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The screen adaptation of Fitzgerald's collection of essays "Crash" "The Great Gatsby" has never been successful. The original novel is too well-known. It ranks second among the 100 best English novels of the 20th century selected by the American Modern Library. "The first step" is the last elegy of the Jazz Age. Its interpretation of the American dream goes beyond time and was selected as a language textbook for American high schools. So in the United States, as long as the audience with a middle school education, no one is unfamiliar with this story.
In the summer of 2013, Australian Buzz Ruchman launched his fourth assault on The Great Gatsby. Going back in time to Long Island, New York in the 1920s, with the perspective of the narrator Nick, we watched a tragedy of a dream that was too noisy. Before I watched the movie, I was convinced that Baz Luhmann could host a prosperous and colorful party. The new version of "The Great Gatsby" really made a lot of effort in terms of visual expressiveness. One of the producers and the director's wife, Catherine Martin, is responsible for the art design of the film. Prada's costumes and Tiffany's jewelry are indeed pleasing to the eye. The setting also closely fits the description of the original work. From Long Island to Manhattan, Ash Valley is a must pass through. There is a pair of meaningful eyes on the broken and dim billboard. The mansion of Tom and Daisy in the movie is George. The colonial buildings are luxurious but flat and elegant, and unassuming. And unable to squeeze into this hereditary territory, Gatsby Castle, which settled in West Egg, is extremely luxurious and fashionable, and the style differences between the old and the new aristocrats are clear at a glance. Not to mention the buzzing scenes of a few parties. Thanks to the blessing of 3D, the green light in front of Daisy's house across the sea flashed like Green Lantern.
As for film soundtracks criticized by many movie fans and jazz fans, such as music director Jay Z and the widespread use of hip-hop, I don't think it is the key to the success or failure of the film. If the movies reflecting the 1920s can only use the jazz of the 1920s (how about using only the cameras of the 1920s?), wouldn't "Crazy Primitives" not even have songs, just scream? The soundtrack of "Moulin Rouge" by Baz Luchman was also a big platter of popular songs-Nirvana, Elton John, Sting... and even the adaptation of Madonna's "Like a Virgin", the voice of opposition seems to have not been present. So intense. Decoding and reshaping the splendor of a century ago with music that is easy for contemporary audiences to quickly establish contact is one of Ruchmann's most distinctive director style. As long as everything serves the film itself, it may not be an interesting attempt. Especially when Gatsby happily led Daisy to play in the mansion, indulging in laughter, Lana Del Ray's voice in the background was bleak and innocent, asking "Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful" "Sorrow but not hurt, beautiful.
The formal success of the new version of "The Great Gatsby" has attracted much attention, but it is difficult to conceal its essential failure. As a reader of Fitzgerald, what I want to protest is the adaptation of the original work that looks so beautiful. This time, Baz Luchman still invited his long-term screenwriter partner Craig Pierce. The two of them have co-wrote several pieces of "Dancing Country Heroes", "Moulin Rouge", and "Romeo and Juliet". Herman's most important work.
The so-called "most loyal to the original" banner, I think it can only buy audiences who have not read the original. Any reader who has read the book "The Great Gatsby" can capture the difference in the final separation of flesh and blood everywhere in the movie. Through the interaction between the psychiatrist and Nick, the film easily quoted a large number of original sentences, which gave people the illusion of listening to audiobooks, but inexplicable dismantling created a lot, such as one of the most famous openings in the history of literature. "When I was young and didn't have a deep experience, my father taught me a sentence, and I still remember it." It was only half quoted and changed to "Try to think of people for the good." What's more, Baz Luchman wishfully removed all the details that showed Gatsby's disappointment and dreams after the reunion with Daisy, and let him fall in love in his dreams of love. In Fitzgerald's novels, Gatsby has already learned everything about Daisy. He is not the Jack who did not drown on the Titanic, he is more sober than anyone else. In the novel, Fitzgerald wrote, “There must have been some moments that afternoon when Daisy was far less than his dream, not because of her own fault, but because of the immense vitality of his dreams. His dreams surpassed. He surpassed everything. He devoted himself to this dream with a creative enthusiasm, constantly adding branches and leaves, embellishing with every gorgeous feather that floated. No amount of passion or vitality could keep up with the sadness of a person. The emotion that can be gathered in his heart." And before going to the city to cool off, Gatsby's sentence "Her voice is full of money." It is enough to clarify everything.
CNN’s guest film critic Tom Charity’s generalization of Baz Luhmann is a bit harsh, but it is also very accurate. He believes that Luhmann’s understanding of literary works always has a kind of "unshy romance and fullness." The superficiality of enthusiasm." I would like to believe that Buzz Ruchman is very fond of this novel and loves the character Gatsby very much. But it is the director’s kindness and kindness that makes Gatsby’s story not only incomplete in the film, but also lacks the most important flavor. Every time I reread "The Great Gatsby", I would think of the song in "Dream of Red Mansions", "The shabby room was empty, and the wat was full of the bed back then; the grass withered and poplar was once for the song and dance venue... I appeared on the stage, but I thought that the other country was my hometown. It was ridiculous. In the end, I would make wedding clothes for others." Seeing him get up a tall building, watch his banquet guests, watch his building collapse. Without the disillusionment of dreams, "The Great Gatsby" can only be reduced to a third-rate romantic story of an amorous rich man who chases a girl for thousands of miles and never changes his infatuation.
Leonardo, who played in Rhapsody in Blue and Fireworks, can only be a grass-roots lover. From "Growth Education" and "Shame" to this one, the heroine Kerry Mulligan is very suitable to play a material girl who is indulging in desire and naive, but she is still several orders of magnitude behind Daisy. She is the kinder and simpler Daisy, and he is the more obsessive Gatsby. The chill in the story is warmed by Ruchman. Will the red wine with Sprite taste better? Baz Ruchman may have fulfilled his dream of being a reader, but he has failed the original novel itself. At the end of the movie, before Gatsby was shot, the phone rang. He mistakenly thought it was Daisy who was calling, so he fell back into the gorgeous blue swimming pool in slow motion hopefully, with a happy smile at the corner of his mouth. The director gave it. He died just fine. In the novel, the bubble is clearly pierced, "I have an idea, Gatsby himself does not believe that there will be a call, and he may not care anymore. If this is the case, he will definitely feel that he has lost In the old warm world, I paid a high price for holding a dream for too long. It's no wonder that a friend asked after watching the movie, "Where is this Gatsby so great?" At
the end of the movie, Nick finished the novel and signed the cover with a pen, linking the story with the writer. In fact, Fitzgerald is not Nick, he is Gatsby. It is hard not to think of the story between the writer Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. When they met for the first time, Zelda was the rich lady, and Fitzgerald was just like Gatsby as an unknown officer. Love doesn't know where it started, but it keeps going deep. Of course, he didn't have the evil shortcuts of flying yellow and high in the novel. He wanted to win the hearts of beautiful women, so he had to bury his head and write with a pen. Zelda did not agree to Fitzgerald's marriage proposal until "Heaven's Side" became a best-selling novel with great success. They have become the most matching pair of people in the social circle, the grape wine luminous cup, from New York to Paris, singing and singing. In the future, you can refer to Hemingway's "The Flowing Feast". He firmly believes that Fitzgerald no longer has great works after "The Great Gatsby". The root cause is that Zelda's madness ruined him. . Fitzgerald was both in it and out of it for the most splendid and indulgent jazz age. I am both intoxicated and disgusted by the ever-changing life. I love his gentleness when writing at the most prosperous time. Finally, Fitzgerald, who was only 44 years old, suffered a heart attack and died suddenly at a friend's apartment in Los Angeles at some dawn before Christmas.
The ending of Careless Daisy is not written in The Great Gatsby, but I know Zelda's. Eight years after Fitzgerald’s sudden death in Los Angeles, a fire broke out in the mental hospital where Zelda was located. It is said that there was a strong wind that day, and she stood alone on the top of the building until she was swallowed by flames. They were buried together, and the timeless ending of "The Great Gatsby" was engraved on the tombstone-we continued to struggle forward, sailing against the current, and being pushed back and forth until we returned to the past.
For a long time, I have only a very vague concept of the American dream, until I saw the schedule that Gatsby’s father carefully kept at the funeral of "The Great Gatsby" (this film) Gatsby’s biological father did not appear in China, which I think is another huge defect), and I suddenly realized that the so-called American dream means that as long as you work hard, you can live better. Gatsby, who claims to be the son of God, firmly believes that there is an extraordinary arrangement in his life. When he kissed the lips of the golden girl Daisy for the first time, all the imagination related to beauty in his life was condensed into the most concrete symbol. As long as you run faster tomorrow and stretch your arms farther, one day, one day you can touch the glowing green light on the other side. Gatsby is the fool of the fools and the warrior of the warriors. Just like the lyrics of Zhong Xiaoyang's "Favourite", he only loves one person in his life, and only cherishes one kind of sorrow in the whole life. Since ancient times, it is him who has hated spare time, and it is also him who smiles for her daughter. He is a man who really uses his dream as a horse to overcome all obstacles, and of course he is remarkable.
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2013-08-13 07:37:04 Pan Meng SoPhia,
thank you for your love~
Regarding the prototype of Daisy, I think several people have mentioned it, so let me say a few more words.
The prototype of Daisy, according to the faction, is Fitzgerald's first love girlfriend, Gineva King. There are also many critics who believe that the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is based on the relationship between Jesus and Judas. Actually, I don’t intend to verify who Daisy is, but every time I reread "The Great Gatsby", it’s hard not to think of the story between the writer Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. So That’s it at the end.
Zelda is too important to Fitzgerald's creation, not just Gatsby's story, the female mental patient in "The Tender Night", Gloria in "Beauty and Destruction", how much more Few can see her shadow, haunt like ghosts.
updated: It has been published in "Global Screen" 2013, issue 09, the length of the magazine is limited, here is the full text.
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