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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
First of all Congratulations to myself. After a disdainful effort, the IMDB250 series of movies are ranked according to the 2011-07-01 ranking, and all the first 200 movies have been watched! The vast project took me a lot of time, so hard! We are getting closer and closer to the goal of 250, and in the next ten days, after reading all the rest, I will be complete. This 201st movie is "Living for Spring Festival" which has been stored on the computer for many years. I wanted to watch it for a long time, and it finally came to this one today.
The English name of this film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is very puzzling. After checking a lot of information, I figured it out: the name of the film has no practical meaning. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Who is afraid of Virginia Wolfe? . Virginia Woolf is a British female writer, known as the pioneer of modernism and feminism in the 20th century, but Virginia Woolf in this film refers to the "big bad wolf" (in English, Woolf and wolf are pronounced the same). Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf? is the dialogue in the famous English fairy tale "Three Little Pigs", but in fact the film has nothing to do with this English fairy tale. In the English-speaking world, the fairy tale of the three little pigs is also a nursery rhyme, among which the lines of the big bad wolf are quite famous for their rhyming and interesting rhymes. What is related to the film is that the heroine in the film only sang "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" at the beginning of the film. The name of the film has only a little connection with the plot. After understanding the origin of the name, I discovered that all the Chinese materials on the Internet are basically wrong. It is wrong to say that the name has no connection with the plot. The nursery rhyme is sung in the film; it is wrong to translate the name into "Who is afraid of Virginia Wolf?"; it is also wrong to translate the name into "Who is afraid of the big bad wolf?" Translated into "Who is afraid of wolves in Virginia?" is even more wrong; translated into "Who is afraid of chaste and licentious women?" That's nonsense! Whether it’s traditional or simplified, even Wikipedia, none of them can really explain it clearly! Hey, some things still need to be done by yourself. Having said that, what really accurately translates the theme of the movie is that this "spiritual spring night" is more apt, which is much easier to understand than English. I don't know which master's handwriting is this?
The movie tells the story of a party of four that happened late at night. In the middle of the night, the daughter of a university president and her husband invited a young couple to play at home. In the chat between the four people, various conflicts between the two couples were involved, such as family, career, childhood, children, parents and so on. During the chat, the principal's daughter had a conflict with her husband, so she had a relationship with the young man. The husband, who learned of the incident, began various psychological revenges. Finally, dawn comes, the party is over, and the movie is over.
The film describes a lot of contradictions through the conversation between four people and two couples at midnight. First, the old man’s lack of progress in his career disappointed the principal’s woman; second, the old man’s childhood life was not understood by others, and was laughed at by his wife; third, the book written by the old man was not his own The appreciation of his father-in-law made him feel less sense of accomplishment; fourth, the emptiness of life caused by the infertility between old couples, and the psychological abnormality of the principal’s daughter; fifth, the young man was tricked into getting married on the one hand, and on the other hand for his wife’s family The amount of money promotes the lack of true love between young couples, and it is also the cause of the infidelity of young men. Sixth, the slutty life of the principal woman is an escape from her numb life.
Through this film, we can see how many undercurrents and contradictions lie in the seemingly peaceful life of the American middle class. Feel the various social realities in American society at that time, such as self-interest, single-parent families, murder of one's own family, fake marriage, artificial termination of pregnancy, and so on. The most ironic thing is that when the dawn comes, everyone will still be willing to return to their hypocritical life, no matter how big the contradiction between them is. They would rather live a glorious, false life than bring real relief to themselves. From these reflections, the characters in the play have become completely numb to life, and such families are also a true portrayal of people's lives in that era. In addition, the contradictions described in the film exist not only in the 1960s in the film, but also in the 21st century in which we live. It can be seen that our society has not progressed much!
This is a film dominated by dialogue, with only four main characters, all relying on the actors' dialogue, facial expressions and body language to promote the plot, much like a stage play. So the subtitles are the key to understand this movie. Fortunately, the KiSS version of DVDrip subtitles that I watched this time have been translated to a very good standard, which is fully in line with the language habits of the Chinese people. Except for a small part of the plot that is obscure, the plot is basically understandable. For me who have watched countless movies, such clear and accurate subtitles are rare. It is also a rare and hearty experience in watching movies with dialogues.
Since it relies on the dialogue and the performance of the actors to express the plot, the performance of the actors in the film is the key to the success of the film. In this regard, the film can be called perfect. The performance of the four actors fully supported the 131-minute movie. The protagonist Richard Burton plays the most important role. In addition to the role with the principal's daughter, there are scenes where he is alone with a young man and his wife. In these scenes, large sections of dialogue, especially close-up shots, test the actors' acting skills very much. But for such a difficult performance, Richard Burton did it, and he did it perfectly. He showed the old man's indecisive, resentful, lonely character and emotion very well, and he presented the audience with perfect performances in the movie. The heroine is Elizabeth Taylor. This is the first time I have seen her performance in my memory. Maybe I saw it when I was a child, but I don't remember it. Elizabeth Taylor's role is also very heavy. Within half an hour of the beginning of the film, it was basically her one-man show, followed by her flirting with young men, disputes with Richard Burton, and the touching expression and final collapse of her son in the end of the film. The silky buckle. These scenes can't be imagined to be performed, they are clearly showing their true feelings. Elizabeth Taylor is well-deserved to win the Oscar for Best Actress by relying on this film. Although the other two actors George Segal and Sandy Dennis are supporting roles, they also have wonderful acting skills. They have a crazy young wife and a handsome young man who can fascinate many women. They interpret these two roles very well. It is really so-called "red flowers and green leaves set against each other".
Overall, this movie is very different. There are no complete plots, no big scenes, only four actors, and only a large dialogue, but it can expose various contradictions in American society in 131 minutes. The skill of the choreographer and actors is extraordinary, which is amazing. What is called a good movie? This is a good movie, even if it is said from beginning to end!
In short, a good-looking masterpiece, the performance of the actors is particularly wonderful. It's definitely worth seeing, of course, you have to be able to see a large part of the dialogue.
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
sequence: 0506
[灵欲春宵].Whos.Afraid.of.Virginia.Woolf.1966.REMASTERED.WiTH.ExTRAS.iNTERNAL.DVDRiP.X264-KiSS
2011-08-17
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