The movie starts with the heroine Jasmine's husband being imprisoned, and she has to run from New York to San Francisco to go to her half-sister Ginger. Jasmine's neurotic babble talking to himself on the plane, in addition to the effect of Woody Allen's possession, also filled the whole film with anxiety. The opening of the film is very similar to the beginning of "Street Car": the heroine has to hide at her sister's house because of a scandal, and her sister is also in the market and does not seek to make progress. It's just that "Street Car" is a drama adaptation, with less changes in characters and scenes, and Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando filled the audience. On the other hand, "Blue Jasmine" has a simple and plain tone. Through the two parallel timelines of the past and the present, the story unfolds in a very layered manner, which is also in line with Jasmine's neurotic and anxious temperament. To insert a sentence here, Woody Allen has photographed Europe enough in the past few years. After watching the full of passion in Spain, elegant Paris and sultry Rome, looking back at the native United States, it must be full of all kinds of disgust. From the airport at the beginning of the film to the street scenes of San Francisco later, every shot reveals the full malice of old New Yorkers to the people of the West Coast. But these are the tricks of old Woody. If no one is laughed at in the scene, then the shooting intention will be lost.
Speaking of the movie, Jasmine looks good and has a better temperament. She married a big man in the financial industry early and lived with her husband in New York. I thought life would be smooth sailing. Who would have thought, the joke of life has just begun. . . Husband is romantic and provokes trouble everywhere. Jasmine, who married before graduating from university, of course understands that keeping her husband means keeping the iron law of lifelong happiness. So, every time the two had a jealous conversation, Jasmine kept a step for her husband. Those self-deceiving words ended up making me an anxiety sufferer. I remember that when Jasmine went to defect to her sister Ginger, although she had no money, she was still stubborn to carry those LV suitcases that symbolized upper east, and told everyone that she used to live in Park Avenue. She knows very well that those LV boxes that are not worth a lot of money when they are sold are still a stepping stone to returning to the upper class. As for Jasmine, Woody Allen gave the same criticism as Blanche in "Street Car". They love vanity and arrogance, thinking that they are smarter and nobler than the villains, but they are assimilated by the smoky society like them. I think Woody Allen still has some sympathy for the character of Jasmine and portrays her more realistically. It's not that they didn't work hard enough, it's just that under the guidance of money, hard work has become a shovel that digs their own grave. Jasmine is not a special case. In the words of her sister Ginger, Jasmine's "genes" are better, and she was born rich. What the film wants to laugh at is these "good genes" girls like Jasmine who think they are more beautiful and smarter. Vanity is the foundation, so when it collapses, it can only use self-destruction to retaliate. And "gene" is not so good Ginger, he is not motivated enough, and there is no lower limit for choosing a boyfriend. But Ginger is actually an independent person, not living under the aura of fony. Although his life choices are not reliable enough, he can at least be responsible for his actions. At the end of the story, sister Jasmine couldn't bear the insults from Ginger's boyfriend, ran out of her sister's house with wet hair, and sat on a street bench nervously talking to herself. And the younger sister Ginger was chased back by her ex-boyfriend after cheating, and the two continued to drink beer and eat chicken legs happily. This sad ending reminds the author of the story called "Big Head Guy" in Peng Haoxiang's "Broken Things" many years ago. Silly girls are happy, but smart girls are lonely.
The author thinks that "Blue Jasmine" is a very interesting adaptation of "A Streetcar Named Desire", and I didn't expect that Queen Kate, in addition to being stern, is so precise about her vulnerability and nervousness. The film has been nominated for a number of Oscars this year, and I hope Cate Blanchett can successfully seal the film.
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