The overall structure of "Three Billboards" is actually a typical film noir routine, the narrative is mainly driven by "unexpected", the difference is only in that the lifeblood of film noir is how to break the criminal plan.
The moving nature of this film is gradually repaired in the emotional relationship, so it can also be seen as an anti-film noir. Generally speaking, the film noir has a snake scorpion woman threading needles, this film also has a strong woman, the town is stirred up, but the tone of the whole film is in the crowd to collect firewood, a variety of factors accumulate, in exchange for a smile, she can also be regarded as a step for herself, put down, but also the sea and the sky, which is the positive side of the movie's warm heart.
In the first half, all the people and horses had N negative energies, and finally the ghost made god send, turning into an unexpected positive energy ending, the details, but also roughly reasonable, but also strange.
The real focus of this film is three - the heroine, the male supporter and the sheriff, to reflect the three cards on the side of the road, so this article may wish to draw three points to explore the ingenuity of the creator.
The first is the scene where the heroine opens to the advertising agency, in the process of waiting for the signing and payment, the film ushers in an interlude or idle pen, that is, the heroine sees a bug on the edge of the window frame, and the feet are facing the sky, unable to turn over (Figure 1)
This is more like the heroine herself, the daughter's case in the past six months, the detection but no clue, after a long and hopeless wait, the most urgent thing for her is not so much to solve the case, rather to say that it is to rationally withdraw from anger, but the surrounding can not give her a little bit of dependence, what she needs most now is this small external force, to help her turn over, just as she helped the worm to complete, stretch out the index finger, gently push it, help her retreat (Figure 2)
In this detail, in fact, the biggest appeal of the heroine's spirit is hidden, placed in the structure of the whole film, it is idle and not idle, the worm is like this, let alone people? It's truly an infinitely poetic lens expression.
The second is the scene where the sheriff goes to the woman's house to try to persuade but fails, involving composition and space cutting, which is wonderful.
The sheriff hopes that the billboard will end here, the two have a confrontation at the door of the hostess's house, and then move to the courtyard of the hostess's house, there is a wide rocking chair in the courtyard, the entire facility is surrounded by inclined wooden stakes, and there are chains hanging straight down above the rocking chairs, the reason why the wooden stakes and chains are mentioned here is because the two act as excellent space cutting equipment in the subsequent scenes, which is also one reason why this scene has to be moved to the courtyard, and another reason is that in the dialogue between the two, You can see the three cards in the background in the distance (Figure 3).
It is in this awkward conversation that the chains clearly divide the camps and positions of the two men, and the left and right sides of the screen define the two sides as trapped beasts with no way out (Figure 3, Figure 4)
But in Figure 3, the sheriff's head is extended with chains, meaning that his position is not as solid as he seems to be, so there is this scene (Picture 5).
Even at the end of the day (Figure 6).
The stakes framed the two men in the same frame, suggesting that at this moment the sheriff's position had been completely shifted to the side of the heroine, and he later used his own money to pay the heroine for advertising.
The role of the rocking chair is actually somewhat reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film "The Desire to Live"
In the symbolic meaning accumulated in film history, the rocking chair also contains a layer of attachment to life, which just echoes the health status of the sheriff, which is easy to ignore.
However, people are always infinitely complex, and although the sheriff's position has quietly changed, he still strives to maintain a professional dignity in his mouth, so there is a proclamation that pulls down his face (Figure 7).
The position representing him is actually still wavering, and the heroine is also firmly fighting back under her own irrevocable position (Figure 8).
Because the sheriff had not provided the kind of external strength she needed so far, the meeting had to be dispersed unhappily. The lens in this scene is exquisite, not only the highlight of the whole film, but also the highlight of this year's Academy Award For Best Nominated Film, the only thing that can be compared with it is "The Phantom Seamstress", which is the last word, allow me to talk about it again.
The third point is the song that appears twice, once in the opening scene, and once when the male supporting man reads his will after the death of the sheriff, it is clear that this song wants to be deafening and empowering, although its lyrical tone is particularly strong.
This song has been heard by the elderly in "Handsome Boy", called "The Last Rose of Summer", originally an Irish folk song, which was revised by Beethoven after it was transmitted to Germany, popular in Europe, the lyrics do not say it, only say the name of the song, in fact, there is a layer of revelation meaning in the film, the core is "final"——
For the heroine, it is to seize the last opportunity to turn over or put down, for the male partner, it is to seize the last opportunity to be reborn from the muddled nightmare, for the sheriff, it is to seize the last opportunity to do good and maintain dignity before dying - the third clue ends with the death of the sheriff, the other two are the original two main lines of the film, fortunately, at the end of the film, the two are one, becoming the best echo of the song.
At this moment, the three billboards have become three mirrors, not only reflecting the warmth of people's hearts, but also refracting the light to us and warming each other, which is not only provided by the movie, but also the greatest good we can do.