Weekly themed movie recommendations
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▲ Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is a well-known British writer of speculative fiction, and together with Kiyoharu Matsumoto and Conan Doyle, he is revered as the three masters of the world of reasoning.
Agatha has worked tirelessly throughout her life, writing more than eighty novels, more than one hundred short stories, and seventeen plays, known as the "Shakespeare of the Reasoning World", whose works have been translated into hundreds of languages and exported overseas, according to the American magazine "New Yorker", the total global sales of Agatha's works are second only to the Bible and Shakespeare;
Film and television adaptations of her novels have also endured, such as the BBC's thirteen-season "Poirot" series and the six-season "Miss Marple" series, and the number of movies is innumerable.
In this week's list of movies, I will recommend four adaptations of Agatha's novels: "Murder on the Orient Express", "Prosecution Witness", "Massacre on the Nile", "No One Survives", and feel Agatha's charm together.
murder on theorient express
I. Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express is the most famous of Agatha's works, and to this day there are five film and television adaptations, the most classic of which is the 1974 version by the famous director Lumet, which won seven Academy Award nominations that year.
"East Fast" tells the story of a multiplayer murder caused by the "Armstrong Massacre" five years ago, in which the participants formulate a seamless Avengers plan, while the sudden arrival of the great detective Poirot disrupts the conspirators.
After Poirot stripped away the course of the case, he did not choose to make the truth public, but chose to quietly retreat from the truth.
Truffaut's version is by far the most faithful to the original, and the film is based entirely on the structure of the novel, with the first part recounting the kidnapping and ticket tearing case five years ago, and the second half turning to the train murder.
For the audience, the first half may be slightly complicated, and even suspected of revealing the murderer, and the connection between the two parts is somewhat separated, which damages the integrity of the film.
But perhaps it is precisely because of this classical narrative that the whole film seems to be long-lasting, not as dazzling as the commercial blockbusters of 2017.
In addition to detective Poirot, the other twelve people involved in the murder are the main characters of the film, the film basically achieved an equal distribution of the scenes, completed a very good group portrait play, all the actors are extremely talented, showing excellent acting skills.
The 2017 version focuses on Poirot, changing the simple and ordinary detective image in the original book and transforming into a well-built, tall, tall, and fascinating detective.
Such a drastic adaptation certainly makes the film more exciting, but it is also detached from the original work and drowned in the routine commercial blockbuster team.
▲ Movie "Murder on the Orient Express", 2017
Truffaut chooses to continue the ending of Agatha's novel: Poirot hands over the harsh truth to the police, while he slowly gets out of the car and disappears into the crowd.
This open-ended ending not only catches the audience off guard, but also adds a deep philosophy to the film, leaving the audience caught in the dilemma of justice and injustice.
The 2017 version, on the other hand, is made by Poirot for the audience: he unleashes the twelve murderers of the train to show his justice.
Whether this kind of revenge against violence is worthy of forgiveness, I think the balance in the audience's mind has its own tilt, and I have to say that the light and breezy ending in Agatha's original book seems to be better.
witness for the prosecution
II. Prosecution Witness
Recently, I was chasing a British drama "Royal Lawyer", which has a line that is very impressive, roughly "The lawyer knows best whether the person he defends has committed a crime."
When a lawyer stands on the solemn scene of a trial in a black silk robe and a wig, perhaps he may not necessarily fight for justice, or perhaps only for his own selfish interests.
Although the final acquittal may not necessarily prove the innocence of the accused, it will certainly declare the victory of the defense lawyers.
▲ TV series "Royal Lawyer", 2011
I remembered seeing a Billy Wilder film in my early years, Witness for the Prosecution, which was adapted from Agatha's short story.
The original book is actually not as famous as Agatha's other novels, but because the film is really classic, even surpassing the original book, it also makes this novel stand out in Agatha's book.
The film tells the story of a married man, Wall, who seduces and kills Mrs. French, a middle-aged single woman, and conspires with his wife to conceal Meher's lawyers and jury, and is eventually acquitted.
Generally speaking, the focus of detective film and television works is to speculate on the real murderer, and the director throws several criminal suspects with motives to the audience, and in the end there is only one real murderer.
But the film condenses the suspicious people into two from the beginning, and the director uses the audience's emotions to willfully play narrative tricks, leaving the audience to focus only on Mrs. Wall, waiting to see how Meher's lawyer can bring down Mrs. Wall in court.
However, when the audience is in the joy of Mrs. Wall's detention and Wall's acquittal, the reversal of the truth has to lift the audience from a state of laxity to a steep cliff.
It turned out that the woman who was cold as frost, did not care about herself, and dodged in the "glasses test" was a kind woman who was affectionate and dedicated to love;
And the man who looked simple, stupid and naïve, and successfully passed the "glasses test" was the culprit of this murder and perjury.
Emotional intuition does not convict people, and the law focuses only on factual evidence.
But as early as the beginning of the film, justice has been biased towards the sympathetic side of the audience, that is, Mr. Wall;
At the end of the film, Lawyer Meher decides to re-defend Mrs. Wall, who killed her husband in a hurry, as if this also caters to the audience's emotional psychology: whether Mrs. Wall has committed perjury or killed people, we hope that she can be acquitted.
Both cases seem to be metaphors for loopholes in the law, as well as reflection on the implications of justice.
▲ Can you believe that Mary Dietrich was 56 years old when she made this movie?
death on the nile
III. "Massacre on the Nile"
The film is exotic, leaving the British Empire for a ferry ride to mysterious Egypt.
The film tells the story of Lynette, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, who cheats on her girlfriend's fiancé Simon and marries him.
After the marriage, the two went to Egypt for their honeymoon together, and their girlfriend Jacqueline has always held a grudge against the behavior of the two, so she often appears in front of them, and even the Honeymoon trip in Egypt follows the whole process, trying to sabotage the two people's travel plans.
Later, Lynette died mysteriously on the ferry, and the great detective Poirot immediately launched an investigation, interrogated the passengers on the cruise ship in detail, and found that the people on the ship had deep or shallow ties with Lynette, and all had motives for committing crimes.
But surprisingly, Simon and Jacqueline, who were first excluded for alibi, were the real murderers behind the scenes, and it turned out that they had not only never separated, but also conspired together in this self-directed murder.
Agatha's novel may be ranked in the top five of the most famous list, with people with different identities, complicated clues, and misleading plots, so that readers have long been confused in the fog, uncertain about who is the real murderer, waiting for the detective's decryption.
The 1978 film of the same name is a classic adaptation of the novel, and like "Murder on the Orient Express" four years ago, it gathers many of the biggest names in the film industry at that time.
For example, the actor Peter Ustinov, who plays the male protagonist Poirot, has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor twice, and since then he has starred in six films adapted from Agatha's novel, contributing a very wonderful screen Poirot image.
In addition, the "Nile Massacre" produced by BBC's "Great Detective Polo Series" is also worth watching, although it is only a TV series, but it is well-made and does not lose the movie.
David Suche starred in the role of Poirot in the series in 1989 until the end of 2013, starring in thirteen seasons of TV series and several movies, and is the best Poirot in the hearts of countless Grandma fans.
Two iconic beards, a gentleman's top hat all year round, a rickety and fat body, a broken English with a Belgian accent, slow and clumsy movements, a deep and calm personality, and a stripped detective style, all of which have made him detached from the typed detective image and become a unique presence in the world detective world.
▲ This version of Simon is very handsome
and then there were none
IV. "No One Survives"
"No One Survives" tells the story of ten people with very different identities who are invited by the "Owens" to vacation in a villa on an isolated island, and then all ten of them die mysteriously on the island.
This novel, written by Agatha in 1939, is his most prestigious work, which has been adapted more than twenty times so far, and has been staged on the drama stage around the world, and even the script can be seen in it, which can be said to be enduring.
Today's recommendation is the 2015 BBC-produced mini-series "No One Survives", which is often 174 minutes long, which faithfully restores the original plot, coupled with the excellence of Fu Huadao and the outstanding performance of the actors, making this drama an excellent novel adaptation.
Unlike detective fiction, No One Survives, there are no suspects and criminals, and no detectives, policemen, and assistants for case reasoning.
The people on the isolated island are all victims, all of whom have died under the spell of "nursery rhymes", and they are also detectives and murderers, in a lonely desperate situation, they have to suspect each other and even kill each other.
The 2003 thriller Fatal id borrows from the narrative structure of "No One Survives", in which 12 people are trapped in a motel due to heavy rain, 11 of whom die mysteriously, leaving one murderer.
Although the audience already knows that the murderer must be among them, it is difficult to guess, and the suspense arises, and you will be afraid to know who, when, and how to die until the truth comes out.
▲ Movie "Fatal Id", 2003
The key to the suspense movie is to create anxiety, "No One Survives" has a strong sense of substitution, the audience switches back and forth between the ten victims, shrouded in the fear of death and difficult to think rationally, it seems that we can only sit still, so we will all turn a blind eye to the clues and misjudge the murderer.
Every time I watch a reasoning or suspense movie, I lose the ability to think, and seem to have been soulped into the screen, either waiting for the detective to decrypt it, or becoming a victim fidgeting, only enjoying the functional feelings brought by the story, and the climax caused by suspense is repeated.
There is no need to pursue meaning at this point, only the immersive experience.