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The epic film "The Green Knight" created by A24 and director David Lowery was finally released in North America at the end of July.
I believe this is also the first cinema blockbuster for many people after the restart of the cinema.
It is rumored that the director David Lowe likes Criterion Collection very much, and specially changed the round table of the Knights of the Round Table of King Riath to the C table! It is also hoped that this film will be successfully released by the Criterion Collection in the Blu-ray version in the future. (Here we also wish him the best of luck.)
Today, I'm here to talk to you about the film, which features an Oscar-nominated British actor: Dev Patel, an Oscar-winning Swedish actress: Alicia Vikander, and a Golden Globe-nominated Australian actor: Joe Elle Edgerton, co-star in the Arthurian legend "The Green Knight."
This is also the first time that the well-known actor Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire" has participated in the production of A24 films, and Alicia Vikander once starred in A24's sci-fi film "Ex Machina". Joel Edgerton also starred in the horror film It Comes at Night and is an old friend of A24 Films.
Director David Lowe collaborated with A24 on A Ghost Story in 2017. Although he has frequently taken over some American movies and TV series in the past two years, the "Green Knight" produced by A24 is the same as "Ghost Resurrection". It is a story written and directed by him, and fans are also looking forward to it. He can bring us a subversive work.
Instead of a retelling of the plot, I will discuss the film in two parts below.
That's "story" and "time"
1. The story, as the name suggests, is to tell you about this 600-year-old story. Why is it still worth A24’s 15 million US dollars production fee to move it to the big screen? (The production cost of the director's first A24 film "Ghostbusters" is estimated to be only $100,000) and the director's handling of the story, what are the similarities and differences with the original epic. (*Up to now, the box office has recovered 10 million)
2. Time, as the name suggests, is how the director uses the "magic of time" of "movie" to enhance our viewing experience of the entire story.
There are no major spoilers below, only minor references to some of the plot, as you will see:
From Benjamin's "The Storyteller" to the meaning of stories being retold.
A story within a story - a mix of poetry and mythology, a very modern adaptation.
Travel through the past and the future - a well-known story full of multi-dimensional charm.
Before introducing the plot of the movie, I would like to share with you the viewing angle of the movie. So that everyone will not be disappointed because they mistakenly believe that this is an epic hero blockbuster from A24.
From the trailer, we can see that "The Green Knight" has the stylized visual effects of many A24 movies in recent years. For example, the portraits of the characters in "Hereditary Doom", the witchcraft and burning like "A Midsummer Night's Fright", and even many people saw the giants and treemen in the trailer, and mistakenly thought that the male protagonist walked into "Attack on Titan" and "Galaxy" The Guardians.
The film tells the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an ancient Irish poetic legend. It's a story that anyone can retell:
One Christmas, at King Arthur's court banquet, a knight in green came to challenge the knights of the round table. Gawain accepted the challenge and cut off the head of the green knight. As a result, the green knight picked up his head and asked Gawain to go to the Green Church in the north to find him on Christmas the following year, and let him retaliate with an axe.
A year later, Gawain went through hardships and obstacles all the way to find the green knight, and finally came to a castle to rest for a while. The host treated Gawain warmly, and at the same time made a gentleman's agreement with him, that is, the male host would go out hunting during the day, and at night he would exchange the prey with the items that Gawain obtained in the castle, so Gawain agreed to him.
The hostess of the castle tempted Gawain several times while her husband was out hunting, but he was unmoved. On the last day, the hostess gave him an invulnerable green belt. After that, Gawain went to the appointment as scheduled, and the green knight slashed at him three times. It turned out that the knight in green was the master of the castle. He explained: the first two axe that failed was because he kept the agreement in the first two days of the castle, and the third axe was because Gawain concealed the green belt given to him by the mistress. .
After Gawain returned to Camelot, he told the truth about what happened, and then King Arthur proposed that all the knights of the round table and court women wear green belts as a commemoration of this event. What everyone doesn't know is that all this is a trap set in secret by Dame Morgan Le Fay, in order to make the most elite knight of King Arthur become the green knight of the "Goddess" (Morgan Le Fay).
Well, that's it for the four story segments of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The brief description is less than 500 words. I believe that after listening to this story, you can quickly retell it to the next person. This is the charm of the legend and the reason why it has been circulated for 600 years.
It is very refined and contains elements of heroic adventure, even suspense and reversal.
The agreement between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the main line of the heroic story.
King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table and Dame Morgan le Fay are behind it.
Gawain's adventures in the castle are interspersed in the middle, and the tests of human nature and morality are interspersed.
Like listening to stories, like a human instinct. From fairy tales to myths, epic poems, to novels and movies. We hear stories all the time, just in different forms and ways.
Benjamin said in The Storyteller:
"The art of storytelling is dying, and so is the ability of people to communicate their experiences.
Word of mouth is the source of inspiration for all storytellers. Of those who write stories, only the best can make the written version close to the spoken language of so many anonymous storytellers. In the past, there were two kinds of anonymous storytellers: those who had returned from a long journey, and those who were familiar with local myths and traditions.
They were called sailors and farmers.
Benjamin also mentioned that after the First World War, printing and newspapers filled our lives with "news".
The epic of truth is dying, and the story is being stripped from the realm of the spoken word.
Novels are making storytelling in decline. But more threatening to the story than fiction is news.
News is a new way of communication. Under the influence of the developed newspaper industry, what people like to hear most is not stories from afar, but news from nearby neighbors. Switching the context to the present, the prevalence of self-media also makes all the information around us informative.
For Benjamin, however, message dissemination runs counter to the spirit of storytelling.
We read news every day, but there are very few stories worth noting.
He believes that the articulation of the message and the artistic nature of the story are just the opposite.
That's half the magic of a story is telling it without interpretation,
without imposing on the reader a psychological causal connection of events,
The works are written by readers in their own way,
In order to obtain the fullness and fulfillment that the news lacks.
Often a story contains something practical, either explicitly or implicitly, and the teachings woven into life are wisdom.
Storytelling does not focus on conveying the essence like news and reporting.
It is the storyteller who needs to release the content from him,
Let the listener immerse in the world of the story. "
Perhaps the best way to hear a story right now is to watch a movie.
The Green Knight somehow reminds me of Benjamin's discussion of the story.
It is because he is trying to follow the essence of storytelling when oral storytelling is dead.
Put the 500-word well-known story information that we are all familiar with,
Transformed into from the storyteller, that is, from the director,
More personal life experience, providing more diverse interpretation angles,
At the same time, it gives an immersive viewing experience.
Since the audience already knows the ending, this is a story in which the process is greater than the result.
Words can tell us Gawain's experience, but cannot convey his inner feelings.
Why did he have the courage to accept the challenge, and how did he spend the year he waited for?
His hardships and fears along the way, as well as the fluctuations in his heart as he faced the green knight's axe,
These all depend on the storyteller and the listener together,
That is, the director and the audience work together to complete and enrich the place.
It is also the biggest source of visibility for this film, that is, the changes in the characters' emotions and their mental journey.
Director David Lowe said the film will bring audiences an unprecedented adventure.
Under the grand scenes of the movie, the ups and downs hidden in Gawain's heart,
It is the director who focuses on making the audience feel happy when watching this "Green Knight".
Now that the story is over, let's talk about time.
Compared to listening to people tell stories and reading printed stories,
Not as good as what the movie brings to the audience, the superposition of audio-visual language is more shocking and appealing
On top of audiovisual language, film has a more unique charm than oral and written
That is the magic of time.
Director David Lowe used the perspective of ghosts in "Ghostbusters".
Demonstrated his ability to slow down time and travel through time.
In "The Green Knight" he uses the language of the camera
Lead the audience to experience the elasticity of time and travel through the past and the future.
The year before Gawain's appointment was both long and short.
Gawain's journey to the appointment was not only a journey through space, but also a journey through time.
The 360-degree ring pan of the lens allowed Gawain to see the possibility of the future.
And the stay in the haunted house made him travel back in time to help the hostess find the head,
The reversal of heaven and earth allows Gawain to experience the experience beyond human beings,
Conversing with giants made him feel the insignificance of human beings.
And facing the green giant's axe, it allowed him to appreciate the length of his life at the moment when he made the choice between life and death.
The director is a person who does not like to give standard answers to the audience.
In the film, Gao Wen asked the headless lady if she was a ghost, and she asked back: What's the difference?
The original ending of the story is not the way the film ends either.
With that cowardly, unprepared, and even regretful self, Gawain,
All the way to find the green knight, it is also his death.
He carried the sword from King Arthur, the armor of a knight, the green belt from his mother,
But there was nothing but fear in his heart.
David Lowe, explores the meaning of life in the past and present in "Ghostbusters",
Explore the perception between life and death in "The Green Knight".
The story in the story, the original structure of the ancient poetry, is completely preserved in the film,
It was even given more levels of nesting by the director. And the conspiracy of political power, the theme of death also runs through the beginning and end.
A hero's story is always accompanied by death.
In this regard, Benjamin also mentioned in "The Storyteller":
"Death is the storyteller's permission to tell the world.
He borrowed authority from death, and his stories refer to natural history. "
In the story:
"The whole of creation does not speak in human voice,
Instead, speak through the "Voice of Nature". "
In the story of "The Green Knight", it is even more so.
The green knight started the story with his own death, and how Gawain fulfilled the promise also became the core of the story.
And the very symbolic "green belt" has also become a suspense point in the movie.
Director David Lowe's biggest adaptation of "The Green Knight" is the key prop "green belt".
Its origin is completely different from the legend,
The time of appearance is also from the end of the adventure, which refers to the beginning of the journey.
Whether in the legend or in the movie, the secret about this belt has not been elucidated.
You can even think that his symbolic meaning is completely higher than his actual function,
It probably wouldn't have been invulnerable. But the point is whether you believe in its magic.
In other words, the essence of this "green belt" has never changed, it is the bewitching of Gawain's heart.
The "green knight" represents that outside the political machinations of human beings,
The condensation of the earth and nature gives knights a physical and mental test. The teachings about life and death are in it.
Finally, Benjamin also wrote at the end of The Storyteller,
"In the image of the storyteller, the righteous man meets himself."
If you insist on seeing here,
You may find that I didn't tell too many specific stories or plot bridges,
But I want to join you in asking more questions about this movie,
for example:
What does the green belt symbolize?
Who sent the fox as a guide?
Will the political machinations finally succeed?
Do you think Knight Gawain is morally noble? Etc., etc
I also hope that everyone can take these questions in the future and watch this movie again.
find your own answer,
Believe this is what The Green Knight is about to be retold in 2021.
August 9, 2021 The Story of Xiao Xuan'er
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