The Coen brothers' debut, the starting point is too high. The control of script, video and rhythm is already the style of a mature master. If I were to rank their work, this one would be number two in my mind, just after No Country for Old Men.
There are not many characters, and the clues are very clear. A boss asked the killer to kill his wife and his wife's lover, but the killer was a master of PS. He took a photo of the two sleeping and played a darkroom trick. It looked like they were shot and died. After the killer got the boss's payment, he shot the boss with the boss's wife's gun. The lover of the boss's wife is the boss's subordinate. She came to the boss to ask for wages. She found that the boss was shot and died. Destroy the corpse and destroy the traces, get to the wasteland and bury the boss who is not dead alive. After the killer returned home, he found that his lighter was left at the boss's place, and went back to find it, while his wife's lover also went to the boss's place to find out the situation. The killer thought his situation had been mastered by the boss's wife and her lover, and decided to kill her. The killer killed his wife's lover, but he was killed by the boss's wife.
The narrative is clean and not sloppy. From this debut, the obvious style of the Coen brothers can already be seen, and this style has continued to "No Country for Old Men". Now it seems that I have read all their works, to summarize their style:
Theme: The eternal crime theme, there are always accidents that lead the plot to other places, but this does not seem to be their characteristic, right? Which crime theme movie has no accidents? Which movie didn't have an accident? But their surprises seem to have more power, the power that dominates the development of the story. Sometimes it starts by accident, such as "No Country for Old Men", and some starts in the middle, such as this one, as well as "Old Woman Killer" and "Frozen".
Image: The tones are generally cooler. The pictures are very clean, and there are not many superfluous things in the picture. Unlike the usual American films, the picture often wins with chaos. The picture is too clean and simple, and it is easy to make the whole film feel thin. They seem to make up for it with the color tone and movement of the lens and the music, which makes the whole film look heavy and powerful.
Rhythm: Not the usual fast-paced American crime films, the editing is very atmospheric, and the slow rhythm creates a tense atmosphere, which is more tense. This is a kind of knowledge, but also a kind of self-confidence. Perhaps the biggest secret of the Coen Brothers film. It's not hand-held photography, nor is it a shredded short shot, but the power generated is completely driven to the heart of the viewer. That tension comes from the inside of the audience, not from the outside through shaky footage and editing.
2010-04-02
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