#兰心大剧院 #
After nearly two years of withdrawal, it was finally fully released in China, but "Lyceum Grand Theatre", directed by Lou Ye and starring Gong Li and Zhao Youting, still failed to make a comeback. Before the film market under the influence of the epidemic was cold, after the National Day blockbuster film "Changjin Lake" hit, only won 3.894 million box office on the first day of release, the overall box office forecast is only 26.92 million, "Lyceum Theatre" is really a bit sorry for Gong Huang's appeal.
"Lyceum Theatre" is set against the backdrop of the Pearl Harbor incident, and when the famous actress Yu Yan (Gong Li) returns to Shanghai to participate in the drama "Saturday Novel" directed by the old love Tan Na (Zhao Youting), all forces are eager to find out her motives, and the fate of all those involved with her begins to become uncertain. In the play, the enemy outside the play is inseparable, and under the undercurrent, Yu Yan will usher in a double choice to change himself and change the world.
Play within a play, anti-genre narrative, breaking the boundary between reality and stage, I have to admit that Lou Ye's "Lyceum Theatre" can be shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 76th Venice International Film Festival, in fact, it has its special artistic height. But it also means that the film has a higher threshold for the audience and is not so friendly to the general audience.
First of all, starting from breaking the boundary between reality and stage, the presentation of the bar scene in "Saturday Novel" is very clever, the general play has at most three sides of the set, at least leaving the audience with a scene that cuts into one of them, but in the "Lyceum Theatre", the rehearsal of "Saturday Novel" at the beginning also tried to leave a perspective for the audience, and then simply took the "full screen" shooting, all sides are sets, completely leaving room for the audience, whether this is a play in the play or a full cut shot, it has been silly to distinguish.
Also challenging people's understanding is the role played by "Qiulan" and Tan Na, the first time they met, the two people still pretended not to know each other in the play, and the second time the fat man appeared two people running out of the camera to kill each other, which is obviously a reality in the play.
And the camera switches, the story after this is not expressed at all, and the next scene is directly the big star Yu Yanrong returning to his hometown and returning to Shanghai. Such a time and space switch, without a little understanding is really not easy to see.
Look at emotional expression again. Some people commented that this is Gong Li's best work, indeed Lou Ye directed, Gong Li starred, no matter from which point of view, "Lyceum Theatre" should be a nail in the coffin. But unfortunately, Gong Huang's emotional expression is too distant, and the expression of sexual frigidity runs through most of the film's shots, and it is difficult to analyze the character's emotions and psychological changes from her performance.
Yu Yan, played by Gong Li, only gave three people a more exposed expression of emotion in the film, one is to try to win over his "iron powder" Baiyun Cloth, only to see that when she wanders on this girl, her expression is light, but it is more or less emotional. The second is to face his adoptive father, Hubert, and the excitement of seeing him again after many years is obvious. The third time is when the "seduction" of Furutani Saburo's lover is disguised, and the tension of the entire character comes out. In addition, Yu Wei is relatively restrained in the face of her ex-husband and old lover, but it is not easy for people to empathize.
Finally, from the perspective of shooting methods, the shaking sense of handheld shooting is too obvious, and the overall perception is not particularly good, which is also a major reason for the film's strong persuasion.
In contrast, Gong Li, Zhao Youting and Zhang Songwen mentioned that the off-screen shooting tidbits are more interesting and playful.
In the play-within-a-play part of the bar, Yu Yan, played by Gong Li, and Tan Na, played by Zhao Youting, reunite at the bar, one comes forward to talk, one pretends not to know the scene, which appears repeatedly in the movie, but each time the performance is different. It is said that Gong Li and Zhao Youting chatted countless times in this scene alone, and finally they found a little feeling after talking about the two people.
Zhang Songwen, who has worked with Lou Ye many times, has a more interesting profile, and he admitted in an interview that in Lou Ye's set, it is even difficult to see the staff of other departments except the photographer, so that the actors can play out after eating the script, and this shooting method gives the actors more space and pressure.
"Lyceum Theatre" Douban opened with a score of 7.4, which is a good evaluation, but if it is not Lou Ye's iron fan or love of literary and art films, it is still necessary to do enough homework to see it.