is from the movie poster
. I think when my friends see this title, they will have a few questions. Where is the “fourth wall”? What are "big shorts" shorting?
First of all, "the fourth wall" is a dramatic term. In a traditional framed stage, three sides are closed, and the side of the actor facing the audience is physically open without any objects. Because of the hypothetical nature of the drama, when the actors perform, there is a virtual wall between them and the audience. It can also be seen as the boundary between the dramatic situation and the real space-time. Called the "fourth wall".
In traditional film and television works that use television screens and silver screens as the screening carrier, a camera is used to create a seemingly real time and space and relationship between characters, which is different from the time and space where the audience is. The film can only integrate the audience's thoughts and emotions into it through the sense of introduction, so the audience rarely interacts and communicates with the characters in the film. This is to maintain the "fourth wall". When the characters in the play actively interact with the audience, they break the "fourth wall".
has some film and television works that break the "fourth wall" to strengthen style and narration, such as the movie "Big Short".
"Big Short" is directed by Adam McKay, starring Brad Pitt, Christian Bell, Steve Carell, etc., and won the 88th Academy Awards-Best Adapted Screenplay Award. The
movie describes that before the outbreak of the financial crisis, several discerning investors on Wall Street saw through the potential risks of the housing market and mortgage securities MBS, and benefited by buying credit default swap CDS and shorting CDO. When the market was crazy, he became an adversary who watched the tide coldly. Since
is a film set in the financial crisis, it involves a lot of financial knowledge, so the story is very professional. In addition, the story also mentioned a point of view, that is, Wall Street often uses obscure terms to make ordinary people feel like they are in the cloud and mist, and make wrong judgments about investment. As a product for the general public, how to explain these professional terms, the director makes good use of the method of breaking the "fourth wall", making the film both professional and close to the audience. At the beginning of the
film, Jared Venett, played by Gosling, broke the "fourth wall" as the presenter of the story, had a dialogue with the audience, and introduced the past and present of MBS. Let the audience have a preliminary understanding of this financial product.
When another character, Barry, the fund manager played by Bell, discovered the potential subprime risks of real estate loans through a large amount of data analysis, once again through a dialogue with a girl and the audience, he explained the reasons for the risks in a simple way.
picture from the movie screenshot
loans seem to be healthy, but most of them are subprime loans. When
introduces another financial product CDO, the film uses two methods. One is to cover the building blocks that represent various financial products, and the metaphor uses the appearance to cover the inner part, and the second is to still use the "fourth" Face the wall" approach. This time, through the mouth of a chef, this product was compared with the image of cooking.
In these scenes, breaking the "fourth wall" is easy for the audience to "play out" and get out of the context of the drama, but in this film the director still used this form of expression many times , I understand there are three functions.
1.
simplifies the obscure content with daily and popular principles.
makes professional financial knowledge easy to understand.
has achieved "speaking rough but not rough". Take the basketball term "hot hand fallacy" to explain our misunderstanding in investment and financial management: if a basketball shooter succeeds in consecutive shots, everyone will feel that they will succeed next time. People think that what happened will continue to appear in the future.
2. Make the audience feel immersed. The characters in the play interact with the audience and control the emotions of the audience. Many viewers feel that the subject matter is too professional and far away from life. This approach shortens the distance between the film and the audience, telling the audience that this is the knowledge they need to understand in daily life.
3. Simple and direct shaping of character. For example, when Jared Venett heard the scene of fund manager Barry buying credit default swaps in a bar, he used him to say to the audience "but I don't come to this place" to show him and other financial professionals present. The difference between the people. behind
A gym scene echoed it. It shows that he is a person who is willing to keep in shape and is very self-disciplined.
has a similar scene in another classic movie "Angels Love the Beauty". Aimei constantly interacts with the audience and introduces some of her own hobbies. Look at the camera below.
broke the "fourth wall" in this film, which not only helped to create a "closed, somewhat weird" image of love and beauty, but also set the tone for the film's fantasy style.
therefore breaks the "fourth wall" as a form of expression and also serves different styles of films. In addition to breaking the "fourth wall", a few shots of "Big Short" also left a deep impression on me. For example, these two pictures.
The handprint photos of his wife and children on the desk of the fund manager Barry, as well as mobile phone screensavers, allow the audience to feel the strong sense of family in this man fighting in the financial field. It not only swells the image, but also shapes the character's thoughtful character under pressure.
also has this scene from the beginning of the movie. The
screen is divided into several spaces by different partitions. There is a sky in the mirror, a sky in the car window, and a sky outside the car. This may be another theme that the movie wants to express-the same side, different angles, everyone sees different content. Only by changing different positions and standing at a higher height can we have a better understanding.
If we are in a closed space on all sides, it will inevitably affect our judgment of the outside world. Only by breaking the "fourth wall" and letting ourselves go out can we see a wider space.
In this shot, a sentence from Mark Twain appeared, "It is not ignorance that gets you into trouble, but false judgments that seem to be correct."
—THE END—
