Between reality and dream

 　　Few films have so many names. The American film "Inception", written and directed by British director, screenwriter, photographer and producer Christopher Nolan, is known as "Inception"

　　. While dissatisfied with its commercial name "Inception", the translation names such as "Full Start", "Sneak and Murder", "Mind Crime", "Memory Maze" and "Memory Cube" are still unfinished.

　　Few movies have so many interpretation angles. This labyrinthine movie presents audiences with visual impact and carnival, intellectual challenge and excitement, blurred overlap of reality and dream, human relations and family affection. difficult return. Is "Inception" an action film, a robbery film, a psychological film, a thriller, a romance, or a science fiction film? There are many opinions, and the existing categories are not enough. Ethics, architecture, psychology, brain science, logic, philosophy, mathematics, pharmacy, imaging, anesthesiology... Fans analyzed the dream in the film and used eighteen martial arts. Nolan's own definition of the film is "a contemporary sci-fi action film that takes place within the structure of consciousness." penetrate someone's mind." It's really confusing where to start.

　　In view of this, the author dismissed the attempt to analyze "Inception" in a comprehensive and in-depth manner early, and tried to avoid the intellectual reefs, not afraid of missing a million, and anxiously wrote down the superficial experience.

　　Nolan, who was born in 1970, is known as "the director with the highest IQ", "I am Christopher, Nolan, a typical Englishman, like my predecessor Hitchcock, not only a director, but also a man with whimsical ability. people." The talented Nolan clearly had high expectations for himself. Nolan started using his father's small camera to learn photography at the age of 7, and aspired to be a film director at the age of 19. "He is very special and has unique ambitions. I think he can win respect in Hollywood, not by box office or anything powerful. Character. His imagination, judgment on the story and the way of expression are the main reasons why many colleagues are willing to cooperate with him." This is Emma Thomas, Nolan's wife and Nolan's royal producer, to him. Evaluation.

　　According to the media, Nolan showed a distinctive and keen inspiration as soon as he appeared in the film industry. Nolan's first real film, the ultra-low-budget "Following," which opened in London in 1999, tells the story of a writer who has become a stalker. In this so-called "cool black and white film with young dreams and ambitions", the story is presented completely out of sequence of events. Nolan uses flashbacks as the basic narrative language of the film, and then completely crushes time. Putting these pieces of time together again, a film of less than 70 minutes has an incredible narrative length. "Memento", released in 2000, tells the story of a man suffering from short-term amnesia to avenge his wife. It uses a two-line narrative to construct a time and space with two claws and continuous sudden changes in the middle. It has won awards at major film festivals: Independent Spirit Award for Best Script and Best Director, Sundance International Film Festival Best Screenplay Award, Broadcast Film Association Best Screenplay Award, Golden Globe Award, Oscar Best Original Screenplay Award nomination. In 2002, Nolan completed Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian film of the same name released in 1997, which was praised by critics as one of the rare successful remakes of European films into American films. In 2003, he won the Best Screenplay Award for "Batman War Hour". The 2006 director's work "Deadly Magic" once again won the hearts of film critics and fans with its eerie atmosphere and fine structure. In 2008, a new "Batman" movie made the world go crazy for Nolan, and "Batman Dark Knight" became the global box office champion in 2008.

　　It can be seen from the above rough introduction that Director Nolan is a lover of non-linear storytelling, has enough ability to combine completely different elements, and is keen to set up a maze-like intricate and highly condensed story structure, while the protagonist does not Peace of mind and unconvincing logical reasoning have also been recurring themes in Nolan's films. Every time I watch these films, which are completed with multi-threaded and multi-layered complex narrative structures, it is undoubtedly intellectual surfing, and Nolan's unrestrained and unrestrained Nolan does not leave anyone a chance to breathe. When Nolan officially announced to the outside world in early 2009 that he would shoot a completely original film written and directed by him, people had reason to expect a brand new visual feast.

　　Everyone has dreams. However, just as nature does not have two identical leaves, dreams are ever-changing. Some people dream more, some people dream less, some dreams are bizarre, some dreams are complete and clear, some people wake up crying in their dreams, some people are happy in their dreams, some people have dreams as if they have no dreams, and some people spend all day trying to figure out the hints of dreams, Some people have crossed thousands of mountains and rivers in their dreams, and some people have tasted the ups and downs in their dreams. What exactly is a dream? "Thinking in the day, dreaming in the night" is the most grassroots explanation, and "Nanke Yimeng" is a good example. In the Tang Dynasty, a man named Chunyu Fen loved wine. He was drunk one day and rested under the locust tree at home. He went to Dahuai Anguo in a trance. The foreign enemy invaded and was ordered to go on an expedition. Because he did not understand the art of war, he was completely defeated. My fame was ruined, and I woke up with shame. The first half of this dream is the realm of life that ancient scholars aspired to, and the second half shows that there is self-knowledge in the subconscious.

　　So, how does Nolan view dreams? Nolan said that dreams are different from the ancient Chinese "Dream Interpretation by Zhou Gong" and Freud's "Dream Interpretation" in modern foreign countries? When answering a reporter's question, Nolan admitted that dreams were always It made him feel mysterious and inconceivable, "I have always been fascinated by the theme of dreams. Really, I have been like this since I was a child, and I have never stopped. I can't think of a specific scene now, but dreams always give me unlimited freedom of imagination, which is also the reason. It's the magic of dreams." Dreams provided inspiration and freed him from the constraints of logical thinking. "When a person is asleep, the brain is so incredible that it can create a complete world in a completely unconscious state. Unknowingly, yet fully engaged. This is the best explanation for the potential energy of the human mind, especially the creative potential of the brain. This is the root cause of my obsession.” Nolan imagines His film characters are able to manipulate "conscious dreams," dreams that you know you're dreaming, so you can create or alter them, hack into other people's brains, control their minds, and share the same dream with others at the same time. dreamland.

　　Dream lover Nolan has spent ten years weaving and recreating an intricate and multiple dreams.

　　The protagonist of the film, Daum Cobb, is a dream thief and dream maker who uses high-tech means to steal business secrets by invading the minds and dreams of others. "I can enter your mind and find your secrets." He and his companions failed in a dream stealing operation against Japanese energy tycoon Saito, but Saito took the lead. The so-called "no fight, no acquaintance", Cobb was wanted for the murder of his wife Mel and went into exile overseas. Saito's opponent is terminally ill, but still has a firm grip on everything in the company. Saito asked Cobb to implant in the deep subconscious of his sole heir, Robert Fisher, the idea of ​​giving up the family company, starting his own business, and taking a different path from his father, in order to achieve the goal of self-defeating. "I'm going to find my way home," Cobb convinced his companions and recruited young dream designer Ariadne, dream actor Ames and Indian pharmacist Joseph to join the action.

　　The story unfolds in layers of progressive dreams. The audience must give up the inherent concept of time and space and accept the rules of the game set by Nolan, in order to marvel at the dream design, which is like building a qiqiao treasure building. , pulling one hair and moving the whole body, while following the members of the action team in and out of reality and dreams.

　　Here is a little explanation of some of Nolan's game rules:

　　people live in the real world (Cobb is in the real world to accept Saito's task);

　　when dreaming, they are in the first layer of dreams (this kind of dream everyone has done):

　　in a dream The dream is in the second layer of the dream, and you need to take ordinary drugs (layering the dream is a breakthrough idea); there are two ways to wake up from the dream at this time, one is by gravity; the shock suddenly loses balance and wakes up, The second is to wake up by being injured (this method should still be based on the experience of daily life)

Drugs (sequential deduction, better if there is a new idea to get rid of drugs): Boosted drugs have side effects, if you are killed in a dream and cannot wake up, you will enter the Lost City (the third layer of Dreamland and the Lost City There is also a fourth layer of dreams, which Cobb and his wife Mel entered during the experiment);

　　the Lost City is a conscious space, the environment is composed of memory fragments, empty and lonely, and time is endless (the use of elements such as disorder and memory loss) Handy); in this space, if you die, you can return to reality, but because of memory damage, passive entrants cannot use suicide to save themselves (this is a concept Nolan likes, in "Memento", the protagonist says "even if Close your eyes, the world has not disappeared", but he also said "memory may not be reliable, memory is not accurate");

　　synergistic stimulation (in the movie, it is shown as the crossing and falling of dreams), only when stimulation is applied in each layer of dreams at the same time , in order to wake up the dreamers in a certain layer of dreams, therefore, when group members invade the deep dream, each layer must leave a awake person responsible for awakening, and use music to coordinate the moment of simultaneous awakening (slightly South Asian-style music is sometimes melodious , sometimes majestic);

　　calculation of time, five minutes in reality, one hour in dream, Fisher rushes to his father's funeral, ten-hour flight, about 5 days in the first dream, about six in the second dream Months, and about ten years in the third layer of dreams;

　　tops, important props, appear repeatedly to distinguish between dreams and reality, and they always rotate if they are not in the dream, but return to reality (Nolan is quite considerate of the audience. );

　　foundation, not referring to stealing information in a dream, but referring to implanting a certain idea into the target person's brain as needed, making him feel that the idea is his own, in a dream with less consciousness (in the movie The vast snowfield) implantation effect is stronger; the

　　dream master, every dream has a dream master, he shares his dream with others;

　　the subconscious of the target person who is brought into the dream will attack the dream master (Fisher accepted Special anti-theft dream training, the subconscious is like a thousand troops, the resistance is fierce, and the fighting scenes are hot)...

　　The end is full of talent, changing shape and shadow, Wang Yang unrestrained, impeccable. The brilliance of the film is far beyond what I can describe. Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who played Cobb and the famous movie star, thought it was a very interesting thing to participate in "Inception", "I am a person who does not dream very much, and there is nothing special about dreams. Thoughts, dreams that I have had are usually only a glimpse, and I can only remember some scattered fragments. So, when I received this drama, I tried to increase my understanding of dreams through some very traditional methods. I I read some books about dream interpretation, such as Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams", etc., and tried to get some inspiration from it. But then I gradually realized that this movie is completely Christopher Nolan's dreamland, with a unique The structure and the rules, and these structures and rules, are completely created by Christopher. So, for the next two months, I will chat with Christopher every now and then, understand his thoughts, ideas, try to understand this Dreams. I don't think there is any scientific theory that can explain dreams precisely and concretely. Obviously, dreams vary from person to person. Things that are not accomplished during the day, emotions that are not expressed, emotions that are not understood Ideas, at night, in dreams, in the subconscious, appear randomly in a surreal form." Leonardo concluded: "Dreams are worth savoring."

　　Nolan, who got rid of "the shackles of logical thinking", recreates a dream with a self-contained logic. Dreams, own dreams, other people's dreams, enter other people's dreams, dream their own dreams in other people's dreams, let others dream according to their own wishes, everyone is dreaming, how good I feel when I wake up alone. Dreams, unimaginable with clues of daily life, do whatever you want with calm and meticulous; seemingly dangerous, left and right, everything is reasonably explained, crisis is everywhere, unrestrained, knowing that it is impossible to do it. In "between the real dream and the half-dreaming state" (Nolan's language), the inner secret is vividly highlighted. For example, we usually ask: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where do I go? At this moment, we may think more Know: Who do I want to be? Where do I want to come from? Where do I want to go? All persistent explorations and remodeling begin from dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction. How much we long for a new self. It's a pity that even in the dream, the traces of the old life persisted, unexpected misses kept happening, and contradictions appeared repeatedly in denial and affirmation. Nolan is right, never being satisfied is not only the biggest problem of human beings, but also the fundamental way of being human.

　　A lot has been said about dreams. When we indulge in the thrill of confronting dreams, Nolan's other remarks about movies deserve our attention. Nolan said: "In a way, I feel like I've been living in this movie story for the past few years. I have elements of robbery, and there is a relationship between architecture and dreams... But the most nerve-wracking thing is finding the This story is closely related to the emotional line." Nolan clearly knows that visual impact alone is not enough for a film work. Plots and scenes that lack emotional connotation, human temperature and temperament may be fresh for a while, and the audience's curiosity once If you are satisfied, you will be tired, and you will not take it for granted. The cold and empty buildings and the exquisite machinery have no life experience and feelings of life. When the dust settles and the dream disappears, what the audience needs is still a perfect life form, and still the care and warmth between people. There is no complete self-sufficiency or absolute independence of thinking, and the free run of imagination is bound to be restricted. Some scholars have long put forward: "Fantasy, as a function of the mind, is a creative activity that connects the elements of reality." When the praises rushed to "the triumph of thinking", the "superiority of the soul" silently overlooked following us.

　　Some fans think: "The genre of sci-fi films is not suitable for emotional expression, because the director's main energy and film length are mainly spent on introducing the sci-fi system to the audience, as well as well-designed plots and exciting action scenes, love scenes. It is often just the spice of the film, and there are too few masterpieces that really move people emotionally, especially love." Nolan did not believe in this evil, "After several years of thinking and deliberation, I found that I have been troubled because of Without summarizing everything about the human mind and dreams, it ended up being... an emotional ending or a point of resonance. Once I understood that, I knew the next thing I had to do was find something to go with the story. The development of love and the creation of tragic plots." Nolan doesn't want his characters to have only mechanical agility and ruthlessness, he wants them to have real feelings and flesh and blood.

　　So we see Mel, Cobb's dead wife, a beautiful woman in a long black dress with an off-the-shoulder dress and short, fluffy hair. After traveling through multiple dreams with Cobb and returning to reality, the memory is confused, and Mel always feels that only by committing suicide with Cobb can we return to the beginning of love. Mel chose to jump off the windowsill on the wedding anniversary and disappear into the unfathomable darkness.

　　We see Fisher, the wealthy young heir, who lost his mother at 11, had a strained relationship with his father, and was unfortunately the target of Saito's insidious plan, "I need him to bring down his father's empire." When his father died, Fisher said that he "disappointed" his father. His father's answer shocked Fisher, "I am disappointed because you have become another me." I would rather this is not a trap arranged by the action team (according to the plot, his subconscious has been implanted with the idea of ​​disbanding the company and starting his own business), but the real reconciliation between father and son born of love, Fisher has since then Live in the blessing of the father.

　　Cobb's emotional confusion runs throughout the show. Mel left a suicide note against him before committing suicide, forcing him to travel the world. Whether in experiments, in action, or in dreams, Mel's figure appeared in front of Cobb dozens of times, arguing with him all the time, sabotaging his actions everywhere. Passive Cobb doesn't fight back because "she loves me too much" because "guilt, I feel guilty, no matter what I do, no matter what I wish I was, no matter how confused, it's guilt, always there." Mel finally got a loving response and confirmation from Cobb, closed his eyes, and looked peaceful. This is Cobb's self-salvation. Such an arrangement faintly conveys Nolan's ethical inclination, and people are responsible for the consequences of their actions.

　　There are also a pair of children who disturbed Cobb's thoughts. In the movie, the scene where Cobb watched the back of his children playing appeared more than a dozen times. In the verdant garden, on the lonely beach, in the promenade of the building, at the warm dining table, beside the fluttering curtains, the girl's long golden hair and red dress gleamed in the sun, and the boy was sitting on the ground with his head buried in the ground, vigorously Dig for treasure. "As long as I call them, they will turn around and I will see their beautiful faces, but it's too late." Cobb was extremely melancholy, "I will never see their faces again." Returning to the child is the premise for Cobb to accept the task. Finally, when everything was over, Cobb walked into the house hesitantly, the child jumped into his arms with joy, and I saw Nolan's slightly sly smile, "I hope to see a happy ending."

　　Let’s make the roughest distinction and divide film works into two categories: one is grand narrative, where the tide of history is coming, the atmosphere of the times is at your fingertips, and it shows broad descriptions and outlines; one is eye-catching. Feelings, beyond the framework of history and reality, go straight to the secrets of human nature, outline the traces of the soul, and force us to reflect on the mirror image and take the meaning of life together in the subtle and subtle ways.

　　If the "dream" is a special way of reading Nolan's mind in reality, a special inquiry in the depths of his mind, then in the endless area between reality and dream, what he presents and strives to restore is love and The dilemma of responsibility, the dilemma of the realm of life that everyone may encounter.