The movie "the Hours" undoubtedly did just that. See how it is done.
The movie attracted me from the beginning. Virginia was writing his last words; her husband went home and found the letter she had left and rushed out the door to look for her; Virginia slowly stepped from the bank of the river into the middle of the river and was gradually submerged by the river. The three scenes, which occurred at different times, originally had an obvious sequence, but they were cut into many pieces of the picture and put together, as if they happened at the same time, until Virginia's body sank to the bottom of the river. At this point, an ingenious montage editing comes to an end. Just at the beginning of the story, people have this feeling of traveling through time and space. And this time and space travel just tells the basic structure of the whole movie.
Three women living in different regions and times in different eras (Virginia, 1923, Richmond England/ Laura, 1951, Los Angeles/ Clarissa, 2001, NYC), they must do different things in a day of their lives. The film does not Stopped switching between the stories of these three women. Here Virginia is conceiving her novel, and Laura is going to make a birthday cake with her son for her husband, and Clarissa is busy with a party. These plots were originally irrelevant, but the camera's wanton switching to them did not feel abrupt and incomprehensible at all, and even felt very smooth and natural. Why is this?
The main reason is that the stories that happened to these three women in different time and space have too much in common, as if they were tricked by fate. Some of these commonalities are obvious, but some really require special attention to detail before they can be seen. I want to list a few points here:
1. At the beginning of their story, their spouse (man or woman) was photographed first, and then the camera was brought to them from the spouse. This seems to imply that although these people are their so-called closest people, they don't know them at all and can't satisfy them.
2. The first shots of them are sleeping in bed, even their sleeping posture and direction are the same.
3. After waking up, they all had a confused and depressed expression, as if they were very at a loss as to how to spend the day.
4. In the story, they all have communicated with their children (nephews/sons/daughters), and they are all very important parts of their stories. However, these children cannot solve their problems.
5. Each of them had visitors visiting and talking with them on their day, and the visitors made them do unusual things (kissing sister/kissing neighbors of the same sex/suddenly out of control in the kitchen).
6. There are suicide-related plots in their stories.
There are so many detailed shots like this in the movie. It is these common points that make their fate unconsciously linked together. Therefore, although the shots are changed to three women, they are actually smooth at certain moments. Only the feeling of a woman.
The continuity of the film editing is also largely related to its excellent film soundtrack, mainly silent background music. This melody will sound every time the heroines are greatly touched and their inner thoughts are turbulent; and when the experience of one of the heroines resonates in the lives of the other two heroines, this melody will also accompany us. In these three periods of time and space. There is also a piece of music with a sound source in the film. When Clarissa's friend visited in advance and her kitchen was busy, there was a soprano bel canto playing in the living room. The strings of his head tightened. We all know that the tighter the string is, the easier it is to break. This also indicates that Clarissa will suddenly lose control of emotion like "breaking the string" after taking care of it.
In addition, the film also put a lot of effort into the color design. First of all, the three women's living environments have different tones. Virginia and Clarissa both favor the cooler colors of white and blue. This may be related to the connection between Clarissa and Mrs. Dalloway. The snow outside the window, the walls, the sheets, and even the flowers bought for decoration are all white. Compared to their cool colors, Laura's home is a warm yellow. This is indeed very suitable. A hard-working husband, a lovely and obedient son, a gentle and beautiful wife, and a worry-free living condition. All of these really look like the typical "American Dream"-style happy family. However, when Laura's husband left our sight, Laura's brazen smile came to an abrupt end, and all the irony was revealed in these yellow warm illusions.
Finally, I have to mention the excellent performances of the actors (Nicole, Julianne, etc.) in the movie. From Virginia's pale and rigid expression revealing the madness of restraint, to Laura's desperate depression hidden behind her sweet and gentle voice, to Clarissa's use of confident and exaggerated words and actions to cover up her inner helplessness and so on. The lines of this film are not many but very incisive. There are almost no meaningless sentences, and it is full of poetic beauty. This is also consistent with the overall style of the movie. Since there are not many lines, the actor's expression in action and expression plays an important role. I feel that none of the scenes in this film are superfluous. The actors use their voices, bodies, and expressions to stage a play. The name of the play is "Three Women's Day, Their Life". Anyway, I was completely conquered by their acting skills. I can't imagine that Virginia and Laura's body and face belonged to another real individual outside the play, and this image in real life is like that in their play. 'S out of place. I almost worry about whether they will split their personality after filming for a long time, so they devote themselves to the feelings of the characters so dedicatedly.
It is the excellent work of all these "technical" areas such as lens editing, soundtrack and color design, the first-class superb performances of the actors, and the intimate and intimate combination of the story content itself, which has made this rare good movie. Conquered many audiences with its artistic value.
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