If Hugo had read Roger Ebert's article about the Sundance Film Festival, about the "Male and Female Thieves" and Hollywood facing another turning point, he would have been absolutely surprised that his jaw had been dislocated, no wonder Roger was one of Hollywood's most authoritative film critics, and his keen grasp of the industry as a whole was truly superior.

According to the historical development trajectory, Hollywood films did enter a period of rapid development in the nineties, and after the "Titanic" in 1997, it entered the era of large-scale explosion, and high investment and high return have become the extreme development mode of Hollywood. However, in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, the large system began to weaken, and high investment meant high risks and huge losses.

After "vulgarity" opened up the situation for independent films, after a decade of gestation at the Sundance Film Festival, independent films started a turnaround in 2006. miss。 Sunshine)" was born from Sundance and amazed the whole United States, with a bumper harvest at the box office, awards, word-of-mouth and popularity, which not only made Hollywood's major production companies flock to Sundance to seek the next "Sunshine Little Beauty", but also changed the balance of power between Hollywood's large production companies and independent film production companies, and Lionsgate's strong rise to change the Hollywood map is one of the portrayals.

Therefore, Roger can almost be said to have foreseen the trajectory of Hollywood's development in the next decade.

Although Hugo did not read Roger's professional review, Roger's praise for "Before Sunrise" was widely circulated throughout the Sundance Film Festival and was widely recognized.

Since the Sundance Film Festival is not in the spotlight, there are only a limited number of professional film critics who come to join in the excitement - most of them are just journalists, responsible for reporting, not responsible for writing film reviews, like Nicholas, although he writes film reviews, but is not completely professional, relying more on his perspective as a professional journalist in the circle to comment on the film.

After the premiere of "Before Sunrise" at Sundance, there were only eight reviews in the first batch, and the overall score fell on 8.4 out of 10. The main reason is that the four media outlets, except for the official house magazine, have scored more than nine points, so they have raised their average scores in one fell swoop, surpassing the two competitors in one fell swoop, and now they are at the top of the list of films that have been screened by Sundance.

Among them, Roger's comments on the script have received a lot of recognition.

It must be admitted that before "Before Sunrise" landed on Sundance, in fact, people had a lot of doubts about Hugo's screenwriting skills.

Although in the past three years, Hugo has created countless brilliance, whether it is acting or music, Hugo has delivered a convincing answer, after the downturn of the Golden Raspberry Award, Hugo is like a phoenix nirvana, creating an incredible miracle, and even changing the perception of the media, changing the original negative Matthew effect into full praise.

However, even the Matthew effect could not convince the media of Hugo's screenwriting ability. Even laymen know that screenwriting, actors, and bands are completely different types of work, and this is not a skill that can be learned by touching the same level. Therefore, although most of the news media did not sneer at Hugo, they still generally believed that this was an attempt to play tickets.

Now, after the debut of "Before Sunrise", everyone's eyes are blinded, and people can't help but think of a strange thing: that is, the name of Hugo is included in the list of screenwriters of "The Shawshank Redemption", and even Hugo has a nomination seat at the Golden Globe Awards. What's even more interesting is that after being "reminded" by "American Weekly", people remember that Hugo's educational background is Yale.

In an instant, all doubts were answered.

"Lancaster shows us the charm of lines in this extreme way, when everyone ignores the true meaning of the dialogue, when Hollywood has lost the importance of lines, when lines are gradually reduced to one of the fillers that fill the framework of the story, he uses lines as a framework, uses lines to show depth, uses lines to outline the soul, and tells everyone that even if there are only lines, it can make a classic."

This short comment comes from the "New Yorker", which has always been sharp in rhetoric, unlike the "New York Times", "New Yorker", as a "petty bourgeois media" in the New York area, they have always been very critical and sharp, they just stick to their own ground, tell their own stories, express their own opinions. Therefore, the "New Yorker" has always paid attention to the Sundance Film Festival, although it is not continuous, but they are not afraid to come to Park City to explore some different works from Hollywood.

This time, the "New Yorker" found "Before Sunrise."

Unlike other media, The New Yorker focuses almost all of its attention on the script, although people are discussing the romance and beauty of the story, the true meaning of love presented in the film, the outstanding mastery of director Richard, the chemistry between the two protagonists, and the wonderful performances of Hugo and Charlize...... But The New Yorker stubbornly kept his eyes on the script.

"Every dialogue that appears in the film is meaningful and resonant.

At the beginning of the film, it begins with a couple's quarrel, and the first topic of the man and woman is about marriage, 'when the husband and wife reach a certain age, they lose the ability to listen to each other', and then this topic has become a controversial point in all discussions between the two people about love: should love guard the moment or hope for eternity? What is the meaning of the moment, and does the eternal really exist? Almost every discussion of love in them can be traced back to this nucleus, leading to heated debates.

Also at the beginning, the woman once said a sentence, 'I'm afraid of the consciousness of a few seconds before death, you know you're going to die', this seemingly random sentence also runs throughout, the process of love from an instant burst to eternal enjoyment is faced with the fear of 'eternity and death', and the intricate and tangled love when two people face separation is a true portrayal of this sentence.

There are many such details, which are used throughout the film. Therefore, this movie is suitable for everyone to calm down and watch it repeatedly, and savor the connotation and deep meaning brought by those lines.

Of course, the success of the film is also due to the fact that Lancaster does not have guò lines to tell the big truth - although the film is full of esoteric topics such as philosophy, life and death, Lancaster is completely discussed, and everyone in the audience is welcome to have a dialogue with the two protagonists, and the collision of ideas starts from the first second of the film and continues long after the end of the movie.

Therefore, it is very interesting to watch the movie, not only the two protagonists are in dialogue, but at the same time the audience is in dialogue with them, and the audience is in dialogue with their own lives. The kind of reflection and aftertaste after the movie is the biggest charm of the movie. ”

The New Yorker praised the film from a particular angle, and in addition to the film critics, the other reporters who flocked to Park City praised "Before Sunrise" and, most importantly, focused on the attention Hugo brought to independent films.

The current Sundance Film Festival is very deserted, and it is absolutely rare for a film to be reported in the media in addition to the official house catalogue after it is released. But now, "Before Sunrise" has not only received a lot of attention in the official house magazine, but it has also been covered by double-digit media outlets, even more than all the works that premiered in the previous two days combined, and the momentum is truly unbeatable.

There have even been bold predictions that "Before Sunrise" will be a chance to compete for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Unlike the three major European film festivals, the Sundance Film Festival has a relatively simple set of awards, with the highest award being the Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Special Jury Prize, the Filmmaker Trophy and the Audience Award. But objectively speaking, throughout the Sundance Film Festival, the Jury Prize is the only focus of attention.

This year's Sundance was still quite lively, Tom Disiro's "Cavera Rhapsody", Edward Burns's "The McMullen Brothers", and James Mangold's "Unspeakable Love Words" were all well received, among which Mangold's highest achievements in the future, "Girl, Interrupted", "Deadly Identity", and "Walk. the。 line)" are all his works.

In the midst of such strong competition, it is indeed unexpected that "before sunrise", which is like a glass of warm water, has been so sought after. Of course, this is also deliberately pursued by the media, after all, most of the media are here for Hugo, and "before sunrise" has enough quality, they naturally don't mind praising it, so how much water in it still needs to be decided by the jury of the film festival.

Compared to the bustle and busyness of last year's Cannes Film Festival, Hugo's life at the Sundance Film Festival is relatively simple: because of the immaturity here, because of the lack of media, because of the professionalism and misfit of independent films, Hugo has ended up clean. After the premiere of "Before Sunrise", Hugo was interviewed for just one afternoon, and the job was done, much easier than at the Cannes Film Festival.

This freed up time for Hugo to soak up the atmosphere of Sundance, which he didn't have much time to enjoy at Cannes last year, but this time he didn't want to miss it. Originally, Hugo was still a little hesitant, after all, the containment turmoil a few days ago still made Hugo feel uneasy, and now after the premiere of "Before Sunrise", the residents of the whole city are showing signs of heating up.

But it was Charlize who said something that moved Hugo, "Are you going to change your life plans because of these fans?" In fact, many public figures have to change their private lives because of fans and media congestion. This is the last resort of public figures, the price that must be paid behind the glamorous.

Hugo didn't want that. Of course, Hugo didn't want to miss Sundance, the annual Sundance, so Hugo left the hotel and walked into Park City like a regular movie fan, into this future famous independent film festival.