After the modest intro, we see Joanna Kramer packing her travel bag. Occasionally, she would turn her head to look at her son Billy, who had fallen asleep. From the day she was born, in the five and a half years, Joanna has not left Billy for a moment. Now, she plans to run away from home, and the most worrying thing is her son. So, stop thinking too much and just make your life feel like every day since you married Ted Kramer?
Later, even if she had to go to court with her ex-husband in order to fight for the custody of her son, Joanna had to evaluate Ted in this way: After marrying Joanna as his wife, Ted worked hard to earn money to support the family, and never did anything rough to Joanna. Never yelled at Billy, never cheated on him. Such Ted was a model husband for American families in the 1970s. Why did Joanna leave him? Because Joanna feels less and less happy in this family. Being with her son all day, Joanna has forgotten who she is except for Ted's wife Billy's mother, which makes Joanna feel suffocated. Many times I wanted to tell her husband about her uneasiness, but she was always blocked by Ted because she was too busy with work... Joanna stuffed another piece of clothing into her travel bag. This time, she had made up her mind to go. Just waiting for Ted to open the door.
At the same time, although it was past get off work hours, Ted remained in the office like every day in the past, chatting with his boss and colleagues about work. Suddenly looking up, they found that it was very late, so they left the office together and set foot on the way home. As Ted walks past a few street artists doing their work by the side of the road, we hear them playing Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C major.
No audience member would foolishly think that the street artists were the passers-by who rammed into the camera while the Kramers were filming this scene, just as the repertoire they played would not be their free play.
So what did the director of "Mrs. Kramers" want to predict when Ted listened to Vivaldi's "Mandolin Concerto in C major" before he was about to suffer a powerful family storm?
Antonio Vivaldi, an Italian born in 1678 and died in 1741, was a composer in the Baroque period. If the director of "Mrs. Kramer" especially loves Vivaldi, who inspired Bach and other great Baroque musicians, why not let the violinist lean against the wall and play the most beautiful "Winter Banquet" in "Four Seasons", and Did you choose the Mandolin Concerto in C major, which is relatively unfamiliar to us?
Let’s talk about the mandolin, a plucked instrument that originated in Italy.
Mandolin, Italian transliteration, means almond, used to refer to a musical instrument, that is, the body of this plucked instrument is like an almond. Before Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C major, the mandolin was mostly played to accompany madrigals. It is Vivaldi, who tells him the age of his life with his works, and the mandolin can also be the protagonist as the main instrument. Even the most famous "Four Seasons", Vivaldi's works are not as rich as the works of composers of the classical and romantic periods. In choosing the relatively shallow Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto in C major, is the director of "Mrs. Kramers" implying that from now on in the family of the Kramers, Joanna, who has been a supporting role for many years, will Sing the lead role?
The loyal fans of Mr. and Mrs. Kramers must disagree with my guess. The total length of the film is 1 hour and 40 minutes, and there is an hour showing how Ted faced his son Belgium, how he went from helpless to well-organized, and how he went from treating Billy as a burden to relying on him. Who can be indifferent while enjoying this scene? Billy climbed a high place on the children's playground with a model airplane in his hand. When he was having fun, he got carried away and accidentally fell from the height... Billy's face was scratched with a big hole, Blood dripping. Seeing this, Ted picked up Billy and rushed across the road one after another, sent him to the hospital and discussed the treatment plan with the doctor with a crying voice...Is it touching? A father who never cared about his son's eating and drinking, had to take care of his son alone because of his wife's departure. When Billy was 5 and a half years old, Ted was at a loss to fry a piece of toast and burnt the pan. At the age of 7, it was no problem for Ted to skillfully prepare breakfast for Billy. The joys and sorrows that father and son have experienced over the past year and a half to live in harmony, isn't it the main scene of "Mrs. Kramers" ? of course not. All of these are paving the way for Joanna to free up her hands to fight with Ted for Billy's custody after she settles down.
The first time I saw Mr. and Mrs. Kramer was in the school lecture hall. More than 100 people crowded together and stared at the small TV on the podium. The video tape played was no longer known to be the grandchild of the master tape, so the picture presented was either Snowflake or Meryl. Streep or Dustin Hoffman is writhing. Even with such a playback effect, no one quit during the screening. I watched it carefully, and the discussion after reading it was very lively, but we were too young and agreed that the reason why Joanna ran away from home was because she couldn't bear the heavy housework. Therefore, we thought about it with worry, how to solve three meals a day and clothes for four seasons when we have our own small family in a few years.
After more than 30 years, watching the American film "Mrs. Kramer", which was completed in 1979 and won multiple Academy Awards in 1980, the imagination inspired by the film is no longer naive. We know that Avery Coleman's novel "Mrs. Kramer" was first published in 1978. After experiencing the surging social trends such as the Vietnam War, personality liberation, etc., American society at that time was seeking to return to a society like Vivaldi. The calm and everyday life path presented by the music of . What people didn't expect was that a new question awaited: Can women returning home still be as quiet as women when Baroque music was booming?
In the end, Joanna, who won the case, did not take Billy. What made Joanna feel compassion? The movie ends without a clear answer. Interestingly, when the names of the cast and crew slowly rose on the screen, we heard the work of a Baroque composer, the Englishman Henry Purcell Sonata for Trumpet and Strings. At this point, we can't say that Robert Benton's choice of these two classical music works for his film "Mrs. Kramer" was improvisation. As for why he chose two baroque pieces for "Mrs. Kramers"? The most complex topics require the most direct music to set off.
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