The dark city and the white fireworks are " Manhattan ".
Just as gorgeous and empty, it is the life of the protagonists.
At the beginning of the film, Woody Allen used a montage to show the streets of New York, the busy, restless, flashy city.
Can not help but remind people of Antonioni's film "Eclipse" at the end, the eight-minute montage of empty shots, took Rome into an empty giant building, so cold and chilling, just like the love of the hero and heroine, and the Like a bucket that drains quietly, it is a dream after all.
In contrast, Manhattan seems to be lively and fiery.
It 's just that behind the excitement, there is a deeper unease hidden.
“He is as gritty and romantic as the city he loves. Behind his black-rimmed spectacles coils a jungle cat-like sexual desire. New York is his city, and it belongs to him as always.”
It's the beginning of a book written by Isaac (Woody Allen), a 42-year-old not-so-successful writer and crappy show-maker, pretentious, cynical, bombastic, but lacking sense of responsibility.
He writes proudly: New York is his city.
Perhaps yes, the character of this city is eating away at everyone in it.
Or maybe I did it the other way around. It should be the people living in this city who shaped the character of this city.
Either way, people always have a love-hate relationship with their city, loving its qualities and hating its qualities.
"If you love her, send her to New York, because it is heaven. If you hate her, send her to New York, because it is hell."
In a pub called Elaine's, Isaac brought his 17-year-old girlfriend Tracy and his friends, the Yells, to drink and chat as usual.
They talked about the nature of art, talent and courage. Isaac, who did not smoke, lit a cigarette. He was afraid of cancer, and he used smoking to pretend to be cool. He looked like a typical intellectual.
It should be said that this is a movie whose "state" is greater than "story".
What Woody Allen wants to present to us is the life of a group of New York intellectuals who are "gold and jade".
For example, Isaac, he had two failed marriages, his ex-wife abandoned him and eloped with Lara's girlfriend, and he also wrote a book to reveal the secrets of their marriage.
This distressed Isaac very much, and more distressed by his current life:
He is writing a book, but suffers from lack of inspiration and has not written yet;
He hated the scripts he wrote for the TV station, and resigned angrily. He was clueless and unprepared for the next life;
He was dating a girl who was 25 years younger than him, and he laughed at himself: "God, I'm dating a girl who has to do homework..."
This is his life, self-inflicted, narcissistic, self-pity, full of great truths, free and easy, but incompetent to life.
Look at his good friend Yael, a gentle man, living a happy life with his wife.
After coming out of the pub that night, he pulled Isaac to the front and whispered, "I want to tell you something, but I don't know where to start. I met a woman at a dinner party about a few weeks ago. , I might be a little stuck..."
Isaac was puzzled.
Yell continued: "I know, I love my wife, she's perfect. But this time is different, I hate myself, I'm scared, I..."
Yeer expressed his "predicament" incoherently, but his tone seemed to be talking about some kind of "sweet trouble".
This is the most brilliant hypocrisy of the intellectuals. The "knowledge" they have is a high-sounding disguise. They can interpret "despicable" as "sorrow" and weave "dirty" into "love words".
Yell's lover, Mary (Diane Keaton), is a neurotic and beautiful woman.
After being dumped by Yell, she became Isaac's "second-hand rose."
A friend's lover becomes his own lover. This plot is really bloody, but Woody Allen handles it extremely tenderly and pleasantly.
Once in the evening, the two frustrated people didn't want to go home. They sat on a bench beside the Brooklyn Bridge, chatting about their own thoughts under the foggy mist.
Once was a rainy day, two people made an appointment in the planetarium, and the camera followed them in the venue where the light and shadow swayed, like walking in the galaxy, but also like being in the microcosm, which is better than the one in "La La Land". Duan's "Skywalk at the Planetarium" is much more realistic, yet extraordinarily surreal and romantic.
And just like that, Isaac fell in love with Mary.
With Mary, Isaac felt like he was back in the adult world.
In front of 17-year-old Tracy, he felt conflicted. Although he was infatuated with Tracy's young body, he felt overwhelmed by their age gap. In the face of this love that goes against the world's vision, Isaac's performance is not like a warrior who breaks through the tradition, but more like a coward who is in a dilemma.
In the film, Woody Allen makes full use of the widescreen format for mise-en-scene.
In Isaac's house, we see Tracey reading a book on the sofa under the lamp on the far left of the screen. Isaac walked down the spiral staircase on the far right of the screen, passed through the living room, and came to Tracey's side . So the distance of age has become the distance of space; the separation of soul has become the separation of room. Every step of the approach seems to be difficult.
Tracey said, "Isaac, I think I'm in love with you..."
Isaac said, "You're still young, but don't take it all too seriously."
On the last night, Isaac and Tracy rode in an open-topped carriage on a tree-lined road surrounded by lights.
What Isaac said next was the most beautiful love story I've ever heard.
He said to Tracy:
do you know? God might be able to use you to answer Job. God will point to you and say: I have done many terrible things, but I have also created women like her. Then Job would say: Well, you win.
But so what?
When Tracey went to study in London and asked Isaac for advice, Isaac advised her not to pass up the opportunity.
Tracey asked: What about us? Isaac says: Us? I don't think we can do this anymore, you've started clinging to me, it's not right. Tracy: No, I'm not clinging to you, I'm falling in love with you. So do you love me? Isaac: Actually, I'm in love with another person.
What happened next was the most heartbreaking scene in the film. The 17-year-old girl was in tears, crying like a child waiting for her mother in a Bolivian orphanage.
I don't want to use the word "scumbag" to describe Isaac.
He is nothing but a well-packaged egoist, arrogant but extremely inferior.
In his eyes, Tracy is a love destined to fail because she is too young and she is too old.
So from the beginning, he refused to allow himself to be too invested in order to protect a little sad dignity in his heart.
This so-called "refinement" is actually just a "rough refinement".
Isaac has long lost the courage of ignorance and fearlessness, but more of an intellectual worry.
He thinks too much and does too little.
He was hot on the inside, but cold on the outside.
He doubted the world, and the price of doubt was a loss of sincerity.
It should be said that "Manhattan" is a comedy, and the background of the comedy is always sad. It turns the "bitterness" of life into absurd "wine", and then drank it with tears in laughter.
Woody Allen's movies are always full of all kinds of neurotic mouths, and the whole process is noisy, but the moment it suddenly quiets down, it is always particularly worrying.
Like in Manhattan, Mary called Isaac and said to him in the cold living room, "I think I still love Yell..."
At that moment, the air froze for a few seconds, like a failed punch and a dumb joke, which made people sink.
Just like at the end of the film, Isaac faced himself sincerely and finally found that Tracy was the girl to be cherished.
Accompanied by the excited and wistful music of "He Loves and She Loves", he walked through the bustling streets of Manhattan and ran to the door of Tracey's dormitory, only to find that the girl she persuaded to go to London had already packed her bags. ready to go.
Everything is too late.
But no matter what, this sad story still shows a little warmth at the end.
Although Isaac knew in his heart that nothing was going to help, he still said the sentence: " I love you, please stay. "
This short sentence is the only shining point of this middle-aged man in this movie.
At that moment, 42-year-old Isaac stood in front of 17-year-old Tracy like a begging child. As if in an instant, the ages and identities of the two people were interchanged, the mature one became the weak, and the naive one became an adult.
Tracey said: After six months, I came back.
Isaac: Six months? Do you know how much can happen in six months?
After that, Tracy's words were like a consolation from "innocence" to "sophistication": "Not everyone has no principles, you should retain a little confidence in people. "
The camera stopped and stopped on Isaac's half-understood face, and he smiled relievedly.
After all, in the face of sincerity, knowledge and maturity are the most useless burdens.
Oddly enough, Manhattan is Woody Allen's least favorite work. But it's my favorite one.
Remember Woody Allen once said: One of the great regrets of my life is that I am no one else.
This is just like his movies, always with a distinct personal label, you can tell at a glance.
By the way, Isaac's book continues to be written. This time, he is no longer nostalgic for flashy New York, but to ask the meaning of life.
He wrote:
Why is it worth living? This is a good question. There must be something, I think, that makes us worth living. For example: Groucho Marx, Willie Mays, "Jupiter Symphony" 2nd movement, Louis Armstrong, and Swedish films, Flaubert's "Education", Marlon Brando, Cezanne Those incredible paintings of apples and pears, the crabs at the Sanwa restaurant...and, Tracey's face .
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