Words written on the front:
Please forgive me for using such an old chicken soup style title... However, the thing is true!
There are basically no movies to watch in February, and I recently checked the movies to be on in March, especially to see if there are any Hollywood blockbusters to be on.
Don't check don't know, a check is frightened!
I found a director who can be said to be "god-level", and many people must not have heard of it!
The 4 science fiction films he made in 28 years were enough to influence the newcomers, and he made Bruce Lee's son a legend, and even Wong Kar-wai paid tribute to him.
The director's name is Alex Proyas.
(Well, it's this fat man, but people are definitely fat people who eat by talent!) ）
Born in Egypt in 1963 to Greek parents, Proyas moved to Sydney, Australia, at the age of 3, and then to Los Angeles to expand his career.
(Perhaps wandering between different cultures can accumulate diverse cultural elements for creation, so that Proyas can continue to surprise the audience through the audience.) ）
Proyas has been making short films since he was ten years old, but like David Finch and Michael Bay, he started from making MVs, so from the surface, their films are known for visual effects. Combined with the atmosphere of the story, the three have their own strengths, David Finch is very stable, Michael Bay is almost flirtatious, and Proyas brings a little surprise from time to time.
(Proyas has shot a music short for the INXS band song "Kiss the Dirt", such a picture style you will see below ~)
In 1988, at the age of 25, Proyas directed his first directorial feature film.
Probably because of his previous experience in making MVs, he won two nominations for Best Costume Design and Best Art Design, known as the Australian Academy of Arts (Australian Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards), with this film, and also opened his own science fiction road.
The title of the movie is: Soul of the Air, Spirit of the Clouds.
(Doesn't it feel like you're full just by listening to the name?) ）
This is a surrealist science fiction film, in addition to the amazing visual effects, the film imagery is also almost crazy.
Set after the end of the world, the story tells the story of Felix and Betty, who is encountered by the fugitive Smith in a desert in a remote inland region.
You can see it everywhere in the film: totemic forms, flags flying in the wind, avant-garde architecture decorated with crosses...
All of this, including special effects, is shot directly through the camera, and because there is not enough money, many of the pictures are tried to achieve.
Take one of the night scenes: a group of bats flying over the full moon.
In fact, the tea leaves float in the fish tank, and then shoot a light to serve as a full moon.
Probably because of this surreal extreme temperament, few people can understand, only 232 people on IMDb scored, only 3 users left comments, of which the highest likes comments were:
“Like a dream, some things can only beexperienced to understand. Until you see this film，you won'tknow what you are missing.”
(Like a dream, there are some things you can only understand if you experience them.) Only after watching this movie will you know what exactly you are missing. ）
I know you can't understand it, but none of that matters...
Because: Director Wong Kar-wai must have understood, because he took two years to complete the "East Evil West Poison" to pay tribute to this film.
(We don't find the exact source of the tribute, but the extreme picture and mood of the two are the same.) So if you want to know what wong Kar-wai is like making science fiction films, you might as well check out this movie. ）
Then, in 1994, Proyas directed the sci-fi thriller The Raven.
The film tells the story of a rock singer and fiancée whose soul returns to earth to avenge after being killed by crows.
The film's rock singer is starring Bruce Lee's son, Lee Kwok-ho.
Here's how he looks in the film.
Doesn't it feel a lot like a "clown"?
The character has since been compared to Heath Ledger's clown image.
As if the image of the "clown" has a kind of spell... Li Guohao also died young.
Like his father Bruce Lee, he left an unfinished legacy.
Just when the film "The Crow" was only 8 days away from the completion of filming, Li Guohao was shot and killed in an accident on the set. (Prop gun accidentally shoots real bullets)
After that, director Proyas racked his brains, using montages and CGI, to move his image from the shots that had been filmed to the shots that had not yet been filmed, so that the film could be released in its entirety, and those who did not know the inside could not see the flaws.
And such a tragic tragedy, as well as The stand-in clips made up by Li Guohao after his death are mostly close-ups of body parts, also make the film full of a strange sense of soul haunting.
In the end, this gothic dark film achieved a double harvest at the box office and word of mouth with its excellent production, excellent cinematography and action!
Although Li Guohao has not made many movies, this one has made him a legend.
Since then, "The Raven" has often been compared with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Tim Burton's Batman series, which shows its status.
Proyas then continued his own path of science fiction.
In 1998, Proyas released his self-written and self-directed black science fiction film "Aurora Hunting Order", also known as "Soul Shifting City".
The film tells the story of the protagonist John, who tries his best to find out the truth after stumbling upon the fact that the city he lives in is actually controlled by aliens.
After the release of the movie, the box office was dismal...
But it won high praise from the film critics! It also won numerous awards for Best Science Fiction Film at the American Science Fiction Film Academy in 1998.
Works that are advanced in thinking are often like this, which may not have done well at the box office at the time, but it is enough to influence the newcomers.
Today, the film has become a classic in the history of science fiction films, and it is a regular guest of various science fiction films.
The settings of "memory exchange" and "captive humans" in the film directly affected many later science fiction films, including "The Matrix".
(The city in the film is like a petri dish for aliens to experiment with humans.)
Immediately after 2004, Proyas adapted the classic short story of science fiction master Asimov and released the film of the same name, "I, Robot".
(It should also be the director's most well-known work in China)
Starring Hollywood actor Will Smith, the film tells the story of how humans and machines get along and whether humans themselves are trustworthy.
The film was a huge success after its release, grossing $347 million worldwide and receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.
The film's relationship between humans and robots has also sparked widespread discussion in society.
In 2008, Proyas's film was released in China for the first time: The Mysterious Code, which still focuses on the theme of the end of the world.
Starring Nicolas Cage, the film tells a story about a fable about preventing the end of the world.
The film evaluation is average, but to be reasonable, this is a good one in Uncle Cage's late bad film career. The film invested $50 million and grossed $183 million worldwide.
This film feels like a dream come true of Proyas, who didn't have money to shoot the end of the world in the past, but this time it can be regarded as an opportunity.
In order to make the plot more realistic, Proyas used a large number of documentary techniques, using dazzling special effects to satisfy the audience's visual vision of the end of the world.
Recently, Proyas has experimented with a whole new genre of cinema: mythological themes.
And perhaps in essence, science fiction movies and mythological movies are in the same vein: one is an imagination of the future, and the other is a restoration of the past.
The mythological film is called God Wars: The Eye of Power, based on ancient Egyptian mythology.
The imaginative imagination that mythological stories can show is the most attractive place for us, and this aspect of the direction directed by Proyas, who is good at visual expression, must be stress-free, as can be seen from the film trailer later in the text.
What is more worth looking forward to is whether Proyas can make this kind of film bring us a different kind of surprise outside the visual?
The film has been confirmed to be introduced in China and will be released on March 11. The god-level director came to China again with his work, and it is said that he spent a large amount of time describing the love element for the first time in this mythological theme, and he did not know how the Chinese audience would react when it was released.