Author of this article: Li Xiaotian
The winners of the 96th Academy Awards were announced. " Oppenheimer " swept seven awards for best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, photography, editing, and soundtrack to become the biggest winner! Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. each received their first Oscars. Congratulations!
Among them, the biggest surprise is that Christopher Nolan was finally no longer ignored by the Oscars and won the Best Director and Best Picture in one fell swoop.
A new era in Hollywood, although long overdue, is finally here!
I once wrote "Hollywood Rivers and Lakes, an Alternative Perspective on the Ups and Downs of the Movie Martial Arts Gang", which gave a simple overview of Hollywood movies.
Compared with Europe, the rise of the new wave of American films was much later. With the rise of the four major directors: Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese, American films have completely entered a new era, and they have become the four famous directors of the "New Wave of American Films".
With the long wait times of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, the successors of the four major directors in Hollywood have not yet surfaced.
The difference between Hollywood movies and European movies, that is, the difference between the Oscars and the three major European film festivals, is that Hollywood movies can often produce works that are both commercial and artistic, integrating entertainment with art, or integrating art with commerce. middle. For example, "Saving Private Ryan" directed by Spielberg is such a typical example. It integrates humanistic thinking into war, making the whole film beautiful and at the same time presenting a strong criticism of war. Spielberg certainly knows the difference between business and literature. In the same year, in 1993, he filmed "Schindler's List" with his left hand as a literary artist, and "Jurassic Park" with his right hand as a commercial film. He had to grasp it with both hands. All hard.
Among the new generation directors who are generally recognized as being able to succeed the four famous directors, Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve are the two most vocal.
However, in order to complete the succession, it must win the Oscar and gain unanimous recognition from the audience and the academy. The most criticized thing about Christopher Nolan is that he has never been very discerning about entering the academy. Before "Oppenheimer" finally won the Oscar for Best Director, he only won the Oscar for Best Director in 2018 with " Dunkirk" "" was nominated once. It's really hard to imagine that "Oppenheimer" was only his second nomination. Fortunately, I won the award after being nominated for the second time.
Films such as "Batman 2: The Dark Knight", " Inception ", " Interstellar " and other films that everyone liked before have not been nominated for him.
In the eyes of the audience, Nolan has always been the wronged person of the Oscars. In the view of the academy, Nolan has always been too commercial and lacks deep humanistic and artistic thinking.
Fortunately, "Oppenheimer" conquered the audience and the academy in one fell swoop, and they all unanimously believed that Nolan could become a god. (As for how Nolan conquered the academy, please go to "Why <奥本海默> is a masterpiece", "Nolan, let the movie return to the movie, <奥本海默> is worthy of being a masterpiece" and "Talk about the male character of "Oppenheimer"" Protagonist Cillian Murphy , how a daughter-in-law of many years became a mother-in-law")
With Nolan's award, it has been officially announced that Nolan has become a top director and has officially become the successor of the four major directors.
In addition to Nolan, another successor, Denis Villeneuve, also rose to the top director status with the release of " Dune 2" and gained heavyweight chips.
This article is half a review of Nolan and "Oppenheimer" and half a review of Denis Villeneuve and "Dune 2".
Since "Dune 2" is currently in theaters, this is a sci-fi masterpiece worth watching as a court drama version of Shakespeare.
The background of " Dune " was already written when the first part was released, so I won't go into details here.(Please move to "Tell a good story three times, and you will understand the essence of "Dune" after reading it")
Before talking about "Dune 2", let me briefly talk about Denis Villeneuve. Although he is a Canadian, all of his film achievements were achieved in Hollywood, so everyone attributes him to a Hollywood director, not a Canadian director.
The reason why Denis Villeneuve is said to be the successor of the four major directors as famous as Nolan is that under his guidance, he has "Sicario ", "Blade Runner 2049", "Arrival" and "Scorched Earth" "" and other masterpieces, which have both commercial appreciation and literary and artistic value. He is a rare versatile director.
Moreover, Denis Villeneuve is brave and knowledgeable.
Nolan dares to take on a complex story like "Oppenheimer" that is difficult to be adapted into a movie, and Denis Villeneuve dares to take on a science fiction epic "Dune" that is difficult to be adapted into a movie. Both of them require huge sacrifices. Courage also requires strong directing skills.
Why is "Dune" said to be difficult to adapt? Just look at Ang Lee's "Gemini Man" and Zack Snyder's "Moon Rebels". These two films, which are full of painstaking efforts by the director, were unanimously criticized after they were released. Everyone thought they were not good to watch. This is because the scripts of these two films are old scripts that were unearthed from the archives, almost 20 years ago. When the script was first written, it might have been quite new. The issues of human cloning and the issue on the far side of the moon were quite attractive. However, now, with the deepening of public awareness, the topic of cloning and the issue on the far side of the moon are quite different. The topic is no longer new. In this case, no matter how exciting the packaging is, it cannot change the old flaws of the story. Ang Lee and Zack Snyder are both successful and famous directors, and there is nothing they can do about it.
"Dune", as a novel published in 1965, actually also faces the problem of outdated stories, even more serious.
Denis Villeneuve dared to direct this work, and the difficulty can be imagined. In the past, David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Ridley Scott and many other big names have adapted this work, and even David Lynch directed a movie A trashy version of Dune. Who is Denis Villeneuve?
Because there are too many metaphors and background settings, there is a threshold for appreciating the "Dune" series. It is very difficult for viewers who know nothing about the original work to appreciate this work without any barriers. Even for viewers who have some knowledge of Western culture, it is still difficult to appreciate it.
On the surface, the "Dune" series is a typical science fiction version of Shakespeare's court drama, especially similar to "Samrat", which is a typical "Prince's Revenge". Audiences who are more familiar with Western classics will feel that this is not a science fiction version of the fall of the Roman Empire, the struggle between the dynasty and several major families, the Corino family, Atreides in "Dune" The Harkonnen family and the Harkonnen family can almost directly correspond to the three major families of Scipio, Julius and Brutus in ancient Roman history, and the story trends are very similar. Audiences who know something about modern Western history will find that this is not just a history of the United States' ascendancy in the field of international politics. Paul Atreides represents the new force of the international order that advocates freedom and peace, and Huck The Nan family and the Corino family symbolize the older generation of colonialists such as Britain, France and Spain.
Some viewers don’t understand why “Dune” is obviously a science fiction film, but why the people in it still use cold weapons to fight. It’s simply unreasonable.
In fact, this point is explained very clearly in the "Butler's War" in the original book. This point can be understood in conjunction with the setting of " Terminator ", which was created based on the inspiration of the setting of "Dune". "Terminator" says that Skynet will rule mankind, but Skynet calculated that mankind will give birth to a savior to overthrow Skynet's rule, so it sent the Ultimate to end the fate of mankind.The earlier "Dune" had the same setting. Human beings ruled by computers, led by Joan of Arc Butler, launched an uprising and overthrew the computer's rule over humans. However, due to the profound influence of computers on human activities, after the collapse of computer rule, humans directly returned to primitive society. Moreover, the surviving humans' distrust of computers has made it no longer convenient to use high technology, and interstellar travel has become extremely long. This has also caused many human behaviors to return to their original state, and fighting has become a Primitive fighting with weapons and cold weapons became popular again.
In the setting of "Dune", humans can use shields, which can effectively protect the shots of high-tech weapons. However, due to their slow movement, cold weapons can penetrate the shield and easily kill the opponent.
After surpassing these settings, if you watch "Dune 2" again, you can easily feel the physical shock brought by the film, and its planetary duel mode also makes the film look extremely sharp.
"Blade Runner 2049" directed by Denis Villeneuve has received mixed reviews. People who like it will always love it, while people who don't like it will despise it. The "Dune" series once again suffered the same fate as "Blade Runner 2049". People who like it will always love it, but people who don't like it will despise it. But in any case, returning to the movie, "Dune 2" is a masterpiece of the year.
took an old story and turned it into a modern science fiction epic. Denis Villeneuve did it. This film will surely become one of the most important works of his directorial career.
As for the question of whether "Dune 2" can win an Oscar. It's a bit suspenseful, because the next Oscars won't be held until this time next year. By then, "Dune 2" will have been almost forgotten.
Don’t say that spring films can win awards. Even summer films have a hard time winning awards because a large number of films aiming for Oscars mostly choose to release them at the end of the year just to gain a good impression and take advantage of the freshness period. Score some impression points. It’s rare for a summer masterpiece like “Oppenheimer” to win an award.
"Dune 2" should be released in the summer for the sake of box office. I don't know why it should be released in the spring. Probably, it's because of his strong confidence in his own strength.
Denis Villeneuve can prepare for "Dune 3" with peace of mind.
By the way, "Dune 2" is actually a tragedy, because the male protagonist Paul Atreides has actually turned dark at the end of the film. In the original book, he became a tyrant after ascending to the throne. In the film, he easily abandons Qini, who is in love with him, and instead chooses a princess with whom he is not familiar at all. The utilitarian nature of marriage is evident, as is the nature of a scumbag. In order to ascend to the throne, he would resort to any means that are chilling. Paul's darkening is evident from this.
The next "Dune 3" will become more and more beautiful.
