Venice Day3 Lady Gaga’s first film show, true colors, detonated the audience.
Special feature of 1905 film network Among all the films selected for this Venice Film Festival, The Birth of a Star, a non-competition screening unit, is probably the most topical one. The film held its world premiere today, and I feel that the whole Venice Film Festival and the global fan circle are talking about this film, and the heat is very high, so let’s talk about this film first.
It’s a remake of a movie about a male singer Jack who meets a restaurant waitress Ally. He finds that Ally has great potential for music creation and is shocked by her singing. They fall in love quickly, and Jack helps Ally to reach the peak of her career as a singer. However, at the same time, Jack’s career gradually sinks due to the problem of drinking and taking drugs.
There have been three versions of this film before, namely, the 1937 original, the 1954 version and the 1976 version. The most difference between these versions is the 1976 version, because both the original and 1954 are about the Hollywood film industry, and they spy on and criticize the industrial operation and environment through the ups and downs of their respective careers. The 1976 version changed the film industry into the music industry, but today’s new version is directly adapted from the 1976 version and continues to talk about the American music industry.
This film is the first time that bradley cooper, a well-known Hollywood actor, directed and acted, and took it directly from Clint Eastwood, who has been developing it for many years. Many people may think that there are already three versions of a movie, so why do you want to remake it? In fact, from the perspective of project development, the new version of The Birth of a Star is adapted from the 1976 version, not the first two versions, so theoretically there was only one version in 76 years before, and the other version in 76 years was not well received by critics, so this remake can also be regarded as an update and improvement of the 76 version.
Another stunt of the film, which may also be the biggest stunt, is the big-screen starring debut of the pop star Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga appeared in the fifth season of American TV series and won the Golden Globe award for the mini-drama. In addition, the role setting of The Birth of a Star can make full use of her singing talent, so everyone expects her to hit the Oscar winner with this film. What is the result? Let’s talk about the whole film first.
First of all, the British and American national media like this film very much, and most of them think it is "touching", "tear bomb", "acting online", "sincere and full of charm", and even some media assert that it is "contemporary". But my personal impression is not so good.
The biggest problem should be the adaptation of the script. No matter which of the previous three versions actually has a fuller portrayal and shaping of the two roles. However, in this edition, it has almost become bradley cooper’s solo show, and Lady Gaga is attached to the hero just like an empty shell supporting role. After watching the whole film, we don’t know what kind of personality Ally is. We only know that she is not confident about her appearance, and her personality is sometimes very hot and difficult to compromise, and that’s all. At the same time, the film portrays bradley cooper more fully than previous versions, including his childhood, his relationship with his dead father, his relationship with his brother, his love for Ally, his reaction to the decline of his career, his inner struggle, and so on.
Of course, if the film is set to Jack as the man and Ally as the woman, that’s fine. It’s a pity that the script designers are almost completely equal, so the problem is that Lady Gaga’s plays are particularly empty. Specifically, we see the role’s career booming, but we can’t see the psychological changes of this role at all. In the theory of script writing, the most basic link is the role development. What does this role look like at the beginning and what does the story become at the end? It is not only the change of external identity, but also the psychological change.
So if we want to talk about Lady Gaga’s acting skills in this film, I think we can only say that as a queen of pop music, her performance is qualified to complete the task, absolutely not bad, but not good enough to be nominated for the post. Many times, I feel that she is still playing herself, and even some accustomed little gestures are brought in, which is why Lady Gaga’s performance is more natural when she holds a concert to attend the award ceremony in the second half of the film. Because the film focuses on the male actor, bradley cooper’s performance is naturally more eye-catching, and it is easier to nominate an Oscar.
Of course, at least the song "The Birth of a Star" is good, and there are many original songs in it, but the two-person chorus "The Shallow" in the trailer is the most beautiful, and it may be used by the film to hit the Oscar for best original song in the end.
Having said so much about The Birth of a Star, let’s talk about the main competition movie shown today.
The first is the Cohen brothers’ westerns. The film was originally a six-episode online drama shot by the Cohen brothers for Netflix, but it was finally cut into a film with six short stories. The six stories have different styles and intonations, but they all happen in the setting of westerns. The first story is an absurd and hilarious musical comedy, which tells the story of a sharpshooter who likes singing and dancing, singing and dancing all the way with an invincible attitude, but finally meets an equal opponent; The second story is a black humorous fable starring "Fu Lanlan" james franco, which tells that an unlucky bank robber can’t control his own destiny;
Poster of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The third story suddenly changed its tune and told the story between liam neeson’s peddler and his "commodity", a boy without arms and legs. The fourth is about an old gold digger who found gold in an uninhabited valley. The fifth one tells some romantic but cruel stories between a trapped young woman and a strange man who tries to help her. The last story is the most allegorical, and it is set in a dialogue between five strangers in a carriage driven by death, which is similar to the dead space.
On the whole, the six stories are a little uneven. The first four stories are very interesting because of their different styles, and the last two stories are a little dull for the ending. But it’s worth seeing for westerners. After all, the Cohen brothers still have quality assurance.
The second competition film is the historical masterpiece of British director mike leigh. I won’t say much about this film for various reasons. The film was rejected by Cannes before. The main two and a half hours and the long and slow narrative made many viewers unable to eat, but in the end it was actually a very powerful work.
Today, I also watched the new documentary directed by Cai Mingliang, aiming at the faces of 15 ordinary people, some of whom were motionless, some giggled, some fell asleep in front of the camera, and some talked to tears in front of Kan Kan. The last empty shot of the film is aimed at the empty building lobby. In the distance, it sounds like a whisper and a mournful roar, and the light is bright and dark. Perhaps many viewers can’t accept this long-term unchanged picture, but if they watch it patiently, they can feel the humanistic care and thinking about life of director Cai Mingliang, which is quite interesting.
The new documentary film Your Face directed by Cai Mingliang is aimed at the faces of ordinary people.
Tomorrow Venice Film Festival will attract the annual horror giant, a new version!