Chapter 2074: 2074 Core Thought

Listening to Charlize's words, Hugo recalled carefully, and it was indeed he who said these words to Charlize. That was after Allen handed over the project "A Beautiful Mind" to him. At that time, he hadn't investigated John Nash's life. All he knew was the "Vanity Fair" interview and the story of the movie in his memory. As for the plot, Hugo was relatively relaxed at the time, and watched several videotapes of biographical films with Charlize, and the two exchanged a lot of opinions.

"You also said at the time that movies are simple, but life is much, much more complicated. It is impossible, not even for the greatest artist, to contain the real and complex life in a movie, Because movies are only two hours long, but life has countless 'two hours'."

Charlize's words awakened Hugo's own memories bit by bit. These memories had gradually become blurred due to the busyness of the past few weeks and the ups and downs of John Nash's life. Guo doubts: Did I really say this?

"So, you must first determine a main line, and then cut off all the details that have nothing to do with the main line, or weaken them, or metaphors, and concentrate on the main line, so that the adaptation of the script may be easier."

After finishing speaking, Charlize herself looked at Hugo without confidence. Charlize is not sure whether her statement is feasible, because a person's life is intricate, and it may not be possible to form a complete personality if he separates the influence of any event in his life; Events make the story appear to be missing, and then have an impact on the structure of the entire script.

Charlize looked unashamed.

But Hugo fell back into his own thinking because of Charlize's words. John Nash's life was indeed magnificent. After he was born in 1928, he lived in a turbulent environment. His achievements and life The environment has an inseparable connection; and he was judged as a "lunatic", so that he did not receive the Nobel Prize in Economics until 1994, and these are also closely related to the overall social environment.

However, it is absolutely impossible to include all these stories. "Greedy", this is the most taboo thing in adapting biographies, Hugo knows this better than anyone else, but when it is really his turn to complete the work, he still inevitably makes the same mistake. There are too many things I want to tell, but in the end, nothing is clear.

John's life is very complicated, maybe everything he experiences will be intertwined with each other, but the focus of each main line is different.

If you want to write about the cruelty and bloodiness of real life, then you should take the weird and long love between John and Alicia as the main line, including the separation and reunion of the two people, including John's wind. Unruly, including the support and alienation of the two people in the pain, all are written. It really shows the essence of love.

If you want to focus on the oppression of independent individuals by the mainstream society and the persecution of individualism by totalitarianism, then you should take the process of John losing his mind, the influence of the details of his surrounding life on him, and his experience in Europe, etc. The main line really shows the chaos and depression under the background of that era.

However, these are not what Hugo wanted to write. He and Allen discussed the script from the beginning, focusing on the mental patients themselves. Hugo wants to show the struggle and confusion of mental patients, wants people to have a different understanding of mental illness through John's story, and wants people to truly feel John's pain and the pain of all mental patients... Then, Hugo should focus on showing the process of John's schizophrenia.

Of course, love life, social environment and other contents are inextricably linked with John's illness, without these parts, the biography would not be a biography. But what a successful biography needs is to grasp a bright spot or a main line and show the core idea of ​​the screenwriter.

Then, Hugo should write John’s process from the onset of the disease to the gradual aggravation and finally to the cure of the disease as the main line, and then hide other important ideas as metaphors in the story. Perhaps, John’s predictions about the Cold War period can be used as John’s One of the important factors of the illness is incorporated into the story; besides, what is the real reason for John's recovery? In other words, what is the most needed thing for the mentally ill? It is obviously unrealistic to "rely on one's own reason" as John said, not to mention that this view has not been recognized by the academic circle of psychology, and it is obviously too difficult to write a script.

Hugo always believes that for mental patients, the most important thing is the support of family, love and friendship, as well as the less special vision of others. This is a disease, a disease that is not any different from other diseases.

When Allen came to Hugo with an interview with "Vanity Fair", they hoped to show it through this movie: to tell people that mental patients are not scourges, they are just ordinary people, they need the support and help of others, not only Not only relatives, lovers and friends, but also ordinary people around us—even strangers. Maybe just a warm smile will make the situation better.

This reminded Hugo of meeting John at Princeton University.

Although game theory has been used in almost all fields of social sciences, "John Nash" has been mentioned for a long time as a representative scholar of game theory. But in fact, John was so ordinary at Princeton University that no one even noticed his existence—Hugo was not referring to the kind of superstar crowd, but the respect for John.

At a university like Princeton, academically accomplished professors are highly respected, by students, by colleagues, and by scholars. Even professional professors in many departments are highly respected, not to mention researchers who make great breakthroughs. However, as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, John was treated coldly and even ignored.

When Hugo met John for the first time in Princeton, the two met in a small courtyard inside the campus. The open space made John less restrained. The conversation between the two was stumbling, and during this process, Hugo could feel the strange eyes from the side one after another—he knew that those eyes caused the commotion because of him, a "Hollywood star", but Hugo Still try to ignore these restlessness and focus on John.

Hugo originally thought that in an environment like Princeton University, people didn't pay much attention to social celebrities, what they valued was academics, achievements, and professions. "Hollywood halo" has no practical meaning to them, and many people even look down on practitioners in the entertainment industry. But the facts proved that Hugo's idea was wrong.

After the conversation between Hugo and John was over, many students surrounded Hugo and John. There were at least fifty or sixty people, and many of them even asked to take pictures. . But few people greeted John, as if John was just an old man at the door—it didn't matter.

This actually made Hugo a little embarrassed, because the person sitting in front of him was a person who changed the development of the entire world economy, but these students ignored the existence of John, and only enthusiastically asked him for his autograph and photos. Hugo even felt a little embarrassed.

Looking back now, Hugo couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. He didn't think people needed to worship John, but at least people should show respect for John. Hugo couldn't help but began to think: If people could be more tolerant, friendly, and kind to John in the early stage of John's illness, and reduce some strange gazes, would John's condition not be so bad?

Just like what Hugo himself experienced during the filming of "Death Row Walking", the last thing he needs is the cynicism of the media, what he needs is a relaxed environment around him, and the support of his friends. Relatives and friends helped Hugo get out of the quagmire step by step, and the relaxed atmosphere of the crew of "Death Row Walking" under the strict control of Steven Spielberg and Tim Robbins also contributed a lot without.

Therefore, in John's life, people's indifference is a harm, so who made John spend the easiest years?

It was Alicia, and Hugo couldn't think of anyone else besides Alicia. Because it was when John needed his friends the most that Alicia chose to stay. Just as Alicia chose to divorce, Alicia also chose to stay. No one can blame her choice, because even if her choice seems selfish, it is a choice that a normal person would make. This is exactly what Hugo hopes to tell people: mentally ill patients are not demons and ghosts, and Alicia's stay helped John overcome the difficulties and finally healed.

At this moment, the thoughts in Hugo's mind finally became clear. He should tell the story with John's illness as the main line, and focus on the love between Alicia and John. In sharp contrast. Even if it is somewhat different from the truth, the reason why movies are called art is because movies are completely different from real life.

Any biography—even if it is an objective biography, the director and screenwriter interpret a period of life from their perspective, but in fact, no one knows whether the interpretation of the movie is correct or not, except for the person involved. It is a positive interpretation Or a negative interpretation. This is also one of the greatest charms of biographical films, and it is also one of the charms of films being regarded as art: just like novels and dramas, people let their thoughts fly in the art world and sublimate their thoughts.

All the complicated thoughts were finally eliminated, and the script adaptation work fell into a clue.