For American movies, or even purely Hollywood commercials, I have never had a French prejudice, thinking that it is a boring and vulgar assembly line product, like McDonald’s fast food.
People in the world like American movies. After all, there is some truth in it. No movie in a country can integrate business, entertainment, and values so perfectly, from Tibetan lamas to African tribesmen. Probably all have seen at least one American movie. Obviously this is not just a question of money. I have always regarded the argument that American movies are cultural rubbish as an vent of jealousy.
In American movies, I particularly prefer black and white films from the 1930s and 1940s.
This golden age is the most perfect and outstanding classic of that golden age.
If you really score this film-I think it's unfair to make a mathematical evaluation of the art work. The director will account for 60 points, the remaining 35 points will be given to the photographer, and the final 5 points will be given to the actors.
As a master who pursues exquisite composition and traditional European classical theater styles, Wheeler’s works have strong literary characteristics, and his characterization and scene management have reached a high artistic level. He has absorbed British classical literature as the basis. The realist narrative tradition of American movies is supplemented by the French aestheticism of the French Alsatian and the German focus on the heart. Therefore, his films are both American and European, commercial and artistic. , The synthesis of politics and entertainment. What is amazing is his grasp of the rhythm of the film, so elegant and sophisticated, smooth and soothing, that is touching and has pure artistic rendering power.
Together with Capra, Curtis, Liu Bieqian, and Wilder, they are the giants of the golden age of American cinema. It is these European immigrants who perfectly combine the European classical art tradition with the industrialized production process of the United States to produce the most exquisite and perfect shots in the world. The film that was later in the documentary style was beyond the reach of modern directors, just like no one can reach the heights of Caravaggio and Lem Peran. The skill, the exquisite pictures, and the rich emotions are unparalleled.
Tolan has a long history of cooperation with Wheeler. He is good at using deep focus photography to express the serious, realistic, classical, and dramatic scheduling of the film. Although Citizen Kane is the best work he considers to be the best work, but I think that the experimental expressionist style of photography cannot be compared with the perfect and refined style he embodies in this film. Each shot is the result of rigorous and careful research, and its perfection is worthy of repeated scrutiny. It is even more powerful in revealing the subtleties of the character's psychology and contradictions. The two depth-of-field scenes that have always been praised by people, the bar and the hug at the end, are indeed wonderful strokes, but my two favorite scenes are in the dressing room of the party and in the abandoned airplane.
In the dressing room, the dialogue between Fred's frivolous wife and Peggy, who has a crush on him, is handled through a mirror. The expressions of the two characters are undoubtedly revealed in the mirror. Peggy's pain and wife's coquettishness are all in this scene. Reflected from it, avoiding the boring and conflict produced by monotonous dialogue, making it more wonderful. When the conversation was over, the two walked out of the house, and the camera cleverly completed the process through the mirror again. It was simple and unforgettable.
The scene on an abandoned plane has shocking power.
When Fred jumped into the plane proficiently, the camera was shot at an elevation angle, trying to render the heroic personality and tragic character of the character. The plane with the wing lost seemed to imply that the protagonist was an angel without wings. The subsequent close-up of the face expresses the pain and fortitude of a man very well. Through the blurred glass, there is a loss, just like his heart at this moment. Only here at this moment did he recover a man’s dignity.
As for the performance of the actors, except for the two veteran stars, Maru and Roy, the performances of others are only considered pass, especially Mina Roy's performance has been ignored. I think her performance is the best, more than Russell. She handled a virtuous, dignified, complicated emotion that was tense and excited about her husband's return through some unobtrusive little gestures, especially in the scene where the husband gave a lecture. And when answering a bank call, the few self-talking gestures that she closely cuddled up with her husband showed that she was performing the intimate and intimate acting skills of a wife.
Renoir was dismissive of Raphael and once fiercely criticized classical art, but after visiting the painting of the Virgin in the Chair, he was completely impressed. He said that he would never paint such a work in his life.
This is the classic charm.
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