1. Plot
Main plot:
Former actor Ronald Reagan, unhappy with his acting career, directed and starred in a stage adaptation of Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love." And invited the conceited and crazy movie star Michael to star. The stage play was presented three times in the film, two previews and one premiere. Three presentations can be seen as three acts, each ending with an act climax. First time: Michael gets a real erection on stage with an actress. The second time: Reagan smoked a cigarette at the back door of the theater during intermission, but the door bounced back and couldn't be opened, and Reagan's nightgown was caught. Continue to perform. The third is the climax of the entire film: Reagan attempted suicide on stage with a real gun, only to knock out his nose.
Subplot:
When Reagan was young, he was obsessed with fame, and as a result, regardless of the family, he divorced his wife and his daughter Sammy became addicted to drugs. The cleverness of the script is that it does not use flashbacks, but presents it through a brief dialogue with her daughter and ex-wife. During a quarrel with his daughter, the daughter's sarcasm hit Reagan right to the point. He couldn't speak for a long time. He picked up half of the marijuana found in his daughter's room, took a sip and burned his finger.
Two scenes of Sammy and Michael on the patio, playing Truth or Dare. Sammy says you're good at faking, and Michael says, "I never do it on stage, I do it in real life. I have a real erection on stage, but I can't in reality." Here's a joke about life: which one Michael is real?
Two other actresses, one privately told Reagan that she was pregnant with his child, and that she was pregnant with his child on the show. In the play she decides not to have the child because the man has not grown up at all and can't take responsibility. In reality she later stated that there were no children at all. become an intertext. Both actresses are extremely neurotic, vulnerable, lack confidence and need affirmation.
Some people say that the script obsolete the Michael line. I don't think so. If you keep rushing to the main plot, it will make the film appear a little single. The writer borrowed Michael to output some of his views and attitudes, and anyway, a film would be more interesting if there was a love line.
About the Fantastic Plot:
At the beginning of the play, Reagan was suspended on the floor, and he could use his mind power to move things in the room at will. The director laid out suspense for us. After that, he seemed to be a normal person again. About halfway through the film, Reagan walked down the street angrily and suddenly flew up and became a birdman. Then he arrived at the theater, and suddenly a taxi driver was chasing him for a taxi fare. It seems to indicate that he just took a taxi just now. In the final scene he flies out of the hospital window, Sammy finds it, looks up at the window and laughs, and the film ends.
The fantasy plot pulls the suspense and adds interest to the film, but is it fantasy or does it really have superpowers? Falsehood is true and sometimes true is false, true and false, false and true, so that the film is sometimes heavy and sometimes light.
figure:
When performing on stage, every scene is beautiful and brilliant, but the backstage is always arguing, crying, flirting, and messing up. The people on the stage are full of emotions, the people off the stage are lost, and everyone has a lot of problems and things of their own. For Reagan, the glory of the past is long gone, and he has been unable to admit to being a person abandoned by the times. For Michael, "sell his soul to the stage", and what happened to himself?
The conflict in the film is also created just right: Reagan wants to achieve his desire to regroup, but there is always someone or something that hinders or erodes his confidence: Michael's arrogance, his daughter's rebelliousness, and even the derogatory banter of critics in the bar. The reverse push of the external force made him sometimes manic, and sometimes calm. The audience also ebbs and flows with his emotions, and the play achieves empathy.
Visual presentation:
Movies are visual art. We can imagine that if the story were a novel, readers would probably be at a loss. A good film is fully expressed through visual presentation. Although the plot and theme are slightly obscure, the film is fast-paced, the audience will not have a moment of weakness, and the plot has been advancing. The mise-en-scene is excellent, and the long takes are handled with ease. Drum music runs throughout, with drummers playing from the street to the backstage of the theater. Adds a lot of color to the film. No excessive lines, no sensationalism, no preaching. Some of the secondary characters are also great, like the critic at the bar, Reagan's partner, who directly drives the plot.
Meaning:
Just like the protagonists in the film, everyone hovers between conceit and inferiority. Constant trial and error, constant blows, and constant rebuilding of confidence. Brilliant cannot last a lifetime, too much to prove yourself will only be worn out by living too hard. If the family is not managed well, it may collapse, and the life of absent children will eventually regret when they grow old. What exactly is success? Are you happy or admired by others? At the end, the protagonist doesn't care about the praise of himself in the newspaper (compared to the beginning), but chooses to run freely in the sky (predicting the freedom of the heart?)
View more about Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) reviews
