Introduction: I implore you not only to care about me who is caught up in dreams and fantasies, but also to see once that I have done everything in my power to touch the out of reach.
Released in 2013, the film "New York Meets You Again" mainly tells the story of Greta, who was betrayed by the star's boyfriend, met Dan, a music producer who was frustrated in life, and the two helped each other out of the mud in the city of New York. The heroes and heroines in the film come from different cultural backgrounds, and when the British wind meets American culture, the core of a cross-cultural narrative is implanted in the film. In addition, the film has a unique way of describing the state of people in the city, which can be summarized as taking a "convergence" perspective, trying to interpret the phenomenon from many aspects in the narrative; refusing to present the loneliness of the "one-person" in the enclosed space when shaping the loneliness of the characters; adopting a diversified presentation method in the performance of the urban youth living space; and finally expressing the value concept of "music without boundaries" under the integration of various cultures in the "aggregation of people".
"Aggregation" as a concept that runs through the whole film is expressed in the film "New York Meets You Again" as a sense of convergence brought about by fragmented narratives and the convergence of life in the city. Through the convergence of these two levels, the director successfully shaped the plight and loneliness of individuals in the city.
1. The sense of convergence brought about by fragmented narratives
The film begins in the bar, with dim lighting and rich scene scheduling, the audience is familiar with the layout of the bar in a short time, and Steve, who sang a song on the stage, introduced his friend Greta to the audience and invited her to sing a song. The first suspense of the whole film begins here.
It is not difficult to see from the body language that Greta showed resistance to performing on stage, but in the encouragement of Steve and the expectations of the audience, she still took the stage. After the song was sung, the camera fell on a strange man. Thereafter, the temporal coherence of the film's narrative is broken, and the camera follows the man (Dan), who was a promising music producer, but at this time he is alcoholic, divorced, and unhappy at work. The relationship with her daughter also reached a freezing point at one point. On a boring night, a desperate Dan enters the bar, and the camera returns to the scene of the first act of the film.
After introducing Dan, the story advances a little in time, and Dan finds Greta and says he is willing to sign her, because Greta's music touches Dan and gives him a glimpse of the distinctive powers lurking in the notes. After getting a reply from Greta promising to consider the night, the two separated. The film once again enters the process of one-person narrative, and at the same time, after a short advance, the continuity of the film in the temporal dimension is once again broken. The camera begins to follow Greta's perspective, Greta and her boyfriend came to the United States from the United Kingdom to chase their acting dreams, the boyfriend became famous and abandoned Greta, on an equally unpleasant night, Greta and her friend Steve came to the bar together, and with Steve's encouragement, they sang their original song "Lost Stars" (Chinese translated as "Lost Stars"). After recounting from Greta's perspective, the film once again returns to the bar in the first act.
It is not difficult to see that the causal relationship of the same thing in the same scene is presented three times in the film, but each time from a different perspective. This multifaceted attempt to interpret the same phenomenon not only does not bring a sense of fragmentation to the film's narrative, but also brings an emphasis on aggregation in each time dimension of retrospection. In the first act, the audience will logically and simply see "Greta on stage" and "Dan discovers Greta's talent" as causal necessity, but the director emphasizes the non-inevitable relationship between the two by explaining the reason why the two came to the same bar, using the low probability of chance to occur, and this "Hume problem"-like narrative adds a reflective color to the film, that is, the event of two unrelated people meeting in the same bar is not causally related. It is only a small probability event based on irrationality (chance).
2. Diversified living space
In the performance of the urban living space, the film "New York Meet You Again" still adopts a diversified strategy, the film mentions the dream of the city of New York more than once, whether it is Greta and her boyfriend to come to New York to chase their acting dreams, or Dan comforted Greta "to Come to New York can not just go", and even Dan's own early entrepreneurial experience in New York always shows that New York is a modern city shrouded in the American dream, attracting countless dreamers to come to pilgrimage every year. New York City under the lens is inclusive, not only reflected in the rich and beggars sharing the majesty of the Empire State Building, but also in the hierarchy of living space, a variety of living spaces can meet the needs of billionaires and homeless people (although sometimes these two seemingly heavenly and underground classes are just the same person at different times), which is also a side proof of the inclusiveness of large cities.
When she first came to New York, Greta and her boyfriend lived in a luxurious apartment arranged by the performing arts company, which had luxurious picture windows, exquisite furnishings and antique furniture. After being betrayed by her boyfriend, Greta moved to the small apartment rented by her friend Steve, which has no good lighting, and the furniture belongs to popular brands such as IKEA, the main difference is the openness and cramping of the space. When he first entered Steve's apartment, he once self-deprecatingly introduced: "You can feel the window when you enter the door." The contrast between this place of residence also indicates that Greta's own identity has fallen from a celebrity girlfriend to the bottom floor, and can only spend the night on the sofa in her friend's living room.
The male protagonist Dan's living space has undergone similar changes, and before separating from his wife and daughter, the Dan family lived in a two-story house, which is a typical house for American families. But after the separation, Dan lived alone in a dimly lit small room, and even borrowed his ex-wife's house to take a bath when he was most depressed. The contrast between the living space and the back not only indicates the identity gap of the characters, but also paves the way for the current state of the characters in the narrative. In addition, the presentation of a series of living spaces is also the best proof of the inclusiveness of the big city of New York.
3. Integration of people from different cultural backgrounds
The influence of culture on people has a profound and lasting characteristic, and through the aggregation of people from different cultural backgrounds, the director cleverly conveys the idea of "music without boundaries". In terms of cultural integration, the British culture represented by Greta and the American culture represented by Dan are naturally the most obvious contrasts in the film. When Dan takes Greta to visit her friends, she also says things like "British girls are a little shy", and the role of these dialogues in the film is to strengthen people's subconscious confrontation between The Two Cultures of Britain and the United States, and to build momentum for future cooperation.
In addition to The Anglo-American culture, the indispensable black culture in Hollywood is also in the position of being aggregated in the film, Dan's good friend, the black "trouble glue" that appeared in the early years with Dan's help represents the black culture in the film, they wear hip hop, live in a villa with a pool, talk like rhyme, love B-box, have a gang spirit, all of which are typical black characteristics that Hollywood strives to shape, and these characteristics also continue to "trouble glue" Black drummers and keyboardists for Greta's band. The band's members include students, blacks, Britons, and Americans, and in such a cultural smorgasbord background, everyone works together to complete the recording task, which is itself a convergence of culture, and also embodies the central spirit of "music without borders".
Conclusion: At the end of the film, Greta walks out of the emotional vortex with her ex-boyfriend, Dan returns to the family, the two support each other, and the story of each other's achievements is like the song "Lost Stars" sings: "We are also all lost stars, but we also try to illuminate this endless night sky, no matter how much we pursue, it is just a drop in the ocean of the universe, but even so, I will not allow you to treat our memories as a bondage, as pain." 」 ”