Before the screening, the reputation has gone all the way up, and the annual word-of-mouth god work to be introduced today is "Sharp Blade Out of the Sheath".
The film has been in the spotlight since its premiere in Toronto, and was even more critically acclaimed after its release, with IMDB giving it a high score of 8.1.
Douban scored 8.4, which is better than more than 90% of crime films and suspense films.
As a suspense film can get such a good reputation, in recent years, it should only be "Escape from Desperate Town", which has properly entered the list of the top ten films of the year.
Netizens joked that the title of the film "Knives Out" should be translated as "Bright Sword", and suddenly there was an Italian cannon flavor of Teacher Li Youbin.
In the end of the year in many high-quality movies to break through the siege, to win the favor of the audience is not without reason, first look at the cast of this film.
The cast of this film is very luxurious, called the "Hollywood King Bombing Group", in addition to the "Captain America" Chris Evans, who has been in the limelight in recent years, there is also "007" Daniel Craig, in addition to the "horror queen" Jamie Curtis, veteran movie star Christopher Plummer and other old drama bones to join, just watch this group of high-quality actors play together, it is already very enjoyable!
And the biggest contributor to the success of this film, we have to mention the screenwriter and director of this film, Ryan Johnson - yes, the director who smashed "Star Wars 8".
But when you look at his resume, you will find that this director is not simple: not only has he directed ace American dramas such as "Breaking Bad", but also as a director, he has produced high-quality commercial films such as "Ring Messenger", and it turns out that suspense films are his specialty.
The film begins with a strong atmosphere of British classical detective fiction – the quaint and solemn mysterious manor house stands like an isolated island in the thick fog; the families with ghost fetuses fall on each other at the funeral; the overwhelmed migrant maid; the private detective who appears in the wrong shade... No wonder some people say that there is a particularly familiar feeling when watching movies, isn't this the scene in Agatha Christie's novel?
"No One Survives" style of the Blizzard Mountain Villa;
The complex character relationships of "Murder on the Orient Express", as well as the confusing and confusing case solving process;
The motive for the killing in the style of "Golf Course Doubt"
And, of course, there's the "poison trick" that Agatha Christie does best...
The script alone already has a very strong appeal.
What's more, as a veteran commercial film director, Ryan Johnson also showed extraordinary narrative ability in this film, not only playing a new trick with the "Rashomon" structure, but also in the control of the narrative rhythm just right, in the thriller suspense at the same time do not forget to embellish the humorous elements, quite Hitchcock's legacy.
A suspense genre film that integrates Christie's novel style in the script and is close to Hitchcock's in the director's style, rounded up is the masterpiece of the cooperation between the two masters, and the only one in film history who can have such a lineup should be "Prosecution Witness" written by Agatha Christie herself and directed by Billy Wilder, right?
Such an excellent movie, don't you want to buy a ticket to watch?
Yes, students who intend to go to see it can read it here, because in the following space I will analyze the beauty of this film, involving spoilers, please read it as appropriate.
First of all, a brief introduction to the plot of this film:
World-renowned crime novelist Harlan spent his 85th birthday happily with his family in his mansion, only to be found dead in his study the next day, the cause of death was a throat cut, because there were no signs of fighting at the scene, and the splash of blood was very coherent, the police judged the deceased to be a suicide after making a preliminary judgment.
A week later, the police gather Harlan's children together for one-on-one interrogation, and along with the police is a man, the famous private investigator Blank (played by Daniel Craig), and here the biggest suspicious point of the film appears - no one knows who hired the detective, not even himself. Coupled with the death of the deceased who died too dramatically, the police began to pay attention to the case and began to re-investigate.
Since the deceased had a large family fortune during his lifetime, and it seems that before his birthday, almost every child who attended the banquet had an argument with Harlan, so everyone had a certain motive for committing the crime.
The director adopts the Rashomon method when dealing with the scene of the police interrogation, they will always cover up their contradictions with Harlan with lies, and portray themselves as a successful, independent, filial piety person, but the audience as a God perspective has long understood that these children have long been rotten and have become parasites who do not want to make progress - this scene not only shapes the characters, but also leads to the core of the contradictions of the characters in the film: inheritance rights.
Compared with other suspense films, this film introduces a very innovative setting: Marta, the young maid who witnessed the whole event (and Harlan's only friend in her later life), is a person who can't lie— she can't help but throw up at the thought of lies. The biggest suspect in the first half of the film is her, and even the director and the audience see how she mistakenly injected an overdose of morphine into the body of the old man, and the old man used suicide to help Marta clear the whole process of suspicion.
It seems that even a janitor can ask the truth from her mouth, and the detective, after learning that he can't lie, first paraphrased her words, successfully confirmed some of his own conjectures, confirmed the suspect's motives, and then abruptly stopped. She doesn't seem to be considered a suspect.
The real murderer, Ranson, Harlan's grandson, after learning that grandpa would give all his property to Marta, decided to change the medicine she gave Harlan to morphine, and anonymously hired Blank, which not only invalidated the will, but also easily got rid of the suspicion and got the property.
But the reversal point of the case is precisely here.
The director is very good at handling the story and letting the protagonist choose in extreme situations: although the medicine is reversed, Marta instinctively injects the right drug; chooses to save the housekeeper when she knows that she may make her a murderer; and confesses her "criminal facts" to the detective when she is about to get rid of the suspicion.
A character who is very likely to be hated and misunderstood by the audience has won his own future step by step by his own choices.
In contrast, Harlan's children have gradually become ugly people.
At the end of the film, Marta, standing in the mansion, looks down at the people outside the house with a cup written "MY HOUSE MY RULES MY COFFEE" in her hand, which is also quite ironic.
It is worth mentioning that the film mentions a book "Gravity Rainbow", which is a novel by American writer Thomas Pynchon, about the German army during World War II, the German army is only making a powerful rocket, while the Allies are trying their best to find a base with rockets, and all the characters who appear are involved in the process of reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance to varying degrees. This book is an absurd suspense novel, he points out the injustice and division of capitalist society, which echoes the core of the film.
In addition to the "flirtation" of the elite class, the discussion on the topic of immigration is also very exciting, if you taste carefully, you will find that this is not a simple suspense film, and the political metaphor in it is more worth playing.