In the American pop music world of the last century, three girls who loved singing since childhood formed the "Dream Girls" group. They have worked tirelessly all the way from the little-known backing girls, and eventually became the number one group in the pop music world. However, the road to fame is always full of temptations and traps. When winning the attention of the public, discord between the three intimate girls also appeared. The story also revolved around the members, between the members and the agent. The entanglement of grievances unfolded.
This story is based on the real experience of super me, a girl group that swept the United States in the 1960s. But the biggest selling point of the film is Beyonce, the R&B queen who is popular in the United States today, and Jennifer Hudson, who has become famous in one fell swoop with "American Idol". The performance of the duo gave the film an unparalleled audio-visual charm.
There are 35 songs with different styles in the film. The styles of these songs cover blues, R&B, pop, soul music, rap, etc. Just watching the original soundtrack of this movie with your eyes closed is equivalent to the United States. The popular music culture of China conducts a refreshing tour. What's more, the pleasure of the film is much more than the music, but also the unpredictable stage performances like music.
The scene that appears most often in the film is the three singers of "Dream Girl" dressed in various dresses. They sing and dance to the beat of the music under the spotlight. At this moment, the music and the stage seem to be only for them. Born. At this time, even Jennifer Hudson, who is a bit bloated, can be described as brilliant.
In addition to the public performances on stage, there are also several scenes in the film that use singing to narrate and lyrically promote the development of the plot, which is very fascinating. One of the most exciting is the scene where Ai Fei quit the group played by Jennifer Hudson.
Ai Fei has always been the lead singer of the band, but for the commercial future of the entire group, she had to give up the position of lead singer to mediocre singers, but Tina, who looks outstanding, and proud and self-respecting Ai Fei can't stand this change of identity at all. She began to be jealous, suspicious and even make things difficult for her friends. During a dress rehearsal, she blatantly walked away, completely intensifying the contradictions between each other. The other members of the combination and the agent decided to find someone to replace Aifei in order to better develop the combination. Aifei was completely kept in the dark, until one day she finally found out that she was betrayed by her relatives, and a shocking confrontation between the two sides was staged.
There is no doubt that Jennifer Hudson successfully used her singing voice to create a proud, competitive, and extremely emotional love. It must be because of this scene that she conquered the Oscar judges and won the best female Oscar of this year. Supporting role award.
Compared with the wonderful music and stage design, the storytelling skills of the film are a bit weak. Perhaps this point of view will cause protests from fans of Beyoncé and Jennifer: Originally this movie is a musical, and the song and dance performance of Beyoncé and Jennifer is the film’s biggest selling point.
If you think about it this way, you will misunderstand the song and dance film. You know, the song and dance film in Hollywood is a classic film with a long history of 80 years. There are critical requirements with balance.
The best example is the classic musical "Chicago", which won the Oscar for Best Picture, in which the song, dance and plot present a perfect balance. Although the singing and dancing performances of the main characters occupies half of the film, it is the dark story that really makes people want to stop.
Songs and dances play a vital role in telling the protagonists’ criminal attempts and processes, as well as expressing their spiritual journey from anger, pain to loss, despair to resistance. It can be said that the success of "Chicago" is due to its wonderful story and the singing and dancing that can contribute to the story.
Looking back at "Dream Girl", the shortcomings of the film are obvious. This shortcoming is the weakness of the story and the alienation between narrative and song and dance.
Let’s take the scene where Aifei breaks with the combination that we have seen before as an example. As far as the scene is concerned, the expressiveness of singing and dancing is impeccable. However, from the perspective of the whole story, it is You will find that because of the lack of adequate foreshadowing, this scene is actually a bit abrupt.
When Ai Fei first knew that she was going to give up the lead singer to Tina, she was very reluctant. Her partner and economic man surrounded her and told her with the softest voice and eyes that we are a family and we are here. After the touching confession, in less than ten minutes, the gunpowder-flavored show took place. The attitude of the characters was reversed 180 times, but they did not provide enough foreshadowing. Therefore, the change of the plot also lost enough convincing power. .
A song and dance film that truly moves people will never come at the expense of the dramatic tension of the story and the inner conflict of the characters. As long as the movie is about the character's experience, the narrative is always the most important, otherwise the musical film will lose the value of existence and can be replaced by MTV.
Be more calm when telling the story, maybe this year’s Oscar’s best film is "Dreamgirl."
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