Sam Mendes was filmed on the scene of "1917".
After the resumption of work in domestic theaters, the war blockbuster "1917" directed by Sam Mendes was re-scheduled to be released in mainland China on August 7. The film tells the story of two British soldiers on the battlefield of World War I, in order to save 1,600 comrades, sent a message in the direction of life and death, and a mission must be achieved. Audiences can experience "immersive" more immersively in theaters including IMAX, China Giant Screen, CINITY and other cinemas. This is also the second movie made specifically for IMAX after "007: The Great Sky" by Mendez.
The innovation of film technology leads the future of film and also provides more possibilities for the expression methods of film. In "1917", Mendes and his old partner photographer Roger Diggins were brave enough to try to make breakthroughs. They used clever editing to achieve the special visual effect of "one-shot to the end". This is also the first time that the shooting technique was fully applied to a war film, restoring the cruelty and impermanence of war 360 degrees. Faced with some comments about the film's "showing skills" and "unsatisfied with the fierce battle scene", Mendes once said that the theme of the film "the goal of the character is not to massacre as many enemies as possible, but to go home." Stills from
"American Beauty".
As a top director of the British drama stage, Mendes was awarded the British Royal Medal when he was young, but he was brave enough to make breakthroughs but began to try to seek breakthroughs on the big screen. "When I decided to direct "American Beauty" (released in 1999), which describes the crisis of middle-aged American men, I didn't even stay in the suburbs of the United States for even two days. I took on various films because I could understand their original parts and I wanted to accept new challenges."
Under the lens of Mendes, his works, whether they are art films or commercial masterpieces, reflect his unique artistic aesthetic symbols. For example, the same scene and voiceover always appear at the beginning and end of the film. I like to tell various stories with the combination of music and cameras. There will always be dining tables and dinner parties, paying attention to family, and rain often indicates ominousness.
The critics have given Mendes a definition like "He is a calm humanist who always seeks change", and he has been using his unique insights to constantly make creative breakthroughs, "Learn to turn familiar things into strange things, and to turn strange things into familiar things. Direct new films like director Shakespeare's drama, and direct Shakespeare's drama like directors."
winner of the British Queen's Medal
The youngest Oscar darling, directed The most literary 007
In 2005, Mendes, who was only 40 years old, won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Directors Association Award. He once said humbly and humorously, "I feel that I am still not qualified. I think this award is a bank loan. I will repay the principal and interest in 20 years. At that time, I will feel more qualified."
British director Sam Mendes, who just celebrated his 55th birthday on August 1, has a very high starting point. My grandfather is a writer, my father is a university professor, and my mother is a children's book writer. When he was director of the drama, he directed his debut work "Cherry Garden", the actress who worked with him, Judy Denchi, has won the Lawrence Oliver Award, which represents the highest honor of British drama and musicals twice.
Before becoming a film director, Sam Mendes was the top director of the Royal Shakespeare Troupe. He directed well-known plays such as "Richard III" and "Storm". Later, he became the artistic director of the Danmar Warehouse Theater, and has won many directorial awards and nominations for the Tony Award and Lawrence Oliver Award. On the 2000 list of honors for the Queen of England’s birthday, Mendes, 35, was awarded the Order of Commander of the British Empire (C.B.E.) for his outstanding contribution to British drama. In 2005, Mendes, who was only 40 years old, won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Directors Association Award. He once said humbly and humorously, "I feel that I am still not qualified. This award is a bank loan. I will repay the principal and interest in 20 years. At that time, I will feel more qualified."
Mendes and Judy Dench were filming the filming scene of the film "007: The Skybreak".
Spielberg once commented on Mendes: "His stage play is like a movie, and his movies have the attributes of a stage play." The Times said that his directorial arrangement has achieved "the best appearance of the drama." At the same time, Judy Denchi also became Mendes's royal use, and the two later collaborated on movies such as "007: The Skybreak" and "007: The Ghost Party".
Mendes once said: "Painting, novels, poetry, music, these are the most advanced art halls. But drama and film can steal it and integrate them into one." Similarly, drama has had a significant impact on Mendes' film creation. The creative core of cross-art forms allows Mendes to be at ease between art and business, and demonstrates excellent directorial ability and control.
Mendez (right) starring Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty".
When many viewers wanted to define Sam Mendes as "middle-class life" and the spokesperson for art film directors, Mendes showed his richer genre control ability. The gangster films "The Road to Destruction", the war film "The Pothead", and the road film "Relocation for the Son" have all gained good reputation. As he said, "If you look at "Relocation for the Son" (directed in 2009), all of my movies have similar problems. They are all about one or more lost people, who are trying to find a way out. This time, there is no difference, it just happens that they found a way out." There was a rumor that Mendes was going to direct a Marvel Avengers, and when the audience agreed that he would never "condescend" to direct commercial popcorn films, he unexpectedly directed two "007" movies.
"The Most Literary and Artful" 007 in "007: The Great Defeat of the Sky".
In "007: The Skybreaker" and "007: The Ghost Party", Mendes fully integrates his own style, and at the same time further elaborates on the themes of relatively artistic films such as "family" and "death" that he is interested in. The two films received a total of US$1.9 billion in global box office, and are called the most literary Bond film by many 007 fans. However, Mendes said that directing two 007s is a wonderful experience "enough to change a person's life", but shooting a commercial film "is more like a lifestyle than a career choice, and everything else in your life has to make way for it." Therefore, after "007: The Ghost Party", Mendes, who had been on the verge of three years, chose to produce the war film "1917".
shoot "1917"
often reflects on "Why are you falling into this dilemma"
Mendez believes that he has the responsibility to tell these stories so that some of the sacrifices in the war can be understood. Mendes thought of the concept of "showing the microscope in the macro" to avoid it becoming a boring historical film, which is more in line with the preferences of current audiences.
"1917" comes from a true story that Mendes had heard from his grandfather. His grandfather Alfred participated in World War I in 1916, and was responsible for passing messages through the unmanned lands, when he was only 17 years old. With a thin figure, he is often shrouded in the thick winter fog that exceeds his height. Staying in the muddy trenches for two years has also made him develop the habit of washing his hands frequently. It was not until he was in his 70s that he talked about his special wartime experience. "It's because he always remembers the sludge in the trenches," Mendes recalled, "so he can never be clean."
Mendes believes he has the responsibility to tell these stories so that certain sacrifices in the war can be understood. Mendes thought of the concept of "showing the microscope in the macro" to avoid it becoming a boring historical film, which is more in line with the preferences of current audiences.Therefore, the story of "1917" focuses on personal experience and implements the background of war to a very personal expression.
photographers Roger Diggins and Mendes were filming on the filming site of the film "1917".
The old partner photographer Roger Diggins received Mendes' script, and the first sentence of the opening made Diggins hesitate: "These must be done with one shot." Mendes believes that Yijing is closely related to the story of the movie. The two young British soldiers in the film must race against time to save the lives of 1,600 soldiers. "From the beginning, I wanted to shoot this movie in real time, so that the audience can embark on a journey together, breathe with the characters, and understand the nature of war. Yijing is the best way to tell this story." But in Diggins's view, although Yijing is difficult to achieve at the technical level, he is more worried that excessive photography will weaken the power of the script and allow the audience to get out of the plot and focus on the camera.
In fact, long lenses and handheld lenses are not uncommon in Mendez's works. As early as the opening scene of "007: Skybreak", Sam Mendez worked with Roger Diggins to complete a shot that allowed the audience to enter the Mexico Day of the Dead with 007. Handheld shots appeared in large numbers in the first movie "The Pot Cave" that the two collaborated on. Previously, the 87th Academy Award-winning Best Picture "Birdman" (directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu) also attracted the audience's attention with one shot, but Sam Mendez wanted to make a breakthrough: "Birdman did a great job, but the film was all interior and kept going back to the same place. We were linear, constantly moving to different scenes, and you didn't even know what the corner that the next shot would look like."
However, during the difficult actual shooting of "1917", Mendez often reflected on "why was caught in this situation."
In order to make the picture natural and smooth, "seamless links" create a visual presentation of one-shot shots. Mendes used his expertise as a drama director. Art director Dennis Gasner made a large number of scene models on the open space of the studio. The crew began to rehearse the shooting and move before the scene was built, accurately calculating the length of each scene, which took a total of six months of preparation time. The crew also posted signs warning walkers next to the shooting area so that pedestrians would not be scared by the scattered "corpses". Stills from
"1917".
The whole movie seems to be completed with a long shot, but in fact there are dozens of "invisible editing points", and the longest shot reaches 8 and a half minutes. At the shooting site, a large number of shots were abandoned due to minor shootings and actor mistakes. The crew also prepared a "map" script for all staff with the movements of the entire audience, photography and movement methods, so as to successfully complete the shot shooting. Since the crew tried to use natural light and outdoor shooting as much as possible, and shot as many real shots to complete the final splicing, and wanted to wait until the cloudy weather in the plot setting to complete the shooting immediately, meteorologists were on the scene throughout the process, helping the crew complete almost impossible tasks. Mendes said the shooting process is often a veritable "resigned to fate."
If you pay too much attention to the existence of the camera
The original intention of anti-war in 1917 was to "defeat"
"Don't always consider the results or the audience's reaction. The only thing you need to think about is the process of continuous exploration. My favorite quote comes from what Polonius said in "Hamlet": Repeated exploration is the right way."
After the release of North America on December 25, 2019, many media called "1917" the best war film since "Save the Soldier Ryan". IndieWire also praised: "Although the concept of 'one-shot to the end' is not new, 1917 has done differently from movies such as Birdman and Soul-Snatching Rope in the past years - Mendes injected freshness into this, not only creating tension from it, but also immersing the audience in a completely unpredictable state of wartime life.”
At this year's Oscars, "1917" won three awards: Best Photography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Mix. This is also the first war film to win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in nearly 50 years since the film "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" (5 nominations for the 43rd Academy Awards in 1971).
"1917" won the 92nd Oscar in 2020 Card Best Photography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Mix.
Of course, not everyone will like "one-shot to the end". Some critics say that doing so is more like a form of image test for form, like an over-display of technical capabilities, which distracts people from the plot. Mendes mocks this view: "The camera never passes through the keyhole, nor through the glass, nor follows the track of the bullet's movement. "For him, this is just a "coquettish" of some "film critics", not something that creators should be worried about.
In Mendes's view, whether it is adapting works by Shakespeare, Dickens and Harold Pinter on the theatrical stage, or performing the daydream of middle-aged men on the big screen or the rats in the trenches accidentally hit a mine, you need to be brave enough to try to make breakthroughs in expression. "Don't always consider the results or the audience's reaction." All that needs to be thought about is the process of continuous exploration. My favorite quote comes from what Polonius said in "Hamlet": Repeated exploration is where the right path lies. "
Mendez and the screenwriter of 1917 also said that the whole meaning of their shooting of this film is that you will live for 115 minutes in another person's life. If you pay too much attention to the existence of the camera, then the original anti-war intention of this film is all "defeated". "Understanding history is the only way to avoid future disasters. The two world wars were the stupidest things humans have ever done to each other. We did this movie not to let you sit in a chair and watch your phone, not to let you appreciate the war background, nor to let you feel like you are playing a first-person shooter - of course, I believe my grandfather would feel uncomfortable if he could see this movie, but I am sure he would appreciate the existence of the movie. ”
Beijing News reporter Li Yan
Editor Huang Jialing Proofreading Lu Qian
Source: Beijing News
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