After the second brush, I saw Nolan’s ambitions

Deja 2022-03-20 09:01:09

I bought the movie tickets for "Dunkirk" a week in advance, and saw that a movie theater near my house was lined up with a zero o'clock show, and there was also a yellow emperor seat, so I quickly bought two. After paying the payment, I found out that it turned out to be an ordinary digital hall, not an IMAX field at all. At that time, I had a heart attacking mobile phones. In a rage, he bought the IMAX field of Wanda CBD on the day of the show and grabbed the Yellow Emperor seat in the middle of the eighth row.

From the perspective of watching the movie, although the first time I saw an ordinary digital hall, because it was the first time I saw it, there was a feeling of tension and excitement from beginning to end. I was completely shocked by the soundtrack and sound effects, and my heart almost burst. The experience of watching this movie is very good. I went to the second game in the afternoon of the next day. Wanda’s IMAX game gave people an illusion. It seemed that I watched a fake IMAX, but the whole game was not as good as the first game. The second brush can be said that there is no sense of seeing, no sense of mystery, no aftertaste.

I was thinking, is it the problem of this IMAX field, or the problem of my second filming, or is this film not worth the second filming at all? Fans who have watched Nolan's movies know that his movies often require a second brush, because it is too brain-intensive, and it is often difficult to watch the first time. Because of this, I felt that the second brush was necessary at first, but I found that this new film doesn't need a second brush at all. I chose the IMAX scene for the second time, and the movie-watching experience was very average, without the feeling of the first scene's sound effects and soundtrack. I think it was a problem with this movie.

Nolan’s previous movies have used time-compression techniques to deal with the story very complicatedly, making the audience want to understand the movie, and has a sense of superiority that challenges IQ. This time, "Dunkirk" also played the concept of time. Everyone must have heard of it. It was a week when 400,000 soldiers were on the beach of the barrier. The British people spontaneously responded to the government and participated in sea rescue. The British Air Force drove the Spitfire to wipe out the enemy forces in space for an hour. One week, one day, one hour, three narrative lines, the young soldiers fleeing, the officers on the embankment, the people of the Moonstone rescue ship and the pilots on the fighter jets, four groups of characters are edited in parallel.

Compressed time and parallel editing are both Nolan’s signature narrative skills in the past. For example, in his "Inception", the concept of time in several layers of dreams is different, one layer of dreams affects the previous layer of dreams, and several layers of dreams There are several narrative lines, and several narrative lines are edited in parallel. Nolan's movies, as long as the climax of the third act, uses parallel editing, even in movies like "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Interstellar", the parallel editing of the third act will make it feel awkward. In "Dunkirk", Nolan expanded the technique of the third act in the previous movie into a 100-minute movie. Now the whole movie is just like the previous third act, with three narratives and four groups of characters using parallelism. Editing, from the beginning to the end, is basically a 100-minute climax scene.

This time the concept of time, there is no brain-burning thing, only a three narrative line to a certain point in time synchronization settings, there are two points in the editing that highlight the time when the two meet, and the editing may make it the first time you see it. The audience of the film reacts for a few seconds, and then there is nothing incomprehensible. So the concept of time in this movie sounds like Nolan’s usual skills, but from the narrative effect, time does not have an amazing effect. Even if the film does not mention the concept of time, there are three narrative lines. With such parallel editing, from the perspective of narrative effect, the result is the same.

However, the concept of time here has a narrative effect, which is to highlight the urgency of time. It is like a countdown of time, which can effectively amplify the dramatic tension of the story. The concept of time here, like the countdown to the third act of many movies, has the effect of a last-second rescue. What's more, the whole movie wants to highlight this race against time, including Hans Tymo's soundtrack. The Shepard scale is also used for this effect. The music has always made the audience's heart mentioned to the voice. From the beginning of the movie, the first gunshot sounded, and this tension was under the influence of the soundtrack and sound effects editing, without stopping for a moment.

Much of the tension in this movie comes from the soundtrack and sound effects. Many people criticized the soundtrack this time for being too full and ubiquitous. It may be that this time there are too few lines and the plot is too simple. The soundtrack has always been like our heartbeat. There is an illusion, as if we can’t keep up with the rhythm of the soundtrack. A few beats of your heartbeat will be missed. The sound effects of bullets and bombings are equally shocking. Coupled with the minimalist handling of the story, we can't see the enemy, but only feel the crisis-ridden scene. Only the protagonists are exposed, and the bullets can fly from any angle. When the first bullet of the movie came out, the sound effects scared me a bit. The first time I watched the movie, the feeling of anxiety and tension was similar to the movie experience of "Blood War Hacksaw Ridge". It was a great experience.

Extending the third act of a traditional movie into 100 minutes, coupled with the minimalist processing on the story level, this approach is very independent film, for Nolan, it is a very experimental attempt, after all, it is to have 1 A big investment of 100 million U.S. dollars is a Hollywood blockbuster of this size. From a creative point of view, it is similar to Alfonso Cuarón’s "Gravity", with minimal treatment. The whole story adopts a first-person perspective. The camera always follows our protagonist, and the protagonist is in a crisis. In this environment, you never know what you will encounter in the next second.

Although this is a war movie, the omniscient macro perspective is omitted from the story level, and everything is simplified without explaining the background and marching progress of the two sides of the battle. Only the British army is left, even those who are also trapped on the beach. The French Allied forces are reduced to the background. After the story is minimally processed, only a few representative characters in the Dunkirk retreat are retained, and the macroscopic history is reproduced from the subjective perspective of small characters. This is very different from the traditional panoramic war film of "Saving Private Ryan". Nolan's script this time is an independent film at its core.

The whole movie is like a climax scene, the narrative rhythm is very fast, every narrative line is racing against time, giving people an illusion of speed, a bit like "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" The movie, from beginning to end, makes people feel the speed of hurricane. Nolan has actually been using various narrative techniques to enhance the urgency of the story, from one hour a day a week to the setting of each narrative line. The line used the low tide and high tide for one week, and waited six hours for the high tide to wait for the rescue ship; one day, a trembling soldier and a seriously injured boy were set up in the line. Moral dilemma; in the one-hour line, Tom Hardy’s plane has been calculating the remaining fuel, the fuel in the fighter jets is getting less and less, and the face of a crash is a matter of minutes. From narrative techniques to technical support such as sound effects and soundtracks, the entire film serves this sense of speed, and the final effect is also very good.

In terms of technological innovation, it should be IMAX photography. In the past, Nolan’s films used IMAX cameras only partly. This time, this large format of 70mm film was used throughout. It is said that in the native 70mm film IMAX hall, the ratio of 1.43:1 can give people an immersive experience. Regardless of how difficult it is for viewers who are accustomed to watching 3D to have an immersive experience these years, this kind of 2D movie wants to achieve the illusion of VR. As for the effect, perhaps only fans who see the 1.43:1 real IMAX giant screen hall Only have a say.

Only movie fans in the three cities of Dongguan, Kunming and Harbin in China have the opportunity to experience the charm of this large format. Like the IMAX hall of Beijing Wanda CBD that I saw, the experience of the second brush is not as good as the ordinary one seen for the first time. Cinema. This demanding requirement for technology and projection equipment is estimated to be similar to that of Ang Lee’s 120-frame, 4K, 3D "Billy Lynn's Midfield Battle" last year. It can only be truly felt in a movie theater that meets technical standards. To the charm of this movie, I experience the clarity and shock of the picture that I have never had before, and I can even see the hairs and blood vessels on the actor's arm.

For viewers like me who have not experienced the IMAX hall of real 70mm film, I won't talk about the experience, only envy, jealousy and hatred. Anyway, Nolan tied the bulky IMAX film camera to the Spitfire as a GoPro. It was an unprecedented attempt to use this camera for shoulder photography and take super-large close-up shots of the face. Nolan was the only one. Great directors of this level have the opportunity to play this way. For the audience, this is probably only a one-time experience. The next director who is able to shoot this way does not know who it is. Therefore, qualified audiences must experience it. The clarity and picture size of this large-format film are unprecedented, and because of the large picture and super high resolution, the entire movie is almost shot in real life, and special effects are not used as much as possible. On the one hand, Nolan has always pursued this kind of real weight and quality of real shots. On the other hand, because of such a large picture and sharpness, a slight flaw in the special effects will make people feel false.

The ratings of foreign fans are similar to those of China. The reputation of "Dunkirk" is not as overwhelming as "Inception" and "The Dark Knight". It is also the same as the predecessors "Interstellar" and "The Dark Knight Rises". Movie fans feel that it is lower than expected and can only be given a passing score. But I like it very much, and I really appreciate the director’s double experimental breakthrough in creative direction and technology. He used a huge investment to make an independent film with an excellent audio-visual experience. This is the first time that we can do it all the time. I feel Nolan’s subjective expression as a director. The ratings of this movie are actually very good, but if you get an Oscar, what can you nominate? I think there are only 3 awards for best photography, best sound effect and best sound effect editing to have a chance to be nominated. Entering September, it will soon be the year-end Oscar awards season, let us wait and see.


This article was first published on the public account recommended by Uncle Blasphemy

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Extended Reading

Dunkirk quotes

  • Captain Winnant: [sighs, boards the evacuation ship] Churchill got his 30,000.

    Commander Bolton: And then some. Almost 300,000...

    [closes the barrier in front of him to the ship]

    Commander Bolton: ... so far.

    Captain Winnant: [looks up at Bolton] So far?

    Commander Bolton: I'm staying. For the French.

  • Collins: [Upon being rescued by Peter] Afternoon.