"Chicago" is a darkly comic film that tells an absurd and thought-provoking story set in the glitz and glamor of 1920s Chicago.
After being incarcerated for murder, two song-and-dance heroines, Rosie and Kelly, make a big deal out of the case, vying for newspaper headlines and the favor of handsome and charming attorney Billy Flynn. With Billy's help, they successfully use media hype to steer public opinion to their advantage and are eventually acquitted of their crimes and become popular stars.
Filmed in 2002, Chicago is also a song-and-dance movie, based on the musical of the same name, Chicago. The movie was directed by Rob Marshall, written by Bill Camden and starred Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere.
On March 23, 2003, at the 75th Academy Awards, Chicago won six awards, including Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Production Designer, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Picture, making it the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Song and Dance Film since 1968's Orphan of the Mist.
The powerful commercial and word-of-mouth momentum of the song-and-dance movie reminded people of its elegance, so some critics said:song-and-dance movie will have a renaissance.
The movie is set in Chicago in the 1920s, a time of "magic bullet theory" (a view of the powerful effects of the media).
Influenced by the "yellow journalism wars" of the late 1800s, the media focused on crime, scandal, gossip, divorce, and sex on the basis of sensationalism. Although yellow journalism gradually lost the war on journalism, yellow journalism had quietly become the mainstream of news reporting at the time.
In the early 20th century, Chicago was the second largest city in the United States after New York.
While the U.S. government shut down the red-light district and then enacted Prohibition to improve social mores at the time, Chicago remained a haven for jazz, song and dance, revelry, and ennui for men and women.
The high crime rate also made Chicago a truly violent city. The narrative art of the text of Chicago is based mainly on the characters, which can be divided into two threads:
One is the "Roxy thread", childishness, dreaming of becoming a star - finding out that he has been cheated, committing crimes and killing people - going to jail for the first time, seeing the society - going to jail for the first time, seeing the society - going to jail for the first time, seeing the society. -First time in jail, seeing society -Working with people, prospering -Masterminding and acting -Successful planning and acquittal.
The movie follows Rosie's coming of age. In the beginning she was just na?ve enough to want to go on stage and be free to sing and dance through the network of a man who buys furniture.
It is known that the man cheats on her just for her beauty and even fights her after losing interest in her. In a fit of rage, Rosie chose to kill the man who cheated on her and played with her. Rosie was later arrested and told she might be hanged.
In prison, she grows to understand the fraud, greed and corruption of society, and Rosie grows into a person who knows the true means of survival. Using the media and turning the wrong way around, lawyer Billy succeeds in achieving what she had previously tried but was unable to achieve - fame - and is eventually acquitted. Although Rosie's price drops for a while after her freedom, she eventually realizes her dream of singing and dancing on stage in the name of murderers and prison.
The other is the "Kelly Line", the high and mighty - crisis blow - jealousy - provocation - attitude change - and the "Kelly Line", the high and mighty. Provocation - Attitude change - Competitive offense - Cooperation **** win. To be precise, the "Kelly Line" should be the relationship line between Kelly and Rossi.
Kelly started out as Rossi's idol, she was above everyone else. She gave Rosie a bossy attitude when she first met her. As Rosie grew in fame and Billy began to favor Rosie, she felt a crisis and her jealousy began to cause trouble. Before Rosie holds a press conference, Kelly pretends to be kind and warns Rosie, but actually tries to screw up the press conference. Luckily, Billy is controlling enough to control the entire stage.
When Kelly realizes she can't salvage the whole situation, she begins to seek Rosie's cooperation. That's when the position of both parties changed, and Kelly became a passive person. At first, Rosie didn't trust Kelly. Later, after they are acquitted, they end up turning enemies into friends because of **** the same dreams and interests. Chicago's Stagecraft Charm
The genre of the movie is song and dance, and the stage performances of song and dance best characterize the movie. Stage performances not only tell a story, but also combine a range of audiovisual elements such as lighting, music, dance and color in the same space.
There are 12 total **** stage performances in this movie, and each one is a magnificent chapter. Director Rob Marshall combines plot with song and dance through editing and clever interludes, allowing the audience to wander down the path of the plot for a while and into the world of song and dance for a while.
It's worth noting that the editing of reality and stage is almost always done through similarity editing, which is what makes the movie flow so well. For example, at 11:38, the natural transition between the flashlight's "light" and the stage's "spotlight" depends on the similarity of light;
At 23:08, the rhythm of water droplets and footsteps in the extremely quiet environment naturally accepts the "Prison Detectives" world. At 23:08, the performance of "Prison Tango" is naturally received in an extremely quiet environment through the rhythm of water drops and footsteps;
At 51 minutes and 58 seconds, Rossi's self-reporting is also linked by the similarity between her mother's "laughter" in prison and that of the audience offstage.
At 23 minutes and 58 seconds, Rossi's self-reporting is linked by the similarity of light.
In contrast to the grim reality of the world, the narrative cabaret scenes are colorful, enthusiastic, and vibrant stage paradises that provide visual contrasts for the audience.
Let's enjoy a few classic stage clips and experience the charm of Chicago's stagecraft:
Classic, Prison Tango - Classic Stage Performance
This Prison Tango is the biggest stage highlight of the entire movie.
The rhythm of the sound, the lighting of the stage, the shock of the dance is just right, and the beauty of the picture makes people feel moved.
With the rhythm of water dripping and the pace of the boots, the sounds begin to come out rhythmically, "Bang, bang, six, cackle, uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz," each word coming from a different person's mouth, followed by footage of these six murderesses.
These six different words serve as the key words for the six murders, leading to the reason for each person's crime, and a different dance rendition of the crime.
The tone of this stage remains a dazzling red, with the red ribbon (a symbol of blood donation) now the instrument of murder in their hands.
The only difference is the performance of the Ukrainian woman. First, her entire performance is played in white light, a small white flower among thousands of red flowers that stand out. Secondly, they all confess to the murder, but only the foreigner keeps emphasizing her innocence. This also sets the stage for the "death of the innocent" that follows.
Throughout the show, all six women's costumes have bondage elements, such as stockings and suspenders.
The visual oppression caused by the dim lighting and each iron cage rendered the somber tone to the extreme, the somber reality of a world bound by reason, order, and ethics.
Although in this cage they kill people, they can shout "That's, but it's not a crime because they totally deserved it!" They dance out their inner rage with a powerful dance.
Classic Two, Puppets on Strings
What was supposed to be Rosie's launch party turned into a puppet show, with a few shots of Billy, smiling from the top of the stage, controlling the whole show.
Then the camera pans to the puppet journalists in hand, all of whom dutifully follow Billy's lead without resistance.
Of course, the main character, Rosie, is one of the many puppets. In fact, what Rosie says was made up by Billy from the beginning.
With the mainstream media, represented by Ms. Hill, echoing the rest of the media, getting into the act, the case then gained more and more attention, and public opinion moved in the direction expected by the string-passers, and the dramatic not-guilty plea was a resounding victory from the start.
When Rossi and Kelly agree to finally take to the Chicago ballroom for a famous performance, the story's drama is brought to a head again in a final song and dance.
Watch first as the two perform lyrical vocals, based almost on Rosie's real life. Suddenly, the lyrical music comes to a screeching halt. Instead, they indulged in jazz music and dancing, followed by darkly humorous prop guns.
It's common knowledge that the two of them just shot and killed the man who convicted them. Now they're not only acquitted, they're in the spotlight. They're also holding guns dozens of times bigger than the ones they used in the killings as special props, using their crimes as a gimmick to boost their popularity.
The audience applauded "unabashedly" at the satirical performance.
The above stage cuts are really only representative of the entire movie. Others, such as Kelly's attempts to convince Rosie to perform with her at the beginning, Rosie's trial dance, and Billy's defense of the judge and the courtroom, are quite artful and analytical.
Whether it's the use of camera, the layout of the scene, the movement of the characters, the coordination of music, and the lighting effects, they all blend together to express the theme and give the audience a visual impact and auditory shock.
Using audiovisual means to express the story text, the audiovisual language at this time is more powerful than the simple text narrative!
Unlike the theme of good love in traditional musical movies, Chicago incorporates elements of murder, repression, fraud, greed and corruption into this musical, making it innovative and contemporary.
Chicago in the 1920s, nightclub feasts, numb and shameless spectators, the corrupt "pay must pay" prison flower, the reality of the shattered dreams of fame and fortune of Rosie, betrayed by the man who resolutely solve the problem of violence Kylie, each of the distinctive personality shaping, the contrast of the film color, are refracted the profanity of that era. The contrast of the movie's colors reflects the blasphemy, flamboyance and darkness of that era.
The movie also seems to have some feminist overtones, but it's not entirely feminist. As analyzed in the section on Tango in Prison, their costumes are bondage. They can't escape the prison despite their struggles. After all, the two heroes eventually get out of prison with the help of Billy Flynn and gain great fame.
Of course, the mass media should also y reflect on the media image portrayed by the movie and remind themselves of their social responsibility.
The movie brought us gorgeous stages and wonderful performances, and also brought the song-and-dance film, a type of movie creation that combines technology and art, plot and reality, into our vision, bringing people a visual feast and spiritual impact in a fresh and lively way.