Many great directors can see their future styles from their debut films. Quentin's "Reservoir Dogs" and Nolan's current film "Following" are all movie models that can be seen in their future. In this film, Nolan is truly extraordinary. The non-linear structure of this film can be seen especially in the later "Memento", and even "Deadly Magic" has an influence. Nolan-style structure from this film The film starts off without being immature and unfamiliar.
I won't explain the story of the entire movie here. Although the movie is non-linear, the story is not difficult to understand. After watching it once, you will have an understanding. Let me analyze how the male protagonist walks into Cobb's cover step by step. inner.
The movie starts with the things Billy stole from the hostess' house to introduce the whole story, and then follows the end to the end. From the introduction of the hero, we can see that he is an unemployed person who likes to write but has no job, so he began to follow others , and this is not for money or other purposes, just to follow and see their lives, and the rules that the male protagonist set for himself "you can't follow the same person for a long time" "don't follow a woman in the alley in the middle of the night" is what he has always followed but his tragedy began to break the rules
As the male protagonist was discovered following Cobb, Cobb could easily see his behavior, purpose, identity, etc. Although the male protagonist had a set in tracking, he was still too naive in front of Cobb.
Cobb can see Cobb's ability and adaptability several times when he leads the male protagonist into other people's homes, so that Billy has admired and convinced this man. At the first time of stealing, Billy was also dissatisfied with Cobb's disturbance and stealing, because Billy was not a "thief" at first, but Cobb induced Billy to tend to these things again and again, or exercised his Ability and thinking, so that he has enough ability for the later theft.
Cobb said, "Everything reveals some secrets of people, it's like a diary, people keep it all the time, but in fact hope someone will do it, and that's what I do, look at their displays, break into other people life, make them look at things again and stop taking things for granted.”
It seems that this sentence is talking about his own principles, but in fact, he wants to implant Billy's things, so that Billy's "gentleman" thinking becomes a real voyeur and hypocrite.
When Billy entered for the first time, and when he followed other people's houses, he could see that he was still not careful and calm enough, and when he and Cobb were eating in the restaurant, because they discovered the first time to steal the place. The hostess was flustered and overwhelmed, which made Cobb want to exercise his skills.
It is also worth noting that why did Billy go to the bar directly to find the heroine? This is because after Cobb teamed up with Billy once, he began to set him as his scapegoat, so he followed Billy and knew exactly when and where he went to the bar, so he arranged the heroine and the black boss. Waiting there for "acting", the female protagonist also induces the male protagonist step by step, allowing the male protagonist to invade her life, so as to achieve the purpose of deception.
After the male protagonist became his companion, he began to slowly lead him into his own cover. First, Billy went into the female protagonist's house to steal. Cobb induced him to steal the female protagonist's underwear and private valuables. Intrigued by her, Billy asked "why does she take so many pictures", and Cobb said she was a model and was empty, just to make Billy have feelings for her, because the male protagonist is very lonely People, after Cobb knew him well, used his emotions to make him resonate with the heroine, so he started the next date and so on. After Billy fell in love with the heroine, he let Billy see his private things, and Billy's own conscience couldn't stand this kind of peeping thief. In the end, Billy went to confess all this, which is also true On to their next set.
The male protagonist was very anxious when he knew that the female protagonist and the old black man still did not break up the relationship. First, he did have feelings for her, and second, after the female protagonist said that the old black man had abused people, he used pornographic photos to extort the female protagonist's resentment, so I agreed to the hostess' request to get my pornographic photos back. But Billy couldn't help but want to see the money in the safe, otherwise he could avoid the bodyguard and get out. Billy broke the heroine's promise not to open the envelope, which may have been surprising. But it actually makes sense. When it comes to letting people stress that something about themselves is precious, important and private, we can't help but ask, curiosity is at work, and Cobb's thoughts implanted in Billy before, and Billy accidentally hurt people The urgency and confusion afterward made him want to know the truth of what happened, which also made Billy know that the heroine lied to him.
The heroine finally revealed the truth. In fact, after witnessing the death of an old lady, Cobb wanted to find a scapegoat. This happened to be found by Billy himself. Billy must be unacceptable. His anger made him want to surrender. To punish Cobb and the heroine for what they did to them, it also led Billy to state his crime to the police. In fact, there is no old lady at all, and it's not that the heroine was extorted, but she extorted the black boss. Cobb is also the person who really worked for the black boss. After he killed the heroine, he blamed a stolen earring. For Billy, plus some of the stuff he stole earlier, Cobb just needs to move them a little bit where the police can find them, and you're all set. He smashed the heroine's finger, just like the method Billy provided to the police black boss to kill others, making the police think that Billy tortured the heroine in order to get the password. In this way, the female protagonist has been eliminated, and the responsibility has been placed on the male protagonist, and he has relied on the fake name to get out of his body. Leigh is now the other side of Cobb, and now he has fallen into the abyss.
There are still many small details worth discussing in this film, I will talk about
1. Every time the male protagonist and Cobb stole into someone else's house, Cobb would suggest to find a bag first. Why?
In the end, when Billy went to steal the envelope, he was suffering from the fact that he didn't wrap the money, and was found and accidentally injured someone. Although he also went to find the bag later, what if he could be expected to be like Cobb? How could this situation arise? This can actually be seen as Cobb exercising Billy's meticulousness, but Billy is still too timid and has poor psychological quality, and he forgot the method in a hurry.
2. Regarding the money in the safe, it is also an important step for Cobb to deceive Billy.
In fact, the heroine didn't know that there was so much in it, and the money was actually prepared by the black boss for Cobb, so use these to tempt Billy, because Billy himself is a poor man who can't afford food, and see It's hard to control the desire for so much money. If the male protagonist doesn't take the money and gets out of the way, then there is no reason why Cobb can kill the female protagonist and put the blame on Billy, because all this is said to the police through Billy's mouth, and he must comply with the comparison. Leigh's testimony, so Billy won't turn himself in either, which won't help Cobb's purpose.
3. About the credit card and the hostess' house
The source of this card is actually the original owner of the heroine's house. The heroine's house is like Cobb said before, and the original owner went on vacation and accumulated it for a few nights, which was also provided by Billy at the back. The address is someone else's place, so that the police think Billy is the one who invaded someone else's home. This coherent design should not be too strong.
Why didn't Cobb swipe this card himself, that is, to make Billy sign his name, and to convince the police that Billy was a thief.
Comments: This movie is actually not muffled. The sound effect is very similar to the noise in the usual video, which may also be related to the budget, but to a large extent, this allows the audience to substitute for a sense of reality, rather than focusing on the sense of the movie like ordinary movies. , stripped of the tie with the audience, coupled with the processing of black and white images, the form of a pseudo-documentary, the shaking of the hand-held lens, has a strong atmosphere.
Billy thought he found Cobb, it was, just as a scapegoat, and in the last 10 minutes we thought we found out the truth, the heroine and Cobb teamed up to deceive Billy, but we didn't know that the last 5 minutes directly The twists and turns have overturned several established points of the previous plot, which shocked people.
Finally, I just want to say that Nolan is awesome!
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