Dead Man: Yesterday, the Un Certain Regard Unit of the 71st Cannes Film Festival announced the final list of winners, and Bi Gan's "The Last Night on Earth" was unfortunately not selected.
Although "Last Night on Earth" is at the top of the major scoring lists (for example, on the "Comprehensive List", which gathers all the scores in Cannes, it is still ranked seventh at the moment, far higher than the one that finally won the Un Certain Regard Award, which ranked 21st The "Border" is more powerful), and I have indeed gained a lot of admiration and praise, but the good wishes are ultimately lost to reality. According to a certain movie fan's joke, Cannes once again staged the willful drama of "ignoring public opinion", just get used to it.
As a digression, it seems that Li Cangdong's "Burning" rushes to the second place on this list, which does not seem to be a good thing; even if the field magazine breaks the record and gets an astonishing 3.8 points, it will not have much reference value after all. .
Of course, there are also some people who say, "It's a good thing that Bi Gan didn't get an award. They are all calm and settled, otherwise they will become gods and only the second feature film, so what's the hurry". The words are correct, but there are inevitably many people who speculate that the big reason why Bi Gan did not win the award is still the taste of the judges, as well as the judging criteria and positioning of concern.
In contrast, several other award-winning films, whether it is the Swedish fantasy "Frontier" that topped the Uncategorized Award, "Donbas", which won the best director, "The Dead and Others", which won the special jury award, and "The Girl" and "Sofia", which won the best actor and the best screenwriter respectively, although they are undeniably excellent works, are they really better than "The Last Night on Earth"? Prizes are just prizes, and time has yet to witness everything.
The chairman of the jury of this year's One Focus Unit is American actor Benny Theo Del Toro, who once won the Best Actor at Cannes for "The Biography of Che Guevara". Judging from his taste, he obviously does not like "Earth" The Last Night". There is a saying that is right, if you want to win the Cannes award, there is always a risk; seven points depend on strength, three points depend on luck; after working hard to make a good movie, whether you can make the judges feel like you need to bear risks of.
Un Certain Regard Jury President at Cannes: Benny Theo del Toro; his latest role is a collector in Avengers 3 and the male lead in the Sicario series
Nevertheless, we still want to talk about Bi Gan's "Last Night on Earth" today, and let's calm down and re-examine: Is this film worthy of such high praise as "inscribed in film history"; In addition to the long shots, are there more moving points worth exploring; and whether this new Chinese-language work, which shines on the major lists but is destined to leave regrets in Cannes, is indeed unsatisfactory.
Author | Madison (Cannes) official account |
On the day of the screening of Bi Gan's "Last Night on Earth", I went straight to the second floor after the annoying security check as usual, trying to grab the first row in the middle of the second floor, but was stopped by the staff. .
Looking back, I saw two neatly sized boxes of 3D glasses. Just like the previous rumors, Bi Gan's new work is a 3D movie.
However, just as the screen in the Debussy Room went black and foreign reporters who didn't know the truth were wearing 3D glasses, a line appeared on the screen: "This is not a 3D movie, but we invite you to join us at the right time."
After a commotion of laughter, applause and glasses removal, the long-awaited film has finally been unveiled.
The film "Last Night on Earth" is Bi Gan's second feature film after "Roadside Picnic" astonishing the world. It has attracted much attention since the day the project was announced, not only because of Bi Gan's status as a talented director, It is also because of the upgrade from the uncle Chen Yongzhong to the cast lineup of Tang Wei, Huang Jue, Li Hongqi, and Zhang Aijia, and also because of the overall increase in the project budget.
Everyone is curious, what kind of works the rich Bi Gan will hand over.
The storyline of the film is very simple. Luo Hongwu, played by Huang Jue, escaped from his 12-year prison life and returned to his hometown of Kaili, looking for the woman he loved and never forgotten 12 years ago - played by Tang Wei Wan Qiwen.
Interestingly, the Chinese name of the film "Last Night on Earth" comes from a short story by Robert Bolano, while the English name [Long Day's Journey into Night] is inspired by the stage play of the famous dramatist Eugene O'Neill. This naming method is no coincidence. The name of the debut work "Roadside Picnic" comes from the original novel of Bi Gan's favorite movie "Stalker". Bi Gan's careful thinking on the title is controversial, and there is no lack of ambition to move closer to the master.
Facts have proved that this ill-fated film, which has undergone several remakes and reshoots, has achieved a reasonable and unexpected success. In the first 60 minutes of the film, many foreign reporters left the stage due to the slow rhythm and the narrative technique with their backs to the audience; but when the film was in the middle, when the actor played by Huang Jue walked into a theater and sat down, the reporters followed. After Huang Jue on the big screen put on 3D glasses... no one ever moved his butt again.
At this time, the huge title of "The Last Night on Earth" first appeared in front of the eyes, with different depths of field in Chinese and English, reminding the audience that all subsequent pictures are presented in 3D format.
Then there is the 60-minute 3D long shot that foreign media calls it, which is even better than the 45-minute long shot of "Roadside Picnic".
Like "Roadside Picnic", this super-long shot in "The Last Night on Earth" is also a dream imagined by the protagonist. This time, Bi Gan chose to present it in 3D. In Bi Gan's view, the 3D presentation method is like a mirror to the memory, and the function of depth of field shortens the distance between memory and reality.
This new method of "2D to 3D" is in the cinematic dimension of literary and artistic attributes. Bi Gan's ambition in the film is indeed not to be underestimated.
But looking back on the stunning long shot of "Roadside Picnic", the roughness and flaws of the image are inevitable topics. It is said that movies are the art of regret, but Bi Gan doesn't think so. He is like a pissed off child who makes up for all the regrets left in his previous work "Roadside Picnic" in "The Last Night on Earth" came back.
Whether it is exquisite art, smooth mirror movement, or complex and multiple scheduling, it is amazing enough. During this period, I went down the mountain with a sling, the actors galloping and transitioning in two scenes, the horses that were difficult to control, and the heart-wrenching moments of restarting the billiards if they couldn't get into the pool. Such complicated scheduling even made people see the famous Shadow of Hungarian long-lens master Miklos Janso.
Of course, long shots are never that simple, and one tiny mistake can cost everything and start all over again. For an hour-long film like Last Night on Earth, the cost of error is horribly high.
According to Huang Jue, when shooting this long shot, the time left for the entire crew was not enough. There were two days of rehearsal, two days of shooting, and only three shots a day. Everything was racing against time. On the first day of shooting, all three failed.
The next day, the first failed; there were only two last chances left, and a card could only shoot 64 minutes. At a critical point, when an actor had to put a billiard ball into his pocket with precision, something unexpected happened. Tang Wei accidentally touched the billiards on the table when he was walking, the preset placement was disrupted, and another ball that should not have been there was blocked between the white ball and the target ball.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the actor withstood the pressure and finally pocketed the ball. The actor even swears swear words after he came out of the painting to vent this huge pressure.
It was the penultimate chance, and it was successful. Wong Kar-wai, who has always been behind the monitor, used to be the queen. In the past, Mr. Wong Chi-ming, a lighting engineer in his 70s who has made great contributions to the light and shadow classics such as "In the Mood for Love" and "2046", has seen countless big scenes. Tears fell in the image space created by people.
Of course, such an image world is not accumulated by mechanized lens length. In the evaluation of foreign media, one of the most mentioned adjectives is "Poem Film", that is, poetry film. Poetry cinema is not a type of film, it is as ethereal as a literal fusion of literature and cinema, and there is no particular definition. Literature and film seem to be connected everywhere, but they are incompatible. Poetry film finds some kind of wonderful connection in this, and uses images to make poetry.
Previously, the famous poetic film directors came from the former Soviet Union, and the names of masters such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Parajanov, etc. are among them. Bi Gan's long shot captures the elusive sense of desolation and gracefulness of the old tower. The ethereal smoke, the room soaked in water, etc., are all elements that appear repeatedly in the old tower's films.
Of course, the plot of such a poetic film must be illusory. The plot introduction that appears in the official manual must be difficult for most reporters to connect with what they see after reading it.
Bi Gan, who has not received any professional drama education, is very different from other screenwriters and directors in the way of script writing. The producer's most taboo changes to the script on the spot, and even drastic injuries, are commonplace here in Bi Gan.
In the original vision, "Last Night on Earth" was a noir film. According to Bi Gan's words, the temperament is borrowed from Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity". After the first draft of the script was completed, Bi Gan began to split and reorganize his own script bit by bit, which continued throughout the shooting process.
For actors, the script they get every day is a new thing; to exaggerate, Bi Gan's way of working reminds me of Godard, who was also shortlisted for this year's Cannes. Anna Karina, who kissed Belmondo on this year's main poster, once said that Godard never gave them the script, and that all the dialogue was written and given to them one minute before shooting.
Back on the first day of the filming of "The Last Night on Earth", Bi Gan stopped working halfway through; the actors in the film got several versions of the script before and after, and each version was very different; after three or four reshoots before and after the film, all It was Bi Gan himself who made up for his dissatisfaction with the previous shooting. Li Hongqi said that when he was called back by Bi Gan for the third time, he couldn't stand it anymore, but Bi Gan said a word to him, I just want to make this movie good, and I don't want to leave any regrets.
It is this kind of perseverance that made this film, the seven-minute applause after the Cannes screening, and the praise from foreign media, all came naturally.
But cinema has never been the art of regret. In terms of skills, Bi Gan has indeed achieved impeccable peaks, but it cannot be ignored that Bi Gan is still framed in the creative ideas of "Roadside Picnic". Similar elements, similar plots, similar characters, everything seems familiar. This also makes "Last Night on Earth" more like an "8-figure investment" "Roadside Picnic". This may be Bi Gan's comfort zone, or it may be Bi Gan's self-compensation for the imperfection of the previous work; but Bi Gan's next work urgently needs to break through himself.
The hazy mist, the moist and charming color of film noir, and the 60-minute 3D long shot that once again refreshed the cognition of film history, Bi Gan gradually got on the right track after he stubbornly slapped "Roadside Picnic". The Cannes premiere on the 15th made "Last Night on Earth" one of the biggest hits outside of this year's main competition, and it also brought Bi Gan to a new level and was known to the world in this small southern French city.
Author | Madison; Official Account | Watching Movies and Seeing Death
Editor | Teenager on the Roof; Please indicate the source for reprinting
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