The feather flies in the air over the city. Normal shot, nothing special. Then it descends, descends. Okay, with a normal tap, you can take it off. When it rests on the shoulder of a passer-by, flies under the wheels of a car, you already suspect that it is impossible to shoot all this in one shot with existing tools. And then it falls on Forrest Gump's sneakers. One shot. And then you realize that you have been tricked. But how?
I don’t know about you, but in any form of art I have a very important component not even what the artist does, but how he does it. When from a misunderstanding of something completely new and, most likely, applied, blows the tower down - how? How does Harrison play two guitars with Lennon in a totally seamless duo that shapes the sound of The Beatles? How did Malevich manage to paint his black square, from which he shimmers with energy that can knock him off his feet? How Robert Plant sings the billionth Baby-baby-baby, from which some kind of salt water splashes out of his eyes? And so on. If you have not yet completely hardened, like an elephant's head, you will remember your own adventures in this regard. They are all different.
But on that Venetian day in 1994, Robert Zemeckis, in fact, turned the idea of both mine and many who sat in the Mostra di Venezia hall about what can be done in cinema. Oh, those magicians! Yes, it was the triumphant arrival of the now deceased Silicon Graphics computers in the cinema. And Robert Zemeckis was their most serious advertiser. Before "Forrest Gump" I hadn't looked closely at the work of this character. But I had to reconsider my attitude.
The very last film on the list of watched turned out to be the very first film "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" - as you understand from the title, about The Beatles, or rather, about American girls who are trying to get on that very first show Ed Sullivan, which aired from New York in 1964 to 90 million viewers. Bloggers-millionaires, go and kill yourself with an apstena - by today's standards, taking into account inflation and the Vietnam War, it would be three billion, no less. For the 1978 film, it is technically very well done, especially Sullivan's studio, as the concert itself is shown: The Beatles are on TV monitors that obscure the actors' faces, all done with great love and care. And the experiences of American teenagers who are thinking whether to buy them a second copy of the Meet The Beatles record or not,- these are not our experiences, at all. Well-fed is not a friend to the hungry. Still.
In principle, it is clear where Zemeckis got the theme of The Beatles. When his parents bought him an 8mm camera at the age of 13, he started making puppet films. And they all had the same soundtrack - songs by Lennon and McCartney. And his parents were extremely simple as regards culture. He himself says that of all the arts, they only had a TV at home. And, by the way, he was a fan of TV. He did not even know that somewhere there were film departments at universities, some kind of film schools. He also accidentally found out about their existence on TV. And when he caught fire, of course, all his relatives began to explain to him that there are no filmmakers in the family of a welder from Chicago. Like all young people, if the elders say that you cannot, then you will definitely do everything to be able to.Therefore, he ended up at the University of Northern Illinois for two years and hired to earn money on his favorite television - in the editing department. Then he decided to transfer to the USC film school in California: he shot a short film “Golden Slumbers” based on The Beatles' song from the Abbey Road album - and still hung up, lost points.
But the guy comes from a simple family of a welder.
And he did not hesitate to call and literally impose himself - with all sorts of promises to improve knowledge in the courses.
There are quite decent graduates of this institution.
For example, John Wayne, composer Herb Albert, John Carpenter, and from modern - suddenly Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Michael Balzari (Flea).
Or Daryl Hannah with Forest Whitaker.
In principle, it is clear that in the late 1960s it was a nest of rich hippies who, unlike Zemeckis, did not care about their studies. They mostly showed off in front of each other: “Ah, Godard! Oh, the new French wave! " It seems that the teachers there were also a snob on a snob. Zemeckis, who grew up on the films of John Wayne, Disney and Clint Eastwood, did not care about "ah, Godard", and, as a hereditary proletarian, he let it all go on deaf ears. But then I found myself a friend with similar tastes - Bob Gale, with whom she would then write the script for Back to the Future. But so far, a couple wrote two scripts for their diploma - "Tank" and "Bloody brothel" - naturally, they were not staged by anyone at that time. The funny thing is that "Brothel", a horror comedy, then surfaced in the performance of director Gilbert Adler already in 1996. Well, a good script pleases the producer's eye,especially in the "Tales from the Crypt" line.
At the university, he did the film "Field of Honor" (1973) - 14 minutes, it is on YouTube, if anyone is interested.
A shell-shocked soldier leaves a psychiatric hospital and cannot cope with the dangers of a peaceful life.
But Zemeckis with this 14-minute black joke went to the reception of Steven Spielberg, and he, stunned by the pressure of the proletarian poet, became his patron.
He produced both I Wanna Take Your Hand and the second film, Used Cars with Kurt Russell.
Both flopped at the box office.
But in the first one, Zemeckis' trick was already indicated - to insert historical characters into your picture, even if they cannot be inserted for various reasons.
The scripts for both were written by the Zemeckis-Gale duo.
Then Spielberg took their script for "1941" and made his most financially disastrous film - with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
That is, at some point, Zemeckis, along with his friend, found himself in the position of "good guys with good scripts, films which turn out to be failures." So in the early 1980s, that reputation literally put the couple out of work. They did two more scripts - for Brian De Palma (Car Pool) and Spielberg (Growing Up) - but both never came to fruition. The third scenario they had - about a guy who accidentally fell into the past, in the 1950s - was discarded by literally all the majors. More than 40 rejections. In my opinion, this is a Guinness record.
All this looks like a bad joke: unemployed directors-scriptwriters who are not needed by anyone, get a job in a film, the script for which was written by a girl who, in general, wrote a single script in her life. "Romancing the Stone" (1984) Zemeckis was invited to do Michael Douglas. The romantic adventure comedy is not a very common genre in America. The film turned out to be moderately balanced so as not to say the word "cute", but it received some fantastic box office: with a budget of $ 10 million, the gross was $ 115 million. While the film was being filmed, Zemeckis was approved for the film "Cocoon", but when the producers looked at the rough material of "Roman", they fired him from the upcoming "Cocoon".
The film's success was Zemeckis's lucky ticket to the industry: Universal took on his script about a journey into the past - Back to the Future - and appointed him director.
The work started with a mess.
Zemeckis wanted to shoot Michael J. Fox as Marty from the start, but he was busy.
They took Eric Stolz (the difference in characters is obvious, if you remember Stolz).
They began to shoot - and Zemeckis realized that he did not want to shoot Stolz.
And yet he waited for Fox.
The re-shooting of the scenes cost $ 4 million. Then we had to rush to the point that some of the special effects came out not completely finished.
But the success was overwhelming. Not only has the studio raised $ 388.8 million for $ 19 million, but Back to the Future has become an exemplary science fiction film loved by everyone, young and old. The song from the movie - "The Power of Love" by Hugh Lewis and The News - also became a global hit. I don't remember Hugh Lewis doing anything else noticeable in his career. And everyone found out that there is such a car - DMC DeLorean with vertically opening doors. Where do you think the name of the band Run DMC comes from? This is how DeLorean influenced popular culture. And when you watch the animated series "Rick and Morty" today, you should at least keep in mind that these are the same Marty and Doc, only on heavy dragzas.
And surprisingly, the sequel "Back to the Future 2" (1989) again brought success ($ 332 million). And "Back to the Future 3" (1990) brought in another $ 243 million. Many critics liked the third part even more than the first two.
That is, Zemeckis quickly scored points in the industry. When the sequels were just about to be released, he contacted Disney to shoot the most expensive ($ 70 million) film at the time - Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It is based on the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolfe. Wolfe is famous for writing as many as three books about Roger Rabbit - a cartoon character who encounters quite living people in a certain city in a certain era that looks like the 1940s. It could be called noir if it weren't so funny. The technical solutions offered by Zemeckis were the most breakthrough at that time. And what is most interesting, they look very organic even now, despite the fact that many films with special effects become outdated in just two or three years. And Jessica Rabbit, drawn,still sets the bar for most sexy, thanks to animator Richard Williams. Well, Bob Hoskins is cool too.
Roger Rabbit also defined the degree of Zemeckis' immersion in the latest technology - in computer graphics, more and more convincing. So, in the next film, the black comedy Death Becomes Her (1992), Silicon Graphics computers have already convincingly simulated human skin.
And then again everyone was waiting for a comedy, but got "Forrest Gump" - a film-run through the recent history of the United States, with humor and pathos at the same time. By the way, the relative, after whom Forrest is named in the picture, is the founder of the Ku Kuks Klan club, and there are many more such jokes. Technologically, it is made perfectly - all these funny combinations and meetings of Forrest Gump in documentary shots with the most famous people in America. And this is also the merit of Silicon Graphics. But, having spent $ 55 million, Zemeckis managed to raise $ 683 million, which is the second indicator for 1994 (the first was reached by the "Lion King"). Forrest Gump has collected six Oscars. Including the director Zemeckis has already become an Oscar-winning director.
And only the author of the book "Forrest Gump", on which the film was directed - Winston Groom - was paid only $ 350 thousand, did not pay interest on the collection and was not mentioned in the Oscar speech.
Since then, Tom Hanks has often starred with Zemeckis.
In 1997, the director filmed Contact, based on the story by Carl Sagan.
This project has been dragging on since 1979 and it would be better if it died at the same time.
But Zemeckis at this time already indulged in the genre beloved from childhood.
He executive produced Tales From The Crypt (1989-1996) and even directed three episodes himself.
Tales is a surprisingly cohesive product based on 1950s comics published by EC.
Since 1999, he has already become the voice of the transition to digital for the entire industry: he lectured, held conferences, etc. Those who remained supporters of the good old celluloid (including Spielberg and Lucas), he teased: “These are the people who still They have since thought that the sound of vinyl is better than the sound of a CD.
We can argue until we're blue in the face, but I don't know anyone who still buys vinyl. "
A heady statement when you consider that vinyl has grown in sales since then that it has surpassed CDs for three years.
Cast Away (2000) is clearly Robinson Crusoe.
Starring Tom Cruise.
The most interesting thing in the film is the participation of Dmitry Dyuzhev, Valentina Ananyeva and Anna Frolovtseva.
Nevertheless, the collection of the picture is $ 429 million.This is very good with a budget of $ 90 million.
Zemeckis turned to full computer power on the fairy tale "The Polar Express" (Polar Express, 2004) based on the children's book by Chris Van Olsburg.
He even plays computer Tom Hanks there.
The same thing happened with Beowulf, a fantasy based on an old English legend.
Here Zemeckis uses image capture technology with might and main, which means that digital figures are animated by natural people.
Spent $ 150 million - earned $ 194 million. This is not something that I would undertake to revise a second time.
A Christmas Carol (2009) is also a fully computerized adaptation, this time, as you know, of Dickens.
The cost / income rating continues to approach equilibrium - $ 200 million / $ 325 million. Jim Carrey became the model-actor for the "image capture".
The story of an alcoholic pilot played by Denzel Washington touched the hearts of the audience - "The Crew" (Flight, 2012).
Or the viewer is simply tired of “capturing the image”.
And here Zemeckis resorts to a rather old film trick and shoots the next film - "The Walk" (The Walk, 2015) - the story of a tightrope walker.
It is clear why it is in 3D - so that people with a fear of heights immediately leave the cinema in horror.
Judging by the financial results, many decided not even to risk and refrain from such a spectacle.
The film grossed just $ 60 million.
Another financial setback awaited him in 2016 with the painting Allied.
World War II, Casablanca, Brad Pitt.
But Brad Pitt didn't help either.
To the gallery page
Addressing the fashionable topic of PTSD - "The Wonderful World of Marwen" (Welcome to Marwen, 2018) - brought Zemeckis an already tangible financial disaster: with a budget of $ 39 million, he raised only $ 13 million.
"The Witches" (The Witches, 2020) is very akin to "Death Becomes Her", it is well done technically, and you can watch it.
But for some reason they didn't watch it - and he raised only $ 29 million. According to the book by Roald Dahl.
Next year Zemeckis is going to stun us with his reading of Pinocchio, a computerized musical drama.
At the same time, we must remember that as a producer he has been working quite successfully all this time and has already released almost 20 films of different genres and different quality.
So he has already made his contribution to world cinema - and he is very confident, this contribution.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.