David Fincher's most popular Olympic blockbuster of the year "Mank" was released. This movie gave us a familiar and unfamiliar David Fincher.
This is also destined to be an unpopular film that won't attract much attention and popularity.
Frankly speaking, "Mank" is a movie that is difficult to digest, especially if you don’t understand the background of the golden end of Hollywood in the United States, and don’t understand who William Hirst is. It’s not about Hollywood, which was far away from us in that era. For those who are interested in the past, "Mank" is an obscure movie that you can't even keep up with the dialogue.
BUT! If you are a fan of David Fincher, you have a strong interest in literary films, you are curious about the classic controversy in Hollywood, or you are a senior fan of "Citizen Kane", then when you watch "Mank", There will be constant intracranial orgasms.
But even so, I still have to emphasize that this is not a digestible movie. If you don’t just understand the plot, you want to experience the light, shadow, and sound, or enjoy Gary Oldman’s performance. You need to watch it a second time, or a third time.
"Mank" can be said to be the purest and most academic creation I have seen this year. It pays tribute to "Citizen Kane" and is the most personal work of David Fincher.
I can’t say that "Manke" will be the leader of next year’s Oscars. After all, I haven’t seen Zhao Ting’s "A Place to Nowhere", but as far as I can see it, I personally think that the best script, the best photography, the best The actor, best director and Oscar nomination for best film should not escape.
The film "Manke" boldly made a unique "film review" evaluation of "Citizen Kane", and also questioned and pondered American politics in a series of witty words, and used a modern perspective environment and thinking to deal with the Great Depression in the United States. The next few major political dramas are to satirize the current public opinion environment and social ecology in the United States torn apart.
What surprised me was that although the film did take the writing of "Citizen Kane" as the starting point, it did not put the focus of the story on "Citizen Kane" itself. Do you... understand what I mean?
The director of "Citizen Kane" Orson Wells also appeared in one of the few scenes. In the process of writing "Citizen Kane" by the protagonist Mank, the plot did not actually center on "Citizen Kane". The script, or how the production of the "Citizen Kane" movie itself was ill-fated, I mean most of the plot. Instead, the film focuses on Mank’s career as a screenwriter, leading the audience into Hollywood’s 1930s and 1940s. .
"Mank" is based on "Citizen Kane" screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, also called Mank as the absolute first male protagonist. The narrative structure uses the positive sequence 1940 and the flashback period from 1930 to 37, two The timeline is intertwined and unfolded, presenting us with a relatively complete Mank's tortuous and sorrowful screenwriting career.
In addition to black and white, the film also has a non-linear narrative structure, some lens scheduling and composition, deep focus photography, especially the lighting of the stage effects, all responding to "Citizen Kane".
As discussed earlier, the plot of the film for most of the time is not related to "Citizen Kane", but rather tells the story of Hollywood in the 1930s that Mank previously brought out.
There are many roles in the film. In 1930, Manke was already a very famous screenwriter in Hollywood. From Paramount to MGM, Manke and other screenwriters wrote more than 20 movie scripts. During Manke’s stay at MGM I met William Randolph Hirst, the newspaper tycoon at the time, who was the original character of Kane, the protagonist in "Citizen Kane".
Hirst admired Mank's personality and works, and asked Mank to have dinner at his mansion castle, where there are top celebrities, talking about world current affairs and American politics.
In Namank, he also met Hirst's lover Marion Davis, and the two quickly established a confidant friendship.
Just when Mank could continue his career, as the friendship between him and his colleagues and friends deepened, his own drinking habits, and his unobstructed expression of his maverick character, he kept offending him. All kinds of powerful people, including Hirst.
In a dinner at Hearst, Mank, who was so drunk, had a sudden inspiration and improvised the American version of Don Quixote's story, but it was actually based on Hearst. In that dinner, Mank had no other people. He improvised and improvised the story he had created to insinuate Hirst, but he was also full of ugliness, and was rejected and spurned by everyone.
Eventually, Hirst completely swept Manke out, and Manke fell to the lowest point in his career, just as he suffered a broken leg in a car accident.
For this reason, in order to make a living, Mank took over the invitation of Hollywood outsider Orson Wells to write a script without a signature. It was "Citizen Kane" that later made Mank's most successful career.
In the process of writing "Citizen Kane", Manke encountered various difficulties, including the issue of controversy over the right of authorship, but in the end he still decided to insist on taking back his right of authorship and won the Oscar for the best screenplay.
After listening to the general story outline of "Mank", I believe most people should have a "so boring story" barrage in their minds.
Indeed, investors have been thinking the same up until now, which has also led to the production of "Manke" itself, which has encountered more obstacles and difficulties than "Citizen Kane".
Maybe you don’t know yet. In fact, the screenwriter of "Mank" is Jack Finch, the father of David Finch.
Jack Finch wrote this story as early as the 1990s. He wanted to use black and white expressionism to present the movie, consistent with "Citizen Kane".
But it is precisely because of this maverick that the film type was downgraded to an art film, and the investment and the producers were discouraged. This withdrawal was the shelving of the project for decades.
Until the death of Jack Finch in 2003, "Mank" was not finally developed. In the new era of big-screen entertainment movies, there are not many big production companies willing to write huge checks for such art films. .
David Fincher was tossed and turned, and finally Netflix was willing to shoot, just like Alfonso Cuaron's "Rome" operated by Netflix, and Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman".
The wealthy Netflix has always wanted to prove its support in artistic attainments. Of course, it is more practical to occupy its place in major film festivals.
"Mank" is a work that I think is difficult to present with an oral plot. This may be one of the charms of this film. The seemingly trivial events and dialogues in the film are like prose poems or jazz. , To show us, those Hollywood stories far away from us, it is difficult to narrow the distance between modern audiences and the film’s story and characters at the time, but as long as you get close, you can feel the enthusiasm and sincerity brought by the film creation. .
As a political fan, David Fincher, the film also satirizes the current split between American parties and electoral people, which has long become a symbolic culture of the United States or the West.
The Mank in the film is more like a liberal. His sense of morality always has the opposite reference in reality, which is worthy of sympathy, but sometimes it also feels unreasonable.
The big studios in the film have fallen, and the elegy of the golden age of Hollywood has also been portrayed by David Fincher as the last struggle of the capitalist search, without any romantic atmosphere.
The film did solve many of the mysteries behind the creation of "Citizen Kane", such as whether "Rose Bud" was that part, or who actually wrote the script, who was the biggest hero of "Citizen Kane", etc. .
However, if you go into it carefully, in fact, how many of the truths in the film are true.
Jack Finch wrote the script of "Mank" at the time. It was the controversial article "The Way to Cultivating Kane" written by the famous American film critic Pauline Kyle in 1971. This is a 50,000-word essay. Also published as a book.
The article pointed out in detail that the script of "Citizen Kane" was written by Mank, and questioned Orson Wells from line to line.
After the paper was published that year, it caused a great bipolar controversy, and Pauline Kyle's own reputation also received a great impact.
And another voice of opposition, by studying the draft script of "Citizen Kane" seven times, summed up the many talents of the film "Citizen Kane", which are actually Orson Wells's genius acts, the original script. Basically, they were all clichés of the script structure at the time.
Which is right and wrong, it seems to have become Rashomon-like history, which is like those special treatments in the film, which are dreamy and foggy, full of unreality and melancholy.
I believe that "Manke" will not be a movie that can be known to more people or has a popular label, just like the data of "Citizen Kane" I made is so bad, I believe this video is the same.
But "Mank" is definitely another masterpiece that you can't bypass or miss when you talk about David Fincher in the future.
If you are passionate about art films, "Mank" is worth spending more than 2 hours dreaming about Hollywood's 30s.
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