amazed that Antonioni could not only use the camera to shoot excellent movies, but also use the typewriter to write outstanding novels, showing the versatile genius of the master. Some of the short stories in the book are as short as a few lines. Wim Wenders said: "Every line of the master is a movie, and every line is full of pictures..." The author is "weak body" The end of the story reads: "What a wonderful beginning, but for me, the film is over." (The author had planned to use American actor Richard Gill as the leading actor in the film).
On July 30, 2007, Antonioni died in Rome. In the last moments of his life, his wife Enrica Fico, who served as his assistant in the filming of the documentary "China" in China in 1972, became his life partner after the film was completed and has been guarding him. beside. Antonioni is not only the favorite director of Italians, but also the most beloved and respected filmmaker in the world. His Oscar lifetime achievement award in 1995 is also a proof. Following Fellini's death in 1993, Italy has lost one of the greatest directors of the older generation. With him there is also a film style, which is unique in the seventh art field. The film critic Claudia Morgorione (wrote an article in memory of Antonioni's death, praising Antonioni as the "master of gaze film") said that the uniqueness of this style is that the director always It is the use of eyes—the eyes of the camera. On the surface, they often look indifferent, but this is the movement of the camera that he is silently grasping. This expressive technique occupies the most important position in his visual art. In this poetic style of the master, what is revealed is the incommunicability between people, the lack of language communication between the characters, and the loneliness of the characters. In his films, the beautiful pictures and the expressive eyes of the characters always coexist at the same time, and the strong visual expression has reached a realm that no one can match. The characteristics of Antonioni's films are so obvious, and this characteristic is always permeated in all his works, so that many people want to imitate it but can't imitate it. In many of his masterpieces, and sometimes even controversial masterpieces-from the so-loved and talked about "Zoom" to "Adventure", Antonioni has firmly maintained his own unique style from beginning to end.
Antonioni was born in Ferrara in 1922. Graduated from the Economics and Trade Department of the University of Bologna. He approached the film by writing film reviews for newspapers. Later he moved to Rome and entered the Rome Film Experimental Center to study. During the period, I worked with such master directors as Robert Rossellini. However, his first documentary "People on the Po" was filmed in his hometown in 1947. The title of the film explains everything. Since then, many of his films are based on his hometown of Fira. Pull as a background.
Antonioni's first feature film "The Chronicle of Love" was filmed in 1950. Although it is the first work, it has quite a personal style in terms of subject matter and style: the film story is almost detective, the characters in the film belong to the bourgeoisie, and the author explores their psychological activities. In terms of style, the film technique Quite concise and clear. After the success of the first film, the author successively filmed "The Conquered", "Women Without Camellia", "Girlfriends" and "Scream" which express the spiritual crisis of modern people. "The Shout" (1957) shows a male protagonist who is not understood by women and those around him and is finally desperate. It is regarded as a pioneer of the author's modernist film.
Antonioni's truly successful masterpiece is "Adventure" directed in 1960. This film is so different, so unique, and so delicate that it caused a fierce and different response when it was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival. Appreciators believe that this film breaks through the traditional narrative techniques, innovates the language of the film, and becomes an epoch-making work. Opponents think that the film is too slow, too much emphasis on the exquisiteness of the picture and the delicate eyesight, thus ignoring the story. In the film age accustomed to storytelling, how can people tolerate that he does not even tell the audience the fate of the heroine in the film and still presents the "story" of other characters there? It was from this film that Antonioni was named the master of modernist film. Among the protagonists of the film, Monica Witty is his favorite of that period, his goddess of art. She subsequently acted as the heroine in Antonioni's "Night", "Eclipse", and "Red Desert". "Red Desert" is Antonioni's first color film, which won him the first Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival (the second award is the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1983). However, the master is not satisfied with the achievements he has already achieved. Instead, he expands his horizons and develops abroad. In 1966, he filmed "Zoom" in the United Kingdom. Won the Palme d'Or at the film festival. Soon after this, he landed his own creative style, a style that explores the human mind almost silently, to the United States. In 1969, he directed "Cape Zabriski". The film shows the rebellious spirit and rock music of young Americans (the famous explosion scene at the end of the film is accompanied by the music of the Pink Floyd band). Came to China in 1972 to film the sensational documentary "China". A few years later, his "Professional: Journalist" was a new milestone in his film career. In the film, the heroes and heroines played by Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, respectively, fully interpret the elusiveness of the characters' fate. Later, he directed "Proof of a Woman's Identity". This film imitates the style of a film that Fellini has already filmed, but the characters in the film have been changed. After this, the master remained silent for many years. This is because he was ill, and his partial paralysis made him lose the ability to communicate with others. But his favorite movie made him overcome the disease, and he "stands" again. Thus, there was "Above the Clouds". In 2002, filmed a segment from the highlight film "Eros": "Dangerous Tendency" (this segment is also based on the "Dangerous Tendency" in "Bowling on the Tiber") , And the young Wong Kar-wai and Steven Soderbergh are working with him. "Eros" participated in the 2004 Venice Film Festival and is the last work left to the audience by this great film master.
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