When "LEON" was released, its wonderful content and touching love had a great influence in Europe and the United States. Among them, the performances of JEAN RENO and Natalie Portman have always made movie fans relish. road. LEON’s leg-off pants and black trench coat have become fashionable for a time. It seems that true feelings will always be the biggest attraction in the cinema.
The post-industrial society is an impact on traditional cultural habits. People have mutated in changes that are too fast to adapt, and various chronic diseases have arisen from this. And "LEON" shows this kind of revelation of post-industrial society to the fullest.
At the beginning of the film, aerial photography from the jungle to the city full of tall buildings is a transformation from the traditional society to the post-industrial society. Explain the urban environment where the story happened. At the end of the film, the camera rises, once again the jungle and the distant city, explaining the safe social environment Matida is now in. A complete closed structure is formed at the beginning and the end, forming a strong and sharp contrast between the two environments, which means the irreconcilability of the two worlds. In this city, there are tall buildings, indifferent and hard streets everywhere, and the quiet and even helpless music in the film creates an indifferent and oppressive atmosphere.
In this film, there are only a few street scenes. In the composition of the picture, the strong and inconsistent contrast between tall buildings and tiny characters is always highlighted, giving people a sense of visual depression.
1. About society
What kind of world does the creator represent? All the main characters are bad guys that deviate from common sense-killers, drug dealers, and the police in the film are even more murderous, arson, and evil. Even the young female protagonist Mattida is also a problem teenager... The sympathetic protagonist, one is killing people, and the other is revenge. In this world, all value standards seem to have changed. Shaped.
What is the value of life? The film has a very ironic answer in a scene where LEON and Mattida practice shooting on the roof. Two people inadvertently took aim at a person on the ground and made a target, and that person happened to be hugged and protected at all times. This is just a little gimmick in the play, and may not be noticeable, but in an understatement, it tells the audience that everyone in this world is ready to kill or wait to be killed at any time. Everyone lives on both ends of the front sight, who knows what will happen in the next second? One of Matida's fake bullets was ejected, and this was just a game. But if there is a real bullet in the gun (perhaps when Matida becomes a professional killer afterwards), it will always be a violent and bloody game. It doesn't seem to matter whether it is a game or death. No one here is struggling to question the meaning of life. Death does not make them more fearful. Death is as common as daily life. Destiny seems to be just a random and simple joke.
In this movie, indifference and sin are everywhere. LEON drifted away from the mainstream culture and community life because of the disintegration of the killer's profession and culture. The film shows the delicate and lonely inner world of LEON to the audience through the shaping of the storyline and the meticulous carving of the details.
In the first scene, the audience hadn't seen what our male protagonist looked like, and they were overwhelmed by his fascinating and agile image in a fierce gunfight. When LEON appeared in front of the audience for the first time, the atmosphere suddenly changed. The clarinet played bleak music. He shut himself in the room, took a bath feebly and tiredly, sat alone at the table and drank milk, carefully ironed his clothes, wiped the flowers and leaves, and finally sat alone in the dark corner with his pistol to sleep. go. This whole process proceeded slowly and calmly with the rhythm of the music, immediately highlighting LEON's loneliness. And an inseparable relationship between him and a pot of rootless plants appeared on the screen time and time again, even when facing death, he had to protect the flower instead of himself, which revealed a trace of the killer’s indifference. Warmth, it seems that this little warmth will become the root of his destruction.
Leon is an Italian who smuggled to the United States. He did not understand English and could not read. He was forced to rely on being a killer to sustain his life. This bloody state of earning a living is related to him watching the old movie "Song in the Rain" alone in the theater. "The kind and honest smiles that appeared at the time formed an impactful contrast. Contrary to the grim, cunning, and cruel killer image we have established in most films, Leon’s almost clumsy gait, wandering gaze when speaking, and his awkward and clumsy mouths are in stark contrast to Matida. Clumsy tongue...all these steps have shaped a tragic hero who finally fights for justice and is close to the audience.
Leon is destined to be lonely. He treats the indifference of this world with indifference, and counters the cruelty of this world with cruelty, but the kindness and gentleness hidden in his heart has become his fatal wound. The only Tony he trusted eventually betrayed him, and Mattida was the root cause of his murder. In this world, friendship and love have become destructive factors.
The heroine Matida is a product of this deformed world. She grew up in a family with complicated relationships and no warmth. Her father was a drug dealer, and her stepmother and half-sister and Matida had no feelings at all, except for the four-year-old brother who was also a half-mother. There is really nothing to miss. This family environment created her rebellious character, becoming a problem child, playing truant, smoking, precocious...
In Matida's eyes, killing is not unacceptable. Killer is also a very "cool" profession, just as normal as other professions. She does not feel grief for the deaths of her father, stepmother and sister, because they are as worthless and not worthy of sympathy as all scumbags in this society. But it’s intolerable for the young and innocent brother to be killed, as Matilda said: “He is only four years old. What wrong did he make?” So everyone else deserves to die, but her brother shouldn’t. Da thinks it is justified to continue to use murder to get revenge, and she doesn't think there is anything wrong with using murder to solve the problem. In the film, Matida tried to persuade LEON based on the movie images of "male and male thief" and "the end of the wild flower"-the killers are not all working alone, it can be seen that the justice standards for children in this society have been completely blurred. Distorted. This also reflects the creator's reflection on the negative impact of media on young people in the real society.
The world seems too cruel to Matida. At her age, she should enjoy the warmth of the family and experience all the beauty in the world. She shouldn’t understand what ugliness and sin are, but here, she sees everywhere Indifference, pain and even death. When she bleeds and asks LEON: "Life is so hard for a lifetime, or is it only childhood so hard?", the answer she got was "Life is like this." This helpless but frank answer can be said to be LEON's deepest pain in the world, and it also broke Mattida's immature and fragile heart's last beautiful vision for the world.
Matida is an outcast of the post-industrial society. Meeting LEON completely changed her world. Leon saved her life three times, but a person who specialized in murder became Matida's savior at this time. She received the sincerity, love and warmth that she had never had before, and gradually escaped from her indifference. The indifference and numbness accumulated in her heart was melted by the true feelings. Matida experienced an unprecedented exchange in her life, and this interdependent feeling also shaken the foundation of LEON's existence in this world (that is, his Indifference). In the face of love, Leon will weakly lean against the wall after going out. This invincible killer will only get hurt when he kills. The unethical love in the film shook the indifferent audience. This feeling of mutual dependence has become the most precious thing in the world of LEON and Matida, but it is when this socially unacceptable feeling is radiated to the extreme, it caused the greatest tragedy of this movie.
After Matida confided her feelings for LEON to the hotel manager, there was an unexpected ending-the two were kicked out. On the surface, this is a weird love affair between an adult and a child, but I think it is more important that true love is ruthlessly exiled in this society.
When LEON and Stan died together in the film, Tony told Matida GAME OVER, ruthlessly telling the fact that the audience did not want to see-this kind of kindness is not allowed here. The care in this world can only be Tony's monthly cash payment to Matida.
At the end, Mattida left the city and came to a place where the architecture and environment were completely different from that city, and only this kind of escape can give herself the last glimmer of life. This helpless ending gave the film a line of ellipsis quietly.
Any work of art is a display and pursuit of the real world by creators. There are the world they see and the world they dream of in the movie. In the film "LEON", the creator tried his best to express a sinful world, and at the same time spared no effort to shape the beauty and warmth of the love between LEON and Matida. In contrast, the emotional shock of the movie to the audience is huge.
2. Regarding the cultural shock
LEON, as an Italian who smuggled to the United States, has an obvious identity of post-industrial society.
Toffler once said: "Let a person leave the local culture and suddenly plunge into a completely different environment. The principles of action—time, space, work, love, religion, sex and other concepts are all different. At this time, he The suffering caused by the disorientation will naturally become more intense. If this unfamiliar culture itself has been in turmoil, or, more seriously, its concept of right and wrong is also constantly changing, this sense of loss will be even more intense." LEON is an outsider in this situation, that is, an alien. This kind of strong cultural conflict abounds in the film. So it also caused the loneliness he couldn't get rid of.
LEON doesn't recognize much and speaks hard. This is the result of the incompatibility of regional cultures. Just like what he said, "This flower is like me, wandering everywhere and never has a root." Flower is a symbol throughout this film. Leon is a wandering person, but whether it is moving or facing death , There will be flowers around LEON. In his eyes, the safety of flowers is even higher than that of himself. Even after Leon's death, Hua continued his destiny and produced a deeper meaning.
This kind of cultural conflict is also manifested in a scene where LEON and Matida play a game of imitating stars. Two people can’t guess each other’s role, which is the manifestation of the incompatibility between LEON’s foreign culture and Matida’s local culture (Of course, the age difference between the two people is also an important reason for this cultural incompatibility. ). The film uses these two tiny details of life as the entry point to express the cultural conflict, which shows that it is well-intentioned.
LEON can't get rid of the deep-rooted influence of the ontological culture on him, and can't integrate into the foreign cultural system. Therefore, a cultural and character contradiction has caused the tragic ending that LEON can't avoid, making the conflicts in the film more intense. Only after LEON’s death, this conflict will end. As shown at the end of the film, the flower as a hidden continuation of the image of LEON, only when Matida takes it to escape the city and escape this kind of Only after contradictions can they take root under the protection of tradition and tranquility, and no longer wander.
3. About the analysis of audiovisual language in "LEON"
1. Use of music
In this film, several different beautiful melodies are used to set off the atmosphere of the film. The violin music at the beginning and the clarinet melodies when Leon is alone are all very vivid. When LEON and Matida met for the first time, they played the guitar melody with LEON's actions, and Matida joined the melody of the celesta when she appeared. The combination of the two embodies a peaceful and beautiful atmosphere. And this piece of music stopped abruptly when the bad guys appeared, making the sudden change of the atmosphere natural and just right. In addition, the sound of drums has been used many times in the music of this film. In the first shootout scenes such as LEON Murder and Stan Murder, as the atmosphere continues to tense, a fast, deep and powerful drum sound was added in due course. The film is tense and penetrating. Music will play a finishing touch to the film. It can be said that in "LEON", the processing of these music adds a lot to the film.
2. Wonderful clip.
Commercial films pay attention to fascinating plots and fast and concise rhythm processing. As an excellent commercial film, "LEON" has a good performance in editing.
For example, in the first scene of the film, the director boldly used 20 partial close-ups to start the story. Although no complete characters appeared, he clearly explained the events and the identities of the characters. This kind of pipa half-hidden beginning breaks the convention and adds a sense of mystery, which is refreshing. This kind of treatment has made professionals a classic.
3. About the image of LEON.
The creator avoided the direct presentation of the LEON murder scene. In several murder scenes, death was mostly manifested by indirect means. For example, in the first shootout, the atmosphere was tense, but only blood spattered from the ground, suspended legs and a large number of bullet holes exposed in the door were used to express murder, which not only did not give the audience excessive bloody and terrifying stimulation. , On the contrary, it reflects the extraordinary skill of LEON. The film uses this method to gradually form the audience's closeness to the protagonist LEON, avoiding the damage to the protagonist's image caused by murder and violence. In the last shootout, there were a lot of shocking violent scenes. This time it focused on embodying the cruelty and ruthlessness of the world, and at the same time demonstrated the bravery and fearlessness of LEON, thus reaching a state of "tragic and vigorous".
4. Exquisite visual effects.
There have been many shootouts in this film, but each shootout is handled differently. For example: the first shootout-the picture is strong sunlight, warm colors, the first half is brightened, and the second half is darkened, forming a strong contrast effect, most of which are sports shots, and the protagonist LEON is only in the last one. Only appeared in the lens.
The second shootout-is also a warm color, which includes a sports lens and a fixed lens, with a softer tone.
The third shootout-there is light from a shaking flashlight in this paragraph. This scene is cool and uses a lot of sports shots, including a lot of long shots.
In this film, LEON always has fewer enemies and more enemies. It is a rain of bullets. However, in order to avoid the monotony caused by the repetition of the plot, "LEON" takes great pains in the use of light, tone, and lens.
5. Special recommendation:
The end of "LEON"-a scene where LEON is killed by Stan. LEON got out of the surroundings, pulled off the mask, and walked towards the door. The shot processing is as follows: (slow motion) LEON walks forward; a happy smile appears on his face; (piano music starts) a door not far away; Stan raises his gun to aim; LEON walks forward; (music stops) subjective camera shakes and falls to the ground . The special use of the subjective lens here creates a strong impact effect. At the same time, the music and the picture are successfully combined. Although no gunshots can be heard, LEON has fallen into a pool of blood. At this time, silence is better than sound, and the atmosphere of the film is set to the culmination of poignant beauty.
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