Author: Haining
"If the history of film can only talk about one film, then I would definitely choose Orson Wells' "Citizen Kane", because its appearance makes film art seem to have moved forward for ten years overnight. "
I just started to get involved with film history in my freshman year, and the teacher in charge of this course said so in a certain class. This sentence aroused my strong interest, but after I watched this movie, I couldn't fully understand the reason why the teacher said so.
What I did not expect is that the new film "Mank" directed by David Fincher is about the background in which Mank wrote the script of "Citizen Kane".
"Citizen Kane," the story is very simple: The movie American newspaper tycoon Kane died alone in the mansion as a prelude to his deathbed say "Rosebud" is the term suspense, by reporter Thomson visit the Kane Several closely related insiders showed Kane's life from childhood, career, love, marriage, power, friendship, and old age.
The story opens with a flashback, presenting the protagonist in a staged reminiscence paragraph. As a newspaper tycoon and a big winner praised by everyone, Kane missed the "rosebud", a toy sleigh that brought him countless joys in his childhood, and the innocent and free life of his childhood represented behind him.
"Citizen Kane" in 1941 after the release, the newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst think this movie is alluding to the attack himself, he protested and attempted to buy the film for $ 800,000 in order to prohibit their release.
Fortunately, this did not affect the subsequent success of the film, even if its box office was far less than expected.
The success of "Citizen Kane" undoubtedly comes from the excellent quality of the film itself, but it is also inseparable from the social environment at the time. At that time, the United States was in an economic crisis, people could not afford movie tickets, and the upper management of film companies had to consider how to attract audiences back to the theater.
The more well-known film companies at that time mainly included: Paramount with rich wealth , star-studded MGM , 20th Century Fox famous for westerns , Warner Bros. , which was neglected , and Raidenhua with adventurous spirit . These companies seem to have their own merits, but capitalists who treat movies as commodities are gradually using their capital to solidify movies into a model, creating a non-existent real space, and revealing their hypocritical postures.
"Citizen Kane" director Orson Wells is affiliated with Raidenhua. In this film, whether it is narrative mode, audiovisual language, or aesthetic rules, he has broken the usual routines of the classic Hollywood period, drawn the dividing line between modern and traditional movies , and "stunned" attempting to take this The movie company tycoon who makes a fortune is known as the rebel of Hollywood .
The film won 9 nominations for the 14th Oscar, and Orson Wells and Herman Mankiewicz (Mank) jointly won the Best Original Screenplay Award. But after that, almost no one mentioned Mank, the co-writer of the film. The only news left is that the script of "Citizen Kane" was actually completed independently by Manke, but he had to sign with Orson Wells because of the money and contract.
Come back to David Fincher and his "Mank."
Friends who are familiar with David Fincher know that color matching plays a vital role in his work, but in the film "Mank", the director resolutely used black and white tones and gave up color The visual effect brought to this film is a kind of admirable courage. A friend who has always respected David Fincher said after watching the movie that David Fincher, who took the initiative to shoot black and white films, was a bit self-defeating. But you will also understand him. After all, there is no better way to show Hollywood in the 1930s than black and white.
Knowing these past history may help you better understand David Fincher's work "Mank" after a lapse of six years.
This is an atypical David Fincher-style work. In addition to the inherent "joking" style and sophisticated audio-visual language, he seems to have consciously and prejudiced on Mank's side , ruthlessly exposing the five major film companies. The hypocrisy of the upper class, the pursuit of fame and wealth, the entertaining treatment of politics, and even director Orson Wells.
Turtle hair is like David Fincher, he must have done a lot of work when creating this movie.
In this film, the director ingeniously adopted the format of the script, dividing the interval between the scenes. In a single scene, you can find the jokes arranged by the director anytime and anywhere. Audiences who are familiar with David Fincher will find unlimited fun.
On this basis, the director also cleverly adopted a two-line narrative.
A line shows that Mank, who was in bed due to a car accident, is creating the script of "Citizen Kane", using "maid", "wife", and "self-explanation" to show Mank in a certain aspect. He is drinking and gambling, but he also helps Jews, sympathize with the bottom.
The other line seems trivial, but in fact, it shows the hypocrisy of the top executives represented by the five major film companies from multiple angles. It is a performance arranged by the top to reduce the salary of the employees. It is to compete with other film companies to force the screenwriters. Echoes to politics in conversation. It is precisely because of the existence of these people that Mank’s characterization has become extraordinarily three-dimensional, and his writing has become valuable, because he is using a story to shout out resistance to the times, and all this is in line with "Citizen Kane" The flashback fragments are the same in the same way.
Before clarifying the relationship between these two lines, I have some doubts. What does David Fincher want to express through this story? What is unique about Mank?
What are we watching when we are watching this movie?
At the end of the film, Manke took the trophy and delivered his acceptance speech, and then these subtitles appeared:
Mank died of complications from alcoholism eleven years later. He never worked with Orson Wells again, never wrote original scripts, and never again won the right to sign the script.
He once confided to a friend that I seem to be more and more like a mouse trapped in a cage he built by himself. As long as the cage seems to have a small gap that allows me to escape, I will repair it in time.
I seem to understand it all at once.
"Mank" is of course a movie with a threshold. I believe that when David Fincher was shooting, he had anticipated this problem a long time ago. In an era where information dissemination is so rapid and easy to understand, when convenient and easy to understand become an important basis for human consumption, shooting such a movie is walking against the flow of people.
But just as Mank used his own power to fight against the hypocrisy of the upper class and tried to show the essence of man through a story, David Fincher also gave up color without hesitation and insisted on restoring a certain stage of Hollywood, trying What to fight against, what to hold on to.
Although the movie is not that easy to understand, it is not incomprehensible after all. If you are willing to get close to it and continue to explore from it, you will surely get soul renewal and spiritual resonance from it.
As long as you have to be patient. As long as you remember the original intention.
But what is most lacking in this era is patience, and what is most likely to be lost is the original intention.
Maybe this is the trace left by the movie "Mank" in my life at this moment.
I cherish.
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