"Love in Rome" is composed of four independent stories. American tourist Hailey (Jerry's daughter) met Michelangelo, a politically radical Italian human rights lawyer, in Rome. The two quickly fell in love and decided to get married. Hailey's parents flew to Rome to visit her relatives for the first time. The other line is that the famous American designer John returns to the alleys and apartments where he was young in Rome, time travels to reunite with his young self, relives the friend who fell in love with his girlfriend step by step, and the frustrated actress Monica who came to Rome on vacation. process. The third line is that the newly married couples Antonio and Millie in a small Italian town came to Rome to make a living. The last line talks about the privileges and troubles of an ordinary small-middle-class employee in Rome, Leopoldo, who became famous overnight inexplicably.
These four sketches are very interesting at the beginning, and each becomes more and more ridiculous, full of Woody Allen's iconic acrimonious satire and character jokes. What is disappointing is the ending of these stories: mediocrity, preaching, and the expected happy ending is not in proportion to the sharpness of the story itself, which makes people have to suspect that the old man is making up the number of the script.
In the documentary of "American Masters Series: Woody Allen", Woody Allen said that he is a believer in "quantity theory", "As long as we keep shooting, there will always be a few good ones." This interview was filmed after the success of "Midnight Paris". Woody Allen confessed that his attitude towards "Midnight Paris" is no different from any other movie. He also teased that he didn't understand the audience and critics. To our taste, I don’t understand why some will achieve commercial success, and some will not. Looking at "Love in Rome" from this perspective, perhaps Woody Allen is playing with the old naughty heart. He has no intention of over-sculpting the script, and shooting all good ideas and bad ideas. This is the willfulness of a genius, and indeed only a genius of his level dares to be so willful in the fiercely competitive movie circle. However, even bad ideas still have the unique shining points of Woody Allen. The noise of Rome, the absurdity of life, the cowardice of human nature, and the wonderful reversal of life are all presented in these four sketches. The skill is still superb.
But Woody Allen is old after all. "Love in Rome" is the first time he starred in his own film since the 2006 "Exclusive News". The role of opera director Jerry is neurotic and obsessive-compulsive, and he babbles and talks after he recognizes one thing-this is the consistent image of Woody Allen on the screen; but this old man who refuses to retire properly Rui exudes an inexplicable sadness from time to time. His concentration when he heard the singing in the bathroom of his in-laws, and his pious face after finally putting the opera "Harlequin" on the stage, all made this ridiculous little man possess a sense of fatalistic tragedy at the same time. Perhaps it was the wife of Jerry's psychoanalyst who kept reminding her of the relationship between retirement and death, or the old man's frowning brows and deeper and deeper wrinkles on his forehead. He reminded me of Yeats's poem:
"There is only one person who loves your pilgrim soul and the
painful wrinkles on your aging face."
I can't say that I like "Love in Rome" much, but look at the old Woody Ai Lun left the country again but couldn't help being mixed with joy and sorrow. Among so many directors, if one day I hear the news of the death of Woody Allen, I think I will really cry.
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