The scene of "This Man From Earth" was limited to a living room, and seven people gathered to see off his colleague Johnson. In the conversation with each other, it was found that Johnson turned out to be a primitive man who lived for 2,000 years, doubting, verifying, quarrelling, understanding, the extension of historical and religious topics, subversion and overthrow. An hour-long movie, sometimes thought to be a suspense film, sometimes thought it was a romance film, sometimes thought it was a sci-fi film, and sometimes thought it was a horror film, it was simply addicting.
The Russian version of 12 Angry Men is also confined to a large warehouse where 12 people get together to make a final verdict on a case. The case of a Chechen child accused of killing his stepfather has gone on for days, and a jury must unanimously leave the back room. Doubt, proof, dispute, persuasion, battle of law and tolerance. From 1:11 to 12:0, the two-hour film presents Russia's social, political, and historical issues one by one, and raises metaphysical questions about morality and ethics.
The content of these two films is excellent and highly recommended, but here, I want to discuss the shooting methods of the two films.
The Russian version of "12 Angry Men" is consistent in structure and technique with the 1957 American original, which does not affect his classic, because it is innovative and better in content. Therefore, even if the method is the same, it is still impossible to criticize.
Some people say that such a plot is more suitable for a stage play. Anyway, there are 12 people, and the stage is the secret room. But I think the effect of stage play and film is still very different. Because the stage is at a certain distance from the audience, the performance of the stage actors is very different from that of the film actors. For example, the voice should be louder and more passionate than usual; And the movie has close-up, but it can't be too exaggerated, but needs to be real.
In "12 Angry Men", the 12 actors took turns to shine. The most emotional one was the taxi driver who insisted most on "guilty". He was the third to last person to be persuaded. He talked about the marriage he had with his ex-wife. Son, every expression, every word, every silence, until he choked, I have been infected with the same sadness and contrition. All the characters’ head close-ups are used here. If it were changed to a stage play, the audience would not be able to see every subtle change on his face, and such a perfect effect would not be achieved.
However, "The Man From Earth" is different. Although it is also a secret room, and it also relies on conversation to advance the plot, what he captures is the shock and absurdity of the story itself. Even if there is no close-up of the characters, the narrative of the protagonist alone can capture all the nerves of the audience. Think about it, this primitive man once met Buddha and almost discovered the New World with Columbus. What is even more shocking is that he turned out to be Jesus! (It's this part that makes me think it's a horror movie.) The ending of the story is all the more unexpected, when the professor who holds the strongest doubts about the story turns out to be Johnson's son, and, after learning about it, he suffers a heart attack, died. Just relying on these few words, the story is very attractive, so the director really does not need to use close-ups to infect the audience.
Comparing the hatchbacks, both films used quite complex mise-en-scene. How to make the movie vivid in a single space, the changeable mise-en-scene is the key. However, "12 Angry Men" uses more camera language, perhaps because he has 12 protagonists, when each person is telling his own story, he needs to shoot in a different way, otherwise even if there are more scene scheduling, it seems Still the same, monotonous. On the contrary, "The Man From Earth" has only one absolute protagonist.
It's been a long time since I went to see a movie like this. Their shooting methods are indeed quite different, and they have to attract people's attention. Apart from technical problems, these two films are also highly recommended works, it is a pity to miss them.
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