193 1 comedy/love
Director: Ryan Claire.
Screenwriter: rene claire
Photography: George Perinal
Music: armand Bernard, Philip Paris, etc.
Actors: Luis Alibert, annabella, Rene Le Fanor, etc.
The gist of the story is:
The poor artist Michel (Rene Le Fanor) rents an apartment in Paris. Because she can't afford all kinds of fees, she is often chased by various debt collectors, which is very embarrassing. Until one day, he was lucky enough to win the Million Frogman Award, and his fate changed from then on. He clearly remembers putting the lottery ticket in his jacket pocket and being taken away by his girlfriend Betty (annabella) to mend it. But what he never expected was that Betis lost her coat when she was upset because another woman was pestering him. These clothes were accidentally worn by Plop (Louis Albert) who sneaked into Bettis' house to avoid the police. The next story is a series of gimmicks and farce staged by Michelle and his friends to find this skirt. In the end, the lottery ticket was returned to its original owner, and the film ended with laughter and laughter.
Movie appreciation:
This film is a classic comedy by René Clare, a French movie master, which has a great influence on the later Hollywood classic musical films, and is also a masterpiece of the early audio films. No matter from any aspect, "Million Lottery" is worthy of the reputation as the foundation stone of French musicals. Even after 73 years, we will relive this movie, and the freshness and heat of generate in the movie will make the audience happy. At the same time, it is also a great baptism for movie audiences in a truly modern sense.
Rene claire's greatest achievement lies in successfully crossing the gap between sound films and silent films. Different from many contemporaries, he seized an important opportunity: the new achievements of science and technology can benefit the film art, which broke the shackles of stereotypes and created more colorful audio-visual images. The integration of sound into images is undoubtedly a technical victory. In many of his own works (such as Under a Parisian Roof), rene claire used sound earlier to strengthen and improve the narrative function of the picture. But there is no doubt that the million-dollar lottery is one of the best.
Formally, Million Lottery is a pure musical comedy. Vivid and funny images, sometimes beautiful (such as the wonderful scene of "Bohemia" in the opera house) and sometimes gripping songs (such as the beginning and end of the song and dance party) have reached a perfect unity, and even the dialogue between the characters seems so lengthy and redundant-although the dialogue written by rene claire is already very concise. The end of the film is more like an illusory daydream, which is consistent with the artist's surreal sympathy.
Million Lottery is the jewel in the crown of early French film art. When the film 193 1 was first released, it was recognized by both the box office and the critics. Today, it is still considered as a landmark work in the history of French film art. In fact, when we compare and analyze the early French musicals and American Hollywood musicals, we can still find some typical French characteristics. Early Hollywood musicals are an important type of American films, but they have not been highly praised by critics for a long time. The most important reason is that the fusion of songs and actions is not appropriate enough, which hinders the normal process of the movie plot. For example, in the movie "Be a Good Lady" (194 1), Eleanor Powell did not explain why there was no motive and plot in the tap dance movie. Just because she is an excellent tap dancer, although Powell's role in the film is very small, but because of the enthusiasm of fans-in fact, Eleanor Powell's tap dance should be a natural product of the development of the plot, not just a need for entertainment.
It can be seen that it is not easy to integrate songs and narratives seamlessly. Although the "main" types of American musical films have made great progress in the later period, the "legacy" of singing, dancing and narrative still exists. For example, in the famous "An American in Paris", the climax is still a typical American-style luxury stage play scene, which is out of touch with the plot. On the other hand, French musical films, especially Million Lotto, have achieved a high degree of integration of song and dance and narrative. At the beginning of the song and dance scene, the reason why people celebrate is explained through songs-"winning the lottery", and then the film enters a flashback; When Michelle escaped from her creditors and ran away in a hurry, all kinds of people sang brisk songs and lined up to chase her, mixing with another pair of policemen who arrested Plop. At that time, chickens flew and dogs jumped, which made a lot of noise; In the famous opera scene, Michelle and Betis accidentally mixed into the stage, and they hid behind the set. As the hero and heroine sang the beautiful Bohemian song in front of the stage, they told each other their hearts, and their actions and lyrics unconsciously reached an amazing agreement. In the climax, two groups of people competed for coats, and staged one football game after another in the narrow corridor, which was full of laughter and could be said to be the essence of the whole play. I wonder if rene claire knew the word "postmodern" at that time.
Unfortunately, compared with Hollywood, French musicals are far behind. Although there are some famous works such as jean renoir's French Cancan Dance and Golden Carriage (note: these two films were recently released by Standard Company) and Max Hoffert's Laura Montais (note: Standard Company has published), French musicals are a group force. After the mid-1930s, France entered a more influential stage of poetic realism, and many masters and masterpieces appeared. Compared with this, musicals seem to be silent, but if I pick out two peaks of French musicals, I think one is Autumn Waters directed by jacques demy (also known as Umbrella of Cherbourg, catherine deneuve's famous work won the Palme d 'Or Award), and the other is the movie Millions of Lotto (note: this film is mistranslated as millions of francs, and cam—— is mistranslated as The Last Millionaire).
1962, rene claire was elected as an academician of the French Academy (only 40 in China), becoming the first film artist to win this honor. As the French Academy commented on the reason why he was selected, there is no shortage of honor in the world, and our honor only lacks him.
Movies such as Pension Germany, France, Double Eve can be found at /tw/2 1596-category.html? . R for reference only.