Any opinion and critical view are welcome, as they are an opportunity to break paradigms and expand our own vision.
What is zoom for?
Zoom amplifies the tension, reveals more subtle reactions, positions the characters in the story and outlines their characteristics, forming a necessary part of the narrative for a full understanding of the plot and the characters' personality traits.
I don't think anyone would question the fact that someone doesn't like the zoom resource. It's their right, even though it's a technique that aims at a goal. But when you say it's a cheap resource, as I read in a comment, it sounds to me as a subjective POV like saying "The color green is awful".
How does the public react to the zoom resource?
The fact that the general public doesn't care about aesthetic concepts and genius ideas, as I read too, doesn't mean that a work of any genre should demote or mediocrite Art, on the contrary, the objective is to elevate the public's aesthetic perception. And it's not true that the public doesn't care or have this capacity/perception.
Early history of cinema in China
China stands out for its ancient tradition and culture (more than 5.800 years) and for the seriousness with which it carries out productions, although in this universe there are low quality productions, as in any other in the world of the film industry.
The beginning of the history of Chinese cinema is closely linked to Chinese opera as a theme and to ancient traditional painting as an attempt to transpose the aesthetics of these paintings to the plastic experience of cinema screens. To this day, Chinese film productions still maintain these roots, albeit with a modern concept.
The zoom in The Double
The presence of the zoom technique in The Double isn't random, it's done strategically, combined with technical, psychological, artistic and emotional objectives. In The Double, the zoom clearly reveals Duke Su's emotional climate, allowing us great intimacy with many feelings of the character. Likewise, in the competition scene, the zoom in XFF shows the perplexity of her pain in the zoom of his mouth half-open, like in a silent moan, while her eyes show helplessness. The zoom resource makes it possible for us to delve into the characters’ intimacy.
The zoom resource in another series/films
We can see that zoom plays a crucial role in complementing the narrative of the films like Clockwork Orange (1972), 2001-A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Shining (1980), all by Stanley Kubrick. Without the zoom scenes, the viewer would miss emotional impacts, tensions and important information for understanding the plot.
The fourth wall
The fourth wall is broken when the character looks directly at the camera, as if he were facing the viewer. The objective is to take us into the scene, creating a symbiosis and increasing the emotional charge. An example of this can be seen in the films of Laurel & Hardy (from 1927 to 1951), Marx Brothers (from 1951 to 1957) . You can see it also in the Chinese series Detective Zhao Gan'e (2023), which offers the public an interactive and immersive experience, inviting the watcher into its setting. The Greek theater, for example, didn't have a fourth wall, as there was the chorus, a group of actors whose function was to comment on the scenes with the spectators (we can see this resource in the competition scene, when the judges comment on the XFF's performance and musical piece).
Conclusion
The overwhelming majority of the public perceive the artistic value of The Double, (reason for its success), recognizing in it a set of artistic languages combined with property and sophistication.
For those who cannot imagine the objectives of the zoom and other technical resources, when they have knowledge, they'll have an even better entertainment experience, taking into account that its concepts go far beyond the appeal of the film industry.
