I'm not familiar with Jean-Jacques Arnault, who was caught by the director and screenwriter. After reading the introduction, I found out that he made the French film "The Lover" starring Tony Leung, but Jude Law and Ed Harris. The old handsome guy is too familiar. I began to think that this film is very commercial in style. It is hard to see that it is only nominated but not awarded.
The well-established photography is very academic, but it may adhere to the director's simple requirements, and the expressiveness is still good.
It is inevitable to like grand narratives when making war movies. This is Chen Kaige's patent. Fortunately, China has always been at the low end of the food chain of human civilization. Director Arnold has stopped playing. Technically speaking, what makes this film great is how small it is. Even the villain and supporting role, Connie, doesn't have much ink, but the fullness of the characters is saturated. But the director's favorite character is not the protagonist Vasily, but Danilov. See Danilov's dying line below:
Danilov: Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbour . But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love.
God created injustice, he makes people jealous, makes people love and hate, and makes ideal socialism an ugly concentration camp.
It's more difficult for a French director to avoid politics than to see a naked Monica without an erection. The city was very restrained and did not make Danilov a spokesman for Soviet socialism. Because it is obviously irresponsible to speak ill of socialism. He is neither simply bad nor simply beautiful, or he has been discussing every day on Weibo, and no results have been discussed. At the end, he sighed, System ah system. It's like Xiang Yu Wujiang sings and dances to himself and then shouts: life, life (the line that Tai Shigong gave him is the crime of God killing me and not war, this is not obedient).
At any rate, conscience lies in the individual. Danilov is not a good person, but he said why he is not a good person, and finally redeemed him like a moth to a flame. Whether it can be judged whether he can put down the butcher knife and become a Buddha on the spot is also a matter of opinion.
Rich in talent, poor in talent, rich in love, poor in love. What you can't ask for is wealth.
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