Kin Hankman

Chauncey 2021-12-08 08:01:44

Jin Hankman is one of my favorite actors. The first time I saw his movie was not his most famous tough guy character, but a gay comedy "Bird Cage," in which he played an extremely conservative Republican senator, a serious hypocritical and utilitarian character. At the moment when he fell for that outspoken, funny and charming housewife, Hankman showed the warmth and the authentic nature of his diligent performance when he suddenly hit the weak underbelly of a married man. After learning that the beautiful woman was actually a gay man, he performed the ignorance of a conservative man just right. It was so wonderful that when I came to see his famous work "The Male and Female Thief" later, I couldn't believe it was performed by himself. His tough guy and macho roles reached the top in "French Relations". It was a role full of male hormones and could only belong to Hankman. Later, he played mostly villains and gradually became singular. It's the "Superman" series that combines the villain with the comedic genius. It's self-contained. In short, tough guys, comedies, and villains can cover almost all his roles.

In Coppola's "Dialogue", I saw a Hankman I had never seen before.

He is by no means a tough guy. He is an eavesdropping expert, carefully protecting his privacy. Even going to his girlfriend's house is full of doubts and fears. This is not a villain either. He does the job of monitoring other people, and at the same time he tries his best not to get involved in murder and blood. His role is even more unrelated to comedy. This person who has been deprived of his basic sense of security, his first-class monitoring technology makes him feel that there is nothing in this world that can be kept secret. His life disappeared in the conversation of others. This middle-aged man wore a low-quality single-layer raincoat all day long, and only the word pitiful can describe him more accurately.

This movie reminds me of the German movie "Other People's Lives" a few years ago. In the end, the monitor cannot separate himself from the life of the person being monitored. Even if it is not for money and career, if each of us is given a chance to peek into other people's lives, we are probably eager to try. But this kind of voyeurism is not without a price. It's like reaching out to explore a bottomless cave, and it's possible to bring out mushrooms, rabbits, or poisonous snakes, or to be eaten by the arm.

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Extended Reading
  • Jabari 2022-04-24 07:01:06

    The rhythm is very slow, and the repeatedly played monitoring recordings have been incomprehensible. With just a few words, I can't make random guesses until I wait for the plot to reverse. The best eavesdropper, but his own anti-eavesdropping skills are not flattering. Gene Hackman's image in this film is completely different from the rude and reckless man in the past. He is very restrained and fits the atmosphere of psychological suspense. Harrison Ford played the villain, and he was young and handsome at the time.

  • Michelle 2022-03-21 09:01:55

    @filmoteca thinks the Chinese title is extremely stupid, so it's good to translate it directly into "dialogue", after all, the whole film is very small. But small is not the same as less. The core hidden under the layers of sophisticated and complicated techniques (its greatness is precisely that it looks extremely light and concise) is still the emptiness and loneliness that Coppola is good at, which is quite charming. theme is undoubtedly the pinnacle of pure piano soundtrack, and it is never tire of listening to it.

The Conversation quotes

  • [repeated line from the recording]

    Mark: He'd kill us if he got the chance.

  • Martin Stett: [Final Line] We'll be listening to you.