Zeng Yuli
For Nolan's fans, the recent period is undoubtedly happy, because "Nolan's triple company" can be seen on the big screen. On August 2, "Interstellar" was re-released; on August 28, "Inception" was re-screened; and Nolan's high-profile new film "Creed" will also be released nationwide from September 4.
"Inception" re-screening poster
"Inception" was originally released in China on September 1, 2010, and it has been 10 years since then. In 10 years, I have watched "Inception" for the fourth time, and this re-screening not only makes me feel the passage of time vividly (the re-screening of the film reminds the audience that he is getting old again), but also makes me sigh again: Nolan's cattle × really stand the test of time.
Movies are dreams, and Nolan is dreaming. "Inception" put forward a concept of "inception", Xiao Li played by Cobb (cobb) is a dreamer, he can design dreams, let the target character into it, in the dream to the target person "brainwashing", so as to achieve their own goals.
At the beginning of the story, Cobb is at risk of being killed for failing to steal other people's dreams, and has to cooperate with the stolen dreamer, Japanese energy tycoon Saito, to implant ideas in the subconscious of fischer, the young head of the rival company, and cut the inheritance left by his father, so that Saito's company can be revived. Saito's promise to Cobb was to clear him of his suspicions of killing his wife and allow him to return home to reunite with his children.
Xiao Li plays Cobb
Films that make a fuss about the theme of "dreams" are not uncommon, and the Wachowski sisters' "The Matrix" (1999), David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" (2001), Imatoshi's animated film "Red Hot Chili Peppers" (2006), Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" (2007) have all been involved to varying degrees. The narrative framework of "Inception" does not seem to be new: dream + science fiction + strange thief + Odysseus, but it is still beyond the boundaries of imagination in its presentation. Nolan built a self-contained, logical dream system out of thin air.
There are five layers of dreams in the movie, not only dreams, but also dreams within dreams.
The first layer of dreams is easy to enter, and the reality of 5 minutes here is 1 hour;
The first layer of dreams, the city in the rain
The second level of dreams is a dream within a dream that requires general drug stimulation. With each deeper layer of dreams, the time will be stretched at a speed of 12 times, and the 5 minutes of the first layer of dreams are already 12 hours in the dream. To wake up from a dream, you need to be kicked (a very important concept in the dream system, that is, "stimulus", mainly the impact of gravitational falls), or be killed in the dream.
The second level of dreams: floating hotels
The third layer of dreams is the dream of dreams, and the reality has been 6 days since 5 minutes have arrived here. Cobb and the others "implanted" Fisher with an inception in which the inception mission was performed. Insert hints into Fisher's subconscious, allowing Fisher to wake up and treat the hints as his natural consciousness.
The third layer of dreams: the fortress of the snowy mountains
The fourth level of dreams is the dream of a dream, and in reality, sleeping here for one day is fifty years.
The fourth level of dreams: the world that Cobb and his wife built
To wake up from the fourth layer of dreams, you need synchronize a kick, that is, each layer in the dream is stimulated at the same time, and if it is only stimulated in the third and fourth layers, it will awaken in the third layer. In the movie, Fisher is injured and comatose on the third floor, that is, he first goes to the fourth layer of dreams, and then wakes up in the third layer of dreams through three or four layers of collaborative stimulation, sees his father's will and decides to split the company. At this point, Cobb successfully completed the task.
If you die on the fourth layer, you will go directly to the fifth layer, the limbo. Similarly, because entering the third level of dreams requires a strengthening drug, its side effect is that if killed here, it will also fall directly into the Lost Realm. The Lost Realm can be understood as the ultimate dream, where time is endless and things are lost. If the Lost Domain is killed, it can return to reality, but because all people can remember in the Lost Domain are some memory fragments, people's consciousness may slide into desolation and choose to dream for a long time.
The fifth level of dreams: the lost realm of things and me
In addition to the main line of inception, another narrative thread in the film is the love-hate relationship between Cobb and his wife, Mel (mal), which is caused by inception. Cobb and Mel spend their lives in the fourth layer of dreams they have created. Mel gains everything in the dream, and she is willing to immerse herself in the dream, but Cobb insists on returning to the real world because there are his truly lovely children. Cobb "wakes up" Mel in the Lost Domain, but Mel, who enters reality, has confused dreams with reality, and she commits suicide in reality, longing to "wake up", destroying herself and destroying Cobb.
Marion Cotillard plays Mel
Here, Nolan actually throws out a proposition similar to "The Matrix": If the dream is real enough and sweet enough, is there still a need to wake up?
But Nolan didn't stay here much, "The Matrix" is like a popular and deep philosophical work, and "Inception" is essentially the most first-class and exquisite popular novel. Its core charm lies in the fact that Nolan has created a grand, imaginative dream system that has been executed by the most perfect technique and turned into a visual spectacle on the big screen. Whether it's a logical dream system, a folded city of Paris, a floating hotel, a city with layers of cliffs, imagination is breathtaking.
Folded paris city
Floating hostel
Layers of peeling cities
In Imatoshi's Red Hot Chili Peppers, dreams are connected to movies, and dreams are so similar to reality to movies to reality. Although "Inception" did not focus on this, for the audience, why is Nolan not a dreamer? Isn't he giving the audience a "inception" of his dreams? Going further away, every time the audience walks into the theater, when the lights are turned off, the screen is lit, and the audience is immersed in the story, isn't it like walking into a dream? In the dream or crying or laughing or sentimental or happy, the audience is less likely to dwell on whether the movie/dream is true or not, because all the ups and downs experienced are true, and the love for the movie is real.
A big dream is like the end of a movie
At the end of the movie, Cobb wakes up from a dream, as if in another life, surrounded by partners, and they tacitly smile at Cobb. In the dream, they experienced everything that was magnificent and full of breath, and when they woke up, they were only in the heart, and the sun was just right, and life was as good as ever. This moment is like the end of a movie that has immersed us for a long time, the lights of the cinema come on, we will have a momentary trance, and then we get up and leave, and walk out of the cinema and into the sun with determination.
Nothing seems to have happened, but too many wonderful things have happened.
This issue is edited by Xing Tan