is the third film directed by the famous French actor Mathieu Amalric, based on the 1964 suspense novel of the same name by Georges Simenon. This film, which was shortlisted for a category of concern at Cannes, can be regarded as a masterpiece in terms of overall style. Compared with Xavier Dolan, who was shortlisted in the Cannes competition unit this year, the former can be said to be extremely popular, while Mathieu is really a thick and thin hairstyle. Watching Dolan's films, the picture is good, the story is good, the narrative is good, but the strong Quebec accent makes me unbearable, and Dolan's acting level is not as good as his ability to control as a director. And Mathieu, with many years of acting experience, is the best French actor in Spielberg's eyes, so for this only 75 minutes of film, you can say that its story structure is thin, the character setting is not deep, or the plot is not deep The editing is too jumpy, but for Mathieu's acting, no one will question anything. And this is often the fault of many directors who act and direct. The
film recounts a suspected case of murdering a wife in a small town in the Midwest of France. The male protagonist is a middle-level management working in a local agricultural machinery company. A well-paying job and a seemingly harmonious family - a beautiful blond wife and a lovely daughter. And a few months ago, the male protagonist met Esther, a classmate in his early years, and couldn't stand the teasing of the woman, so he naturally embarked on the road of no return. Perfect sex added a passion to Julien's dull life and kicked off a mid-life crisis. The eighth time the two had an affair in the blue room of the hotel. The seemingly frivolous love words between men and women planted bloody seeds, which gradually eroded Julien's life in the future.
A woman's innate sensitivity makes his wife gradually realize that her relationship with a man is falling apart. Family travel, seemingly relaxed and happy, playing at the seaside, a small excess of a man makes a woman panic. Indeed, in the timeline, danger is approaching.
One day Julien learned that Esther's husband had died, and he stopped seeing Esther again. However, his former classmates and today's gun buddies did not let go of Julien, and kept sending letters and cards to him. The words were flirtatious and more intimidating, and Julien began to sense a little dread. In the future story, the passion is gone like summer, replaced by the rainy autumn and winter, the cold slowly erodes the sunlight, and the former lover on the bed gradually shrouded his work and work like a shadow. Life. His wife died of poisoning at home, and he was arrested as the first suspect and underwent complicated investigation procedures by the prosecutor. And the so-called truth is restored little by little in Julien's confession.
The plot is unfolded with a two-line narrative structure, through the dialogue of the male protagonist Julien's confession, and his memories. The interweaving and progressive storyline of these two different main lines is roughly a common technique used by ambitious directors. From the two clues of this film, the line of Julien's confession contains most of the predictable contradictions in the story, and it needs to be advanced through dialogue. Relatively speaking, the overall feeling of this line seems more like a drama. The incoherence is from the close-up of the characters, or from a few scenes. Another line, focusing on Julien's memories, is mixed in the first line, the delicate composition and color art, and the whole film is covered with a blue-gray melancholy veil.
At the beginning of the story, the camera swept across the corridor, the empty room, the bed with traces, but surrounded by the moans of men and women, the beginning of the film throws doubts to the audience. A drop of blood fell and dyed the white cloth red. Julien wiped the corner of his mouth with the cloth, while a tall woman was lying on the bed. The woman seemed to be provocative, more like questioning, talking to the man. It was a viscous summer evening in the air, the danger was about to begin, and two clues were intertwined. The close-up shot is walking around the woman's body, her tall legs are flipped over and over to cover her lower body, her erect breasts are still in good shape, and the woman is still waiting for the answer. This is Julien's memory of that day -- an evening on the run. The secretly tasted fruits always carry a little danger, and they always give people a bit of luck, while daily life is like a cumbersome judicial procedure, repeated between "questions and answers", just like those that must be repeated, and An ordinary life that runs out of time.
A suspense film with classical music, it's hard not to think of Fatty Xi, whether it's the appearance of the characters, the progression of the plot, and the conflict, all of which really focus on the audience. The film's soundtrack sculpts the style of the entire film into one—fine, dark, oppressive.
The scene in the movie where the protagonist Julien and his wife are watching the movie is almost a tribute to the fat man. The choice to use a 4:3 aspect ratio, and the use of close-up shots, more or less, always made me want to label this blue room with a new wave label.
And from the metaphor of the bee that runs through it, Mathieu Amalric is quite ambitious this time around.
Don't touch the bee, it won't sting you.
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