The famous British director Roger Michel passed away on September 22, local time in the United Kingdom, at the age of 65, which is very regrettable.
Even if he is not very familiar with him, many people should have seen the love movie "Notting Hill" that made him famous in Hollywood.
In particular, the following line is simply a golden sentence in a love movie.
"I'm just an ordinary girl, standing in front of a boy I like and begging him to love her."
Many of Roger Michelle's films are well-received and thought-provoking.
Today, let's catch up with the film aesthetics under his lens language, and the beautiful male colors that present different charms in the movie. Being able to understand the logic of his love story will also have a deeper understanding of human nature.
Absolutely beautiful male color
Hugh Grant
September 9, 1960
Hugh Grant's face is synonymous with the English gentleman.
He was 40 years old when he starred in "Notting Hill", but the elegance that exuded nobility and the fragile youthfulness of the American juvenile version still filled the entire screen.
Roger Michelle is very good at capturing him from his girlfriend's point of view.
Living with such a face every moment, it is no wonder that the heroine of the movie, as a top female star, will fall in love with such a sane and clumsy male protagonist who is a little cowardly.
Dog-like innocent and clear droopy eyes, with a delicate and straight ultra-narrow straight nose, coupled with tight lips, and a mixture of asceticism, this is what a prince should look like.
▲ This close-up is given to the director too well
Ben Affleck
August 15, 1972
Unlike Hugh Grant's sense of noble abstinence, Ben Affleck's charm is a wild hormone that can't be wrapped in a suit.
Most of the characters played are successful people, and the role that everyone is relatively more familiar with should be his version of Batman.
Needless to say, the charm of the uncle handsome man is not to say much, even the superpower is rich.
©️ Justice League
Accustomed to such a book, it is difficult to see his amnesia and struggle in "Life in a Change of Line".
Black and white, civilian class and upstart class, misunderstanding and exclusion, understanding and cooperation and other contradictions and conflict points, is the charm of "Life in a Change of Line".
The Ben Affleck in the lens of Roger Michelle is very different from the one who is strategic and immovable in the later stages. In addition to that hint of pride, there is also a sense of vulnerability that can be hurt.
Patrick Wilson
July 3, 1973
Before Patrick, he did not play the cool brother of the big brother in "Aquaman".
It is the Sven scum who plays the refining (lian) copper (tong) in "Fruit Hard Candy", in short, not a good person.
It was under Roger Michelle that he played Adam Bennett, a shrewd and quick-thinking sunshine male protagonist in "Morning Anchor".
The movie is actually the perspective of the big heroine.
Patrick and Rachel, an urban couple, have a very professional, decent, sunny love atmosphere. This kind of equally matched feeling looks very convincing and sweet.
It is not difficult to see that director Roger's male color aesthetic is a rhyme-type male color. Among them, the nose that represents male charisma is all narrow and straight with high precision.
Even if Patrick's hairline makes him slightly more handsome, as long as the hairline springs back, he is still a beautiful man with pure desire.
Cinematic aesthetics
I believe that for those who have seen Roger's films, they are not unfamiliar with the god's work "Notting Hill".
Here, the splendid Julia Roberts and the elegant Hugh Grant compose the romantic love fairy tale in the hearts of countless adults.
▲ After the camera arrives here, it begins to rise vertically, which is very stunning
The camera movement + scene + tone are very moving, and the echo from the preparation to the end makes the film structure and details more complete.
This kind of bland and warm narrative also makes us feel that the most moving part of good love may not be vigorous, but eloquent.
The beauty of running the mirror is a major attraction of Roger's film aesthetic.
A long shot in "Notting Hill" presents spring, summer, autumn and winter, which is very montaged beauty.
Constructed side by side with the lens, it becomes a stunning cinematic art aesthetic. And the male and female protagonists have also become eternal shining stars in this fragment of light and shadow.
If you want to take the aesthetic atmosphere to the extreme, it is better to look at "Hyde Park on Hudson's Shore".
The film is slightly bloody, telling the story of US President Roosevelt and distant cousin Daisy during the visit of King George VI to the United States on the eve of World War II.
Here, you can see the subtlety of Director Roger's grasp of the color atmosphere.
When expressing the anxiety of the king and queen facing a complex situation, the background is a fierce and bloody red tone. The mirror also moves from large close-ups to heads-ups, invisibly bringing a little depressing atmosphere.
▲ King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom
Standing in a hall full of blues when talking to outsiders, the king and queen still have to maintain the high position of royal composure and rationality.
The queen's dress also subtly echoes the atmosphere of the scene, while maintaining the queen's reserved elegance.
Choose a pleasant + strong sense of healing yellow and green to express Roosevelt and cousin Daisy who are intoxicated in the lover's relationship, and even make this unrequited love look pure and beautiful.
Director Roger's british literary and artistic interpretation of a small and fresh way, so that the war-torn 1939 did not see any shadow of war and gloom. The storyline may be bland and loose as a result, but the overall aesthetic atmosphere is as elegant as ever.
▲ Roosevelt and cousin Daisy
The characters under Roger Michelle's lens are very real, and the images are vivid.
He is good at presenting many controversial emotional relationships with a fresh and bright lens language and aesthetic atmosphere.
Give the viewer a chance to think that many relationships may not be black and white. Even if it goes against worldly morality, it may not be completely ugly.
He opened a door, a door for us to understand more of the complexity of human nature.
Love and humanity
Despite being known for his love theme, what really makes Roger Michelle remember is not his love on camera, but the humanity in the shot.
It's like "Floating Dreams".
It tells the story of the male protagonist, Philip Ashley, who suspects that his cousin who raised him was killed by his wife Rachel, but when he tries to investigate, he can't help but fall in love with the other party, thus falling into a emotional whirlpool.
The male protagonist is Sam Claflin, who is also a typical nose star.
As a young male protagonist whose parents died since he was a child, who had never been in love, and who was impatient and impulsive, he met a beautiful and humorous woman he had never seen in his life in such a beautiful scene and such a luxurious villa.
Even if the other party may be the snake and scorpion beauty who killed his cousin, it can be seen that after the heroine, the hatred of the male protagonist is all transformed into a strong and complex love.
Regardless of the plot of "Floating Dream", the casting is very accurate.
Rachel Vichy, born in 1970, was also 47 years old when she performed, but her generous and decent words and deeds, as well as her quiet and elegant charming style, made people fully believe that the brother-type male protagonist would be lost in her feminine charm.
This unrequited love is not exactly the single arrow of the male protagonist, but compared to love, the female protagonist knows more what she wants.
The conflict between gender emotions and opposites depicted in the film stems from most men's fear of independent women and the inability to understand independent women.
This misunderstanding and estrangement spreads like a genetic disease between male generations.
But at the same time, the mature charm and soul beauty of independent women are also addictive to men like poison.
Therefore, Rachel represents not the scorpion beauty under the male gaze, but all the unique women who are beyond the ordinary blind obedience to women.
Although, all this became "evidence" that she was a "witch".
At the end of many films, "the execution of the witch" is bound to be the only way for powerful men after dementia to "uphold justice".
But in fact, everyone, young and old, men and women, has the right to pursue their true selves, to pursue freedom and love.
In the face of human nature, we cannot wash it away, only try to understand it, touch it.
Many times, movies are a mirror that helps us understand the complex side of human nature, and it can express some views and behaviors that are not well recognized by the secular mainstream. We don't follow suit, but that doesn't prevent us from having a simple understanding.
Perhaps you will have a more real feeling than the truth that has been glorified by others, and most of Roger Michelle's films give people this realization.
Instead of hearing about it, go check it out.