-from "One Night Merry" to "Roman Holiday"
In 1934, Frank Campra filmed "One Night Merry". This film was considered by many film critics at the time to be just an excellent commercial comedy, but it unexpectedly defeated seed players such as Cleopatra and The Skinny at the Oscars that year, and won the best picture and best director. Five awards for best actor, best actress, and best screenplay. Twenty years later, William Wyler filmed a very similar "Roman Holiday", which was regarded as a classic by audiences at the time, especially Chinese audiences, and also won Best Costume, Best Actress, and Best Three awards for the script. Now, more than half a century has passed. The former has been used as a classic model for research by all film academies, leaving an eternal mark in the history of film, while the latter has become a frequent visitor to various overrated film lists. . What is the reason for this?
In 1934, neurocomedy was at its peak. In the era when Hayes Code prevailed, neurocomedy was generally accepted and welcomed by the repressive United States in the era of the Great Depression as a "sex comedy without sex". And as the first masterpiece of neurocomedy, "A Night in the Air" is naturally of great groundbreaking significance. In the film, the obscure hints and descriptions of the relationship and love between men and women were a real creation at the time. Even though the film critics at the time did not realize the significance of this layer, look at all the classic neuro comedies that followed, such as "My Godfrey" and "Baby Talk". There seems to be the shadow of "One Night Romance". By 1954, "Roman Holiday" basically copied the entire story structure of "One Night Romance". That is, the daughter of the upper class who ran away from the upper class, and a fallen reporter who used each other to produce a love story.
But the same story, will there be better changes after 20 years. The answer is: no.
From the character setting to the development of the story, "Roman Holiday" seems to abandon all the advantages left over from the neuro-comedy period and return to simple commercial fairy tales.
Let's take a look at how this movie turns the nerves of "One Night Romance" into a painless fairy tale. First of all, at the beginning of the story, the princess played by Audrey Hepburn chose to escape because she couldn't bear the boring life. The movie spent a lot of time describing the boring and busy life of a princess. This was the only reason she chose to flee. . Strictly speaking, this kind of reason is actually a kind of no reason without urgency, and it is also a fairy tale choice that simplifies the role and makes a facial makeup. After all, in a fairy tale, a character that is too complicated is impossible for children to understand. But "A Night in Love" is much smarter. It only uses a few simple scenes at the beginning to show the causes and consequences of the heroine escaping from the noble family in order to marry her lover. Obviously a smarter and more complex process.
Immediately afterwards, Parker's appearance in "Roman Holiday" also appeared to be featureless, a simple game, unable to clearly explain the character of the character. We simply saw a handsome American reporter. That's it. But "A Night in Love" is more beautiful using a phone scene, so that the image of the reporter played by Clark Gable suddenly becomes clear. And all this is just a few words after hanging up the phone. In fact, Gable's reporter has more motives. He needs money, and he needs this report. But Parker is just an insignificant game.
Then, logically, both of them chose to catch the news. Naturally, the two fell in love, but the difference is that "A Night in Love" is a confrontational dramatic development, while "Roman Holiday" is just a leisurely development of fragments. Of course, the scenes of life in Rome are very romantic and beautiful, but how can the beauty of this polish be compared with the in-depth storytelling? The romantic atmosphere is very simple, handsome guys, beautiful women, plus a foreign country The emotional location is fine, "Roman Holiday" does exactly this, and "One Night of Love" uses confrontation, misunderstanding, and metaphor, and superb artistic techniques make "One Night of Love" even better.
After a farce in a cabaret, "Roman Holiday" reached its climax, and in such a scene, a line from "One Night" was directly used (for those who have watched two movies, it should be easy to be able to turn up). However, "A Night in the Air" is at its climax due to the dramatic conflict without a cold scene.
The ending is the biggest difference between the two movies. Frank Kempra borrowed from the fall of the Jericho Wall to reach the climax of sexual suggestion and depressive emotional outburst, but it is somewhat clichéd by Hollywood movies, but this ending is also precisely, The necessary genre characteristics of neurocomedy. Wheeler's works deliberately go the opposite way to Campra. But it fell into another cliché, which made the heroine find the princess's responsibility without warning, and finally made it impossible for the hero and heroine to break the wall because of reality, which added some reality to the romance. Although it cannot be said to be a bad ending, it is indeed too obvious to deliberately go the way of anti-classical neurocomedy.
Generally speaking, "Roman Holiday" is a beautiful romantic movie with beautiful and handsome heroes and a romantic background city where love can occur. Although it is an excellent work, it is compared with "A Night in Love", But it lacks that nerve and complex temperament. What's more, "A Night in Love" was filmed 20 years before "Roman Holiday". While "One Night Romance" has become more and more a benchmark in film history, Chinese fans have put "Roman Holiday" in a higher position. This is indeed caused by a certain cultural and artistic appreciation and even historical differences. of. Perhaps because China introduced "Rome" at the right time, it has become a childhood memory of many people. Or because of the long-lasting servile feudal society, the Chinese people have a special plot for the love of the beautiful princess. They feel that the superior master is destined to be unable to get together with the slave, and cannot accept the "One Night Romance". Who knows the American spirit of a poor boy marrying a young lady. However, thinking of another "Sissi", which is recognized as a bad film abroad, has also become an eternal classic in the eyes of Chinese audiences. Perhaps, there is also some connection between this.
View more about It Happened One Night reviews
