Today is the half of July, the traditional ghost festival of the Chinese lunar calendar.
Originally, I planned to talk about the classic Hong Kong movie "Old Corpse in the Mountain Village" on this day, but when I look back, I feel that I have suddenly lost the taste of that year.
But watched Nolan's classic movie "Deadly Magic", and shouted wonderfully, it just so happened that today his movie "Follow" returned to the Douban movie Top 250, which is a celebration, and I can't help but want to say it.
In the hearts of many fans, Christopher Nolan has long been a god-like being. He does not follow the common narrative structure and unexpected plot arrangement, and each one is amazing.
Released in 2006, this "Deadly Magic" has been trained by "Follow" and "Memory Fragments", and the use of non-linear narrative in this film can be described as pure fire.
The whole film seems to use a parallel structure of flashbacks and positive narratives, but in fact, in the process of flashbacks, the director further intersperses an earlier timeline, so the whole film is actually moving forward along three different timelines.
This is Nolan's usual method, and it may be a little uncomfortable at first. But as the three timelines develop in relation to each other, it's easy for viewers to develop the ability to find and piece together a complete plot.
Moreover, the three timelines are logically clear in the narrative and not obscure. At the same time, the relatively simple character relationship also helps the audience to fully immerse themselves in the plot exploration and enjoy themselves.
As a classic movie, there is no need to make a complete description of the overall plot, and the whole movie is like the three parts of the magic described in the film: virtual is real, stealing the sky and changing the day, and shaking the earth.
Some people say that this film is brain-burning, but in fact, the director has told us the theme of the film through a group of caged birds at the beginning of the film. And, more than once.
Yes, the film is full of the cage of desire from which Bolton and Angel, two magicians, cannot escape.
Although this is a suspense film, it is really a tragedy. It begins with tragedy and ends with tragedy. An accident caused by Burton's conceit makes Angel hate. So the two of them fought all their lives, and they both wanted to beat each other in their skills and put them to death, and eventually they fell deeper and deeper, and they could not recover.
Tangible and invisible cages are everywhere in this film.
The film begins with the water tank that kills Angel, the prison where Burton is imprisoned, the box props that Angel and Bolton perform on stage, the wooden box that traps fallon, the barbed wire that even holds Angel outside Tesla's door, and the machine Tesla built for Angel. It is a metaphor for these two magicians to be in a cage all the time.
The desire for revenge made Angel lose his reason and lose himself.
He wreaked havoc and cut off Bolton's fingers. He firmly believes that Bolton's "teleportation" magic is not as simple as using a stand-in, and he does not hesitate to let his female assistant turn to Bolton undercover. He even accepted Tesla props against humanity, leaving his hands stained with blood.
Bolton's lifelong calculations also made his wife and daughters scattered, and eventually he was alone.
To achieve this, he sacrificed his family and even cut off his fingers.
Magic had long been a part of his life, and in Bolton's eyes, magic was a forbidden place that even his wife was not allowed to enter. Just like the Chinese magician Cheng Liansu in the film, only by extending the stage to life can we hide our eyes and ears and achieve perfection.
Burton and Angel are always in a cage, and their whole lives are destined to be like the birds that were shot dead in the cage, with no escape.
Contrasting and contrasting, the director continues to use this correspondence throughout the film to promote the dark war between the two.
Angel reads Burton's diary in an attempt to get the secret of Bolton's magic; Burton also reads Angel's diary in prison to learn about his life.
From another angle, they were like the coin with the queen's head on both sides, looking at each other and looking at each other.
Even the death scenes of the two couples are carefully arranged by the director: Julia's drowning and Angel's drowning are in the water tank on the stage; Sarah's hanging and Bolton's hanging are the same.
Stand-ins, copies, and the final answer was inadvertently broken by a little boy at the beginning.
The female assistant Olivia and the prop master Carter, who are circling between them, are more like the bonds that maintain their relationship, involving or developing this symmetrical relationship.
The confrontation between the two magicians has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with love, no fame and fortune, no money to drive. Some are just psychological distortions born of lust, and the trapping of honor and humiliation and revenge.
All the magic avenues, in the final analysis, are actually performed by the tricks of the caged birds.
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