. Turn it around and share it . Future Earth
Nolan sets the future in a time period not far from our present. The grandfather Donald in the movie said that in his time, new concepts and new products appeared every day, with a population of 6 billion. This is not what we are now. Nolan is a master of storytelling. With a pessimistic perspective, he can lead the audience to make the terrifying "future world" believable within three minutes.
Nolan returned the problem to the most basic problem of mankind-food, that is, survival. Like all animals, humans have to face survival issues. After the Industrial Revolution, technology has become a weapon that mankind is proud of, and it has also become the most direct manifestation of human wisdom. In the future world designed by Nolan, no matter how advanced the technology is, it is also weak in front of food. Then we may be able to associate-what about art?
In order to create such a convincing future world, Nolan planted a large corn field in Canada. Or it is to avoid computer special effects appearing dazzling on the film. When black smoke appears in the cornfield, we in China have to remember that we are familiar with the city or the countryside, where there are often scenes of burning stalks. The seemingly primitive method seems ordinary to us, but Westerners, including Nolan, regard this as the last resort for human beings in the future world. What's more, in smoggy days, especially in many northern cities, it is said that even if the windows are closed tightly, they will get a layer of dust.
What I mean by this is that the future earth that Nolan built is not far away from us. This is a "world" that we can touch and feel. Nolan deliberately uses these things that already exist in our lives or are regarded as ordinary things to build a world where the audience can get close and feel the sense of crisis.
In addition, even in this world where technology appears weak, technology continues to play a political role. It is extremely ironic that in the past, the US government, which was confident in its aerospace industry, chose to deceive itself in the face of reality—denying the Apollo project; using education to maintain the status quo. I would like to quote a sentence from the first film review here: "Humans may have to face such a situation where they can't turn their heads back sooner or later and can only bite the bullet and move forward. In reality, some people choose dreams and create illusions; Gradually, more and more people choose to do this; when reality forces people to face the present, sacrifices come. The sacrifices will not be those who choose to anaesthetize, but those who choose to face it. "
In the beginning of the film, the passage through the cornfield chasing the drone is the first climax of the film. Hans Zimmer gave this piece of music "Cornfield Chase", letting the notes take the posture of "big beads falling on a jade plate", calm and calm, hidden turmoil, embellished by the pipe organ, there is no lack of ethereal. With the scene of the car driving through the cornfield, we saw a pioneer who shuttled through the fields but in the sky, and we were moved by it. At this time, Cooper temporarily asked for the cruelty of reality, and seemed to return to him as a pilot. With such dreamy music, it is hard to imagine that this is in the field. It seems that this is more suitable for the sky, and Cooper in the sky is the real Cooper. In the face of reality, a rare escape is so precious. When Cooper dismantled the drone, his answer to Murphy's "this thing must learn to adapt" brought him and us back to reality.
According to the book and sand dust falling from the binary system, I didn't understand it during the first time watching the movie. It seemed to be a suspense that was too big and difficult to control. But after watching it for the second time, that is, after combining the later plot, I feel that Nolan is very courageous. There is no problem with this setting, but it must be said that it is very dangerous. This will be explained in detail below.
As Cooper leaves the earth in a spacecraft, the film is divided into two clues, one in Murphy and the other in Cooper. When the two clues were separated, Cooper drove away and the countdown to the launch of the spacecraft proceeded simultaneously. The loud sound effects matched Murphy's call and the countdown of "Five Four Three Two One", it seemed that everything had become sublime and powerless. Because the "most powerful enemy" has stood before them.
two. Before time
Some people say that the foreshadowing before leaving the earth is too long. I thought that this paragraph laid the groundwork for the earth calmly and moving, just as the previous article said. Therefore, the audience is naturally brought into the emotional world created by Nolan. As a result, the audience also faced the "number one villain" (Nolan)-time along with Cooper and his party.
I don't believe that Nolan really thinks that time is the villain, this is just a news gimmick. Like "Inception", "Interstellar" does not have a "villain". I’m here to quote teacher Xiao Fei’s WeChat words: “The movie can be seen as a sequel to "Inception": whether dreams are true or not, or time compels people with meaning, and creates morality, culture, history, etc... Carrying a boat will also overthrow it: this boat, of course, includes spacecraft."
As stated at the beginning of this article, space, adventure, emotions, etc. are just condiments. Time is what Nolan really wants to say. In this way, the two papers Nolan said for the scientific nature of the film can also be regarded as condiments. Its purpose is to set off Nolan's view of time. Wormhole black hole, Einstein Hawking, became a supporting role of time, Nolan's prop.
"One hour on this planet is equal to seven years on the earth." How powerful is this line? In fact, it's not big, just like few people cry when they see "theory of relativity". But this line became the starting point of another climax in the film. On that planet full of water, the rhythm of the film goes fast with two huge waves. If Miller’s death and the ruins of her spacecraft do not make people feel the danger of this planet, then Doyle, played by Wes Bentley, was swept away by the waves at the door of the cabin. It is the water planet that becomes terrifying. The time that the audience feels when watching the movie is compressed to a very short time by this horror. At this moment, the film's tempo slowed down, eliminating the need for return docking and other processes, directly allowing the audience to face the slowly opening space station door. The phrase "one hour is equal to seven years", which was used as a foundation and seemingly weak before, became powerful and truly shocking as the vicissitudes of Romiley said "twenty-three years..." lines. Subsequently, the time of "twenty-three years" no longer stayed in Romily's face, but when it was specifically the "home letter" that was not read in the "twenty-three years", time was concretized and emotionalized, and then time became Time for people.
The lens is switched back and forth between the screen and Cooper, while switching, the lens is aimed at the screen to zoom in. When Murphy, who was as old as Cooper on the other side of the screen, was talking, her face gradually enlarged to the size of the entire IMAX screen, and the concept of "twenty-three years" was also "visibly" enlarged. To quote myself: "When Nolan discusses time and zooms in on the screen, time is visibly squeezed by the movie on the screen, and things that people cannot easily perceive are simultaneously magnified to extremely powerful and shaken at the same time. Audience. This kind of the most fragile and insignificant, something that everyone has (as if something everyone has will make people feel unprecious), suddenly becomes so powerful and so moving." When
I first saw this place , People are already weak-in the face of time, we are too small. Human emotions are bigger than before under the magnification and concretization of time. Love—the subject matter that can be modularized for Hollywood, at this time—is unique in the face of "enlarged" time. Thinking about it carefully, this kind of subject matter so far away from us can touch us as if it happened around us. Why, it is precisely because Nolan has used this bridge-human emotions to connect the audience with his view of time. Together.
Just like in "Inception", Nolan boldly made dreams visible and controllable. In "Interstellar", Nolan made time visible and visible. In "Inception", when Alan Page and Leonardo talk to a roadside coffee shop, the dream collapses, and the fireworks-like scenes of each shop are real shots rather than special effects. Similarly, in the filming of "Interstellar", Matthew was hung from the pressure and surrounded in front of the screen that played the same scene to shoot the passages in five-dimensional space. Nolan is obsessed with setting up the scene to create the illusion on the screen, rather than using computer special effects. The visible and tangible "dream" and "time" seem to be the director's own dream.
What is in the black hole? Nolan gave a romantic answer-visible time and self in time. The rare romance of Nolan, who is unscientific and uncomfortable all day, is as cute as a rare joke of a science and engineering student who is immersed in numbers all day. But thinking about it carefully, Nolan's answer is intriguing and he drew a perfect circle for the film. To be precise, they are two circles-∞. Humans went around a long circle to find the answer, and finally found themselves. It's not over yet, it's only halfway--finding that oneself is the answer to the problem--so he started to save himself--starting to find a way to save...there is no end. The suspense of ghosts, binaries, coordinates, etc., was revealed with Nolan's romantic and sympathetic conjecture. The two clues of the film finally meet in front of Murphy's bed, but they separate immediately, and Cooper flies into space again. This is not exactly a "∞".
Some film critics said that Professor Brand knew that his plan A had succeeded when he saw Cooper found them. At first I thought that if this was the case, Nolan's suspense buried in the film was too much, so I didn't believe it. After reading it for the second time, it became more and more true—Professor Brand said to Cooper: "They chose you", and after contacting, "They are us." So, we can almost say that-the storyline of the "present progressive" that the film makes us feel is actually "past progressive" for the "us" as "them".
The whole film was 167 minutes long. At the end of the first hour, the two clues began to separate, and Cooper and his entourage came to space; at the end of the second hour, Cooper came to five-dimensional space; in the last half an hour, the whole film was cautiously like a tightrope walker. Unlock all chains. However, in watching movies, the audience's perception of time is different from usual, unless the movie doesn't bring you into that world. Therefore, when Nolan distributes the entire footage, it is unclear whether he considers ordinary time or dream time created by the film. Analyzing from my perspective, Nolan takes the general time as a prerequisite for consideration. The first hour, the part where Cooper and Murphy were not separated, was laid out very finely, so during watching the movie, I felt that the time was very slow and steady, close to normal time. And when the film did not enter the second hour, the chapter time in space was very fast, the plot was tight, and the time became very fast. For example, in the twenty-three years mentioned by Romiley, then Cooper and his party should have been active on the planet for more than three hours, but Nolan compressed these "three hours" into a very short movie time, instead letting Ku Per's time to read the letter from the family became longer, and his pace became slower. The time in the plot returns to earth time, and the audience at this time also switches from dream time back to normal time. Nolan has considerations. In order to avoid letting the film indulge in the chaotic time in space, he uses Murphy's clues to use earth time as a reference. However, in the five-dimensional space, the rhythms of Murphy and Cooper began to overlap. The two times seemed to be parallel and as fast as the rhythm, but in reality, the time difference between the two was several decades.
"Interstellar" finally returns to the person itself, this point is excellent. It is not easy for Nolan to use such a big pomp to return to the person himself convincingly and touchingly-such a foothold that seems no stranger to the audience, and can even be guessed. But among the many landing sites, the one that is relatively stable and valuable is the landing on the person itself.
In this hard-to-reach space, I met my own time. Those "they" went around a big circle and eventually became "us", and the "future" went around a big circle and finally became "the present".
"The crowd searched for him thousands of times, but he looked back, but the person was there, in a dimly lit place."
As a saying goes, you know how many things you miss before you cherish it. "Interstellar" tells you that if you want to see you again, it's not easy; tell a joke, look in the mirror more, today you are a day older than yesterday, "Interstellar" Say, time, like that huge wave, it's too late when you see it.
three. Murphy's Law
takes "Murphy's Law" as the topic of this section, but it is not meant to be discussed in the whole section. This section aims to use the law to discuss a magic weapon for the whole film to be established and credible.
I pointed out in the first film review that Nolan has been trying to get close to his conjectures and possibilities, and in this film he used "Murphy" as a hint.
Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. "Interstellar" has annotated the law. When Cooper and the children were repairing their tires on the roadside, Murphy asked about his name. Nolan took the opportunity to put forward his own understanding: "Murphy's law does not mean that bad things will happen, but that everything It may happen". And this understanding became the basis for the establishment of the whole film.
When Cooper kept calling "Murphy", then the two clues frequently intertwined. To a certain extent, the film is borrowing the name "Murphy" to evoke the audience's experience of "Murphy's Law". Later, when Cooper was in the five-dimensional space and Murphy was looking for clues in his room at the same time, it can be said that the film secretly reminded the audience-"Murphy = possible". As a role, "Murphy" became the embodiment of "Murphy's Law". In other words, in addition to the important role of "time", "Murphy's Law" has become another invisible role through the shell of "Murphy".
Books fall one by one, if you think it will be a ghost, then the ghost exists; the sandstorm is coming, if you think the window may not be closed, then the window must not be closed; if you find that the law of the book falling is a coordinate, even this It is a conjecture, then it must be a coordinate; if you are likely to become a space explorer who makes the earth, then you will be; if Dr. Mann is likely to falsify, then he is a liar; there are three alternative planets, if the first The planet that arrives the second time is not suitable for survival, then the planet suitable for survival will be the last one to go; if we don’t know what is in the black hole, then there will be our own time and us in that time ; If she could crack the data, then she would do it... "Murphy's Law" became the most stable bridge between Nolan's conjecture and the "reality" on the screen. Of course, this does not mean that Cooper may be Spider-Man, he will be Spider-Man. Under Nolan's consideration, everything in the film seems reasonable. Just as Teacher Ka said on WeChat: "The feelings of the savior of this human family are really a bit unidentified", I feel so too. And precisely because of the ingenious understanding of Murphy's law, this seemingly impossible story is established because it is possible. All the plots are intertwined by such bridges. After thinking about it this way, I suddenly found out, ah, Nolan is really "cunning".
You would say that I am defending Nolan personally, well, I admit it. Indeed, no matter what superhero Nolan creates, it is Nolan selfish, just like he makes dreams "visible and controllable" and time "visible and touchable".
Four. The so-called human nature
from "Follow" to "Interstellar", so far, Nolan has directed a total of nine movies. Except for "Chasing the Murder in the White Night", Nolan also participated in the screenwriting. Nolan is a master of storytelling, but his characters are not full. This feeling is especially obvious when we watch nine films together. Characters have outstanding characteristics, but in addition to outstanding characteristics, they lack a lot of due elements. Just like in "Interstellar", the rendering of Cooper's fatherhood is greater than that of his astronaut, so that when he ventured into the black hole and separated from Brand, the audience did not have a lot of emotions. This made me feel that when I was writing my first film review, the whole film was sci-fi as the outer cover, and emotion was the protagonist. But thinking about it later, the emotions are very strong, but they are actually very simple. In other words, the part of family relationships in the film is wonderful, but these alone are not enough.
Cooper appeared in an absolutely positive image, reminiscent of Nolan's Batman, all with the brave perseverance of superheroes. But for a character who needs thickness, this is not enough. Looking at the other characters, Brand and his daughter are very contradictory, but from the point of view of the whole film, the characters are very flat and not three-dimensional. This has nothing to do with the actors. It can be said that Brand is the most mature character I have ever portrayed by Anne Hathaway. Similarly, Matthew McConaughey’s performance in the film is amazing. He completely controls the "superhero" in such a complex subject. His performance allows the audience to feel at ease even when the film is fast-paced. . But I think that Nolan can't get rid of his own model when creating characters, that is, the complexity of people, which is the human nature that Nolan emphasized. But Nolan seems to be too superhero, "simple and rude" to portray human nature. This is especially evident in his Batman series. His model used in superheroes may seem new-this is probably because the previous superheroes were too "simple and rude". But when these elements are misappropriated to the "normal world" outside of the superhero, it appears crude. It can even be said that his early "Follow", "Shards of Memory" and "White Night Chase the Murder" are relatively more hierarchical. This may be because the world that the early films tried to construct was not as big and complicated as the later ones. Nolan tried to let Leonardo’s Cobb not only be a dreamer, but also a "lover" and "father" in "Inception Owe, unable to evoke the experience and emotions of the audience.
However, in Nolan's films, the supporting role is often more full and vivid than the protagonist. This may be because the supporting role itself is less than the protagonist, and Nolan's understanding of human nature is suitable for supporting roles. So we see "Cobb" in "Follow", Hilary Swank (playing as Avery) in "White Night Chase", Heath Ledger (playing as Joker) in "Dark Knight", and Cassie Affleck (played as adult Tom), Matt Damon (played by Mann) and so on in "Interstellar" are all wonderful. Tom has far fewer roles in "Interstellar" than his sister Murphy, but these few appearances are enough to make this character shine.
Although Tom's grades are not as good as his younger sister's, and he loves to make jokes about his younger sister, but he has always loved his father, even if he doesn't say anything. In those years when Murphy never sent videos to his father, Tom relayed the situation of himself and his family to his father in time. Regardless of whether his father received the information, he insisted on telling his happiness and sorrow to his father. Although he said after quarreling with Murphy that "grandpa brought me up", this was an angry remark. Why doesn't he leave the farm, doesn't he want his family to be healthy? The farm is the sustenance of his past memories, which is why he buried his child and grandfather in the back of the house. Doesn't he know who burned the cornfield on purpose? It can be seen from Cassie's performance that he is not surprised, he knows his sister. That's why Murphy hugged Tom excitedly when he found the answer, Tom had a dull expression and said nothing. If he was a stupid Murphy was supposed to be, he should be what Murphy's assistant expected (Murphy's assistant took a tool as a weapon at the time)-beat people again unreasonably. The camera bypassed Murphy and gave Tom a close-up. Tom's silence at this time explained too much: staying at the farm and making no changes to the furnishings of the home are also the memory of the guards of his father; regardless of whether Murphy's words are true or not, he chooses to believe , Because my father has been away from them for too long too long.
Nolan has been trying to increase the thickness of the film, and the thickness of all his films is mostly contributed to his bold conjectures and ideas. In other words, Nolan seems to be too intoxicated in his own imaginary world, and the people living in that world are sharp but sharp. Too light and too thin.
five. Looking up at the stars
From the first science fiction and space film "Moon Journey" filmed by George Mélière in 1902 to this year's "Interstellar", it has been 112 years since mankind looked up at the stars on the screen. Human beings have gradually become pioneers and adventurers from acting as conquerors.
In the first half of the year, he made a special study on Meili Ai's "Moon Journey", with more than 10,000 words written. We analyze and discuss from the novels it has adapted, to the shooting techniques, and to the scenes. It's an understanding of this earliest space movie. In 1902, flying into space was nothing more than a dream. Based on Verne and Wells' words and his own imagination, Mélière presented "space" to the world.
The same space movie filmed before humans actually launch the rocket is Frieze Lang's "Chang'e in the Moon" in 1929. Among them, the shape of the rocket is closer to the shape of the later rocket than that of "Lunar Journey". At this time, the humans on the screen are no longer going to the moon by artillery bombardment on a "rocket", but are closer to the later reality of rocket launching to space; it is no longer going to the moon to fight aliens, but an adventure, including looking for Wealth-a gold mine. Later, when the Rockets really went to heaven, this kind of romantic conjectures naturally decreased significantly, although the later "Avatar" seemed to return to this "primitive" theme to a certain extent.
After humans began to explore space, more and more reflections appeared on the screen. From when Kubrick asked poetically, to today Nolan cautiously guessed that the exploration of space on the screen and the exploration in reality go side by side, supporting each other.
However, the so-called "support each other" can easily give the movie another color. Not to mention that movies like "Apollo 13" cannot avoid the display of the country's political and military strength, even "Interstellar" is "unavoidable"? When mankind is in a crisis of survival, the United States still chooses to fight alone, and is it quietly fighting alone underground? It's just a superhero complex from top to bottom. At this point, the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón tried his best to weaken this color-while telling a small and concise story like "Gravity", he did not forget to "sing" the spirit of international cooperation.
In addition, like most space movies, "Interstellar Crossing" also contributed to us its alien world. Later, it was discovered that the three candidate planets were distinguished by their different tones: the two planets where humans could not survive showed a cool color, and the last one that appeared to be viable showed a warm color.
Some film critics say that Nolan’s imagination is limited, and the alien world he constructed is either all water or a desert. I have to say that from the "water" star to the "ice" star, the difference between the "two points of water" really makes the audience feel aesthetic fatigue. I have to say that the film is well-intentioned, and uses tones to evoke the feelings of the audience when watching it. It is full of ice and full of water, the color is uniform, and the weather is cold, making it full of depression. Even in the "Water" star, the scene full of water makes people feel peaceful, but the huge waves that follow expose the unpredictable turmoil and crisis hidden in this planet.
On the planet where Dr. Mann is located, the film did not give a large-scale close-up of the specially designed mountains and rocks, but let them appear as the background or environment for development. However, judging from these few scenes, those icebergs resemble landscapes in Western 16th and 17th century Keli realist copper engravings, or some very personal landscapes that appeared in Chinese paintings in Yuan, Ming and later; Of course, this is closer to the alien world format formed by the directors of science fiction films such as Méliès and Franz.
How interesting it would be if all the alien scenes in the movie were arranged together and watched! This is indeed a question worth discussing. In addition, the same can be done for those aircraft, robots, etc. The aircraft in "Interstellar" resembles Nolan's Batmobile, especially the generation in "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises". As for robots, the robots in "Interstellar" are different: abandoning the five senses necessary for traditional robots, replacing them with more intuitive screens; more complete functions, more efficient, and very professional; when performing different tasks, they have all kinds of shapes. Maintain its unique elegance, especially when wading quickly to rescue Brand.
"Interstellar" actually puts forward a relatively pessimistic view of the future-human beings will eventually abandon the earth. Among the films holding the same point of view, the impressive ones include "Robot Walli" and so on. To a certain extent, "Interstellar" is the tragic prequel of "Robot Wall", and "Robot Wall" is the comedy sequel to "Interstellar". This is naturally a joke. But think about it carefully, even though "Interstellar" has created a superhero-like image, it cannot keep human beings on the earth. Is this Nolan's pessimistic prediction? I think this is more a reflection on the present. Human beings are small, but human wisdom can make people stand taller.
When people stand higher and higher, they never forget to look back at their hometown. This is the nostalgia that human beings cannot get rid of. Like many space movies, "Interstellar" also repeatedly repeats the idea of "going home". Since the appearance of space movies, the appearance of the earth has always carried the deep affection of the adventurers in the story for their hometown. Just like in "Interstellar", the spacecraft leaves the earth and sees the blue shadow of the earth through the string window. In 1902, Meili Ai’s "Travel to the Moon" "achieved" looking back at the earth for the first time on the moon. For me, this is the most exciting segment:
"When the scientists waved to the earth, they retreated to the picture, or the right side of the "stage", took off their hats and waved. The earth rises, revealing the side of Africa and Europe. This seems to be deliberately done by Meili Ai. At that time or imagined like this: After reaching the moon, scientists from France should be so excited to see themselves in their hometown on the earth. People have never seen the earth from this angle (only from this angle, there is no doubt that , This picture is also based on the globe), when Méliès transfers this perspective to the movie-when people look at it from the perspective of the moon, the audience may imagine that they are one of those scientists, a kind of Unprecedented feelings for "home" and surprise at this perspective
emerged spontaneously. In 1966, Huanyue 1 took the first picture of the earth from the moon. Since it is a black and white photo, we can only see the earth. Surrounded by large clouds. In 1968, Apollo 8 took the first color photo of the Earth from the moon. People also saw this blue planet from this angle for the first time. People's feelings at this time and "Moon Travel Notes" "How will the audience feel different? This is not the kind of surprise and excitement like the imagination that has come true suddenly, but more or calm and reflection. Just half a century after Mélière’s "Moon Journey" Space technology is becoming more and more advanced. Until now, it’s not uncommon to see photos of the Earth from the moon. Similar to photos of the Earth from Mars and other angles, it seems to be a natural surprise for a country with advanced aerospace technology.” (Excerpt from the work "Meri Love Research on "Moon Travel Notes") In
"Interstellar", human beings have left the earth, but the pattern in the space station is still the same as when people lived on the earth before. When Cooper handed the earphones to Romiley, the sound of rain, thunder, and birds sounded in a peaceful universe. How touching. There are probably some things that you can't get rid of.
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