Some time ago, I watched the movie "The Devil Wears Prada", and some films are also called "The Devil of Fashion". The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress and Best Costume Design.
It should be said that this is an interesting movie. The story is not complicated. It tells the story of an ignorant female reporter who joins a fashion magazine company. She doesn't know anything about fashion and even dresses a little bit, but the female boss is a "fashion tyrant". During her work, the female reporter suffered "society beatings". At the same time, the narration and editing are very smooth, and even the layout of the environment background and the costume design of the characters can be regarded as the enjoyment of visual beauty. After watching the movie, I felt very comfortable.
But to tell the story, I think "The Devil Wears Prada" has certain flaws, and the focus is on the protagonist. Next, I will talk about the protagonist of "The Queen Wears Prada" from different perspectives.
"The Queen Wears Prada" starred Hathaway and Aunt May, and then directly referred to these two actors by their real names. In terms of drama, Hathaway is undoubtedly the protagonist, and there are many subplots derived from Hathaway. However, Aunt May was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. When I saw this award, I had to go back and think - who is the main character? Is Aunt May the protagonist? Does the movie have two main characters?
When I think about the question "Is Aunt May the protagonist", I make a subconscious judgment that she should not be the protagonist. However, thinking about it from the perspective of the Oscars, I still feel that Aunt May seems to be fine as the protagonist. To this end, I had to think outside the box and think about the criteria for judging the protagonist. This time I found out why.
Since movies are audio-visual arts, many people mostly rely on the effects of movies when judging characters. However, the creation of a film is not achieved overnight, and has gone through multiple stages of re-creation in the middle. At first, portraying characters relied on plot design.
In the shooting stage, excellent actors will recreate the characters through imagination. When a good actor performs, there is more psychological drama than script. This is richly explained in the book "The Self-Cultivation of Actors". At the same time, the director can further recreate the character image through lighting effects (refer to the shaping of the character image by the overhead light in "The Godfather"), editing, and set color tone.
However, when I think about characters, I tend to focus on the script stage. I will pull out the influence of actors and directors, and focus on the relationship between plot lines and characters. Because "Story" once mentioned that the plot itself is to describe the characters, and the two are one and two sides.
Based on the evaluation criteria of the script, I don't think Aunt May can be called the protagonist. The movie uses many details to shape the image of the fashion devil, and at the same time briefly explains her life and marriage status. But on the whole, this fashion devil is just a static figure. The film is revealed little by little, allowing the audience to know her more comprehensively, but the plot does not go deep into the inner conflict of this character image. Why would she want this and not that? What is the pain in her heart? Is she overbearing and dictatorial to protect herself? Professional women and incompetent mothers and wives, what are the effects of different labels on her?
To put it simply, from the perspective of the effect presented by the script, the audience only knows the image of the fashion devil, but does not know why. But I have to say that Aunt Mei's acting skills are really amazing. Her temperament in "The Queen Wears Prada" overwhelmed the audience. Although she didn't have the most scenes, she became the focus of the movie. At the same time, Aunt Mei's many micro expressions and body language can make people feel the complexity of the fashion devil's heart, but the plot does not show it accordingly. It can be said that without Aunt Mei, the image of the devil of fashion is difficult to make people so impressive.
Although Aunt May's outstanding acting skills are laudable, it also brings a serious problem - overwhelming. Whether it's the role or the script, I think Hathaway should be the protagonist. However, Hathaway's skill is not as good as Aunt May, which has an effect - the meaning of Hathaway's role is like an introduction to Aunt May. The existence of the protagonist is just to introduce other characters, which seems a bit ironic.
What if "The Devil Wears Prada" was a two-star movie? The focus of dual-protagonist movies is the interaction of the two characters, as is the case in dual-protagonist movies such as "Unreachable" and "Good Will Hunting". However, in "The Queen Wears Prada", the influence is basically one-sided, Aunt May changed Hathaway, but Hathaway seems to be just a passerby on Aunt May's life. Likewise, the problem of overpowering still exists.
So, why is the protagonist Hathaway always "overwhelmed"? In addition to Aunt May's superb acting skills, I think there are some unreasonable places in the design of the story.
If Aunt May has given the character depth through her acting skills, then Hathaway, the protagonist, can reflect the complexity of the character in the script. Even if her acting skills are not dominant, Hathaway's role still has a natural advantage in the script and is able to portray complex character dimensions.
At first, Hathaway knew nothing about fashion, and her desire was to be a journalist and work as a writer. However, when she wanted to be Aunt Mei's assistant more and more, she also changed. She always says that she doesn't care about fashion and values her family, friends and lovers, but her actions tell us that she is not such a person, she really loves those fashionable clothes. To see what a person really is, not by what he says, but by what he does. At this point, Hathaway splendidly deduces what it means to "say no with the mouth, but the body is very honest".
This contrast appears many times in the film, and even the film deliberately creates some pauses, making the audience hold their breath and wait for Hathaway to make a choice. Every time she chose a job, the hesitation time became shorter and shorter. Although Hathaway was just a female reporter who didn't care about fashion at the beginning, this assistant job opened her unconscious desire, and she loved those beautiful clothes and bags from the bottom of her heart. Every choice is a choice between the id and superego in Hathaway's heart (refer to Freud's three "Is"). The id wants beauty and sex, the superego values relationships and morals, but the superego loses every time.
It's a wonderful conflict, but the movie doesn't handle it perfectly. Many times, "The Devil Wears Prada" deliberately downplays this inner conflict. In the movie, after Hathaway makes her choice, she doesn't seem so distressed and struggling, and even enjoys it. If it is not painful, it is not a conflict. I think this is a very unfortunate point. If this inner conflict is handled well, then Hathaway's role will be fuller.
Another problem is that Hathaway, the protagonist, is a bit rough in design, and many details and logic are not clearly sorted out. When Hathaway debuted, she was a bright graduate and had done in-depth journalism. I think she should at least be someone who pays attention to the depth of life. But later, her behavior was superficial. For example, the way she pleases Aunt May is to dress more stylishly. I thought she would study various design studies, fashion history, etc., because fashion is not that simple. Turns out she just dresses better, not even of her own choosing. As an assistant, it is strange that she works hard to become a model.
At the same time, the conflict between Hathaway and Aunt May also lacks a foundation. Hathaway endured Aunt May's tyrannical behavior because she thought the resume would help her jump to the magazine business after a year. However, as long as Hathaway resigns, this conflict can easily disappear. As a result, many of the choices Hathaway faced in the future lacked strength, because there was a way out. After all, the protagonist is not suitable to be set as a reporter who pursues in-depth reporting from the beginning. That is not the job she wants, so the conflict between her and her boss is not a big deal. If it is not good, she will resign, and she will just return. To the original state of no work, no loss at all.
In the climax of the story, Hathaway suddenly stepped on the brakes, woke up, and left Aunt May resolutely. It's also not very good design. The whole movie is showing Hathaway's change. She gradually became what she once hated, made decisions to hurt others, crossed her moral bottom line, and gradually turned black. However, she kept defending herself. The film advances the plot step by step, like a long jumper sprinting, just as he was about to jump up, he actually stopped and said he didn't want this - this is the climax scene of "The Devil Wears Prada" a feeling of.
The movie tries hard to make Hathaway look less bad, trying to make her appear "muddy and clean," but the orgasm does seem blunt and unreasonable. When the film revealed the protagonist's unconscious desire step by step and told the audience that she was such a person, the screen turned and said, "Oh, actually, she is still the girl she used to be." According to my understanding, if the climax is "Hathaway finally Know yourself." That would be more appropriate.
It is precisely because of the above reasons that Hathaway, the protagonist, was overwhelmed by Aunt May, and lacked the aura that the protagonist should have. But on the other hand, I guess the creative team itself is confused, and they are not sure how the protagonist should deal with it. It can be seen that the focus of the film is to show the fashionable devil created by Aunt May, but because this role seems too static, a new dynamic role has to be added to promote the plot.
Of course, this has to come back to the topic. Only by determining the theme can we better grasp the positioning of the protagonist. "The Devil Wears Prada" seems to want to express a lot of themes, but it fails to integrate them well and distinguish the primary and secondary. Coupled with the unequal acting skills of Aunt May and Hathaway, there is indeed a certain degree of confusion in the movie. It can be seen that the choice of the protagonist is really important for the film. "The Devil Wears Prada" is really fun, but it's also a bit of a pity.
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