"Moonlight": If true love has a color, it must be blue

Let’s not talk about the plot, the Oscars, or political correctness.

I just want to talk about the photography of "Moonlight", it's clean and thoughtful.

The movie is divided into three parts. The first part is 8:2 for matinee and night shows, the second part is 5:5, and the third part becomes 2:8.

In the only matinee scene, many images were overexposed to reflect the glare of the Miami sun.

The whole movie is full of moving shots, which are always handheld, and there is only a pitiful amount of push-pull and pan.

Only three key passages of reconciliation appear, which become fixed shots. They were at the beach with a drug dealer, masturbating under the moonlight, and reuniting with her first love boyfriend.

Handheld photography with people, on the one hand, presents an uneasy state, and on the other hand, it is equivalent to a perspective.

This is especially obvious in the first section of the baptism in the sea. The camera is almost level with the water, and the sense of immersion and anthropomorphism is particularly strong.

When driving home after the masturbation, the camera is always in the back, giving a sense of voyeurism, showing the taboo nature of this relationship.

Of course, the most important thing about a movie is the way tone helps the narrative.

In this film blue can be interpreted as a representation of conflict and hurt.

The little boy was carrying a blue schoolbag when he was bullied. His mother was wearing a blue dress when she was snatching money. She was wearing a blue dress when she had a fight with her first love. When he decided to take revenge, he was still wearing a blue dress. The theme of color continued throughout his life.

In the third paragraph, the color gradient of the reconciliation between mother and son is very important. When the male protagonist is deeply resentful of his mother, his hair and skin color are blue, and during the reconciliation process, the blue slowly turns to black.

This movie has a shallow depth of field and a defocused background, which eliminates the sense of documentary while creating a dreamy feel. The most important thing is to separate the protagonist from the environment.

This is easily reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". It is infinitely close to the characters themselves and shows the loneliness and incompatibility of the individual.

This is worthy of being called a movie. Even if there are no lines, it can still be narrated through images.