In "Uncut Gems," when Adam Sandler's Howard makes his phone calls on the street, death is not far off.
But this seemingly unexpected ending is not abrupt under the intriguing camera language and sound effects. The reason why the film is so convincing is inseparable from its seemingly complicated characters.
Because, when we delve into the details of Uncut Diamonds, we find that both the labyrinthine spaces and the rambunctious dialogue are designed to increase Howard's desire until he swells to death. A greedy metaphor for a colored space
It is no exaggeration to regard the story of "Rough Diamond" as "a bloody case caused by a stone". When the debt-ridden Howard bought a black opal from Africa, he began his crazy plan to "make a fortune."
In order to emphasize the "greedy" nature of Howard and others, the directors Safdie brothers decorated every corner of the film with "colorful" elements.
For example, when Garnett looked at black opal with a magnifying glass, the colorful light on the stone caught Garnett into it.
Then, the layers of color in the picture, the historical changes of African primitive tribes, and Garnett's personal growth intertwine. At this time, "greed" came to Garnett in a mysterious way.
When Howard went to the bar to ask Demani for black opal, there was a lot of "colored" elements. At this time, Demani's bright orange clothes, friends' leopard-print coats, and blue T-shirts all blended into the cool-toned lights, forming a colorful scene.
The corresponding plot here is that Demani ignores Howard's interests and immerses himself in pleasure.
When Howard returns to the office in despair, the "colored" element of the static ball again hints at his unabated greed.
In addition to these three highly representative "color" elements, there are many such foreshadowings in the film. If only one or two "color" elements are still refracting "greed", the visual motif of "color" is used in so many places to form a sense of oppression and make Howard fall into a "crazy eye". of vertigo. The ability of the Safdie brothers for visual scheduling is evident.
Two Multiple Desires in Different Places
In addition to the use of "colored" elements, another visual feature of "Rough Diamond" is the rapid transition between different places. This transformation is not only intended to represent Howard's fast-paced lifestyle, but also to symbolize his multiple desires.
For example, the first opposite scene between Howard and Garnett is arranged in the diamond shop, which is also the place that appears the most in the film, which symbolizes Howard's first desire - money.
Running for money is the sole purpose of Howard's presence in diamond shops, jewelry stores, bookmakers' shops and auctions. However, besides "money", he also attempted to have other desires.
For example, he would hang out in his mistress's apartment, which was the site of his "sexuality" symbol;
He will not miss the family event - "Passover", which is the embodiment of his desire for "identity" as a Jew.
Similar to the sense of oppression formed by the "color" element, the Safdie brothers also created a sense of restlessness through the rapid switching between multiple venues. This sense of restlessness permeates both Howard and the audience's empathic experience, and can have the exact opposite effect.
Howard's restlessness stems from his self-righteous mastery, and he thinks the gambler's tricks he's wielding will work.
For the audience, this restless viewing experience is covered with a thick layer of black, which symbolizes that Howard must end in tragedy, as mysterious as "the white land is really clean" in "A Dream of Red Mansions".
So in the end, when Howard watched the ball game with extreme excitement, his sense of absurdity that he felt he was winning but stopped abruptly formed an interesting echo with the previous method of constantly switching places.
In addition, the switching of places means the flow of image space, which is why the works of the Safdie brothers often have a sense of tremor.
In 2017's "Good Times", it is in this fluid and chaotic movement that we feel the turmoil and danger on the streets of New York.
"Rough Diamond" undoubtedly removes the roughness from this tremor, and polishes it more finely. It no longer relies entirely on handheld photography to create roughness, but even in still pictures, there is still a surging motion. Obviously, in addition to relying on visual spatial changes this time, the Safdie brothers also created a psychological spatial displacement with ease, which is the subtlety.
The flickering restlessness of the tri-polyphonic range
The soundtrack in a movie generally serves the narrative, and rarely does it stand on its own, let alone its unique symbolic meaning.
But in Uncut Diamonds, the psychedelic electronica by Daniel Lopatin, along with most of the film's lines, creates a flickering restlessness in the polyphonic register.
For example, in the section where Howard received the black opal, he opened up his heart to his old employee who had worked for eight years and talked to him about resigning. As a result, Howard's attention was all on the black opal.
Here, the director lowered the voice of the employee and added the soundtrack, corresponding to Howard's obsessed expression, explaining what it means to be "immersed in his own world". A similar scene also happened when Howard asked the bookmaker to bet.
Here, the voice of Howard talking to Demani on his cell phone is intertwined with the urging voice of the stake manager, but the soundtrack is still hallucinogenic electronic music. What at first sounded like a mistake by the Safdie brothers was in fact a sort of adjustment and disengagement.
Lopatin's electronic music is like a ghost in the film, and it always appears when the colors are oppressive and the place is crowded. The reason why the Safdie brothers did this is to separate the film's story from the soundtrack, the former being the metaphysical New York streets and the latter being the metaphysical New York clouds.
In the noisy field of "Uncut Diamond", the polyphonic range makes the restlessness formed by "color elements" and "place shifting" flicker.
Furthermore, the sudden death of Howard in the ending makes the black touch of the whole film real and real, and it is precisely this seemingly contradictory and strange hallucinogenic electronic music that makes all the irony and criticism fake and fake. After all, the Safdie brothers' films have always found a balance between reality and reality.
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