Starring Adam Dreifer and Marion Cotillard, "Annette" gives a complex viewing experience.
That is to say, this is a very polaristic look and feel.
Director Leo Carax won the best director at the Cannes Film Festival for this, indicating that "Annette" does have its charm.
The film combines song and dance with stage plays, and from time to time breaks four walls, as if to communicate directly with the audience.
Then it mixes science fiction, thriller, love, and suspense stories, and skillfully integrates the stage and the real scene perfectly.
In general, more than 90% of the lines in song and dance films are "sung", but the work is more powerful, even "bed scenes", deliveries and other scenes must be sung, and then integrated into a film with a strong experimental flavor.
The narrative is bold and creative, with a large number of metaphors and lines that echo back and forth, and it has a strong sense of reflection.
Adam Dreifer followed "Marriage Story" and then starred in a tragic marriage relationship, and he also had an explosion of acting skills in the movie.
If you can accept this avant-garde, out-of-the-box narrative approach, then the film is definitely a breakaway viewing experience.
However, for the best viewing experience, you have to go to the cinema, because the imagery and sound effects of the film were originally shot for the big screen.
If you can't accept this approach, the film is simpler than Marriage Story.
And there is no obvious twist in the plot, but it takes nearly two and a half hours to let the audience witness a dead love.
If you put aside the director's experimental narrative method, this is definitely a very lengthy story.
Henry, a comedian who acts despite the world, falls in love with the elegant soprano Ann, and the two people with opposite personalities fall in love, quickly reconcile, and give birth to a daughter, Annette.
The birth of Annette did not make the relationship between the two better, coupled with the failure of Henry's career, the relationship between the two gradually drifted apart.
The gap between their careers and status is very large, and the relationship between the two has gradually moved into the dark abyss.
At this time, Henry discovered that the young Annie had a special talent, which was expected to make him rebound from the trough...
In this plot point of view, the film is not a tense love story.
This kind of love from budding to dissipating, from love to resentment, and how the male protagonist loves to go crazy, is actually a cookie-cutter story.
If you shoot it in a "normal" way, it would take less than an hour to tell the story, but the film was shot for nearly two and a half hours.
If the audience wants to see the movie as a love film, they will find that something is wrong, and even complain about it.
01. The combination of stage and reality, as well as a little magical scene, makes the most distinctive viewing experience of the film
Since it was directed by Leo Carax, it is also possible to predict that the film is not a "normal" film.
This is a work with a strong experimental flavor, a bold narrative method, a sword-and-edge approach, and it can even be said that it completely subverts your cognition of the viewing mode.
If you can accept that, the film still looks like a fun, fun work.
It may be difficult to define what type of subject matter this is. If the narrative from beginning to end is a song and dance film, then there are still a large number of stage elements that have become stage plays.
From the beginning of the film to the end, the audience has understood that this is definitely a work that breaks the rules.
Summarize the actors and production team in a one-shot way, also predict what works you will see, and break through the four walls to make the audience wait with bated breath, and also ask the audience whether they can start - if you have the patience to see the end of the film, the end of the film also echoes the treatment at the beginning of the film.
In the end, this is actually a story between the stage and reality, with songs and dances, which is not a traditional "song and dance film".
Under normal circumstances, "song and dance films" try their best to tell the audience that "this is a real story", and even use a lot of real scenes to make the audience feel real, making people feel that this is not a "movie".
But "Annette" is the opposite, constantly telling the audience that all this is false, all this is just a stage effect.
For example, the heroine's walk to the forest on stage, the somewhat magical plot, the disaster scene on the poster, and the baby image of "Annette" herself, all clearly tell the audience that this is purely a stage effect, and you are just watching a play!
The film is not a large-scale production of large funds, but the visual effects still strive for perfection, the alternating images of virtual and real are not lacking in a large number of visual sweetness, and the clever use of mirrors and editing also greatly increases the watchability of the film, and it seems that there is a magic to attract the audience to devote themselves to it.
Even though the entire film "sings" more than 90% of the time to "say" the lines, director Leo Carax did not deliberately turn them into "lyrics", but directly "sang" in the form of dialogue, just like "bed scenes" can be sung, which is really eye-opening.
02. Breaking through the norm is not only reflected in the shooting technique, but also in the narrative method is very rich in experimental taste
If there are only experimental visual effects, then the film is just a fancy showmanship, but Leo Carax also spends a lot of effort to present the story, so that the seemingly cookie-cutter theme is not conventional.
The protagonist Henry is a somewhat conceited character, which can already be felt from the opening comedy performance, and compared with the elegant and noble image of the heroine Ann, it can clearly foresee the opposite side that the two will eventually go to.
Due to the limitations of the expression form of "singing" and the stage, it may be difficult for the film to have a distinct rise and fall like traditional films.
But the two protagonists are in place at different stages of life and at every turning point of their feelings, and there is no need for other redundant plots, it is enough to shoot only the pictures that the audience needs to know.
The story is about the protagonists caught in the dark abyss of a marriage, and Henry already knows that he will fall into an "abyss", but he still expresses it in a playful and angry way.
In the end, he fell into this abyss and could not extricate himself, and could only end in death, which also echoed his "prophecy" on the stage.
When a love is dead, and the past is re-examined, there will be an intuition, an awareness, and probably foresaw the love that is not a place to want.
The death of love does not come without warning, thrown into the bottomless abyss, perhaps this love came too suddenly, blinding you and me.
The film's depictions of the details are also concise, such as the conductor who is snatched by a horizontal knife and waits silently.
The two scenes are contrasted to reflect his inner transformation, and the second act is shot to the end, which not only expresses the inner world of the protagonist but also shows his conducting talent.
Simon Hellberg's performance in the inner drama is particularly amazing, which can be said to be a wonderful scene in the whole movie.
The antagonistic relationship between Annette and her father, ending in a prison scene, fully shows the opposite of love and hate.
There are also high and low spectators, and the law enforcement agencies who have passed, all of which have become the object of irony under leo carax's lens.
Even if this is not the main line, it all has a certain importance to the plot, and some of the perceptions of those "audiences" may also speak the hearts of the audience in front of the screen.
Leo Carax chose the right materials, and with this alternative technique of breaking through the four walls, it is also full of different meanings.
03. Adam Dreifer's appearance is not high, but his acting skills have an amazing performance in the film
When Adam Dreifer plays Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story, he has fully demonstrated his acting talent and is no longer a somewhat evil figure hiding behind the mask of Star Wars.
In this movie, he plays a male protagonist who is obsessed with love, almost from beginning to end, which can be said to be a major contributor to the whole movie, without his performance, I believe that the watchability of the movie will be greatly reduced.
From time to time, the film uses a shot to the end, and he often has different emotional performances and almost perfect performances in them, which is quite breathtaking.
In particular, his two "comedy performances" can even reach the nomination for Best Actor in a Movie.
His performance of the more complex character was so engaged that it was worrying whether he would be able to pull out of the role after the performance.
So, I think his performance in this movie is far better than "Marriage Story".
All in all, "Annette" is a bold and breakthrough "song and dance film".
Leo Carax's experimental approach to filming is not acceptable to everyone, and even the more the audience likes it, the more disgusted the audience who does not like it.
The audience that can accept it will feel that the four seats are shocked, and the audience who cannot accept it will leave the stage at any time in the two and a half hours.
Telling a dead love, there is no consistent narrative technique, concise brushstrokes, with some somewhat magical "song and dance" scenes, to achieve a different viewing experience.
Even if there are no big scenes in the whole movie, it is necessary to get the best viewing experience on the big screen.
And Adam Dreifer's stunning performance bears witness to his talent in acting.
The film is indeed not a work of elegance and popularity, and the nearly two and a half hours seem to be a little longer.
But if you want to see a work that is different and requires patience and thinking to feel something, then this movie is definitely the best choice.