Among this year's Oscar-nominated films, there is a movie that the average audience is almost impossible to see.
As soon as the film was opened, it was very discouraged.
The colors are black and white.
The screen ratio is 1.19:1, which can almost be considered square.
For viewers who are accustomed to seeing large color widescreens, it is simply a kind of torture. It's also a fantasy thriller set in the early 1900s.
Even as a brain fan of Hitchcock, I didn't really want to see it.
Yet despite the sloppy shape and dim light, I managed to recognize the faces of William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
While you may not remember the name William Dafoe, you probably remember the very perverted green villain in Spider-Man.
And Robert Pattinson, who wouldn't love this handsome dead man's vampire?
A thriller, just two protagonists, it is actually them.
I don't know what kind of spark it will be, but it makes people have a little expectation.
The film is the lighthouse directed by Robert Eggers.
The reason why these two people, the old and the young, will gather together is to guard the lighthouse.
In the last century, when navigation technology was backward, lighthouses were very important buildings for navigation. But to make sure that the lamp is always on, someone has to guard it, add fuel, maintain it or something.
At the beginning, it gives enough suspense.
The young man asked for the night shift, but the old man refused to let him, saying that the lighthouse was his own, and that the night shift was not good for him.
Curious, he did not disobey the old man's orders.
Just often sneak peeking out and wondering what mysteries are in the lighthouse.
Young people's daytime work is boring, such as repairing houses, cleaning sinks, transporting coal, and fueling lamps.
But the old man often did not give him a good face, today did not deal with drinking water, tomorrow is not to refuel the lamp, the day after tomorrow is not clean floor.
But at night, the old man was again a kind man, shouting and shouting for him to drink, singing and dancing, and making a family name, like two friends with good relations.
Nervous during the day and crazy at night, the young man seems to be obedient, but his heart is gradually tense.
The superior-subordinate relationship with the old man makes it inconvenient to have a seizure, but his attitude towards the seabird reflects his gradual collapse mentality.
From the very beginning when he blocked his way, he drove him away with stones; to the time he fell from the tower, the seabirds came to peck at his trouser legs; to the dead birds destroying the pool, and the blind birds pounced on him... Finally, the young man was evil and scared to death, and threw the bird to death.
Earlier, the old man had reminded him that killing seabirds was a recipe for bad luck.
And the unfortunate thing has finally come...
The film employs a narrative that deliberately obscures time and fiction.
Whether it is an old man with an octopus whisker, a mermaid stranded on the beach, or a human head salvaged from a fishing basket, it is seamlessly connected to the real scene, making it difficult for the audience to determine whether these events are real in the movie or the illusion of young people.
Rather, the whole film is like a collection of hallucinations, or it's a fable in itself.
After watching the whole film, it is not difficult to understand that black and white colors and square composition are necessary for this film.
This special composition and light and shadow itself has a strong impact, so that those scenes with folklore and mythology have a sense of disconnection with real life, so that the audience can be more immersed in the situation of the protagonist.
Enter into a state of isolation, full of loneliness, restlessness, and even terror.
The film does not have too many surprises in the soundtrack, but very retro use of orchestral music to create a sense of abruptness and depression, and many scenes, just by virtue of the single whistle sound of seabirds and the sound of the wind, can fully highlight the suppressed emotions of the protagonist.
The film was inspired by a true event.
But there are few accounts of actual events, just that three Scottish lampkeepers mysteriously disappeared.
In addition to folklore and mythology, the communication between the protagonists, director Robert Eggers also refers to a large number of literary and artistic works of the time, aiming to more completely present the humanistic environment at that time.
In the use of metaphors, in addition to the more obvious mermaids, seabirds, Cthulhu (large octopus), the director also made it clear in the interview that the story uses prometheus fables.
The boy is Prometheus, and the lamp on the lighthouse is the holy flame.
In the finale, the boy is pecked by a seagull (seabird), corresponding to the punishment of Prometheus, who is pecked at by the eagle for internal organs.
Despite providing such a reference object, the story is still completely open, enough to provide the audience with a lot of imagination space.
This film does not have much practical significance, but is more like providing the audience with an experience, a distant, extreme, and terrifying spiritual world.
Of course, after reading it, I can't help but thank you for the development of contemporary science and technology. At least with remote monitoring and a robust energy supply system, we are finally moving away from this anti-human asceticism.