All language subtitles for 116 - Scene Deconstruction A Beautiful Mind

the beautiful mind

screenplay by Akiva Goldsman

is remarkable in that it has one Uber

um you know

overriding objective

that is to make you understand what it feels like

to be mentally ill

um and then

by extension

what does it feel like to love someone who's living

um you know

within those delusions

and what's what's so remarkable about it is that it

it it uses um

you know a convention of

of cinema okay

basically creates a ghost story

it's it's playing close handed versus open handed

you don't know

the truth about the characters that you're seeing

and then you know

the audience gets the rug pulled out from under them

is something that we had to build to

very carefully and stylistically

I tried to work with um

three different looks within the framework of the movie

the first period

young John Nash as a rising genius

eccentric but um

ultimately brilliant

um I shot that along with Roger Deacons

cinematographer

in a very straightforward um

kind of a life magazine way with

with a sense of a of a

of nostalgia

almost kind of an organized um

warmth and congeniality

the only difference was that I played a lot

of it from John Nash's point of view in fact

I had actors looking right into the lens sometimes

I played you know

an unusual amount of it in his literal point of view

and that was a way of I hoped

um drawing audiences

into a kind of a mystery like

you know and

and and what would eventually prove to be his paranoia

um and but at this point

it was just a sort of um

meant to make the audience feel his discomfort

that he doesn't fit in

and they must be looking at me

but later in the movie

you would recognize that

of course that was

it was the beginning of a paranoid

um schizophrenic

uh you know

misproceiving the world around him

then the middle section was um

shot in a very um

noir kind of way

like a Cold War

um thriller in espionage movie

you know lots of shadows

lots of light and dark

um um the the color palette narrowed down Ed Harris

you know as a this

um you know

powerful but mysterious figure

but I really wanted the audience to understand it

so of course it can

never goes to the point of being broad or extreme

although you know

the script actually takes you to a place

where they're inserting things

you know chips

into his arm

which you know

I think we're all pretty aware of that in the

in the you know

in the 50s that the technology didn't exist yet

we were able to make that slide by for the audience

and there's a moment

where the rug is pulled out from under the audience

and we dispense with the noir

and we go into something else

which is much more personal and much more simple

and this you know

I kept calling it the

you know the cold

clear light of day

that the truth was was harsh

it was uninviting

it was not it wasn't

it wasn't a warm place

the truth of John Nash's life

and his love story with his wife Alicia

so those are the three different styles

there's a sequence that's a turning point

and I build sequences

usually in sort of 10 minute kinds of increments

or chapters

I try to identify that rhythm within the script

and I try to make sure that

in addition to the overarching uh

structure of the movie

that there are these chapters

there are these these

they have their own beginning

middle and end

that they carry their own narrative questions

you know what will happen next

uh and um of course

you're playing out the larger plot all the time

but on a specific level

you're you know

you're concerned about other particulars

that create some

some tension

some curiosity and have a

have a climax

I actually developed this way of working

while refining the script for Apollo 13

which really depended upon these sequences

to make you lose your sense of your

your overall understanding

of what the truth of that true story was

what the ultimate outcome is gonna be

and made you focus on little details where you

you didn't necessarily know the outcome

you didn't know what the emotional price

or physical price

might be what you know

what price may have been paid

I don't know anything

there's no good in keeping secrets

you know so

at a certain point

we're always focused with John Nash

and yet I felt this is a love story

and at this point

we pull the rug out from under the audience

I thought well

who's the most important person who's feeling this well

it's his wife

Alicia John

schizophrenia

people with this disorder are often paranoid

and she is a pivotal character

central to the movie

into the themes of the story

and I made it a decision that required some rewriting

and some focusing

and in a very subtle way

it informed the way I was gonna stage

and shoot those scenes

but in that sequence

in that 10 minutes

from the time that Alicia visits the hospital

and is told the truth um

and doesn't necessarily trust it

and has to you know

sort of become a detective herself

and come to terms with it and confront her husband

and then witness this this

you know this

this ice shock therapy

I shifted the point of view of the movie

to her character for just that

just that 10 minutes

just that sequence

and I made it a suspense sequence about her discovery

and if you watch the scenes unfold

there's an air of mystery

there's an increased sort of tempo

in the way she's moving

the way the camera presses in

and it builds to this moment of truth

where she confronts her husband

I shot that scene differently than I shot

any of the other two person scenes

I actually asked Roger Deakins to do something that was

unusual for him and challenging for cinematographers

and yet he really did it

I wanted to shoot both of their

over the shoulders at the same time

I wanted them to be in the scene together

I didn't want one actor off camera doing the dialogue

you have to find William Parker

he can stop stop

stop because the lighting was very specific

such a general naturalism

he worked very hard to give us

the actors and myself

that opportunity

and I remember we did about nine or 10 takes

with a camera move in

and that was gonna be the the only

the only coverage

the only thing I did was that in a

a wide shot

and I didn't even do the whole scene

I only did a couple of key lines that I needed

after they were already emotionally exhausted

because I wanted them to be able to play together

um this this horrifying moment

where she realized how ill he really was

it isn't real

and there was a hopelessness there for her

and he you know

still at the height of his illness

feels so betrayed by her

it's in your mind

and then visually and and

and of course the

the music really supported this again

it's James Horner

kind of emotional tumbling to her

witnessing what you know

the hell that he's living in

in a physical way as he's

as he's going through this very harsh treatment

this is an interesting scene to choose in the movie

because it in a way

it stands alone

and it represents um

a lot of what I try to do

that works in hopefully

very subtle ways but

but also um

in significant ways

and things like

not just looking at one scene after the other

as its own discrete

um set of of creative ideas of writing and and

and acting problems

but trying to bundle things together

and creating a kind of a flow

and an emotional connection that is building

and then um

crashing down emotionally

and then you you know

you begin again with a new narrative question

you know what next

what is she gonna do next

now that he's in this situation

and those kinds of things create

um you know

emotional investment for audiences

they often help you define highlight scenes

um and most directors will tell you that

you know your

your your movie is

is really built on a handful

some would say 3

some say 5 some say 7

but these these highlight scenes

well you know

in thinking about them

in watching movies

they're usually

you know pay off to a sequence

Billy Wilder said

you have to understand the five important scenes

and then you have to know how to build to them

well to me it's about building a great sequence

Steven Spielberg is one of the great sequence builders

um that I've ever

I've ever seen

he naturally knows how to you know

create so much excitement

tension mystery

whatever it is that he's trying to achieve

emotion and then

you know and let it reach

you know kind of a climax

and so during the course of a movie

there's not just one at the end

you're supposed to be

you know um

I think a lot of UPS and downs

a lot of spikes

and it's the director's job to identify it

and make sure that you don't underplay

uh and that also

you in in the

in the aftermath of one of those moments

that you maybe give the audience a breath

you understand that you've just completed

uh one sequence with its own climax

and now you know

you just like a

just like coming to

you know Chapter 7

um you have just a moment

as an audience

to collect yourself

and you know

wonder what's gonna happen next

and then move into it

um with the characters

I'm just gonna grab the laundry okay

I'll draw his bath

it's okay this sequence is

um you know

a metaphor for any loved one

who's coming to terms with a spouse or a sibling

who is facing this kind of mental illness

especially when it's

it comes as a surprise

similar with addiction and other

other kinds of diseases that you can be in denial about

and then there comes a moment of reckoning

where you just have to come to terms

with the fact that this person you care about is is is

is damaged he's ill

and so we were able to use the metaphor of

uncovering the mystery of what John Nash was doing

compared to um

what he thought he was doing

and conveyed everyone he was doing

so what what

what was the reality of his

of his existence versus

um you know

the one that he shared with everyone

and made everyone believe in

and that was that he was he was

he was working as a spy

he was cooperating with the government

her opening a door and walking in to that brilliantly

art directed and design office

with that sort of jumbled collection of

of images and strings

connecting ideas and so forth

which was in the script

was described in screenplay

that is a metaphor for understanding the turmoil and

the illusion

the hallucination that you know

a loved one with

with with mental illness of this sort is

is coping with

directorally

I was trying to treat it literally

like this sort of mystery that was unfolding but again

the brilliance of the writing here is that it's

it's what every loved one goes through

when they have to finally come to terms with it

they wanna be in denial

they're not sure in this case

you know Alicia

the Jennifer Connelly character

is suspicious of what people are saying

um what the doctors are saying

you know are they

are they spies

she believes her husband

just as we always believe our loved ones are

you know are

are are healthy and can overcome this thing

and they don't really have a problem

that's that significant or that profound so uh

it it was really interesting to be able to use this

sort of mystery

um grammar to to try to

parallel the you know

experience that all too many people face when they

they have to come to terms with

the illness of a loved one