Hugo listened to Charlize's words and recalled them carefully, and this sentence was indeed what he said to Charlize. It was after Allen handed over the "A Beautiful Mind" project to him, and at that time he had not yet conducted an investigation into the life of John Nash, and all he knew was the interview with "Vanity Fair" and the storyline of the movie in his memory, so Hugo was still relatively relaxed at the time, and watched several videos of biographical films with Charlize, and the two exchanged many opinions.

"You also said at the time that movies are simple, but life is much more complicated. It's impossible to include real and intricate life in a film, not even by the greatest artists, because a movie is only two hours, but there are countless 'two hours' in life. ”

Little by little, Charlize's words awakened Hugo's own memories, which had been blurred by the busyness of recent weeks and the ups and downs of John Nash's life, and even made Hugo wonder: Did he really say this?

"Therefore, you must first determine a main line, and then cut off all the detailed ends that have nothing to do with the main line, or weaken them, or metaphors, and focus on the main line, so that the adaptation of the script may be simpler."

After saying that, Charlize himself looked at Hugo without confidence. Charlize is not sure whether his argument is feasible, because a person's life is complicated, and it may not be possible to form a complete personality without the influence of any one event in life; In a biographical film, ignoring the major events in life makes the story seem missing, which in turn affects the structure of the entire script.

Charlize appeared to be underwhelmed.

But Hugo fell back into his own thinking because of Charlize's words, John Nash's life was indeed magnificent, he was born in 1928, he himself lived in a turbulent environment, and his achievements and life environment are inextricably linked; And he was judged to be "crazy", so much so that he did not receive the Nobel Prize in economics until 1994, which is also closely related to the overall social environment.

However, it is absolutely impossible to include all these stories. "Greed" is the most taboo thing in adapting a biography, and Hugo knows this better than anyone else, but when it is really his turn to complete the work, it is inevitable to make the same mistake. There are too many things to say, and often in the end, nothing is clearly stated.

John's life is very complicated, and perhaps everything he goes through will be intertwined, but the focus of each thread is different.

If you want to write about the cruelty and gore of real life, then you should take the strange and long love between John and Alicia as the main line, including the separation and integration of the two people, including John's style. Uninhibited, including the support and alienation of two people in the midst of illness, are all written. It truly reveals the essence of love.

If you want to focus on the oppression of independent individuals in mainstream society and the persecution of individualism by totalitarianism, then you should take the process of John's loss of reason, the impact of the details of his surrounding life on him, and what he saw and heard in Europe as the main line, so as to truly show the chaos and depression in the background of that era.

However, these were not what Hugo wanted to write, and he and Alan discussed the script from the beginning, focusing on the psychopaths themselves. Hugo wants to show the struggle and confusion of the mentally ill, and wants to make people have a different understanding of mental illness through John's story, and wants people to really feel the pain of John, the pain of all mental patients...... Hugo, then, should focus on showing the process of John's schizophrenia.

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

Then, Hugo should write the process of John's illness from the onset to the gradual aggravation and finally to the cure, and then hide other important ideas as metaphors in the story, perhaps, John's prophecies about the Cold War period can be integrated into the story as one of the important factors of John's illness; Besides, what really made John recover? Or, what is the most important thing for the mentally ill? As John said, "relying on one's own reason" to heal from illness is obviously unrealistic, and not to mention that this idea is not recognized by the academic community of psychology, it is obviously too difficult to write a screenplay.

Hugo has always believed that the most important thing for the mentally ill is the support of family, love and friendship, as well as the less special vision of others. It is a condition that is no different from other diseases.

When Allen came to Hugo with an interview with "Vanity Fair", they wanted to show it through this film: to tell people that mental illness is not a flood of beasts, they are just ordinary people, they need the support and help of others, not only relatives, lovers and friends, but also ordinary people around them - even strangers. Maybe just a warm smile will make things better.

This reminded Hugo of meeting John at Princeton University.

Although game theory has been used in almost all fields of social science, "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 that no one even noticed his presence - Hugo was not referring to the superstar crowd, but to the respect for John.

At a university like Princeton, academically successful professors are highly respected, from students, from colleagues, from academics. Even the professors in many departments are highly respected, not to mention the researchers who have made great breakthroughs. However, as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, John was given a cold reception and even ignored.

When Hugo and John first met at Princeton, the two met in a small courtyard inside the campus, and the open occasion made John less inhibited. The conversation between the two men stumbled, and in the process, Hugo could feel the strange eyes of the next to him one after another—he knew that those eyes were caused by the commotion caused by him as a "Hollywood star", but Hugo tried to ignore these restlessness and focus on John.

Hugo originally thought that in an environment like Princeton, people didn't pay much attention to celebrities, they valued academics, achievements, and majors. The "Hollywood halo" has no practical meaning for them, and even many people look down on those who work 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, and there were at least fifty or sixty people, and even many of them asked to take pictures. But few people greeted John, as if John were just an old janitor—it didn't matter.

This actually embarrassed Hugo, because sitting in front of him was the person who changed the whole world economic development, but the students ignored John's existence and only enthusiastically asked him for autographs and pictures. Hugo even felt a little embarrassed.

In retrospect, Hugo couldn't help but feel a little suffocated, he didn't think people needed to bow down to John, but at the very least, people should show respect for John. Hugo couldn't help but start thinking: if people could have been more tolerant, kinder, and more cordial to John in the early days of his illness, and had less strange eyes, would John's illness not be so bad?

Just like what Hugo himself experienced during the filming of "Death Row Walk", the last thing he needed was the cynicism of the media, what he needed was a relaxed environment around him and the support of his friends. It was family and friends who helped Hugo get out of that quagmire step by step, and the relaxed atmosphere of the "Death Row Walk" crew under the strict control of Steven Spielberg and Tim Robbins also contributed to it.

So, in John's life, people's indifference was a disservice, so who made John get through the simplest years?

It was Alicia, and Hugo couldn't think of anyone else but Alicia. Because it was when John needed a friend the most that Alicia chose to stay. Just as Alicia chose to divorce, Alicia also chose to stay, and no one can blame her for her choice, because her choice, even if it seems selfish, is a choice that a normal person would make. This is exactly what Hugo wants to tell people: mental patients are not demons, and Alicia's stay helped John get through the difficult time and finally recover.

At this moment, 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 contrast to the cold eyes and rejection around him. Even if there are some discrepancies from the truth, the reason why movies are considered art is because movies are very different from real life.

Any biography, even the most objective one, is the director and screenwriter interpreting a life from their point of view, but in fact, no one knows whether the interpretation of the film is correct, positive or negative, except for the person concerned. This is also one of the greatest charms of biographical films, and at the same time, one of the charms of cinema as art: just like drama, people let their thoughts fly in the art world and sublimate their thoughts.

All the complicated thoughts finally eliminated the detailed ends, and the script adaptation work fell into the foreshadows.