Talk about the movie "Mank" today.
The title is Mank (2020), alias Mankay.
In late 2020, Netflix launched a black-and-white biographical film. Imagine the last time you saw a Netflix black-and-white biographical film was "Roma" (2018), and "Manke" is similar to "Roma", which is almost a work that is aimed at the awards season.
In 2018, streaming films competed in traditional film festivals and were regarded as flood beasts by old-school filmmakers. Within a few years, the streaming "Mank" directly filmed the story behind the classic "Citizen Kane" in film history.
Times change so fast. If it weren't for the rise of streaming, we wouldn't have been able to make it to Roma, The Irishman, and Manck.
"Citizen Kane" won the Best Original Screenplay Award in the Oscars 9 times that year, becoming a designated collection of the National Film Protection Agency and recognized as the greatest film in the history of cinema.
This film "Manke" is from the perspective of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, telling the process of Manke's script creation in that year, as well as the current situation in Hollywood at that time.
Jack Finch and David Finch father and son started from the status of senior fans and practitioners to shoot this film that reflects the story of nearly 80 years ago, referring to the narrative style of "Citizen Kane" and piecing together Manke's character image in a non-linear narrative way.
The same problem lies in this, too long a story will make ordinary fans see the clouds in the fog, if you do not understand the corresponding background knowledge, it is easy to be confused.
"Mank" has a high threshold for watching the movie, and the relevant background story is introduced later for everyone to understand.
After watching the film, you naturally understand why "Mank" chose to embrace streaming media rather than the traditional film studio.
By telling the story behind the film, "Mank" rips off the fig leaf of Hollywood's major factories. Under the bright and beautiful appearance of the big factory, there are vicious faces that eat people.
To understand Mank, you must first understand the classic Citizen Kane.
The film Citizen Kane is about an American newspaper tycoon who dies alone in the castle he built for his second wife, leaving behind his last words , "Rosebud" before his death. Later, in order to explore the meaning of the news, a newspaper sent young reporters to investigate the meaning of "rose bud".
The reporter searched for the diary left by Kane's former agent, visited Kane's former partner, second wife, friends, and servants, and led the audience to understand Kane step by step, including his family history, and the process of changing political development with false propaganda. But until the end, I still didn't understand the meaning of "rose bud".
"Citizen Kane" breaks through the original film linear narrative mode, but uses a large number of flashback narrative techniques, stringing together the memories of different people and piecing together a "citizen Kane".
The film has thus become a textbook sample, a standardized lens language for future generations, and a compulsory course for practitioners.
If "Mank" is only about the creative process of Citizen Kane, it would be too small to watch this film.
Citizen Kane alludes to then-newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Hearst used his influence to prevent the film from being released, and in the end, "Citizen Kane" could only be released in small independent theaters, with poor box office results.
In addition, when Manke wrote the script, he gave up the right of authorship in the contract for money, and later insisted that Orson Wells write his name. The relationship between the two broke up directly, and there was no cooperation after that.
In the 1930s, life was even worse in the United States and Hollywood. The economic crisis began in the United States and spread across the globe, and the whole society was in a depression.
The worse the economy, the better the film box office, and the film company quickly created a batch of shoddy absurd works, encouraging the audience to hide in the cinema and escape from reality. The golden age of Hollywood was also a bleak moment of the entire era.
When the capitalists cut the leeks, they did not forget to indulge in performances, and after harvesting the audience, they continued to exploit the employees, and the ugly faces were worrying.
When profitability becomes the only measure of film, art becomes dispensable.
It is in this context that Manke's ability to create a work of artistic and ideological nature is even more precious.
"Mank" not only uses Manke to show ridicule of the capitalists of that year, but also a criticism of the current bad atmosphere.
When art is eroded by bad ideologies, art will cease to exist, leaving only brainwashing tools. If the artistic creation is not free, then the dance with the anklet is also difficult to see.
Manke also has problems such as alcoholism, gambling, and conceit, which are weakened in the film. In his arduous struggle against authority, these shortcomings appear insignificant.
After winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1942, Manke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1943 for The Pride of the Yankees.
There will be no award-winning works in the future, just like some people have only one work in their lives, and then Jiang Lang will exhaust themselves and eat the old books. Well, that's a big domestic director.
The story behind the classic,
An elegy of the Golden Age.
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