Any popular film can't escape the triumph of film critics , and "City of Philharmonic" is no exception.
At the very beginning, there will be a wave of praise, and the words are full, like how to lock the best of 2017 in advance, save the song and dance film, innovate the language of the film... Every film critic is racking his brains to find one Take a tricky angle, and then sit firmly with the first person to say "like".
If you haven’t caught up with the first wave, it’s okay. You can also join the second tier and pour cold water on this movie, such as: a movie that has been seriously overrated, but a clichéd cliché... In short, that means, like Such a movie can only show that you are illiterate and short-sighted.
When the boasting is over, the cursing is over, and finally a wave of film critics who have a sense of superiority will scream: whether it is praise or step, in fact, you don’t understand "Love "The City of Music", it should look like this...
I am also a person who writes film reviews. If film reviews can be regarded as an industry in China, I can only say that I like film reviews, but I don't like this industry.
Maybe I was too dull, just like Xiaosai who likes traditional jazz, I can't keep up with the fast-changing consumer era.
I also know that the essence of eyeballing lies in sharpness and extremes, and moderation is not desirable.
But I still want to be a dull person in this era when everyone is trying to sharpen myself. I will always stand behind this moment and keep my distance from the wind.
In this way, you won't be coerced by it and say something involuntary.
Speaking back to "City of Philharmonic".
I fell in love with this movie when I came back to listen to the original sound after watching it the first time .
Because when I was listening, I saw the whole movie replayed before my eyes. All the stories, emotions, warmth, and regrets were all in the notes.
At that moment, I realized that this is a movie "ruled by song and dance". From the beginning to the end, "sing and dance" promote the narrative and lead the emotions.
And this is what a song and dance film should look like.
For a good song and dance film, "sensory communication" must exist before "story rationality".
This is also the first place that attracted me to "City of Philharmonic".
We saw that as soon as the film opened, it was a five-minute long shot of singing and dancing.
In congested Los Angeles, the delayed dream-catching pace caused a group of young people to jump out of the car, singing and dancing to vent their inner restlessness.
This is a setting for the theme of dreams.
We look at the men and women in the camera, taking turns to play, and in the fleeting opportunity, we can get a picture for ourselves.
Just listen to them sing, "I am in Los Angeles, where the stars gather, chasing lights and dreams..."
The dream is the air of this city, the breath that no one can stop.
Then, in this dream city, love took place.
Just like the irreversible change of the four seasons, we have also experienced destined changes in the cold and warm when we look at the love of the hero and heroine.
And at every change, the "dance" as always "the first impetus" and there is never absent.
So we see:
Xiaosai and Mia met for the first time because of the sound of the piano . Mia walked into the bar following the sound and saw Xiaosai playing the piano, so the crowd suddenly went dark, and a beam of light fell between them.
The first ambiguity between Xiaosai and Mia was completed in dance . It was an evening, with street lights and benches nearby, and galaxies and mountains in the distance. Although the two sang "A Good Night Wasted", their bodies were more honest than words. I saw them dancing together tacitly, chasing away from the ground, and all their thoughts were revealed.
The first date between Xiaosai and Mia was also facilitated by music . At that time, Mia was absent-mindedly accompany her boyfriend to dinner. Suddenly, the sound of the piano when she met Xiaosai for the first time came on the radio, like a lightning bolt, piercing all defenses and illuminating her heart. So Mia left her boyfriend and ran all the way with a smile, to the movie appointment with Xiaosai.
Since then, their love has continued to heat up. Under the virtual starry sky of the Griffith Planetarium, they lost gravity and danced to the side of the Milky Way; in the jazz bar, Xiaosai played the piano, Mia danced, and High turned the audience...
Until the end of the film, that warm and heartbreaking montage paragraph , even moreover, every melody that once flowed in their love experience was mixed and cut into this fantasy love in the form of a key change, thus showing A condensed and unsteady sense of life.
It should be said that if there is no singing, dancing, or dialogue, this love story is not valid.
Because in this film, singing and dancing are actions that precede love, and love is a thought hidden behind singing and dancing.
This also explains why it is difficult to walk into this movie based solely on reason.
Because in front of music and dance, many things don't need a reason. For example, when Xiaosai sits in front of the piano, a beam of chasing light hits down, hands up and down, and the sound of a dreamlike piano sounded. At that moment, love has been established. What reason is needed? Woolen cloth.
The second thing that impresses me in "City of Philharmonic" is its proficient film language .
This depends on director Damian Chazelle's extraordinary control over the film's rhythm.
In his last film "Burst Drummer", he relied on " drum-like quick editing " to create a sense of excitement and tension, and presented an irreconcilable opposition between self-realization and boring practice.
In "City of Philharmonic", this sense of speed is almost gone. There are only two clips in my impression. One is when Mia is working part-time in a cafe, and three short shots are used to quickly explain her daily work; the other is to shoot Xiaosai to practice playing at home, and also three. The short shots were given to records, coffee, and piano keys, respectively, to explain the environment.
From these two clips, it can be vaguely seen that this belongs to "Burst Drummer".
But for the rest, there is no sense of oppression in "Burst Drummer", replaced by a soothing, calm, and elegant long shot . This courage to subvert myself surprised me very much.
In addition, most of the song and dance passages in the film are presented with a complete lens.
When I watched it, I was thinking, this is too difficult for these non-music professional actors.
Because in the long shot, you have no chance to find a dancer or cover up your mistakes. You have to rely entirely on the actors themselves, and you can't do anything sloppy.
However, the final effect is still very good. Commander Gao and Sister Stone both performed very well in singing and dancing.
In addition, in terms of film language, there is another thing that excites me: simply telling stories with the lens, returning to the essence of film language.
In the film, my three favorite scenes are all laid out by the lens, there is no extra dialogue, no excessive emotional rendering, but they are very exciting.
The first scene is the meeting of the two protagonists.
I remember Tarkovsky once said: "If you neglect the preparation for the encounter, then the encounter will be pale."
Before they met, Mia and Xiaosai were in a terrible situation.
They are two lost dream chasers: Mia is an actor who is eager to be recognized, but has repeatedly failed in the audition; and Xiaosai is crazy about classical jazz, but jazz is almost dead.
The film uses a two-line narrative approach, approaching this encounter from the perspective of the two protagonists.
In the end, the two lines converged at one point. In the bar, Mia, who was attracted by the sound of the piano, saw Xiaosai who was intoxicated with playing.
The next shot was great: Xiaosai played in a noisy bar with diners, no one cared about the music, but from Mia’s eyes, the crowd was dark, the noise disappeared, and a beam of light fell from the top of his head, burning. The ground fell on Xiaosai's side face.
This shot alone shows the origin of the love between them: As an actor who lives in the eyes of others, Mia is completely attracted by this pretentious and insulting man in front of her.
She seems to have seen a spiritual idol-like existence: people with dreams don't need to applaud, they bring their own light.
And the worst moment of one person shines brightly in the eyes of another person. Is there a more romantic encounter than this?
The second scene was at the concert.
In order to survive in reality, Xiaosai joined a pop band and began an endless tour.
In this scene of the concert, the director simply used the language of the camera to present us with a silent quarrel :
At the beginning, a beam of chasing light hit the stage and Xiaosai played the piano alone. That scene was like the scene when Mia and Xiaosai met for the first time, everything was as good as before.
But suddenly, the camera was zoomed in to the distant view, the lights of the audience turned on, and the rhythm of pop music ignited the scene.
After that, the camera immediately showed Mia in the crowd, and she looked at Xiaosai who was enjoying it in surprise, her eyes became strange.
She looked at this man who was obsessed with jazz dreams, but now she lost herself in the cheering crowd.
At this moment, the lights of the audience were in sharp contrast with the light that she only projected on this man: Although there were countless lights on the scene, the light in Mia's heart was dimming.
In the next shot, Mia was constantly pushed back by the cheering crowd, her body was a little bit away from Xiaosai, and farther than her body, it was her heart.
After that, the screen went black and everything came to an abrupt end. When it lights up again, it has transitioned into the "autumn" paragraph.
The language of this shot is really wonderful!
The third scene is a parallel editing.
The director mixed two sets of shots that occurred at the same time: on one side, Mia was performing a one-man show on a stage with few audiences; on the other side, Xiaosai was doing a coordinated expression at the request of the photographer.
Needless to say, the meaning is self-evident: at that moment, the two people actually completed a change of identity.
The once cowardly person stood on the stage, even if no one applauded; the once brave person fell off the altar to applaud others.
This kind of visual counterpoint bypasses language logic and brain responses and directly points to the weakest part of the human heart.
And the crack behind it is a kind of pain that is difficult to heal.
These three favorite scenes of mine just happened to wear the emotional clues of Xiaosai and Mia.
This is not a story that forces the hero and heroine to choose between love and dreams. On the contrary, their love and dreams are one.
When dreams are lost, love can no longer survive.
This is why I like "City of Philharmonic".
It is a song and dance film that uses song and dance to promote narrative, and it is a film that relies on lens language to tell stories. It allows me to see the unique charm of the movie, and it reminds me of the time when I fell in love with the movie. That excitement.
And its story is so simple. Love that cannot be accomplished in reality, then create a dream and let it come true.
Isn't this the meaning of the movie?
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