Behind the Orient Express, she turned her life into a legend.

Special feature of 1905 film network On November 10th, the latest version was released in domestic cinemas, but this time it was released simultaneously around the world. Domestic audiences can watch this star-studded annual masterpiece at the same time as foreign audiences.

As the representative work of agatha christie, the Orient Express has been remake for the fifth time.

Because the ending is well known, even the poster in this edition is spoiled by itself.

This time, the director and the actor of "Poirot", but the prince of British drama and the successor of laurence olivier, represent the peak of Shakespeare’s performance — — Sir kenneth branagh.　

　

Blana was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II five years ago, so now he should be addressed as Sir.

Blana not only choreographed, directed and acted well on the stage, but also participated in the production of many films. He directed and recently starred in Nolan’s.

In addition to the detective Poirot, the twelve passengers on the new version of Orient Train are also undiscovered talent.The most eye-catching is "Captain Jack"Johnny DeppHe plays the villain in the film. In addition, there are Spanish beauties.Penélope Cruz Sánchez Daisy Ridley, the new heroine of "Star Wars" series, is a professional villain.Willem Dafoe, and the old British play bones.Judi DenchandDerek JacobiWait a minute. It is said that the actors included a total of 76 performance awards.

The Birth of Murder on the Orient Express

The Orient Express has been remake so many times because of its unique charm. It can be called a model of "perfect murder", and the mode of collective crime created by it can be said to be unprecedented in the history of world detective novels.Of course, this story is not made up out of thin air. It all comes from Agatha’s long trip.

　

Agatha in her youth

In 1928, Agatha, who ended her first marriage, sent her daughter to boarding school and bought a boat ticket to Jamaica alone, hoping to go to the West Indies for fun. At the dinner before departure, she got to know Commander Hao and his wife, who had just returned from Baghdad. At their suggestion, Agatha decided to switch to Baghdad and changed her ticket to the Orient Express. This is her first trip alone, and she was trapped in Turkey for six days because of the snowstorm.

The second reason is the sensational Lindbergh kidnapping case in the United States.In 1932, the one-year-old son of flight colonel Lindbergh was kidnapped and blackmailed for $50,000. However, after Lindbergh paid the ransom, the kidnapper brutally tore the ticket.

　

Lindbergh’s one-year-old son

The police suspected that there was a mole in Lindbergh’s house and investigated all the servants. British maids and German gardeners became the main suspects. Under the great pressure of public opinion, both of them chose to commit suicide to clear their suspicions. Two years later, the police arrested hauptmann, a carpenter in new york, and found a large number of gold coupons suspected of ransom in his home. Although hauptmann refused to plead guilty during the trial, he was finally sent to the electric chair.

　

Hauptmann, a kidnapper identified by the police.

Therefore, Agatha used the reaction of all kinds of passengers when she was stranded on the Orient Express, combined with the kidnapping case of Lindbergh, and created the revenge story of twelve "jury members" seeking justice.

Become agatha christie.

So, how did Agatha become the world-famous "queen of detective stories"? In fact, her life is more exciting than her novels, and she even staged a real version. It all started with her first marriage.

Agatha, 22, met handsome but not rich archibald Christie at a dance, and married Archie despite the opposition of her family.

　

Agatha and Archie

After the outbreak of World War I, Archie enlisted as a pilot, and Agatha followed him as a volunteer nurse. She worked in the pharmacy room, dealing with all kinds of drugs, and gradually became a poison expert. This laid the foundation for 83 poisoning cases in her novels later. In the boring work in the pharmacy room, Agatha began to conceive her first detective novel, which was inspired by a Belgian neighbor who fled the war. The great detective Hercule Poirot and his first mysterious affair at styles were born.

　

After the war, Agatha resumed writing detective novels to supplement her family. Her sixth novel, The Mystery of Roger, became a best-selling novel at that time, and the couple finally lived a spare life with a house and a car. But it is easy to share weal and woe with wealth, and the happy days did not last long.

In the same year, Agatha’s mother died, but Archie didn’t give her any comfort because he fell in love with a beautiful young girl, Nancy Nelly. Archie confessed to Agatha and filed for divorce.

At 10 o’clock in the middle of the night on December 3, 1926, Agatha drove out of the door alone. The next morning, people found her car by the lake, and Agatha disappeared!

　

The newspaper of the year

The news of the disappearance of female detective novelists quickly occupied the headlines of major newspapers and even spread to the United States. The police suspected Archie of killing his wife and kept him under close surveillance.

Eleven days later, Agatha, who called herself Mrs. Nelly (please note this surname), was recognized in a hotel two miles from the missing place. When Archie took her home, she looked confused as if she didn’t know her husband at all. Later, the husband and wife announced that Agatha suffered from fragmented memory loss.

　

The newspaper of the year

The accident made Agatha famous. Because of the public’s curiosity about her, her books were sold out of stock. In the following decades, Agatha kept the disappearance a secret and said nothing. Until the end of 1990s, Agatha’s friend Nan’s daughter claimed that her mother Nan and Agatha had planned the whole "script" in order to punish her unfaithful husband. Unexpectedly, it caused an uproar.

This missing drama is exactly the same as the movie Gone Girl.

Agatha divorced Archie two years later, but because of the copyright problem of the novel, she couldn’t change her maiden name, so she had to continue to use her ex-husband’s surname — — Christie.

The story didn’t end, and Agatha finally found her own happiness. Because of the trip to Baghdad mentioned above, Agatha and the archaeologist Wu and his wife became good friends, and through them they met Max Mallowan, 25. Later, she married the archaeologist who was 13 years younger than herself.

　

Max and Agatha

Since then, Max has been accompanied by Agatha on every archaeological trip. These trips inspired the birth of many of her exotic works, including Tragedy on the Nile, appointment with death, Murder in Mesopotamia and They Came to Baghdad and so on.

In her later years, someone asked Agatha if it would be okay to marry a husband so much younger than herself. She said the classic famous saying: "The older I get, the more interesting he will find me." Their love lasted for 45 years until Agatha died peacefully in Max’s arms on January 12, 1976.

Agatha’s routine

Three great masters of world mystery novels

Agatha, arthur conan doyle and Seicho Matsumoto are also called the three great masters of mystery novels in the world. Sir Conan Doyle established the basic model of detective novels and the basic deductive method, while Seicho Matsumoto initiated the social school of mystery novels.Agatha’s greatest contribution is to create the "country villa school", a school of reasoning, and push the "golden age" of detective novels to a peak.

　

The "golden age" of detective stories refers to the emergence of a large number of classical detective writers between the two world wars, except ellery queen and John Dixon Carr, who are also known as the "three masters of the golden age" with Agatha, as well as G.K. chesterton, Dorothy sayers, Margaret allingham and so on. Mysterious affair at styles, the debut of the great detective Poirot, is regarded as the beginning of the golden age.

　

　"Country House School" is a school of reasoning, also known as exclusive case solving.Seemingly calm English countryside or villa mansion, in an almost closed classical environment, a group of people gather together, including nobles, officers, lawyers, doctors, priests and so on. A high-ranking aristocrat is often at the core of various relationships, and he or she may be violent and hated by everyone. Suddenly, he (she) was killed, probably by poison, and everyone around him had criminal motive and suspicion. The incompetent police will consider this case a mystery, and our detective Poirot or Miss Ma Puer will silently observe everyone’s every move. In order to cover up his identity, murderers often kill several more people. Finally, our dear detective solved the mystery, and the murderer must be the most unlikely person. He (she) may be for money, affection, status, or to cover up the secret decades ago.

　

The above reasoning mode is further extreme, and Agatha’s classic has evolved."Blizzard Villa Mode", also known as "Island Mode"A group of people gathered in a mountain villa and were cut off from the outside world because of a snowstorm. Suddenly, one member was killed strangely, and the rest became suspects. Then, in the process of detecting the case, the suspects will die one after another. This model originated from Agatha’s no one lives, and later had a far-reaching impact on the film industry, and even developed an important type of horror film. Kill array in another dimension, cabin in the Woods and other films all use the "blizzard villa model".

In recent years, the fire variety Star Detective is also based on this model.

Because they are too stereotyped, the focus of classical detective novels is to find out who did it, so they are also nicknamed whodunit. However, there is a reason for the formation of such a pattern. The golden age writer represented by Agatha pursues"Ten commandments of mystery novels"They think that detective stories are an intellectual game between writers and readers, just like the popular killing games and werewolf killing. In their mystery novels, there is not much truth, violence and sociality in murder, and all suspects, including murderers, are polite, reflecting the elegance of classical literature. The murderer will be brought to justice, and society will finally regain its balance. So this reasoning is called "Cozy".

Therefore, in this mode, writers focus more on creation."perfect murder"And Agatha’s contribution is that while maintaining the basic pattern, she also challenges the rules. For example, in Murder on the Orient Express, no one stipulates that the murderer can only be one person. Why can’t it be a group of people? Besides, she is very good at confusing readers with narrative tricks. For example, in Roger’s Mystery and The Mouse Trap, the criminal may be the narrator or the detective himself, which breaks the first and sixth commandments of the Ten Commandments of Mystery Novels.

Agatha’s legacy

Agatha is regarded as the best-selling writer in human history. She has written 68 novels, more than 100 short stories, 17 plays, 6 emotional novels published under the pseudonym Mary West mccourt, 1 autobiography and 2 poems. Her books have been translated into more than 103 different languages, with a total sales of more than 2 billion copies, second only to the Bible and Shakespeare. French President Charles de Gaulle and Queen Elizabeth II are her fans.

Agatha has so many works, which one should I start reading? Japanese critics scored all his works and got ten most recommended works:

1. heavy curtain

2. Poirot: Five Little Pigs

3. Marple: Endless Night

4. A Pocket Full of Rye

5. Xingfu mask

6. Poirot: Evil Under The Sun

7. The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side

8. The Passing of Mr. Quin

9. Poirot: Appointment with Death

10. password

Agatha’s works are also deeply loved by the film and television circles and have been adapted for more than 180 times.

Among them, the classic ones areBilly WilderDirector,Marlene DietrichStarring

In 1980s, three important Agatha films were introduced into China, and they met the audience in China in the form of translated films, which caused an Agatha fever at that time.

　

Peter UstinovVersion of Poirot, and "The Massacre on the Nile" andEvil Under the Sun.

The last film is the most classic version of Murder on the Orient Express, which was directed by sidney lumet in 1974. Ingrid bergman, who was 60 years old, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her five-minute long shot in which Poirot interrogated her.

　

In addition to Bergman, there is also the veteran 007 in the film.Sean ConneryandInAnthony Perkins

Finney Poirot

Agatha, who was still alive, attended the film premiere for the first time, and praised Finney for performing her Poirot, although she was still not satisfied with Finney’s beard.

If you want to experience the most authentic Agatha, you can also watch the English drama versions of Detective Poirot and Detective Marple produced by itv. These two series are 4-5 episodes each season, and each episode is 90 minutes independent.

British drama version of Poirot.

The Great Detective Poirot began to be serialized in 1989, and the last episode of the thirteenth season of 2013, Curtain: The Last Case of Poirot, ended with Poirot’s death. david suchet, the leading actor, has always been regarded as the best Poirot actor. He always wears a neat suit, has two signature moustaches, takes off his hat at the sight of people and says "Merci beaucoup, Mademoiselle" in French with Belgian accent (thank you, Miss).

　

The Detective Story of Miss Marple has been serialized since 2004, and the last season is the sixth season released in 2013.

　

Two-term Miss Ma Puer

In the first three seasons, Geraldine Mcewan should be the most vivid Miss Ma Puer, showing this thin and even a little rickety, inquisitive and rambling little old lady vividly. In the last three seasons, Miss Ma Puer was played by Julia McKenzie. Although she was more kind, she was less verbose and nosy.

In recent years, Britain has also produced mini-dramas of no one lives and the prosecution witness, while Japan has produced mini-dramas of Murder on the Orient Express and no one lives, but both of them are relatively ordinary. In the future, Ben Affleck’s "Witness for the Prosecution" (2019) and the American drama version "Miss Marple’s Detective Case" (2020) developed by CBS are under preparation.

In order to see the best Agatha, there is another choice besides the original and the English drama version, that is, the stage play.

In 1946, Agatha wrote a radio play "Three Blind Mice" for the 80th birthday of Queen Mary, England, which was later adapted into a stage play "Mouse Trap", which is still performed in West End of London. Together with "Woman in Black" and "House of Sin", Agatha is called the three famous plays in West End of London.

Stills of the previous stage play no one lives.

Because Agatha’s works have not passed the copyright protection period, the publishing, remake and moving of her works all need authorization. The copyright of Agatha’s plays in China is mainly in the hands of Shanghai Mousetrap Drama Studio. They cooperated with Shanghai Drama Art Center to rehearse plays such as no one lives, Mousetrap and Unexpected Visitors, which are staged in Shanghai all the year round and will also tour Beijing every year.

Friends who can’t see the stage play, let’s come to the cinema to take the luxury train Orient Express, and feel the classical atmosphere of Agatha and the elegant reasoning of the detective Poirot together with a group of acting big coffees. We will leave on November 10th and be there.