Chapter 699： Same but different revenge theme

"Although the plot is difficult to scrutinize in many ways, the film needs some dramatic conflicts, whether it is in the form of opera, music, etc., all have similar effects to be achieved; Director Nolan finally uses his own strongest language to The audience conveyed something other than the plot - truth and kindness are the first elements of life; in other words, the film elements of this film are all available, and the audience's vision, hearing and perception psychology are also very full.

Let me comment, the greatest magician in "Deadly Magic" is obviously not Angel or Burden, but director Christopher Nolan.

To date, Christopher Nolan's films have largely focused on the same theme: revenge, which is often associated with paranoia, loneliness, and being different. Just like the revenge of the protagonist with short-term memory loss in Memento, the insomniac in Insomnia, and the revenge of Bruce Wayne's teenage tragedy in Batman. In "Deadly Magic", revenge is transformed into a tit-for-tat confrontation between the two protagonists, and the introduction to this tit-for-tat comes from the drowning of An Jie's wife.

And in "Deadly Magic", Nolan once again demonstrated his exquisite operation of the film's narrative structure. At the beginning of the film, an analogy montage was used to connect the old prop teacher's explanation of magic to the girl with the last performance of Anjie, which was pushed forward in the timeline, and completed the opening of the flashback, which is more than the bombing flashback in "Memento". It is more mellow and free, echoing the theme while completing the invisible transition, and the film naturally transitions to the court part.

This sounds a bit obscure.

But from the entire structural axis, it can be seen how complex the narrative mode of the film is. This is a mixed narrative of flashbacks, episodes, and direct narratives that many directors are trying but difficult to play.

Under the theme: "Vengeance", the film also discusses "Obsession and Sacrifice". Obsession makes Anjie and Burden continue to pursue improvement and reach the limit of magic, for which they have made extraordinary sacrifices.

In addition, compared with Nolan's superb structural operation, in addition to carefully constructing amazing story content, many details hints abound in the film, only to be discovered by careful audiences one by one.

For example, the birdcage magic in the movie. This magic is the most important magic in the whole movie. Burden's "Transfiguration" is essentially no different from the birdcage magic, but turns the cage into a door, one disappears and the other jumps out. It is also the cooperation of two birds and two people.

Of course, there are also some controversies due to the tightness of the plot or whatever. For example: Which Anjie is the real one after the replicator? In subsequent performances, each time he drowned in props just to seduce Burden into the game. So, is it the replica or the main body that dies?

Also, Burden was hanged in the end, and it was the real Burden who died, or the twins "Farron". It is random for two people to change their identities, so how to judge who the two are? Can his wife's death be forgiven?

Aside from that, this film is still very unique and wonderful. It can be said that the whole film can be magic, but not magic.

Interestingly, Tesla in the movie does have someone in history. He was Edison's colleague in his early years and was responsible for the development of direct current generators in Edison, but he later invented alternating current with the help of Westwood. Subsequently, the dispute between direct current and alternating current was triggered, Tesla and Edison broke up and the two faced each other. This historical event hidden behind the plot is somewhat similar to the plot. God knows how many secrets this movie still has.

In the end, if it were summed up in one narration, it would be, "Do you really, understand?" - The Atlanta Journal

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With the promotion of Blue Butterfly Pictures and the affirmation of most film critics, the screening momentum of "Deadly Magic" has risen rapidly.

In addition to the unabashed praise of the "Atlanta Journal", "Premier" also commented: "If the film is a magic, it has achieved the success that can only be achieved in the Victorian era."

"While it's not a mainstream commercial movie, it still leaves the audience with a sense of sensuality and wonder how Christopher Nolan managed it all." - Entertainment Weekly

However, there are also not so good comments, "Variety" commented: "It can be seen that director Nolan wants to discuss more human things in the film, but it seems that he messed up, which affects the overall rhythm of the film, but The performances of Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, the two leading actors, are commendable."

The New York Times said a little bit harshly: "From the viewing experience, suspense is not all suspense, and sci-fi is not all sci-fi. No matter from which aspect, it makes people feel boring and dull, although the last half an hour The reversal in this scene is more eye-catching, especially when Anjie cheated on Borden, thought he had the chance to win and was killed by Borden, but overall it still didn't stand out."

......

The eloquent words and comments roughly show the mainstream media's sense of "Deadly Magic".

Whether it's good or bad, from the side, for Nolan, to have such a wide-ranging evaluation can be regarded as a real way for him to break away from the ranks of "little directors who are not valued" and move towards more top directors Threshold to go.

Through the two works of "Mystery of the Shadow" and "Deadly Magic", his talent really has a place in Hollywood, rather than a dispensable person.

Who will pay attention to him before he is famous?

Are film critics and media really interested in films like "Memento" that can't even reach the box office of tens of millions?

of course not.

But Nolan succeeded and became famous. Whether it was for topicality or traffic, there were people who explored everything behind him, and even the information of family members was dug thoroughly.

This can be considered a bit annoying for famous people. From then on, the space for private life will be compressed even smaller.

After the premiere, the most important thing to prove word of mouth is the audience market.

The liveliness between the Internet and the media and newspapers is only used to guide the audience and fans, and the implementation is still the box office.

As the most important work of Blue Butterfly Pictures in the September schedule, under the guidance of the staff of the publicity and distribution department, most of the energy and resources were put into this "Deadly Magic".

Following the line of "leading performance with word of mouth, and promoting momentum with actors", the performance of the theater chain is also moving in this direction step by step.

The topic of the film is injected into the audience level, and interested people will go to the theater to support, and then join the discussion heat wave to share their opinions.

Saturday, September 16.

After the first day of release, the premiere results of "Deadly Magic" were released quickly.

In fact, Lyman fell asleep knowing the results of the film last night.

The box office of 14.81 million US dollars, the single hall is close to more than 60 million, and the attendance rate is maintained at about 80%. Although it is not very prominent, it still has an unparalleled advantage in the aired daily box office in a number of schedules with worse data. champion.

Sometimes, the level of the box office needs to be set off by opponents.

In other words, in mid-September, many studios did not come up with their ace projects, but instead made the performance of "Deadly Magic" seem to be very powerful.

Audiences generally have a herd mentality.

The movie that hangs at the top of the chart easily attracts the attention of most people.

For people in the industry, no one will forget that this is only the September schedule, and the market is a little cold. The first day's 14.81 million results can never be said to be bad, but it has not broken any records.

It is also worth mentioning that in the October schedule of the original time and space, there are still excellent works such as "Banner of the Fathers", "The Departed", etc., but in September, what is "Invincible" (Disney), "Rejuvenation" Movies like Ball Wind (Colombia) are not well known at all.

Compared to each other, the screening situation of "Deadly Magic" can only be better.

This is indeed the case. In the absence of many powerful opponents, the box office of 13.35 million the next day, 14.04 million on Sunday, and a total of 42.2 million US dollars in three days won the weekly box office champion without hindrance (September 11 to September 17). day).

In this way, the box office of the first weekend is still higher than the forecast data, which also makes the distribution work of Blue Butterfly Pictures more motivated...