The sense of alienation and destined loneliness expressed by Wenders in Paris, Texas is not similar to what Lu Xun said in "Ji Ji", "people's joys and sorrows are not connected"; Depressed despair caused by the world and the impossibility of communicating with each other. On the contrary, the gentle and desolate guitar sound that sounds from time to time in the film makes people feel a sense of relief and peace.
"Paris, Texas" expresses a triple understanding of interpersonal understanding and communication. The first level: the ignorance of interpersonal barriers due to the simplicity of the mind. Hunter and Travis said as they flipped through the family album, "Even when you're not around, I can still feel you, I feel you walking around, and Mommy." Before growing up, people felt that the distance between people was very close. ; Each individual is still very simple, the gap between each heart is very small, and the bridge between hearts is easily established; children, even if they have quarreled and angered, as long as they successfully complete a project together Mission, have a little secret together, and the connection between the two is established. Likewise, even after "half the age of the child," Hunter reconnected with his father in a relatively short period of time, and seemed to have a permanent bond with his mother.
The second: being forced to recognize the interpersonal divide and doomed loneliness and escape. Everyone's mind is a "black box", everyone only knows what is in their own box, but cannot peep into the minds of others. Even if others pour out their hearts, it is impossible for us to fully understand the meaning of other people's words from the other party's perspective. What's more, most people, like Jane and Travis, before Travis left, the two seemed unable to achieve even the most basic understanding, and spent their time playing the game of mutual suspicion and mental torture until they became numb: " ...she was screaming in front of the stove and my son was crying; but I couldn't feel anything, I just wanted to sleep."
At this point, Travis felt disappointed and hopeless about communicating and improving the relationship. We try to build intimacy, we try to understand the person we love, and we think we must understand the love we've been with for so long. But it backfired. What Travis escapes is civilization, and communication and understanding of others are necessary for the formation and spread of civilization. He tried to return to the place where he started to exist, to find that childlike innocence, the state of mind without barriers, the warm intimacy as if a child had nothing to say to his dearest and most trusted mother, a kind of seemingly A one-to-one relationship with the mother.
At this time, people choose to escape the reality of estrangement and seek the intimacy of the past.
The third layer: re-recognition and acceptance of the destined loneliness and wandering in life. Travis tried to communicate with his ex-wife, and ultimately chose to leave his ex-wife and children, rather than start a new family. They have come to realize that the pain caused before can no longer be repaired, and that a broken home cannot be rebuilt by apologizing and talking. They finally realized what each other really thought at the time, and this was also said by Travis. He finally realized that the two of them had their own thoughts and tortured each other; .
The object they miss is not the real person, but the changed projection of the other person in their hearts. They are not looking for each other, but an Other who understands themselves. Lovers don't love their partners, because we can never truly understand each other, and we can never peek into the "black box" of others; what everyone loves is an ideal of understanding themselves.
Both Travis and Jane realize that they can never go down the same path again. But the third realization, as Travis shows, and as the film feels, is a kind of forgiveness for the gap between people, forgiveness for oneself and others, and a reconciliation with the necessary pain in the world and human nature. When Travis was hit hard by the loneliness of this kind of person, that is, the loss of effective communication with his wife, he chose to flee; and four years later, he seems to accept the reality of the estrangement from the people closest to him, even through his own When he projected his ex-wife in his heart instead of facing up to the ex-wife himself to communicate with Jane, he also acted calmly. The same goes for Jane. When we knew it was going to be a lifelong, lonely pain, we felt angry and unacceptable, so we chose to escape; then, we gradually accepted the reality, we forgive the necessary pain, and we reconcile with ourselves and the world .
This kind of mood, like the melancholy and gentle plucking sound in the film, is both lonely and warm, like the lovely memories in the videotape. Maybe Jane will leave the baby again and Travis will never come back to see mother and son, but we understand what they did and sympathize with each of them. What "Paris, Texas" finally presents to us is not the warm family reunion that will appear in the first meaning, nor the accusation and pain of the inevitable gap between reality in the second meaning, but is based on the first and second meanings. The third meaning in relation to the dual relationship: a slightly warm sense of alienation and a helplessness and reconciliation that silently acknowledge the reality.
No longer naively thinking that people are the same and connected, not escaping and feeling uneasy about the separation between people, but truly recognizing this separation and alienation, and facing them directly.
In Wenders' films, wandering and isolation are not as restless and sentimental as they are in real life, but have a kind of aspirational beauty. This meaning is not only reflected in the film text, not only the result of the film itself's requirement for a beautiful film text. This is not to say that Wenders' films encourage people to pursue wandering and loneliness, but that his films inadvertently convey an aesthetic of alienation that cannot be changed in reality; in Wenders' films, wandering and alienation It seems to have existed a priori as an inescapable proposition of life, and the characters in the film finally accept it naturally and without resentment.
When we can't change reality, we learn to adapt to reality. If placed in "Paris, Texas", this would not be a painful and helpless sentence. Even though we can tell from Travis' recounts of previous events and his embarrassment at the beginning of the film that he went through great pain; this is not a compromise, it is more of a reconciliation and understanding; when Travis leaves at the end of the film, we know He once again walked towards a person's wandering, but it was not a last resort pain, but was rushing to re-understand loneliness and start a new life journey with this person named "Wandering".
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