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As for why this "The Absentee" was made into black and white, Ethan Cohen joked: "We think that if it is not made into black and white, people will not realize this film. The importance of movies."
In fact, apart from this half-truth, the film is made in black and white and is very close to the colorless and passionate life of the protagonist, Eddie, the barber.
The small town where Eddie the barber lives is quiet and depressing, and his life is as plain as water. In the family, he can't be the master, and his wife Doris decides not to ask him for advice at all; in the barber shop, the barber shop is owned by his brother-in-law, he is just an ordinary barber, and he still has no sense of existence. Eddie hates his profession and doesn't understand why human hair grows so fast? He didn't understand why his brother-in-law talked so much all day? Eddie's family belongs to the middle class and seems to be living well, but he and his wife, Doris, are estranged from each other, and his wife is also having an affair with his boss, Dave. Life is boring, work is boring, relationships fail, Eddie lives a very depressed life, but he doesn't know how to change? He doesn't even know what he wants?
A client at the barber shop bragging about the dry cleaning business. Eddie, who wants to change the state of his life, finds that getting rich seems to be the means to change his life. To raise money, he sent an extortion note to Doris' boss. The money was received and given to the guest. Turns out it was just a scam. Eddie didn't seem very angry. He was not interested in money; he fell in
love with Betty, a pure and beautiful girl, wanted to be with her, and immediately dismissed the idea when he saw that she had a boyfriend. He doesn't seem to be too interested in love either;
he fully supports Betty's music career, and he wants to be Betty's Bole. When Betty intends to repay his kindness with her body, a terrified Eddie gets into a car accident. It turns out that he is not interested in sex either; who is to
blame for Eddie's tragedy?
The film uses Beethoven's "Symphony of Sorrows", which is Beethoven's deaf work, full of the spirit of fighting against the unfair fate. And Eddie also believes that fate has not been fair to him.
Marriage is what the wife decides to end. - You can refuse!
Being a hairdresser is not a profession you want to do. - You can choose other industries!
Wife cuckold herself. - You can get a divorce!
Investing cheated. ——Investing in someone you don’t know can only show that your IQ is too low!
The lover in the dream is actually a slutty woman. ——Who told you that you didn't understand the piano and pretended to understand, the musician immediately heard that there was no soul in the sound of Betty's piano, but Eddie thought she was a genius.
In fact, Eddie's tragedy is self-inflicted. Eddie was like that musician in town said about Betty's music: soulless. He is a person who has no pursuit, no faith, and no hobby. He was simply dissatisfied with the blandness of life, depressed by his own non-existence. But when life can be changed, he stands still, afraid to break the balance of life. Even in his dreams when he was in a coma after a car accident, he was powerless to change his state of life, let alone in reality. Although the wife and brother-in-law have shortcomings, they love their profession, have passion for life, and dare to love and hate. Doris likes her accounting job and loves her boss madly. She feels that the boss has deceived him, so she chooses to commit suicide; her brother-in-law loves her job and can mortgage her beloved barber shop for her sister. But Eddie only sees their shortcomings and ignores their strengths. He is always dissatisfied with life, but has no direction. In his own life and work, he was an absent person.
Although a superfluous person, Dave is not a bad person. Blackmailing Dave because he felt that Dave had put a cuckold on him, and he wanted to give him a little punishment; killing Dave was also self-defense; his wife was wrongly imprisoned, and he also admitted that he killed someone, but the lawyer didn’t believe it His words were all; his brother-in-law's barber shop was mortgaged, and Eddie also worked hard at the barber shop, because he felt that he had an obligation not to let the barber shop be taken away by the bank; Without even asking for anything in return, she supported Betty's music career, just so that she wouldn't be as mediocre as he was. When Betty wanted to have sex with him, he immediately refused.
He didn't feel wronged when Eddie became an innocent murderer because of the death of a fraudster, but when the town was talking about his case and his wife's suicide, it gave Eddie some sense of presence. What a pity! But soon the people in the town forgot about him and calmed down. It turned out that his murder case was nothing more than wrinkling a pool of spring water, causing a little ripples, and then the stagnant water returned to calm. Eddie sold the house, and the lawyer fees raised were quickly used up. The lawyer who could confuse black and white left. The new lawyer was very "clean". He would not ask Eddie for money, but he didn't care about Eddie's life or death. , he just made Eddie confess to the crime, and then fought for a reduced sentence. Eddie was sentenced to death, and while in prison he began to write a memoir for a magazine, he finally felt a sense of presence, and then calmly accepted death.
Who's to blame for Eddie's death?
Blame the incompetence of the police, the greed of lawyers, the indiscriminate actions of judges and juries, and the American judicial system, who are absent from social justice. Innocent people are imprisoned and die in prison for those who did not kill, but a murderer gave his life for the people he did not kill. Such absurd stories can only happen in an absurd society.
Depressed stories, depressing characters, depressing black and white. The only interesting thing about watching the movie is to guess the direction of the plot according to the usual expression rules of the Coen Brothers movies: seeing the close-up of Dave's cigar knife, you know that he will definitely die from this knife; watch Frances Mack Dauman's wife called Dave a "big fool" twice and knew that she was in love with this braggart; the judge appeared in the courtroom, but the defendant did not attend, contacting Doris' overly calm expression, and immediately guessed that she committed suicide Now... The only surprise is that the girl Betty played by Scarlett Johansson has an innocent appearance, but is actually a dissolute nature. But how can there be a perfect person in a Coen brothers film? ! So this reversal is not too surprising.
Guessing where the plot goes is not really fun. What's the point of a Cohen movie without a surprising plot? Coen brothers, it's time for you to innovate! However, the Coen brothers may say: a puckered pool of spring water - what's the matter with Qianqing?
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