The charm of this film can never be realized just by watching the plot. It's a tender romantic film, and it's handled very delicately and tactfully. This classical romantic technique has almost disappeared in love movies. Compared with movies with similar themes, such as falling in love with you through time and space, the classic temperament of the film is more obvious. The film does not use props such as a time machine, but goes back to 70 years ago through hypnosis. It is not so much the love between two people as the wishful fantasy of the protagonist. This fantasy made him unable to extricate himself. The last scene is a dream scene where the heroine is waiting for him in front with a smile. And he fell deeply in love in the hotel room. Whether it's fantasy or real love beyond time and space, this obsession with love is what moves the audience. However, the irreparable love tragedy deeply plunged both sides into grief. What really touched them was not their miracle beyond time and space, but their courage to love each other deeply. Beauty is the cause of all these consequences and the beginning of tragedy. After watching the movie, it really makes the audience wonder if this is just a dream, but to some extent, life itself is a dream.
For this film, the first thing I have to mention is two leading men. For the vast number of fans, they are undoubtedly legendary figures: Superman christopher reeve and Colonel christopher plummer, both of whom occupy an important position in the film history.
John barry's theme music "Theme from Somewhere in Time" finally became a classic like this movie. It is one of the important souls of this work, and it is a tender and affectionate piano and orchestra work. This piece of music is regarded as an important musical prop by the director, which plays a role in crossing time and space and communicating with the soul between the hero and heroine. In addition, people talk more about excerpts from Paganini Rhapsody, which john barry adapted several times in the early stage of the story. This piece is a piano and orchestral work completed by Russian composer Rakhmaninov in 1934. It is based on Italian violinist Paganini's 24th violin capriccio. Richard, the protagonist, likes this song very much, but Rachmaninov didn't compose it 70 years ago, so when Richard was here. What's more, this song appeared in the film so early that many people mistakenly think that "Rhapsody on Paganini Theme" is the theme music of this film, but the theme music that really runs through the whole film should be "the theme from somewhere in time", which needs attention.
1972 In Milfield University, Richard Coriell, a young playwright, met a mysterious and dignified old woman at a party to celebrate the successful premiere of his works. She put something in Corell's hand and whispered to him, "Come back to me!" " And then drift away. When his companion asked Corell who this was, he didn't know. Open the palm of your hand and see, it turned out to be a delicate pocket watch.
This is the beginning of 1980 American romantic fantasy film "Back in Time"-a gentle and sentimental violin solo melody rings and the lens changes.
The considerate old woman returned home, which was a lakeside apartment in a hotel. She shut herself in her room. The record began to spin on an old record player, and the moving tune of "Rhapsody on Paganini Theme" floated out. She sat in a rocking chair, with tears in her eyes, holding the program of the performance she had just watched: Too Spring-a stage play "Spring is Full" written by Richard Coriell. She has a melancholy and intoxicated smile on her face.
The tender and affectionate piano concerto in "Seventy Years Back in Time" is euphemistic and moving, such as tender fingers crossing the heart, gazing at the feelings in a girl's eyes and lingering through time and space ... john barry's adaptation of this piece is really attractive.
The shots overlap, the volume increases, and the music changes from the old lady's record player to the floor-standing stereo in Richard's modern apartment in Chicago eight years later. An immortal piece of music travels through time and space, somehow connecting two hearts that have been looking for each other in loneliness, and the story begins.
Richard turned off the phonograph with a sense of irritability, tore up the unfinished manuscript paper on the typewriter and drove out. Out of the city, driving on the sunny expressway, the music becomes elegant and smooth, which is in sharp contrast with the noisy city sound just now, instead of using words to describe the changes of the protagonist's mood. After passing the signpost of "Grand Hotel", I don't know why he stopped. When he backed up, the car retreated to the fork in the road leading to the Grand Hotel. The theme motivation of The Old Lady's Violin Solo is a mysterious memory and call.
Unconsciously, Richard has embarked on a road to pursue the past. The tender and lingering motivation of violin solo is another variation of the theme, and the second paragraph of the score enters the theme of going back in time. This is the first time this melody has appeared in the film. This piece of music not only belongs to john barry's own film works, but also belongs to the most popular and popular works in the whole film and music industry.
The structural belt of the theme of Back in Time has distinctive Barry characteristics: it is as beautiful as a song and sounds refreshing. Accompanied by the quiet harp, the soft flute solo produced a melody full of singing. When the strings begin to enter, it brings a warm and lingering feeling, and then the flute is changed into a bright timbre to express the uncontrollable passion in my heart. When this melody is reproduced in a soft and slender tone on the piano solo, it virtually evokes a kind of loss and sadness from distant time and space.
Richard felt someone watching him in the hotel exhibition hall, which was a very clever slow subjective shot taken from the audience's point of view. Looking back, he was immediately attracted by the passionate eyes of a young woman in the photo on the opposite wall. As he approached the photo step by step, he passed through the dazzling light beam from the upper left corner of the room. The design of this lens gives the audience a real feeling of escaping from the world, and the moving melody of "Rhapsody on Paganini Theme" is reproduced in this scene.
He approached her slowly in the gray sunshine, trying to see why this face that has been hanging on the wall for decades is still elegant and graceful, and the smile is solidified in the past, but it seems to stay today. At the moment of meeting, he was nailed to the spot by time and could not move any more. No one knows why there is no name under the photo that fascinates Richard. He is determined to find out the answer. Richard began to look for all traces of the woman who troubled him. In the library, he finally found that the owner of the photo was Alice McKenna, a very famous actress and action art. He was shocked when he saw the last photo she took when she was old. It turned out that she was the mysterious woman who gave him a pocket watch, a magician, and carved her face, which made their brief encounter become a farewell.
The doorman of the hotel felt deja vu for him, and so did he when he visited Alice's former residence. Alice once regarded it as a pocket watch of life, and the song played in the music box was Alice's favorite music "Paganini Rhapsody". On her bookshelf, there is a book "Through Time and Space-Through Time and Space" written by Richard's philosophy professor in college, and he increasingly feels that his destiny is inextricably linked with this beautiful woman. Finally, on June 28th, 19 12 found his signature from the attic on the top floor of the hotel. In order to witness this love across time and space, he dressed up according to the popular style 70 years ago, made all preparations, and began his time and space journey without hesitation.
In the process of participating in this plot narrative, music adopts a typical technique of "synchronization of sound and picture".
After consulting his philosophy professor, Richard tried to enter a special sleep state many times, but at first it was unsuccessful. At this time, the composer repeatedly played intermittent and hesitant melodies with the violin part on the dark and hazy background of the bass string in C minor. Similar cautious fragments are inserted into the piano from time to time, and the tonality of this piece of music is relatively unstable, which further strengthens a sense of trance and anxiety and accurately and vividly reveals Richard's situation and mentality at the moment.
When Richard found his signature in the passenger register, the music entered another level, and the melody was relatively stretched and the tonality was relatively stable (back to C minor), which showed that he found a basis for his time travel and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, when Richard woke up, he found that he finally returned to 68 years ago, and the music also rose to a higher level (transferred to C major), which contrasted with the past with the bright stretch of melody and the stable change of tonality, expressing the joy and excitement of the protagonist after he got his wish. In the rippling green trees by the lake, Richard finally met the fascinating person in the painting-charming Alice. Jane seymour, a British actress with mysterious temperament, performed the atmosphere needed for this scene very well. She seems to be waiting for someone. Facing Richard, she whispered eagerly, "Is that you?"
The violin solo vividly outlines Alice's subtle, sweet and beautiful outline with a silent and euphemistic melody. In this scene, the reappearance of the theme of time reversal has a warm and happy color.
The two finally met. Despite repeated obstruction by Mr Robinson, the manager of Alice Theatre Company, they spent a wonderful day by the lake with strong artistic atmosphere and beautiful scenery. Slightly depressed and implicit cello solos seem to be telling the loss and longing in their hearts, the string band with gradually clear timbre is as smooth as a song, and the passionate melody seems to be telling the hardships and hardships of traveling through distant time and space ... With the cheerful spring arpeggio on the harp, a refreshing melody finally appeared: A The second half of the soundtrack of One Day Together returned to the theme of going back in time. When they were boating on the lake, Richard couldn't help humming Rhapsody, and Alice fell in love with it at once. It was through Richard that she learned and began to like this kind of music. This is an interesting and delicate detail of the film.
There are rich dramatic factors in it. As we know, Rachmaninov's rhapsody on the theme of Paganini was written in 1934. Richard, who lived in the 1970s and 1980s, will definitely come into contact with this work, while Alice, who lived around 19 12 at the beginning of the century, has no way of knowing the existence of this work. So she asked, "What is this tune? It's so nice! " For her, this melody has become a precious gift from the future brought by Richard, the dream lover who is destined to change her life ... In the performance that night, because Richard was in the audience, she inspired Alice, and she couldn't help acting and adding a long inner monologue. Facing the dream lover, she expressed her deep passion through the mouth of the heroine on the stage. During the intermission, Richard went backstage and saw Alice take a fascinating picture in front of the camera. At the moment when Alice made eye contact with him, her face became more radiant and showed a bright and eternal smile. ...
It's over. Time goes back 70 years, but love only needs this moment, just like fireworks. The most unforgettable moment: the two finally came together happily after hardships and looked forward to a bright future together. However, at that wonderful moment, Richard accidentally took out a coin of 1972 from his pocket and broke his dream. He watched helplessly as Alice called his name in despair and disappeared into the dark and eternal time tunnel. Desperate Richard tried to go back to the past again, but he knew that the distant good times were gone forever. When they met, the lush trees have withered now, and the beach full of romantic feelings is now full of trash cans ... Everything in reality has become so unsightly, and a strong sense of nostalgia arises in our hearts. Richard was overwhelmed by the fact that he lost Alice and lost the strength to live. He sat in the room for a week without drinking a drop of water. The last scene of the whole film is that he and Alice meet again in a white paradise.
The theme song of Back in Time reappears ... "