"Behind the Candlestick" is a very deformed movie, but it is also a typical one: Soderbergh used his last nominal director work (although the director recently said it was only a temporary stop ), the image specifically shows the importance of the director as to the film-with the full marks of the guiding skills and skills, a only passing script and a relatively mediocre story are finally upgraded to a quite satisfactory finished film. And this is a relatively satisfactory curtain call for at least the ups and downs of the cable guide in recent years.
The story is really lackluster in nature. Same-sex themes are already commonplace. It’s commonplace for celebrities to keep chaotically and finally abandoned. There is too little room for innovation and deep exploration and development. But Soderbergh’s mature wisdom lies in not falling into it. In any of these pitfalls, avoid overemphasizing the same-sex theme, but focus on the emotional and relationship development of the two people. I remember that the earliest comment out of Cannes mentioned that the film has surpassed the restriction of the same sex and rose to the level of human love. Although it is a bit exaggerated, it more accurately reflects Soderberg's positioning. At the same time, I believe that despite the consideration of consistency of perspective and clarity of structure, the entire film of Cable Guide unfolds the story from Damon's perspective, but it is rare to maintain an objective position. The audience can get close to the inner world of the characters through Damon’s perspective, and at the same time, with the help of the film’s meticulous and comprehensive portrayal of the characters’ complex personalities, they can maintain an objective understanding of the emotional development and relationship changes between the two, which is similar to Haneke. Withdrawing from the heart of the character, the objective effect achieved by the calm restraint on the lens is in strong contrast.
In addition to the control of the film's angle and standpoint, Soderberg also tried his best to tell the story that spans such a long time and does not have a big ups and downs. The most characteristic is the sound pre-entry skills during scene editing and the logical montage with sufficient white space, especially the frequent use at the beginning of the movie, which effectively makes the rhythm of the character background introduction part compact, and makes the most efficient use of the movie playback time. In addition, the cable guide also makes full use of the gimmicks on the subject of the movie to create a wealth of external attractions-Damon's meat and spring figure, Douglas' gorgeous styling and cross-age makeup changes, and of course the two most important ones. The actor's basic love drama, these rarely seen elements effectively make up for the cliche of the movie story, and also cater to HBO's usual special emphasis style.
Speaking of HBO, since the film no longer has the qualifications for the Oscars, I have to regret that Douglas did not win this year's Cannes. Compared to Damon's relatively stable performance, Douglas's highly disruptive and diverse performances are indeed the biggest highlight of the film outside of the director. The arrogant and arrogant character, and the unrestrained provocative nudity, is a far cry from the relatively steady and sophisticated screen image of Douglas in recent years. At the same time, the movie gave him a lot of room to play, but also brought great difficulty to the performance. On the stage is a gorgeous and confident performer. In life, he is a little man who indulges lust but yearns for love. The confession on the sick bed at the end is even more so. An absolute Oscar moment that demonstrates skill, but the strongest is the stunt of sleeping half-closed eyes. These Douglas can easily complete without exception. At the same time, he is accurate with Liberace's arrogant, narcissistic but insecure ambivalence. Narrowing and portraying is also an important reason why the film takes Damon as the main perspective but still makes the audience neutral and unbiased. Although such a wonderful performance and such hard-working guidance missed the Oscar front for next year, not surprisingly, "Behind the Candlestick" is bound to sweep the Emmys next year.
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