A wide-span epic sense

As more and more novel art forms continue to be born, the traditional art forms are developing in different directions, so that the distance between each other is getting farther and farther. Due to the collapse of the traditional narrative structure, which connects text and images, it is much more difficult for modern literature (such as expressionism and stream of consciousness works) to be adapted into film and television works than traditional literary masterpieces. "Cloud Atlas" can be regarded as an example. In addition to the narrative style of six unrelated stories, the novel deliberately sets up different language styles with distinctive era imprints for stories from different eras. For example, the navigation section uses 19th-century English accents. , And the clones and the desert island of the end even created some future vocabulary and sentence patterns. It is difficult to reflect the important writing features of the novel in the movie. Of course, movies also have their advantages. For example, in the following scenes, how the novel depicts is not as straightforward as the look and feel of the movie.


However, Tom Tykway and Wachowski’s brothers and sisters are both directors who are brave enough to overcome difficulties, and the adaptation of the film should be regarded as a work alone, and should not be too much connected and compared with the original novel. For the processing of the 6 stories, the 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 structure of the original novel will appear rigid and inconsistent when applied to the movie version, so the movie version will use it. The biggest advantage of the movie: Montage editing, using similar plots, pictures and even characters and props that pass by in different stories as the gate of time and space, shuttle back and forth in the 6 stories, the same birthmarks on the protagonists of the 6 stories It also expresses the hint of reincarnation. I have to mention the use of characters as montages. Through magical makeup, 14 main actors (the lineup is luxurious and rare in recent years) actually appeared in 65 roles, some of them even reached the level of evil interest, there is no lack of gender reversal and cross-racial makeup. Therefore, the cast at the end of the film became the last climax of the movie. In retrospect, these six stories are actually quite simple, but they are intertwined in different time and space, forming a large-span epic sense, which is also the most intuitive feeling given to me by the movie version of "Cloud Atlas".



Both are Hugh Grant!

The six stories all contain the meaning of individuals fighting for freedom. For Lana Wachowski, who is a transgender artist, I think freedom should have a supremely important position. And the unremarkable basic sentiment in the novel has also become a strong stroke in the movie, which is believed to be the work of Lana.


I think there are two kinds of good movies: one that takes me into the human world to experience the light and darkness, and the other that takes me out of the human world to experience the imagination of a wild horse. "Cloud Atlas" belongs to the latter, and the effect is very good. The Wachowski brothers and sisters are undoubtedly the leaders of the second category of filmmakers. I have to talk about the shortcomings of the film, that is, under the large-span epic sense, the theme is not deep. This also attracted me to read the novel "Cloud Atlas". As for what feelings the novel wants to express, it has nothing to do with the movie.



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