When you first hear the name, you may think it is a literary film with a slow plot and a melancholic atmosphere, but in fact, after watching a few old Woody movies, you can guess what the style is – the story is witty, the editing is meticulous, and it is filled with a lot of daily dialogue , will not have too profound themes, but is always ironic.
Kate's character, Jasmine, has lived a pampered, pretentious life for years thanks to her husband, a Wall Street business tycoon. However, her husband was imprisoned for business fraud and committed suicide, but she lost everything in an instant, and her life fell from the peak to the bottom. The down-and-out Jasmine became a little mentally ill because she missed her past glory and wealth too much. And the narrative technique of the film is to follow her thoughts, shuttle between the present and the memory; and according to Woody Allen's consistent technique, this editing is very clean and objective, without any personal feelings, it is a kind of cold-eyed perspective . This also makes the atmosphere of the film not as tragic as I described, on the contrary, it makes people laugh and set the tone of humor and irony of the whole film.
Jasmine has an adopted sister named Ginger. Unlike her sister, Jiang lived a very mundane and humble life in San Francisco, with a cramped house, and her ex-husband and boyfriend were full of vulgar slang. Such a character was naturally an embarrassing existence in Jasmine's eyes. There was still sisterhood, but her sister's status was like a stain in her upper-class life. Therefore, when Jiang and her ex-husband visited Jasmine's family in New York many years ago, Jasmine showed a kind of "disgust to try to whitewash" and persuaded the two to invest the $200,000 they finally won in their lives to invest in her husband's project ——This plot also laid the biggest foreshadowing for the subsequent contradictions.
Besides, after losing and going bankrupt, Jasmine had nowhere to go, so she could only come to San Francisco to seek refuge with her sister, but the living conditions of the people at the bottom made her feel at a loss. Even though he has nothing left, he still has to act noble and glamorous, trying his best to distance himself from the diaosi around him. She disdains the humble job as a dental assistant, but she can't even learn computer operation; she looks down on the philistine men around Jiang, calling them loser, and then Jiang's boyfriend says that he and Jiang have no secrets, at least not A liar like your husband.
Jasmine, who was out of tune with this kind of life, almost collapsed, but at a party, she met an elegant government official with a sea-view villa. In this incident, Jasmine began to bring out her hypocritical kitsch to the fullest. She whitewashed her past and described herself as a woman with a successful career and style, and the man believed it and fell in love with her at first sight. After a short period of time, Jasmine regained her radiance, visited the man's sea view room and explained the renovation plan in a good way, and the man quickly proposed an engagement to her. At the same time, Jiang also met a sound engineer at that party. After the two had a relationship, Jiang fell in love with the gentleness of this man more and more, and abandoned his current boyfriend who was vulgar and inaction.
Originally, both sisters had a better life than they are now, Jasmine can continue her dream of being rich, and Jiang can also say goodbye to being surrounded by losers. Who knows that good luck can fool people. Jiang learned on a phone call that the man was already a married man, and he was not sincere to him; while Jasmine was also buying a ring from a civil servant, she ran into Jiang's ex-husband and told the civil servant in front of him. The truth about Jasmine's identity is revealed - I personally think that the biggest flaw in the whole film is coming! First of all, the appearance of Jiang’s ex-husband was quite abrupt, and he left immediately after scolding Jasmine and never appeared again. This plot is simply a twist for a turning point, a drama for the drama; second, the story happened here, in fact, all the audience are waiting for Jasmine's dream of being a rich man was shattered, and Woody actually fulfilled everyone's wishes. It was understandable to put it in a normal movie, but Woody Allen has made a movie called "Match Point"! In short, all the plots before this turning point are naturally very close to life, but this incident makes the audience feel that this is just a movie, which is abrupt.
And the ending of this turning point is that Jiang reunites with his loser boyfriend and continues to live a sweet life regardless of previous suspicions; while Jasmine, who has lost everything again, pretends to be married soon, but in fact has completely broken down. The last shot is of Jasmine sitting on a bench on the street, nervously talking to herself, her eyes directed at a distance that the audience can't see...
There is no doubt that Cate Blanchett's performance this time made everyone applaud. Absolutely, whether it is her disgusting nobility or the nervous facial shaking when she talks to herself, we all see more possibilities in this queen professional. The character of Jasmine is hypocritical, indifferent, flattering, and pitiful. We seem to have seen such a figure in countless literary works, but we are once again attracted by her story and reflect on our own life at the same time. On the other hand, Jiang, she is a character that all of us do not want to be, just because she is poor and humble; but aside from this, Jiang is actually living a happy life. Poverty is caused by not being motivated, but if you want less, it means There is less greed, so it is easy to be happy. She had been influenced by Jasmine to find a better man, but the ending was empty, which better illustrates this point. So to say whether the director has an emotional bias, in fact, there is, because at the end of the story, we are envious of Jiang.
The cities Jasmine and Jiang live in also play a role in shaping their characters, New York and San Francisco. People can't help but think of "The Great Gatsby": So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. It's just that Gatsby is somewhat moving heroic, Jasmine is just a pure satire. .
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