"The Legend of Xi Li"
"I was sitting here, right in this place, thinking of a story about a man who was constantly changing his personality, and who was so desperate to be popular that he would change his personality when he interacted with different people. Later I It must be very interesting to think that if he is really a chameleon, and his body changes when he is with different people, and then to think that if he is used as some kind of world-famous spectacle in the form of a pseudo-documentary It's more interesting to present. That's how the story came about. While the filming was long and hard, it was a lot of fun." --Woody Allen
Celebrity is the eleventh film directed by Woody Allen. Surprisingly, Woody's film takes the form of a pseudo-documentary biography. His first directorial film, "A Fool in Prison," was also in the form of a pseudo-documentary, but it was just a hilarious comedy. The photography technology of the pseudo-documentary in "The Legend of Xili" has reached a perfect state, which is not comparable to a simple comedy movie like "A Fool in Prison". Woody shot with 1920s footage, old cameras and sound equipment to create the blurry, flickering effect of old movies. They scratched the film, overexposed the film, and used various methods to make it look like a rough, oversaturated shot from the 1920s and 1930s. The blue screen photography technology in the film has reached its peak, and you can even see Woody, Calvin Coolidge and Hoover taking photos of two former US presidents, without any sense of disobedience.
In general, The Biography of Xili, a pseudo-documentary-style absurd comedy, has the temperament of Kafka's novels. Woody satirizes the group of people in life who go with the flow and agree with the public to gain a sense of security through exaggerated absurdity. The film's pseudo-documentary-style photography has once again reached the pinnacle of Woody's directing skills. When we look at the film soberly, we are surprised to find that the form of pseudo-documentary photography could not be more suitable for the theme of this story. You can greatly reduce the speed of the small episodes in a comedy feature film by creating a pseudo-documentary. This kind of news narrative form, which only informs the comedy results in the pseudo-documentary, is even faster than the comic narrative form, which greatly reduces the fatigue of the audience watching the movie, and ensures and condenses the fun of the movie.
Woody is also smart enough in the conception of the movie story. He did not make "Xili Biography" a movie about the private life of a mentally ill patient, but combined this chameleon-like character phenomenon with the social culture at that time to discuss the story. The personal satirical comedy is integrated into the context of the era, arousing the interest and thinking of the audience. You can even see Xi Li join the Nazi army at the end of the film and make a big Hitler speech. A Jewish neurotic joins the Nazi forces to haunt Hitler and save a lover from an upside-down plane across the Atlantic. . . . . . It's all so much fun, there's no way you couldn't fall in love with the movie and the dramatic, entertaining ending. I think "Xilei" is Woody's third film after "Annie Hall" and "Once Upon a Time in Stardust". It is very mature, a cinematographically beautiful film with deep thinking, perfect and complete enough to move his fans.
View more about Zelig reviews
