Who slapped Nolan in the face

I watched Interstellar's last hour, and my palms were sweaty and my mouth was half open.

When the credits slowly rose and the lights gradually lit up, I found that the cinema with nearly 300 people was almost packed, and the air was filled with "awesome" or awesome sighs.

According to the data of "China Movie Box Office", the attendance rate of Interstellar yesterday (1 16) was 6 1%, and the box office of the whole day was 85.78 million yuan, with a cumulative box office of 269 million yuan (it has been shown for five days). According to this trend, it is expected to reappear in 2009. " The latter was released in mid-June 1 1, but it ran through the whole lunar new year file. At that time, it was impossible to have such a long screening period even for the two domestic blockbusters in the New Year's file. "20 12" won the annual box office champion, beating the summer file "Transformed king kong 2".

Interstellar is a nearly 3-hour movie, and it is hard science fiction. Its brain burn is even worse than that in Inception before Nolan. What is even more amazing is that there is no love between men and women, no house rot, only the most common fatherly love. So the question is, how did the audience in China do it? They like this "anti-market" masterpiece very much.

Nolan used this benchmark to prove at least three things to China filmmakers:

First, the cinema manager doesn't like three-hour movies, but he can still make them like them.

During the National Day, a domestic film suffered a big setback on the length of three hours. No one denies the sincerity of the film and the feelings of the director and creator, but it was really abandoned by the cinema manager three hours after its release, and the number of films dropped sharply.

Three hours is a "hard injury" because it really affects the profitability of the cinema, which is a concept with the turnover rate of the hotel. Two-hour movies can be shown six times a day, and three-hour movies can only be shown four times, which is 33% less. If the attendance rate is the same and the ticket price is the same, the preference of cinema managers is self-evident. Therefore, in order to reverse this just-needed preference, the attendance rate of 3-hour movies is much higher than that of 2-hour movies-the former is at least 33% higher than the latter, and the fare is the same. If the attendance rate is not higher than 33%, then the fare will definitely make up for the gap.

The films shown in the National Day archives can't meet the above requirements in attendance and ticket prices, which of course touches the bottom line of cinema managers.

However, Nolan's Interstellar and his 20 12 "The Rise of the Dark Knight" were both made, which lasted nearly three hours-and there was no 3D. Except for some IMAX theaters with higher ticket prices, it should be said that most of the box office contributions come from 2D theaters that can be seen everywhere.

Obviously, Nolan has at least proved that cinema managers can love movies for three hours. Although it is difficult, it is not impossible, and it should not be done only by Nolan or Hollywood directors. Why can't China filmmakers do it?

Second, blockbusters are not necessarily 3D, and audiences are not necessarily obsessed with 3D.

Nolan is one of the few great directors in Hollywood who still insists on not making 3D movies. He also thinks that many movies are wasted on making 3D movies. When director China and China's film companies are scrambling to improve their films with various true and false 3D technologies and double the ticket price-including many Hollywood films and companies, Nolan seems to be obsessed with a "pure land" like an old man-he even stubbornly insists on shooting only on film.

After Avatar, China audiences were deceived by too many inferior 3D works, so I won't list them here. Not long ago, Sohu reported and criticized this phenomenon in a special article (20 14 Global 3D Movie Report: Only China audiences love to be cheated). In fact, China filmmakers' fascination with rough 3D mainly comes from the quick success of the market-the ticket price is twice that of 2D cinemas, and the dramatic increase of 3D screen after 2009 must supply enough 3D movies to avoid waste.

But these do not mean that the audience must love watching 3D. Those dazzling 3D screen design, apart from the early surprises of visual experience, are becoming more and more boring, not only failing to add points to the plot and the overall experience of the film, but sometimes losing points because of the fatigue and discomfort brought by 3D vision.

Nolan must know this very well. He firmly believes that the 2D screen is enough to show the grandeur and subtlety of the known or even unknown time and space-the large-scale image experience of the picture is not only the "big" or "strange" that the eyeball can perceive, but also the coordination of hearing and the interaction between the brain and the mind. The roar only from audio and video is just a sensory stimulation experience, which is fleeting and difficult to produce a "chemical reaction" of the body. Interstellar's viewing experience comes from the all-round interaction between brain and mind after external audio-visual stimulation. The ultimate stimulation of the whole body nerves mobilized the whole body to experience this dream and complete an incredible journey of time and space.

After Interstellar built a space for us in 3D, he can still build a space with the same audio-visual shock and aesthetic feeling again, which at least proves that 3D is not absolutely superior to 2D-/kloc-the 2D shooting technology accumulated over the years of creation, and can still achieve new transcendence under the genius of the creator.

Under Nolan's direction, the suffocating feeling brought by the parallel montage narrative of the last hour and two spaces seems to reset the memory of my first movie-completely deceived by the image, completely immersed in the situation set by the plot, and completely led by Nolan like a child.

The audience loves Nolan because he brings us back to our first love with the big screen-admiration, excitement and irresistible infatuation.

Third, the audience is not vulgar, but filmmakers are willing to be vulgar.

In recent two years, there has been an obvious trend in China films. Mild sexual comedy has been well received by the market, and works emerge one after another. With the blessing of big coffee, the box office was also a great success. Accompanied by this, a large number of domestic films have more or less "created" sexually provocative lines, pictures or audio-visual language of sexual metaphors-the content that was strictly forbidden on the big screen, which is constantly challenging the larger scale. It seems that audiences will flock to buy tickets for these reasons.

Undeniably, quite a few movie audiences like the content of these "sex" themes, whether it is physical or verbal sexual hints or sexual teasing. That kind of love is like stealing joy from the gap of taboo. These simple and even vulgar viewing experiences seem to be repeatedly verified by the market.

The misunderstanding of audience gossip and superstition of the overwhelming "iron market law" at the box office are enough to show that China filmmakers collectively lack the ideals, feelings and vision that an artist should have.

There is almost no sexual teasing or suggestion in Interstellar-only at the beginning of the film, Cooper's father-in-law reminds Cooper to pay more attention to Professor Brand for the sake of human reproduction, which is barely a line with sexual suggestion. Besides, the whole movie doesn't even focus on the love between men and women. Only Dr. Brand, played by Anne Hathaway, mentioned his lover Dr. edmonds in the space station and made a declaration similar to love, which can transcend gravity and scientific rationality. In addition, Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey, finally set out for Dr. Brand again, hinting at their feelings.

Nolan wrapped his father's love outside the solid core of hard science fiction. It was the stubbornness of his father's love that crossed the five-dimensional space of the black hole and saved mankind. There may be a scientific explanation here, but at this time, the audience has reached the emotional high point of indifference. When Cooper finally passed his father's love to Murphy's watch through Morse code, this greatness of "humanity" came to my mind and filled the air for a long time.

In my humble opinion, hard science fiction is just the gorgeous appearance of this masterpiece. What really makes Nolan devote all his feelings and thoughts is the value of "I". The fundamental premise of mankind's endless pursuit of science is that we firmly believe that the human population will continue to multiply, and even if the earth is destroyed, human civilization should have a new planet to continue to stretch. Cooper's concern for his daughter and his insistence on returning to the earth are all based on his father's sense of responsibility-we all grew up in the shadow of the civilization created by his father and the predecessors representing his generation, and we will all inherit this responsibility and civilization, so that the fire of mankind can continue. Although Professor Brand destroyed his humanity by deception, his great love is still to rekindle the fire of mankind and continue civilization on another planet. Cooper sacrificed the robot and himself and sent Dr. Brand to another planet. These sacrifices come from caring for human beings without any interference.

The audience is fully capable of feeling the creator's ideals, feelings and vision through roles and plots. The audience may not understand the hard science fiction part-for example, I only digested this part with a little knowledge, but the audience's understanding of emotions is completely smooth, whether it is the love between father and daughter or the fraternity of human beings.

Nolan used Interstellar to help China audiences clear their names: they can also be shocked by the content that is not vulgar, and they have a high degree of film aesthetics-it is not the audience that can't be reached, but China filmmakers.

It should be said that the fifth generation directors used to be the artist group with the most national feelings and international vision, but after falling into the tide of commercialization around the new century, they have gradually lost their way. However, the personalized expression of the sixth generation directors is always out of step with the business world. Although they still insist on some feelings, they can't control industrialization and the law of industrialized film production. After the sixth generation, there is no intergenerational division of directors. A group of new young directors are close to the business, but they seem less ideal, stubborn and responsible.

I can think of only one great director who can master the film technology, control the industrial energy and still release the ideal light and emotional power in China, and that is Zhang Yimou. I hope his upcoming Hollywood blockbuster "The Great Wall" can show us that China filmmakers also need a Nolan-level benchmark to re-inspire China filmmakers.

(This article was first published in Tiger Sniff, please indicate the author and source)