Movie "Moonlight" (1987) American Blu-ray edition cover
Canadian director Norman Jewison's films once had a firm place in the Hollywood mainstream. He loves working with stars, he has perfect production standards, and what's even more remarkable is that he seems to be rarely tied up in box office performance. The quality of his films has always been of a very high standard.
Examples such as Agnes of God (1985), Other People's Money (1991) and In Country (1989) – Bruce Willis plays a troubled Vietnamese veterinarian in the film, a bizarre personality film that is bold for a high-profile director.
The film Hurricane (1999) set, directed by Norman Jevison and Norman Jevison
The hurricane/Defending Justice Hurricane (1999) starring Denzel Washington also won Denzel Washington the Best Actor Award at the 50th Berlin International Film Festival in 2000; the same is true for Moonlight/Moonstruck (1987).
Moonlight was paired by Cheryl Nicolas Cage, then a 23-year-old who was still a little fresh meat— he hadn't yet starred in Films Like Las Vegas (1995), Face/Off (1997) and City of Angels (1998).
Images of Cher and Nicolas Cage in the film Moonlight (1987).
The shell of the movie "Moonlight" is a light-hearted romantic comedy, but it is full of magic and dramatic tension.
This love story that takes place in an Italian family in New York is also multiplied by the natural optimism of Italians, and in the list of classic romance films, "Moonlight" has always ranked at the top.
It is about an Italian family living in Brooklyn, New York, who seem to be magically cast every full moon night and make some inexplicable moves.
Images from the film Moonlight (1987).
Lolita Castorini (Cher) is the only daughter in the family, young and beautiful, and an accountant in the company. Because her ex-husband was in a car accident, she became a widow.
One night, at the tavern, Lolita witnesses the tragedy of the breakup at the next table and, as if stimulated, decides to marry Johnny Camarelli (Danny Aiello), a 41-year-old bachelor.
She asked Johnny to propose marriage with a tail ring, so she got engaged in the presence of everyone.
Cher's image in the film Moonlight (1987).
However, because of his mother's serious illness, Johnny left New York, leaving Lolita to invite her brother Ronnie Camarerelli (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding.
She goes to the bakery to meet Ronnie and finds that Ronnie has lost his left hand.
Ronnie was thrilled to hear that his brother was getting married, and told the reason for the objection, which turned out to be the brother who had lost his left hand when he announced that he was about to get married a few years earlier.
Lolita was going to Ronnie's room to reason with him. As a result, this night Cher had a relationship with Ronnie, and the two also agreed to go to the Metropolitan Theater the next day to listen to opera.
It turned out that Ronnie was an opera fan. On the night of watching the opera, the film is very dramatic.
Previously, Lolita had also carefully permed her hair and worn a newly purchased low-cut dress, and when she met Ronnie in the large fountain in front of the opera house, the latter had also been carefully dressed, and the two were really talented women.
Stills from the movie Moonlight (1987), when Cher was 41 years old when she made the film, and Nicolas Cage was only 23 years old
The opera they watched was Puccini's opera Tosca, an opera about love, politics, betrayal, and martyrdom, and Lolita burst into tears when the male protagonist sang the famous aria "Tonight is Starry".
From the time Ronnie slept with her, to watching the opera, it was clear that Ronnie had won Lolita's heart.
However, Johnny returned to New York that day, and he went directly to lolita, only to find her not at home and say that he would come back the next morning.
The next morning, Lolita returns home, and a little while Ronnie follows, asking him to show his love for Lolita in front of her family.
Johnny also arrives, saying that his mother is well and is about to break her contract with Lolita, at which point Ronnie borrows her brother's ring and proposes to Lolita, who discovers that she actually loves Lolita more.
The whole film is based on deception as a comedic baggage to the story. The secret of marriage, the secret of relationships, the secret of family. Each character is hiding something from others.
Even relatives of the store where Lolita works, played by Cher, know what's going on, but the audience doesn't need to know everything.
"Tell them the truth, Lolita. Either way, they'll find out," said Lolita's father, Cosmo (played by Vincent Gardenia Gardinia), which is the true core of the story.
Like most romantic comedies, there would be no comedy plot if everyone had been honest with everyone.
Cher and Nicolas Cage play a somewhat neurotic pair of joyful rivals to the fullest, and in the film Moonlight/Moon strike (1987), Ronnie picks up Lolita and is so excited that she almost falls off her shoulder.
"Where are you going to take me?" She cried. "Go to bed!" He said. Not to bed, but to the bed.
The slightest courtesy in this wording was enough for Lolita to get her hands dirty.
Images of Olympia Dukakis in the film Moonlight (1987).
Nicholas Cage and Cher's indulgence is part of director Norman Jevison's 1987 romantic comedy magic, but it also depends on the truth that is told in simple words.
Then we can still enjoy the wonderful dialogue that abounds – Lolita walked with her fiancé's brother Ronnie before getting married, saying:
"You deserve a man who suits you, why don't you wait again?"
"He didn't come"
"I'm here!"
"You're late."
When Lolita insisted on going home, Ronnie's words struck her heart:
"I love you, unlike the love that others say. I don't know. Love doesn't make everything better, it makes everything worse. We are here, hurting ourselves, breaking our hearts, falling in love with someone we shouldn't love, and then dying... Love stories are bullshit! I want you to follow me upstairs!" ”
Images of Cher, Olympia Dukakis, and Nicolas Cage in the film Moonlight (1987).
When Lolita's mother, Olympia Dukakis, discovers that her husband, Cosmo, has betrayed herself, she asks her daughter's fiancé, Johnny, "Why do men cheat?" "Maybe because they're afraid of death." He said.
On the morning of that day, Cosmo sneaked home very faintly, and she stopped him in the foyer: "I just want to tell you that no matter what you do, you will still die!" Just like everyone else! He looked at her with the same old man's wife and look, and then replied, "Thank you, Rose." ”
Moonlight is a romantic comedy based on empathy and deep truth.
It tells more than one romance story, but contains five or six, depending on how you calculate it, and some characters appear in more than one story.
It takes place in a Brooklyn that never existed, a Brooklyn that makes people crazy for love, when the full moon jumps into their eyes like a pizza, and the full moon lights up the night like day.
Images of Cher and Danny Airo in the film Moonlight (1987).
The soundtrack consists of La Bohème of Bohème and Dean Martin Martin (1917–1995).
Ronnie, on the other hand, has the same emotions as a stage character, more exaggerated and dramatic than life, such as when he confides in Lolita why he hates his brother Johnny.
He said that one day Johnny went to the bakery to find him and distracted him, and then his hand was cut off by the slicer, and his girlfriend abandoned him as a result.
Stills from the movie Moonlight (1987), Nicholas Cage
He raised his wooden hand, pointed at it exaggeratedly and shouted, "I want my hand!" I want my bride! Johnny has hands! Johnny also has a bride! ”
Johnny's bride-to-be is actually Lolita, who goes to the bakery to convince Ronnie to attend their wedding.
But when Ronnie took her to bed, everything changed, and Johnny was at the bedside of His dying mother in Sicily, surprised when he returned to Brooklyn.
This story is still more interesting, originally wanted to marry the older brother, but suddenly married to the younger brother. Each character is a bit paranoid and weird, and it is this distinctive personality feature that makes the whole play, although there are conflicts and contradictions, there is still a warm feeling of peaks and turns, joy and clarity.
In his career as a geek, Nicolas Cage never surpassed his role as Ronnie Camarelli. Who else can be so desperate when it comes to confessing love?
Promotional photo for the film Moonlight (1987), Cher and Nicolas Cage
"Love doesn't make things better, it destroys everything, it breaks the heart, it makes a mess of things. We can't put things to perfection, snowflakes are perfect, stars are perfect, and we're not, we're not, all we do is destroy life, make ourselves heartbroken, fall in love with the wrong person, and end up dying. ”
Then she grabbed her hands, and he finally said, "Now I want you and me to go upstairs and come to my bed!" ”
Cher won Best Actress at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988
Such a performance deserves an Oscar. Cher won Best Actress at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988 through the role of Lolita.
Ross, played by Olympia Dukakis (1931-2021), also won Best Supporting Actress at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988. Later, her trophy was stolen at home, and she had to spend $78 to get the academy to send herself another trophy.
Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988
Also winning the award was John Patrick Shanley's Best Original Screenplay.
The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor in Cosmo's role as Vincent Gardenia (1920-1992).
Director Norman Jefferson's cast for this film is a star-studded cast, and these outstanding personality actors are assigned important roles and lines, so at the end of the film, the emotional climax, so many people gather in the kitchen, they have to sit around the table.
Stills from the movie Moonlight (1987).
Director Norman Jevison builds on the unique and inspired script of John Patrick Shangley, a master of directing group plays and conducting multi-line narratives.
One of the best passages in the film takes place on the night Ronnie and Lolita go to the opera house together, where Cosmo and his lover Mona (Anita Gillette) are also there, and that's another story.
Part of director Norman Jevison's success depends on his control of the tone of the film.
Images of Cher, Danny Airo, and Olympia Dukakis in the film Moonlight (1987).
The film is by no means a farce, even if it sometimes shows that tendency, even if this trait is vividly reflected in the character of Nicholas Cage.
But what dominates the film is a gentle bittersweet quality, with endless conversations about death, the insight of older people into life and desire.
David Watkin's (1925–2008) photography often bathes the characters in the cold light of a full moon, capturing their majestic temperament in that moment.
The rest of the time, he applied warm room colors to create a unique atmosphere in the space. Castellini's home, dark, heavy bedroom furniture and a whole bunch of blanket fabrics, family photos hanging on the walls, unused dining rooms, kitchens where families gather, a simple rewind shot at the end of the film bring a surprising effect that makes it all so intimate.
When director Norman Jefferson first sent the script for "MoonlightEr" to two-time Oscar actress Sally Field, she immediately refused after reading it, believing that the script had no depth and was not enough to show her acting skills.
Cher's shapes from different periods
After the mid-1970s, due to the decline in recording performance, Cher began to turn to acting. But initially people were not optimistic about her performance, thinking that she was a successful singer, but not a successful actress.
In 1983, for her outstanding performance in "Silkwood Incident", Cher was nominated for best supporting actress at the 56th Academy Awards. After that, he mixed up in the film world.
Stills from the movie The Skwood Affair (1983), from left: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher
Due to Sally Field's refusal, when the script was finally transferred to Cher, she already had two films on hand that year, "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987) and "Iron Law Tenderness/Suspect Suspect" (1987), and she agreed to shoot "Moonlight Seduction" with her agent.
This light-hearted and humorous family comedy reveals her true nature, and the story of the entire film takes place in just three days.
In 1986, Sally Field took over the film Lover Surrenders to Surrender (1987), but the response was modest
The people in the film, enthusiastic and depressed, intense and chaotic, are all related to a full moon hanging high over the city, starting here and ending here. The film is full of 1980s era tones, which makes people feel good. Cher is amazingly beautiful in the film.
In "Moonlight", in addition to the long hairstyle of the small wavy shawl that was popular in the 1980s, the trench coat and dress worn by Cher also appeared on the female stars of Hong Kong films.
Cher and then-boyfriend Fang Kimmer Val Kilmer
Cher and then-boyfriend Bob Mackie
Cher is an ancient version of Lady Gaga, but also the fashion symbol and red carpet queen of the 1980s, and has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with bold and exaggerated but creative shapes.
The real hit movie of the year at the 60th Academy Awards was Probably The Last Emperor (1987), but its absence from four acting awards didn't stop it from winning nine Oscars.
At the 60th Academy Awards in 1988, Cher took over the Best Actress trophy from Paul Newman
At that time, Meryl Streep's "Aster Grass/Off the Plains Ironweed" (1987) and Glenn Close's "Fatal Temptation/FateFul Attraction" (1987) were the big hits for best actress, and the bets were basically on these two equal actresses, and as a result, Cher became the biggest surprise of the night. At the same time, it was written into the annals of history along with the costume of the ancients in the night.
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