Woody Allen once said bluntly: "People often avoid making value judgments, but I am just the opposite, because I think value judgments are very important and necessary." As a big fan of his, I am here to speak out. The value judgment of the three short films of the three directors of this film is directly made.
"Metropolis" was the idea of Woody and his producer Robert Greenhurt, who thought it would be an interesting idea to get three directors each to make a short film together. (Tsui Hark, To Qifeng, and Lin Lingdong have each held a co-production "Iron Triangle"). It started with Spielberg, but he couldn't get involved, so they got Francis Coppola.
The title Metropolis is so badly translated that when a friend of mine heard the name, he thought it was a boring retro movie and declined to watch it. If the English name is literally translated, the film should be called "New York Story". The name "Metropolis Legends" was not named by Woody. The name was just for the Disney company. Disney liked the name very much, so it was used. Woody doesn't think the name is so good because of the limitations, but he also thinks it's not bad.
The film brought together three of the hottest directors of the time. Martin Scorsese's first "Lessons of Life" tells the story of a painter and a female assistant entangled in art; Francis Coppola's second "Life without Zoe" depicts the upper classes of New York The story of the family's little girl and her musician father; Woody Allen's third "The Troubles of Oedipus" tells the story of an old lady who is turned into the sky by magic and continues to torment her son. The styles of the three films are completely different, and direct viewing can also tell which director made the three films. For what it's worth, Coppola's "Life Without Zoe" is a total "beautiful New York decoration", the movie is gorgeous, nothing but gorgeous, not even a heartwarming fairy tale. Coppola attempted to create a romantic family image of the naive, lovely, harmonious and happy New York rich people. He succeeded, but it was a boring film that wasted film. Martin Scorsese's "Lessons of Life" tells the story of the artist's successful exhibition of young female artists after a painful comprehension of the art of painting in the process of entanglement with love. The narrative alone makes people feel bland and lethargic. In addition to maintaining the characteristics of Scorsese's manic lens, the film has nothing to talk about. It is really a mediocre story that can be discarded and tasteless.
Among the three films, only Woody's "The Troubles of Oedipus" made people laugh and couldn't help laughing. An old lady and mother who loves her son does everything possible to obstruct her son's marriage and love problems, and she always talks to everyone about her love of her son. After a magic show, a Chinese mystery magic box made in Pittsburgh wipes out the old lady. At first panicked and then An Yi's son just had a good life, and found that his mother had turned into a huge image hovering over New York, breaking the embarrassment of his son to the whole New York. The son was overwhelmed and couldn't find a fake witch to drive his mother away, but he fell in love with the witch. This time, the mother finally recognized the daughter-in-law, so "biu" came back to real life.
Thankfully, Woody is fed up with serious "Ingmar" movies and is back on the subject of satirical comedy again. This short film once again brings his fans a light-hearted smirk story with a little cinematic special effects. "The Troubles of Oedipus" is not particularly good in a Woody comedy movie, it has no depth or madness, and it is even a light comedy that is purely mischievous. But the stand-up comedian-turned-Woody plays his best satirical trick, and it is still so wonderful, and it is surprisingly exciting to play this old lover's stalk without breaking a sweat. In just such a short film, Woody set up a variety of reasonable emotional flips to satirize the contradictions of life and release the audience's repressed emotions. Woody is truly a seasoned comedian. "Metropolis Legends" was supposed to be a three-line blooming movie, but the short films of the first two masters were popular, and there was a little story in film history.
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