In the last century, there was a world that swept the world, and it brought together people who were deliberately and unintentionally stubborn, and fixed the young lives at the age of twenty-seven. Its name is Twenty-Seven Club.
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A large number of rock and blues musicians died at this age as if with a curse, and this death also caused many young people to imitate it. It was as if throwing oneself into death at a young age would lead oneself into that mysterious great temple.
It is both easy and difficult to understand that blazing and crazy. Youth means exuberance, and death is so unimaginable. Therefore, young people living in ordinary life feel that death is far away and unacceptable, and they are also incredulous and confused about the death of their peers. For example, when I heard about the fall of the building in Chengdu forty-nine, resentment and sadness once occupied the hearts of many people.
But most of the time, death comes so unexpectedly. Life seems to be making a thrilling leap all the time, walking through intersections and seeing the railway tracks, you must be glad that you have escaped a disaster. This is, of course, an exaggeration. But it is true that too many amazing young people are buried in various accidents, and it is too late to complete their more brilliant or helpless lives.
Take, for example, James Dean.
About this young man, there are too many interesting stories and sighs in the world.
Dean admired Marlon Brando feverishly, imitating each other's performance style and life schedule. Through other people's introductions, he got Brando's contact information and called the other party many times, but Brando always cautiously kept a distance from him. This hurt the sensitive Dean. He made the crazy move of rushing into the party and rolling his jacket into a ball and throwing it on the ground.
Dean was a wild and unruly man. He loves extreme sports, he loves boxing, he loves horse racing, he loves racing.
He did not follow the rules of the world, often playing freely during filming, which made his partner quite distressed, but also created a new genre of performance, the "method school", that is, by making extreme moves to force out the real reaction of his partner.
At the Beijing Film Festival, many old films were back on the big screen, and Dean's "Rebel without a Cause" was also among them.
Watching past film movies on the big screen is a wonderful thing. You can see the texture of the grains, the natural and thick tones – as Nolan said, digital technology in the field of modern cinema is nothing more than imitation and approximation of film, it is never irreplaceable. The passing of the film era has aroused the concerns of countless filmmakers. They used to call this node the death of the movie. Even in this day and age, no innovative work can perfectly respond to this problem.
Let's go back to Rebellion without Cause itself. This film is a typical youth film, focusing on the contradictions between parents and children and students.
Because Jim (James Dean) can't get along with other classmates at school, his parents took him to Los Angeles. In his new environment, he is still ostracized by his classmates for some bizarre behaviors (such as learning to bark cows), and in order to prove that he is not a coward, he agrees to a racing duel with the local gangster leader Buzz. The two drove to the cliff at the same time, and the first person to get off the car was the coward. However, at the last moment, Buzz's sleeve was put on the handlebar and he failed to jump out of the car in time. The vehicle drove down the cliff and smashed into the sea. The lives of a group of young people changed.
Seeing the sparks from the crash explosion is a shock. Especially remembering Buzz saying to Jim before starting the game, I actually like you. But boring life always has to have such a game.
The result of the impulse of a hot young man's mind is such an inability to turn. You can even see the deep panic and fear of Buzz before he falls off the cliff, and feel the impact of his death even more.
The plot of the film also contains discussions of family relationships and juvenile delinquency. For Dean himself, however, the film's depiction of death haunts his life like a ghost.
After deeply understanding his own style, you will feel that "Rebel without Cause" seems to preserve Dean's own consciousness and personal image.
At the beginning of the film, Dean pretends to be drunk and rebels against the discipline of the family (which he calls the zoo in the film). He laughed wildly. His laughter runs through all kinds of dialogues, seemingly unable to fit into the film's various shots, but also filled with rebellious madness and unveiling the fig leaf of the real world as his will. Then, for a moment, you'll feel that Dean, who is at the border between cinema and reality, is making a snickering laugh at the world.
He cowered and sensitive, wanton and weird, declaring war on an intolerable life. He would hide his knife in the movies and not do "troublesome things", would prove that he was in a very dangerous duel in the middle of the night, and would twist the neck of his father because of his embarrassing weakness. He is a contradiction in various personalities.
In reality, Dean is unsociable, afraid of being hurt, and carries a gun with him when filming "East of Eden"; at the same time, he is reckless, unruly, and has his own personality.
The film's reflection of Dean's life also lies in his death.
James Dean died in a car accident in 1955 while driving his own designer sports car. His damaged sports car was later towed to a repair shop, and during the dismantling process, the car supported by a jack suddenly fell to the ground, breaking the leg of a repairman. The car's engine was later sold to a doctor who installed it on his own car, who later died in a car accident while driving a race, and another racer who bought Dean's scrapped car's steering axle also died in a car accident. The shell of Dean's car was used for exhibition, but the exhibition hall burst into flames. Another time, it fell from the booth and smashed the buttocks of a visitor.
Poster for Rebel Without a Cause
The fate of death haunts Dean and the racing car, and even this fate haunts many people who come after it, making it a shocking and shocking anecdote.
Dean died before glory, at such a young age as twenty-four. His dream of directing has just sprouted, his position in Hollywood has just been established, and the shape of the red leather jacket top is taking the world by storm.
It all came to an abrupt end. It's breathtaking and bizarre.
After his death, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor — the first Oscar nomination for someone who has died.
For the achievement of a legend, this mysterious and ominous story will undoubtedly leave a strong mark on his film history and even history. For the redemption of a young man living in uneasiness and imagination, death is too early to end his life.
Death fades all the warm colors and no longer lives. But he will always be bright, crazy, and young in the image. Forever is a distant, truly presenting pain and sorrow, but also piercing the barrier between film and reality, with its distinct characteristics to survive in every inch of air, in the eyes of every moviegoer. The film faithfully freezes that moment.
Maybe as Yu Guang said. Disappearance is the only fate of genius. Ignite life with stunning creations, leaving an indelible fire, then melt into the air and into everything.
We tend to believe that people who entered the club at the age of twenty-seven and died young were only lost in the record. Their souls are still roaming somewhere and living forever.