Walking in the Clouds Chinese poster
The movie "Walking in the Clouds" has been released in North America, and the release date in China has been set for January 22. This film, both technically and in story, was written by Oscar-winning best director Robert Zemeckis. Taking advantage of the release of "Walking in the Clouds," director Robert Zemeckis talks about how to combine great storytelling with cutting-edge technology, which is what he has been pursuing.
As we can see from his early work, Robert Zemeckis has been looking for greater possibilities in film storytelling and how to combine cutting-edge special effects, computer animation, and other digital technologies with unique and imaginative stories. For example, the "Back to the Future" trilogy, which has a lot of interesting science fiction plots; "Who Framed Roger rabbit", which pioneered the combination of live-action performance and animation and led a trend; and "Forrest Gump", which uses cgi technology to put the protagonist into a series of famous historical fragments. In addition, there is his informal animated trilogy (Polar Express, Beowulf, Anderson of Christmas), all of which use digital motion capture technology to present the fantasy color of the story itself.
Stills from Walking in the Clouds
This ambition to combine art and technology is also strongly reflected in Robert Zemeckis's latest work, Walking in the Clouds, which tells the true story of French acrobatic celebrity Philippe Pat (Joseph Gordon-Levitte), who in 1974 hired a jumble of people to help him realize his unique and dangerous dream of walking a tightrope between the World Trade Center Twin Towers, 417 meters above the ground.
Pat's story has previously been made by James Marsh into an excellent Oscar-winning documentary, The Tightrope Walker. So aside from the fact that a feature film will attract more viewers and make more money, what else makes Zemeckis think this story is worth telling again? Overall, the idea of making this story into a drama is to use the latest technology to make the audience feel a shocking experience that they can't experience elsewhere. While 3D and imax effects aren't at the heart of the film, Zemeckis cleverly used both techniques to serve the film itself, and it was used better than any other film in 2015.
Learn to walk a tightrope with the teacher
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the protagonist Pat, an active and enthusiastic young man who makes a living selling on the streets of Paris. Before becoming interested in tightrope walking, he was busy performing for crowds on the street and evading police arrests every day, as he did not have a permit to perform on the street. Later, he finds papa rudy (Ben Kingsley), an experienced circus professional tightrope walker, as a teacher, who secretly trains Pat to walk the tightrope for a very low tuition fee. Pat's girlfriend is the street musician Annie Allix, played by Charlotte Leben.
Pat dared to dream, and after seeing pictures of the Twin Towers in New York in a magazine, he announced that his goal in life was to cross the distance between the Twin Towers. A warm-up performance at Notre Dame earned him some fame, but the Petronas Twin Towers were still unbuilt, and there was no developed Internet at the time, and the lack of information caused Pat and his colleagues (including Clement Sborny, James Berggie Dale, César Domboy, Ben Schwartz, and Steve Valentine) no small amount of difficulty. Despite many setbacks (one colleague quit halfway through and injured his foot by Hitting a Nail Three Weeks Before Walking on a Tightrope), Pat was convinced that nothing would stop him from achieving his dream.
In the film, Pat constantly and secretly investigates and plans before the action, making the film feel like a robbery film to some extent. In fact, Pat has almost always referred to his plan as a "coup d'état," which reinforces the nature of its illegality, even though it could ultimately hurt only himself. Finally, based on weather forecasts, he carefully chose a date for the implementation of the operation, then gathered a patchwork team and got some lucky support from some strange places: one of the people on the team happened to be white-collar workers working in the Petronas Twin Towers, who had previously seen Pat in Europe.
Unlike Marsh in Tightrope Walker, who creates suspense by switching back and forth, Zemeckis basically adopts a flat and direct narrative approach, but makes a layered structure by letting Pat tell his story on the Statue of Liberty. Although this point seems a bit contrived and takes time to adapt, it is a good grasp of Pat's somewhat overly dramatic personality characteristics, making the overall effect good in the end. And, at the end of the film, solemnly points to the ultimate fate of the Petronas Twin Towers, which was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001.
The director's handling of emotional scenes makes the real dimension of the film to a higher level
One of the most interesting scenes in this legendary life story told in Walking in the Clouds is the night before Pat walks the tightrope, when the others are sleeping, he gets up and walks into the hallway and starts tapping the prop box loudly. Annie came out and asked him why he was making such noise, and Pat confessed that he wasn't sure if he had the courage to stand on the tightrope the next day. He then tells Annie that he's doing everything for her, which is obviously a lie because all of his actions are self-centered.
If it was a regular, less interesting film, it would be made into a disgusting love bridge to cement the emotional connection between Pat and Annie. But Zemeckis chose to show in a cold, almost cross-cutting sincerity that Annie did not believe what Pat was saying at this time, knowing that it was his ego and obsession with walking the tightrope that drove him forward. This technique worked well, because in real life, the two also parted ways quickly after that feat. In other words, the relationship between them is time-bound, conditional, and not long-lasting. It's very exciting that Zemeckis and screenwriter Christopher Brown realized this <b>and added a lot of points to the complexity and authenticity of the film. </b>
"Walking in the Clouds" Chinese theatrical trailer
The film is 123 minutes long, and in two hours, Walking in the Clouds establishes a slow but methodical tension. <b>The entire play culminates in the final 45 minutes, when Pat achieves his heart-pounding feat. This long-lasting passage fully reflects zemeckis's skill. It's amazing to share the process with other audiences in a dark theater, marvel, feel anxious, and feel sick for the story and characters in the film. This passage reflects the high standard of mainstream filmmaking and viewing experience. </b>
In addition to the wonderful special effects, another core of Walking in the Clouds is Lutherf's performance, who professionally conveys both Pat's approachable charm and dedication, and does not let one of them fall short by juggling two points. If replaced by an actor who is too self-conscious or does not understand the childlike playful nature of the character, Zemeckis's film may become more gloomy and narcissistic. Fortunately, Walking in the Clouds is a fun, engaging, and at the same time down-to-earth, realistic film.
<b>Other media comments:</b>
"Walking in the Clouds uses the latest digital and cinematic technology, but it still retains the satisfying flavor of old-school cinema." —Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly
"To achieve that feat, Philip Pat looked at it from the perspective of 'possible' and 'impossible'. Through this film, Robert Zemeckis taught us the same lesson. —Jaime Christley, Slant Magazine
"Walking in the Clouds, at least in the second half of it, is dazzling, especially if you look at the 3D version. But no amount of advanced technology can obscure the glow of the lead actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. —Stephanie zacharek, "The Voice of the Village"
"Walking in the Clouds makes for a wonderful participatory cinematic experience – both sensory and emotional." ——mal vincent《the virginian-pilot》