Due to the positioning of the crime suspense type theme, this film uses a large number of dark tones as emotional cushions, and uses some sharp contrast of light and dark shots to create the oppression and depression of modern cities, as well as the alienation and despair of people's hearts.
The first shot is dark blue. The meticulous life style of Inspector Somerset (played by Morgan Freeman) is shown by tying a tie, a serious look, and placing things one after another: handkerchiefs, police badges, Swiss knives, pens, etc., in an almost rigid orderly arrangement. A corner of the character's character. At the scene of the first case, his sarcasm of "Did the children see?" and the police officer "Why do you always ask these ghost questions" showed Somerset's deep compassion.
The newly transferred detective Mills (played by Brad Pitt) and Somerset's first meeting was arranged on the street in the rain. When Mills' arrogance hit Somerset, their footsteps stopped, and the house number "740" was behind them. "Do me a favor and remember my words for the next 7 days." These are all hints and foreshadowing of the plot, and 7 days is the time frame of the story. The gloomy atmosphere of the city is expressed by the side of the street where the characters walk side by side, the continuous rain, the trash can, and the blue-green coloring. Mills is on the left side of the screen, Somerset is on the right side, and Mills is walking in an unstable state, suggesting that his mental state is drifting and difficult to adapt to when he first came to this city.
A dim bedside lamp, the pointer of the timer seems to be eating time-the camera zooms in-the timer close-up-the black field. The prologue is over.
The subsequent introduction to the production of the actors and actresses was very exciting, in which close-ups of hands and metal objects and electronic sound effects were combined with a strong sense of modernity and a certain religious color.
Monday
The sound of police sirens, the dull and cramped building scene of the city, is still a gloomy sky. The bass of the pipe organ rendered an atmosphere of terror and depression. The two drove through the block, and there was a neon in the rain outside the window. In the police chief's office: 31 single-player shots and 2 three-person shots. The smooth editing depicts the character and inner activities of the characters. Inside the murdered lawyer's office, there was a big overhead shot from the ceiling on
Tuesday
. Mills was in the center of the frame, with "GREED" written in blood on the floor, and the scene was grim and chilling. The music played with this large overhead shot.
In the Somerset office, there is an overhead shot of a character. The picture is mainly his face. We can clearly distinguish his expression. The upper body is blurred, and the sadness in the eyes is unobstructed. "I can't understand what people are thinking..." The special treatment of his monologue with the lens has a deeper meaning than the ordinary frontal shooting of the police chief.
Back to the police station: When Somerset listed the seven deadly sins of Catholicism, he didn't know whether it was deliberately arranged. The crime of jealousy was told to Mills.
Library: In the misty reading room, the dim background here contrasts with the bright small color blocks. The small table lamps with fluorescent green lampshades make the whole picture full of alienated visual conflicts. After a conversation, a librarian played "Aria on the G String". This tragic string work was included in the film soundtrack in the next few still life scenes. The idea of this section is very clever, it is a model of audio-visual interaction, and the richness and fullness of the audio-visual image is impressive.
In this paragraph, several shots of Mills's examination of the scene of the crime are inserted, and the entire clip is almost poetic against the backdrop of music. However, the horror scenes in the black and white photos and the gloomy tone of the previous paragraphs form a strong and complex aesthetic experience in this alienated warmth.
Wednesday
is another rainy day. The number of Mills' office is 714. Mills's wife's phone number played an important turning point.
The conversation between Somerset and Mills on the sofa in the hallway:
S: I hope I still have this confidence.
M: Then what do you think we are doing?
S: We are in the aftermath, we collect all the evidence, photos, samples, keep taking notes, and when famous things happened.
M: That's it?
S: That's it. The clues are divided into categories, and I sincerely hope that they can be used in the trial, like picking up diamonds on a desert island, first save them, and then use them after being rescued.
M: It's all nonsense.
S: A strong clue is often just an index.
This is a depth shot, with the character on the left side of the frame, and the shot is cut into a close-up shot.
The Thursday
shot immediately switched to a forward shot. Mills suddenly changed from the left sleeping position in the previous shot to right, and leaned on Somerset's shoulder, sleeping soundly with his mouth slightly open. The design of this scene is very humorous due to the tight connection between the front and rear cameras, which well portrays the character of Mills and pave the way for the further development of the plot below.
Next came the Hollywood-style scene of a large number of police officers dispatched to execute the arrest, and even the soundtrack made us feel familiar. But this fully armed deployment only "discovered" and "rescued" a dying devil-like corpse in the end. This can not but be said to be a huge irony and joking. The shooting of this segment used extremely unstable tracking motion photography, creating a chaotic and tense atmosphere. The music, the dust floating in the air and the color tones suppress the atmosphere to the extreme. The general description of Victor's wax figure adopts a straightforward form of expression, and the sudden churning of him on the bed when he is "not dead" and the sudden increase in music have a terrifying artistic effect.
Friday
Somerset and Tracy in a restaurant: The conversation between the two is a two-person cross-the-shoulder shot. More recent facial portrayals require high performance of actors, but Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow performed amazingly. Photographers seem to have a preference for the performance of single shots, but we can't deny that these close single shots do make the character creation very good. Morgan Freeman's expression of the expression is in place and exquisitely expresses the depression and pain that the character has endured. From the subtle changes in his eyes and expressions, we can feel the changes in his inner emotions and deep despair.
Somerset: I remember going to work that morning. That day was exactly the same as usual. It was the first time I learned about her pregnancy. I suddenly felt scared, so scared for the first time. How can a child be born here? Growing up in such a bad place? …What I can tell you at this moment is…I know…I’m sure I didn’t make a wrong decision, but I regret it all my life. …If you don’t want to keep your baby, if you decide, don’t tell him that you are pregnant. But if you choose to give birth to a child, you have to do your best to take care of that child... After the
next section of the police station, there is a scene where two people are waiting for information from an informant. Here is another in-depth scene. Once sitting on the sofa, Mills was still on the left side relative to the close-up of the lens, and on the side, Somerset was in the next close-up, the front. The position of this character is very wonderful. It accommodates the expressions and actions of the two, and has a lot of room for performance, because there is no exchange of virtual and real, both of them can be used as the focus of performance.
Corridor Hunting and Killing Shootout: In this segment, there are many shots taken by photographers, and the editing is smooth and compact. The image of John Doe has not been given head-on so far, only indirectly through the hand holding the pistol, the reflection in the pond, and the calm voice from the other end of the phone. When searching John Doe's house, a single dull color was used. The only glare was the red cross and the red light bulb in the dark room. The expression method here is similar to that of the library, but with a little demonic temperament.
Red light area: A large number of bright colors are used to render the different scenes of the city. The dazzling colors plated on the characters when they are in them make the image alienated.
The coming of the ending
The weather suddenly cleared. We saw a faint sunlight on the highway where the helicopter shot down. Is it a tragic psychological portrayal of John Doe about to embark on the last leg of the road to martyrdom? In this passage, only John is the front shot, and the other two are side shots. The director deliberately placed them in supporting roles in order to highlight the core character who has always been a ghost. Kevin Spacey, who plays John Doe, performs impeccably in this passage. His almost expressionless face and relieved expression, and his unhurried tone, interpreted the special psychological state of the perverted killer in an abnormal form. In an extremely suppressed mood of suspense, his preacher-like calm rhetoric acted as a tonic to shock the audience in the huge tension. His narration serves as the prelude and atmosphere rendering before the climax of the whole film, and can even be used as the final ending-the narration before the complete display of the entire "The Masterpiece".
Throughout the dialogue paragraphs along the way, Mills' questions or responses seemed quite passive and weak. Ironically, John Doe's "faith" and despair and Somerset's state of mind are like two parallel lines. Toward the end of the conversation, sad music sounded, and at this time the conflict between Mills and him gradually escalated, and we witnessed the whole process of Mills being irritated.
In the last climax paragraph, the director inserted two angles in the narrative process of the story, one is on-site, and the other is remote “monitoring”—monitoring of dialogue and full tracking of helicopters at high altitude. Here, the observation of the sense of distance can give a panoramic perspective of overlooking this "work" from the perspective of helicopter aerial photography, thereby obtaining an appearance description. This idea is unique. Here, single-person camera editing is used to more delicately portray the psychological and emotional changes of each main character. From the time Somerset opened the paper box, there was about 23" shooting of close-up shots. There was no music, and it was completely dependent on the actors’ performance and camera editing. From the expression, we can tell that he was experiencing a fierce struggle in his heart. At this time, the director It’s sold well, only through Somerset’s "Don’t come close, don’t, don’t come to the scene, don’t come no matter what you hear, John Doe controls the whole situation..." A few words made the audience's hearts hang in their throats. In Somerset In the process of running to Mills, John Doe told the truth in more than enough time. Here the director gave John Doe a low-camera head shot, "Her pretty head..." This is an unemphasized sentence. But everyone of us heard it. However, John still felt that he was not in place, and at the end he revealed the fact that Tracy was pregnant. At this time, Mills' inner defenses completely collapsed, and the audience felt that their inner depression had reached a certain limit. Here is the cloth. Rad Pitt’s performance was remarkable. Mills struggled with 28″ and we deeply realized how cruel the reality the protagonist faced was. In the last 4″ shot, there was a trace of Tracey’s face flashing back. Gunshots rang out in an extreme sense of oppression. The police officer on the helicopter overlooked rather than experienced the whole process. The perspective of this sense of distance makes the story deep. The story reached the climax of the whole film.
Hemingway once wrote: This world is a good place, worth fighting for. I agree with the second half of the sentence. The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part .
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