Chapter 984

Recommending some relatively niche films

Couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, watching the new work "Emotional Value" by the director of "The Worst Woman in the World" on the computer, which is said to be one of the hot films for this year's Oscars.

Now the Oscars' choices are becoming less and less commercially mainstream, or rather, more and more polarized; one type is blockbusters with explosive box office and a certain (or shallow) artistic expression, and the other is art-house films from film festivals with very poor box office.

It's becoming more and more different from the Oscars of the past that I learned about when doing research.

But recently, looking at the background comments, I see that many friends say that when they were reading this novel, they never watched art-house films or art films before, but after reading this novel, they started to become interested in them.

I actually understand friends who can't get into art-house films; I couldn't get into them before either.

Even Ang Lee's "Life of Pi," I once couldn't watch it because of the long prelude.

Until a late night in college, I was alone in a quiet night when my roommates were all asleep, wearing headphones, and finished watching this film on the computer screen.

That was a night with pouring rain, and when I saw Pi roaring at the sky under the stormy ocean, the trembling in my heart, I still remember it to this day.

Slowly, with the arrival of some opportunities, many art-house films/art films/drama films that I couldn't watch also entered my world one after another. For example, "Doubt," "The Holdovers," and "Ikiru," which I didn't intend to recommend this time, are all films I've watched and liked in the last two or three years.

There is no need to force yourself to "love watching" a certain film, just as there is no need to force yourself to "love reading" a certain classic.

Just leave them there, perhaps one day, because of some opportunity in life, you will suddenly be able to enter them and feel the power within.

If you can never feel it, that's fine too.

Let me briefly introduce a few art-house films that were produced relatively recently and that I think are relatively good, or rather, film festival-type films.

If you are interested, you can try watching them; art-house films don't mean boring—it's just that some directors like to make them boring.

1. "The Worst Woman in the World"

It's particularly light, the rhythm, the characters, the development, like an essay.

As you can see from the film title, this is about a woman who has "problems" in many aspects, not necessarily the kind of good, likable character image we usually see.

But believe me, it is definitely not the kind of "tome-style" work that anatomizes a woman's inner world in a three-dimensional and complex way.

You can completely treat it as a "Reader" story.

You can "burn after reading," it won't burden you.

2. "Philomena"

Very good.

I watched this film in 2014.

Ten years have passed, and whenever others say that award-winning films must not be good, I want to take out this film to refute them.

Art, a long, long time ago, stories became one of its main forms of expression.