title translation into "Desperate Driving" is easy to make the audience preconceived, but it is a stream-of-consciousness literary film that is as sorrowful as it is. The "sunset car god" translated by the Taiwanese version is quite charming. "Car god" is secondary and a gimmick. The Danish director Nicholas Winding Refern used trivial and lazy shots to stitch together a movie that looks like a strange traveler walking down the streets of Los Angeles. The sense of belonging of the city is almost impossible to find, which is also the fundamental reason why many viewers "cannot find the north" when watching the film. However, once it is integrated into it, its form and spirit can be mixed up.
If you are in love with Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere", or Dennis Villeneuve's "Scorched Earth", then congratulations, you will definitely fall in love with "Desperate Driving". They all belong to the "lens film" half-hidden with the pipa. To put it succinctly, there is not much dialogue, and most of the time I rely on lens language to convey thoughts. If you look at it, you are destined to gain little, otherwise you may feel a lot of emotion. Just like the beginning of "Somewhere": under the long shot, a sports car drove a few laps completely, how can you feel? Some people either pull the progress bar or close the window altogether. Only by calming down and admiring it, can you experience the glamorous appearance of the male protagonist, but in fact the empty life. It's like a luxury car with top-notch configuration, consuming the engine aimlessly and meaninglessly. In the end, it turns out that the passion released is actually just going around in circles. The sight is gradually obscured by the dust flying in front of you. The consequences of not stopping immediately are possible at any time. The car crashed and killed.
Similarly, the core of "Desperate Driving" is that a car god lives in a situation without opportunities and challenges. He can only release his true self by relying on extreme methods such as being a movie stunt stand-in and driving off the road for criminals. The living condition under the repression of personality and abilities caused this Driver to wrap himself up, gradually losing the normal way of communicating with the world, replaced by silence and anger. What the world gave him, he gave back to the world. The film uses this entry point to present a corner of his daily life. Although it seemed dramatic to others, for him, all this has long been accustomed to it.
Ryan Gollings has a natural infinite attraction and contradictory temperament that is thousands of miles away. I think he is quite reliable to replace Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman's affinity makes him incompatible with the role of Driver. Getting to know Driver for the first time always makes people feel that he is really serious. In the long silence, it seems that he has been tricked by him, which makes people infinitely mad. Such an embarrassing situation was completely broken after the young woman played by Carey Mulligan came out, and the emotion returned to the point of balance. Kerry Mulligan is an actor that I love very much. His feelings, temperament and acting skills are well known. It's just that she tried her best to transform into a mature woman's positioning, a bit too hastily. Loli, who became famous for "Growth Education", will definitely not be satisfied; then, at the level of "Don't Let Me Go", I think it should be this stage now. This time, Golins, his partner, has enough aura to support, but in terms of his image, he doesn't look like a single mother who is struggling, but rather like a lovely and sweet spring girl. With music and drag racing, after nearly 20 minutes of intimate friendship between the two, an ambiguous atmosphere gradually enveloped the entire film. One is a handsome man of Meng Sao, a lonely young woman, if this handsome man is not so depressed and neurotic, if this young woman does not have an unfounded marriage, the wise men will predict: a bright future awaits them.
The shots of the film are atmospheric and weird. I can't touch the nerves of the director. At first glance, I don't know what this shot is going to express, and I don't know what the next shot will be. There are not many drag racing scenes, and most of them are the first angle of view in the car, combined with crime, for a while, "Fast and Passion" by the academic school; combined with feelings, and for a while, "The Killer Has No Holiday"; however, love again Combining the elements, the closest thing to the god of the film should be Ben Affleck's "The Thief in the City". Both "Robbers in the City" and "Desperate Driving" try to find a balance between crime and love, or a space where the two intersect. The male protagonists are all marginalized people in life, and the appearance of the heroine has become the softest part of their hearts. The former found "with you, every day is a sunny day"; the latter, more subtle, all turned into the heroine's smile and dimples, as well as the subtitles and the "pink color" on the poster. Obviously, these "pinks" represent the heroine, which is the deep desire of Driver. He is often silent, and she likes to smile implicitly; what he sees in front of his eyes is sin, and what he thinks in his heart is the beauty of smile. After a violent step, he did not hesitate to choose to kiss eagerly. She was afraid because she didn't understand, and he used anger instead of confession. The pure beauty and the cruel and indifferent reality formed a sharp contrast at this moment.
The pseudo-villain Bernie in the film has a dialogue: "I thought it was a good thing. Look, I even printed my name on the car." This helplessness and emotion are in contrast to Driver's life. People cannot choose their origin. This is not the most helpless, because in the end you will find that you can't even choose the most basic way of life. Neither life nor death can be dealt with by oneself, how is this good? Therefore, the Driver chose the mask. Only by wearing a mask can the truest self be revealed. At this point, the English name of the film "Drive" suddenly became clear: life is like driving a car. It seems that you are holding the steering wheel, but in fact you have to obey the traffic rules all the time. As for whether you understand it or not, the judges in Cannes understand it anyway.
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