"The Absent Man" is a work in 2001, and I personally think it is the most mature work of the brothers, whether it is the language of the film or the ideas expressed in it. The overall style follows the calm and soothing narrative in "Ice Storm", of course, there are also clever dislocation plot settings, familiar southern town scenes, and capable scene scheduling like "Shadow Tycoon". The best thing is to look at it again. It's a little bit of expressionist style in "Blood Labyrinth". Therefore, the performance of these typical and familiar Coen brothers under a more sophisticated shell is really wonderful. Of course, it is still a hodgepodge, and the brothers made it clear that this is a tribute to the noir master James. M. Cain. Like "The Postman Rings the Bell Twice", it is also a crime story about ordinary people. It is a work about hidden humanity and the disharmony of small people in society. In fact, the classic noir films of the 1940s are usually like this. The value of "The Absent Man" is that it can reproduce this seemingly outdated narrative style, once again presenting the moral anxiety and social thinking of film noir in the golden age. But the Coen brothers are not so honest. Their contempt for people's motivation to seek money, their emotional innocence, and their sharp mockery of the judicial system have inherited the essence of independent films. The sci-fi movie trend in the 1950s also showed its face in the film in the classic form of flying saucers, bringing a touch of surrealism to this work.
The official version of this film is a black-and-white version, which was filmed with color film and processed into black-and-white in post-processing, so the details are more abundant than traditional black-and-white movies. Treated as black and white, on the one hand, the two brothers are in line with the classics in form, on the other hand, this colorless world can better express their intentions. I think that if you experiment a bit more, you can try the silent film format, replacing the narration that appears from time to time with lean subtitles, which feels more indifferent and cold-blooded. Of course, no matter how maverick the two brothers are, they shouldn't be so disregarding the market to go against the trend. In addition, in the form of black and white movies, you can also play more light and shadow skills in photography and scenes, especially the expressionist techniques that I admire, using the contrast of shadows to create the strange, mysterious and aggressive in a small space. atmosphere of. Like Ed.'s murder in the office, N many angles were used. The positions of the two in the dark shadows changed very cleverly. It is reminiscent of the murderous scene in the bathroom. When Big Dave fell to the ground, black The blood dripped from under his body, slowly concealing into the dark shadows of the scene, forbearing and cold. And the lens in which the distant view is purely shadow, throws people in the infinite space like an altar, and a sense of sadness and insignificance emerges spontaneously. What's more, like shavings in the hairdressing room slowly drifting down, or the faint gray light when listening to the piano, it is easier to create a dreamy feeling without the color of the picture. Perhaps it is to abandon the complex interference, and then we can more calmly appreciate the meaning of the picture, and return to the shaping of the light and shadow of the essence of the film.
In this film, the Coen brothers tried to express a kind of thinking about personal existence, especially the existence of small people who are unable to resist society. The name of the movie is the person who is absent. Ed. is actually a dispensable little character. At the beginning of the film, it seems that his peaceful, tiresome and monotonous barber’s career will continue throughout his life. Xing will be silent forever when he goes out of the wall. And when he tried to make a change, it triggered a series of amazing changes like toppling a domino. So are the Coen brothers showing that individuals cannot resist society and can only bear it passively? I don’t think so, but the brothers also did not give a solution to this kind of personal and social contradiction. In addition to the unrelated narrative, there is also an absent person in this series of accidents, that is, the person who killed Tolliver, the dry cleaner. After all the causal effects, this person is the only one who is left out. Perhaps this talent is the purpose of the title, and this talent who has escaped the inescapable social rules is the author's yearning. This idea seems to fit the hair philosophy reflected in the mouth of Ed., that is, regret for the fragmented existence, and a little sustenance for the unfairness of reality.
Billy Bob Thornton’s performance is very cool. The image of a cigarette with a cigarette in his mouth without saying a word is unforgettable. Since there is no need for words, all the scenes are in the eyes and movements. It looks very silent, but it embodies a kind of repressed passion. The kind of helplessness that has insight into everything but can't break free is between the gestures, but it is more profound than his golden punchline.
I saw Scarlett Johnson again in this film. I thought I knew this unique little woman after watching "Lost in Tokyo", but I slowly noticed that she was seen in many films. In this little Nizi movie, there is another full-fledged Lolita. The scene of lying in the bedroom lazily and tiredly, her eyes are innocent, her cocked feet kicking, and the spring is in the skirt, a kind of seemingly healthy, unintentional and dangerous temptation. Beauty, of course, is very lethal to middle-aged people, and it is not surprising that Ed. lost his life.
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