In 1951, it was Laura's story. She is also a stay-at-home wife from a middle-class family, with a loving husband and lovely son. She also felt that something was missing from a rich life, that a good family might not be her real happiness, and she was reading Mrs Dalloway. On her husband's birthday, she wanted to make a cake at home and prepare dinner for her husband, but she learned that a good friend had cancer. With the possibility of her friend dying, Laura lost her last stamina, and she had to do something. Although Laura gave up suicide for her unborn child, she chose to run away after giving birth...
In 2001, Clarissa was preparing a banquet like Mrs. Dalloway, for her award-winning poet friend , Richard. Because the name is the same as the character in the novel, she is called "Mrs. Dalloway" by him, and at this time, she is also doing the same thing as described in the book. The two used to be lovers when they were young, but Richard later chose a gay boyfriend, and "Mrs. Dalloway" also had her own female partner and became a mother with test-tube technology. When he was middle-aged, Richard separated from his boyfriend early and became an AIDS patient, while "Mrs. Dalloway" had a stable life and took up the responsibility of taking care of Richard. The two have already become close friends. . But Richard is a fragile person. He is always pessimistic and misanthropic. Even if he wins, he thinks it is the sympathy of others. Not only his body may stop functioning at any time, but his mind may also collapse at any time. On the day "Mrs. Dalloway" held a banquet for him, he fell peacefully from the window... Because Richard was abandoned by the runaway mother little boy.
The whole film is based on the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" and connects three stories. The technique of the film, just like the novel, uses a lot of montage to make the three stories intersect, and also uses wonderful special effects to create a symbolic picture, which has the charm of a stream-of-consciousness novel. The structure of the film is even more subtle: Woolf is the author of the novel, Laura is the reader of the novel, and "Mrs. Dalloway" is the real-life fictional character. Three perspectives are used to explain a novel and explore a profound topic.
Many people say that the theme of the film is female enlightenment and female liberation. Judging by the first two stories, that is indeed the case. The so-called enlightenment and liberation here are not exactly the same as our May Fourth period, but the basic idea is the same. The opposite of the May Fourth Enlightenment was the shackles of feudal ethics on women; while in the West in the first half of the 20th century, although gender equality could not be said to be complete, women were not in a position of oppression and discrimination, and their situation was much better. However, this common fundamental idea is the value of women as a person, the freedom and dignity of an independent individual—the pursuit of these things is the goal of enlightenment and liberation.
It is undeniable that Woolf's husband loves her, he works hard to support his family, and he can tolerate Woolf's neurotic temperament caused by his illness. However, he didn't understand her. Like many people, he wouldn't understand what a pampered wife had to offer. How can Woolf be satisfied? She has always been a subordinate to her husband, and even the maid despised her; she has been living a leisurely and empty life provided by others, but she has no right to choose the life she wants; Love is absolutely incomprehensible. For Laura 30 years later, the situation in life has not changed. She is a wife and a mother, but not herself; she follows the life trajectory of millions of women and regards family as the whole content of her life, but she never thinks about what she really needs; she is also repressing There is some kind of ambiguous relationship with her friend. If her friend dies, Laura will also lose her only spiritual sustenance outside the rigid life. Under the influence of the novel, Laura finally became an awakener.
But the third story seems to be different.
The 21st-century "Mrs. Dalloway" is different from Woolf and Laura. As a mother, she has children in such an independent way, and has little trouble with traditional family life; as a homosexual, she does not need repression and patience at all, but enjoys a beautiful life aboveboard. Emotions; as a woman, she has her own status, dignity and worth, acting on her own will. However, she chose to tie her life to Richard, a lover, an enemy, a friend, someone too complicated to explain. This kind of regular visits over the years and months may make the first two women feel boring, but "Mrs. Dalloway" enjoys it; Laura is reluctant to make cakes and dinners, and "Mrs. Dalloway" is enthusiastic. Richard has a party. In the novel, Mrs. Dalloway held parties endlessly to relieve the emptiness of her canary life; in reality, the liberated "Mrs. Dalloway" is still holding parties.
In fact, they are not only the triple perspective of the author, the reader, and the characters, but also the inner theme of the enlightener, the rebel, and the returnee, as subtle as Hegel's thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
Enlightenment itself is a difficult problem, and this stage is destined to be the throes of the times. For an awakened person to make his own choice, it means breaking the normality of life. From a historical point of view, enlightenment is of progressive significance; but from a perceptual point of view, personal awakening is not only a personal matter, it must affect the unawakened, and this effect is in many cases a detriment. At the end of the film, the elderly Laura finds "Mrs. Dalloway" after Richard's death. This ingenious design connects two or three stories and also reveals the negative side of enlightenment. Laura's departure inevitably brought a huge impact on the family, especially the young Richard's psychology cast a heavy shadow, which directly led to the tragedy of Richard's life. Laura satisfies her own interests, but harms the interests of her family. The enlightenment movement that promotes human nature here inhumanly harms others. This may be the paradox of enlightenment.
Mr. Lu Xun once put forward deeper thoughts on enlightenment-what to do after Nora left. This is Mr. Lu Xun's clear understanding of the social reality at that time, and he was worried that enlightenment could not be fully realized. Today, the film raises similar questions at a higher level: Enlightenment is complete, what to do? Does a woman find true happiness when she is liberated from her traditional state of being "shaped" (in Beauvoir)? When the value of the individual is fully realized, so that the individual life becomes independent, does human beings settle the soul? Or, like neo in "The Matrix", the "reality" seen is just a desert - the truth after awakening is actually not beautiful?
The Enlightenment movement in the 16th century made human beings fully realize their value as "human beings". Human beings are no longer God's pawns, no longer the subjects of a certain monarch, but people with various powers and infinite powers. Man, Descartes said "I think therefore I am", Shakespeare said "Man is the primate of all things". However, in the second half of the 20th century, material abundance did not bring spiritual satisfaction, and crazy conquest led to endless troubles and evil results. Human beings were alienated from "all things primates" to each other's slaves and tools. Rationalism and evolutionary theory We can't make us better - because, when "humanism" becomes "humanism", when man's strength becomes too great, he has to face the whole world alone, he is free from all shackles and loses all relied on. The plight of contemporary women, in addition to the residual male oppression, is more about the loss of self-identity after independence and liberation, and the confusion of self-cognition.
PS: The comment I wrote in 2007 must be because I lost my memory and forgot to post it...
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