Made in Hollywood

"Five, six, seven, eight!"

In the orchestral sounding, a sound like a countdown sounded, and a pair of eager blue eyes appeared on the screen, and then directly transitioned to the "chicago" subtitles played by neon lights on a dark background. The bright red neon lights were like the same light. The high-hanging signal light tells the audience that this will be a colorful movie.

The film begins with a song and dance. The close-up of the reporter's mouth is instantly cut to the dizzying stage. The cold tone of the stage background and the warm tone in the wine pool form a sharp contrast and a strong visual impact.

The reverberating jazz, the indulgent audience, and the feasting theater fully demonstrated the richness and confusion of the nightlife of "Chicago".

The good show has already been staged. Velma, who just killed her sister, hurried over. It was just a short walk into the theater. The tone of light and shadow was constantly changing, which also showed Duke's role in light and color. On the other hand, the almost extreme technique is used-the blue and enchanting lights of the dance hall see through the window, and the wet street reflects the light on the screen. A panic, mysterious, and eager anxiety is faintly at the beginning of the film. appear.

Although the camera only shows a pair of feet from a low angle and a short distance, it creates a desired effect between light and shadow, and also reveals the black temperament of the film.

Coupled with the close-up of the eyes at the beginning of the film, in fact, Duke has used his own methods to send a signal to all audiences. He re-arranged this familiar story to the audience, and will use the song and dance film to capture the hearts of all kinds of people. The state is externalized, concretized, and magnified to conceal the noir film technique under the gorgeous song and dance, depicting a strong black taste.

"After reading this beginning, most of my worries about Duke have disappeared."

George Lucas tilted his head slightly and said to Mrs. Leah. "As long as there is no problem with singing and dancing, I believe that with Duke's ability, the film is definitely above the level."

Mrs. Leah nodded. She knew that the level line that Lucas said was not a passing line. It meant an excellent movie.

"Chicago" is a musical after all. No matter how good the other aspects are, if the actor's singing and dancing fails, it means that the entire film has actually failed.

As a veteran "Chicago" fan, Grew knows this very well. The film does a good job at the beginning. The gorgeous light and shadow switching and sound processing are absolutely unmatched by stage plays. The movie has a natural advantage in this regard. , But the next opening song and dance is the top priority. Velma is beautiful enough, but she doesn't know how to dance.

"A typical Duke film begins."

Allen told Cournets, "He gave up the long shots frequently used in "Saving Private Ryan" and switched to a fast-paced short shot."

Cunites stared at the screen closely, lowering his voice, "The heroine was chosen well. Zeta Jones is really beautiful and sexy. The acting is also good, no wonder Duke is attracted."

"If her singing and dancing are not enough."

Even if it is not a musical fan. Allen knows this too, "Duke will definitely be criticized for the choice of actors. If you are not sure, some unfavorable rumors will spread..."

The stage lights on the screen suddenly came on, the stage slowly rose, Zeta Jones stood in the white halo, and the background turned completely black. Black and white are intertwined to form a huge color difference, which instantly illuminates the eyes of the audience.

"Baye..."

In the sound of music, Velma has already begun the first song and dance. This is the signature song of the entire play-"all."

Catherine Zeta Jones’s voice is full of magnetism, her singing voice is strong, her dance is wild and full of temptation, which fits the character’s own settings and captures the audience’s attention in the fastest time.

"She sings pretty well."

Hearing Cunites’ words, Alan nodded hurriedly, “Her expression is so attractive, when I blinked I thought I was winking at me, and those legs are so beautiful! This actor Duke chose a great Up!"

Gru also nodded. Compared with the re-arrangement of Broadway's musical, the actress's dance is a little bit worse, but her singing is better, and she deserves to be a musical actor from the West End of London.

Three rows ahead of him, Whitley, the "New York Times" critic, was writing something in the book. Although she was not a film critic, she came to attend the premiere specifically, just to see "Chicago "How would such a classic play be adapted by Duke Rosenberg?

However, it seems that the beginning of the film is quite successful, not to mention the movie technique that the other party is already good at, even the song and dance drama is absolutely excellent.

In addition to the slightly worse dance in the film, Velma has a musical version of Velma.

This is a normal thing, and Whitley is not surprised. Even though she is only a critic, she knows that the film has many advanced post-production techniques that can modify the singing and dancing performances and even the acting skills. Not to mention that this is called Catherine Zee in the film. The actress of Tower Jones has strong singing and dancing skills. Even if she is one or two levels behind the heroine of the stage drama version, the film can still rely on production technology to reduce this disadvantage infinitely, or even exceed it.

This is a very unfair comparison, and it is also a completely different form of artistic expression. Moreover, movies are popular, musicals are relatively niche, and only fools will use musical actors to compare film actors. It is only the later technology. You can make the two sides open three blocks away.

Therefore, Duke has not worried about whether the nostalgic audience can accept singing and dancing. Lily Fred is originally from Broadway and has been nominated for Tony Awards several times. Ability is definitely not a problem.

Indeed, during the live shooting, the black Verma danced Naomi Watts and Catherine Zeta Jones, but don’t forget that he is a director or a technical director. How silly To put the original singing and dancing scenes into the movie, but to carefully edit several singing and dancing scenes with Lily Fred to remove as much as possible the flaws in the character's dance.

Perhaps after editing the dance, there are still some shortcomings. After all, there is no professional stand-in. But in terms of songs, Duke believes that the studio dubbing version of the film will definitely blow the live performance version of any theater.

The shooting was indeed live recording, but when it came to post-production, Duke did not think about it at all, so he replaced all the singing and dancing scenes with the studio recording version. After a variety of post-technical modifications, how can the live performance be comparable? What about? Not to mention these musical actors, it is Michael Jackson's live performances, which are also far from the studio effect.

Yes, compared to all the musicals that require live performances, the movie version is cheating, and it is an honest cheating. No one can say anything about this kind of cheating, otherwise it is just a joke.

There are also looks. Duke has seen pictures of previous "Chicago" cabaret actors. Naomi Watts, Catherine Zeta Jones and Tom Cruise have an absolute advantage, let alone looks different from such movies. Importantly, the effect of singing and dancing with handsome men and beautiful women is often amazing.

Moreover, on the basis of ensuring the level of acting and singing and dancing, being beautiful and handsome is the last word.

Heart of beauty in everyone.

When the audience has been deeply attracted by singing and dancing, another heroine, Roxy Hart, appears on the screen after another change in color. The fate of the two beautiful killers is intertwined in the song and dance arena. Velma was dazzling, and Roxy under the dance floor was envious.

Through Roxy's watching and Velma's being watched, the film crocheted a kind of desire projection, which was manifested explicitly through Roxy's gaze.

Then there is a parallel montage technique. This is a very simple and common film technique, but it brings a completely different effect from the stage play. I want to show the parallel montage in the way of a stage play... Forget it, the two sides are not comparable at all.

Whitley added a heavy touch to the notebook. This adaptation is obviously more attractive than the flat narrative of the stage play, and the intricate entanglement of the two heroines also reflects the theme of the film.

Judging from the clips that have been screened so far, it seems that the director, Duke Rosenberg, is completely different from the evaluation she heard from film critics.

Especially under the blue, romantic and mysterious stage lighting, Velma is extremely charming, while the red eye-catching light behind Roxy hints at her inner mania and desire.

As the camera progresses, the scene gradually becomes smaller. Roxy meets Velma’s gaze while gazing, and finally, in the next moment when she looks back, she replaces Velma’s stage role with her fanatical self. The real space and the performance space on the stage are replaced and unified under the projection of Roxy's desire.

It is no exaggeration to say that while the film attracts people's attention with color and gorgeous singing and dancing, Duke Rosenberg used a lot of technical flow of film techniques.

The singing and dancing part and Roxy’s affair scenes are intertwined, constantly cutting each other. The nasty human nature and the explosion of desire are infinitely enlarged in the rapid editing. The two scenes are also transformed by similar composition, the same and the opposite action. , The transition is natural and full of meaning.

Whitley can’t understand how a director who can only explode in the film critics can produce such profound shots and scenes. Apart from other things, the use of light and color in the film can be called a master. level!

Thinking of this, Whitley had a very apt description of the meeting between the critics and Duke—interests and prejudice!

She is just a drama critic. Although she occasionally commented on movies, she has no interest in Hollywood, so she feels that her evaluation is more fair. (To be continued...)

ps: I have to go out on holiday, it's still three shifts these days~~