The first time I watched "Ice Storm", I thought it was very good, but I only regarded it as an ordinary film about the middle-aged crisis of middle-class families, and the series of family ethics made by "Road to Revolution" and Adrian Lynn. The film is almost the same. After reading Ang Lee’s self-reported notes, I discovered that it had a deeper meaning for Americans. This is the basic of a good movie: there is also a lively scene, and the people in it watch the doorway.
From the perspective of the film industry, Ang Lee said that this movie is a strange one. Usually the Hollywood Major League will also cast literary and artistic films (like this year's "Manchester by the Sea"), but the budget is less than 10 million, mostly 8 million, and the most No more than 12 million. This is a perfect investment, not only to promote the art to earn a reputation, but also to keep it from losing money. But "Ice Storm" spent 18 million. In the end, investors lost their teeth and the feeling of blood swallowing: This movie is seriously overspend, but it is really good, and it did not lose money, but this money will make more if you cast a popcorn movie.
Li An said that he is very grateful to the investors, and the entire team is grateful, so everyone knows that the opportunity is hard to come by. Looking back on his work, Ang Lee said, I can always find many flaws when I review my films, but this one is the least and the most perfect one. When "Ice Storm" was released, the box office was not good, and there were few film reviews (I think it was mainly because I didn't dare to write), but then the video tape and electronic rental rates were very high. Many people have seen this movie. He said that during the trial screening at Berkeley, the audience was dumbfounded after watching it and felt hit. When answering the questionnaire, they did not answer good or bad. The absolute praise was only 17%. The research organization also comforted Li Ang and said that it doesn’t matter. The satisfaction rate of "Lesson" is only 13%. Later, he re-scored and edited more than a dozen times before it was released.
When I saw it for the first time, I felt that the special thing about it is to boldly photograph the confusion of people of all ages: the curiosity of children; the excitement and ignorance of adolescent boys and girls; the troubles and boredom of middle-aged people. The movie itself is a tragedy. On the night of the ice storm, the adults went out to fool around (and of course to solve the problems in their marriage), a naive child, saw the most beautiful lightning, storm, and was caught in the freezing air. The high voltage line was electrocuted. It was very sad, but Li Ang explained that in the final shot, after the ice storm, the family gathered together at dawn, representing the victory of family cohesion and seeing hope for future life. Ang Lee is best at family dramas. He said that family is really a place where people love and hate. You always want to leave, but you can't live without it. It has a powerful force to pull you back. The family is a member of society, and the cohesion of the family is greater than all collective forces.
These are the information that every audience can see from the movie, and American audiences, or audiences in a certain era, can feel more.
Ang Lee said, "Ice Storm" is a period drama (Period Drama), which focuses on the 70th generation of the United States: after the hippie movement in the 1960s, the Vietnam War failed, and it was fully industrialized. On the one hand, experiencing the baptism of revolution, "advanced" ideas (sexual liberation, freedom, meaning of life) have impacted Americans living in conservative values. As written in the novel: the smell of betrayal is in the air. When people become familiar with the recording system of the White House (referring to the Watergate incident), society also begins to permeate a bad atmosphere.
On the one hand, adults are eager to betray, on the other hand, the traditional moral self-blame makes them unable to let go of their hands and feet, and they cannot enjoy the game of wife swapping. Even the teenager was at the last minute, when the girl he admired leaned against him, he chose to put her to sleep, and he took the last bus to leave by himself. This is a generation that is living in a transitional period, and the morality is still overwhelming. Freedom and liberation are the mainstream generation of society. The sense of morality and the defense of morality by the whole society made him resign), they don't know where they are, and they suffer from this kind of shock. There are also some more interesting information. In that era, women were dominated by housewives, who had no independent survival ability but were awakened and began to pursue women's rights. People generally get married and have early childbearing. Usually, 35-year-old children are already in middle school, and housewives face the crisis of having nothing to do.
Of course, there are other film techniques, room settings, tones and lighting have many breakthroughs and innovations, which can only be experienced by more professional people.
Ang Lee’s preparations for this play have started long ago. In the middle of it, he directed an order to direct Emma Thompson’s script "Sense and Emotion". It was a great success and made Americans look at him with admiration. I already had some experience in "Ice Storm". For example, I did chronological research and looked at many works of art (painting and photography) from that period. I found a feature that people always avoided their eyes when they were talking, and they didn’t look directly at each other. . For example, when he was shooting "Sense and Emotion", he found that British paintings of that period tended to put small people in large scenes, expressing feelings in the scene, so he used a lot of telescopes, which caused Hugh Grant not to Satisfied (I'm so handsome and act so well, don't you give me close-ups!!)
Most of the above content is a retelling of the "Ice Storm" chapter of "Ten Years A Dream of Movies", which I read for the third time. Comparing the Taiwan version and the version of the domestic humanities agency, except for one horizontal and one vertical row, the Taiwan version has more illustrations (maybe more copyrights are bought), and the text content is the same.
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