As the first Woody Allen movie I have enjoyed so far, the experience of watching the movie is not satisfactory, but it is still very interesting. As a beginner of existentialism, a viewer who is facing the same predicament as the former protagonist, because of his own special experience, intentionally pays attention to the "philosophy" and the value of life, but gradually finds that the essence of the film has nothing to do with the two.
The protagonist Eber, a well-known professor who specializes in philosophy, has a depressed spirit, and has a slightly raised beer belly—very good, he has reached the high level of existentialism, as if he has penetrated the meaninglessness of life. The positive aspect of existentialism lies in its theory of free choice: existence precedes essence, "man" is not determined by innate destiny, but shaped by acquired experience, in a sense, man is not bound by any external factors , it is human nature to be completely free. Existentialism is a kind of "liberation" philosophy for human beings burdened with heavy traditions, but Kafka said: "I am free, that is why I am lost." Existence precedes essence, existentialism The future must be absurd, that is, while exploring the essence, we find that life is meaningless, and the existence of people and the world is an absurd state, meaningless and unreasonable. The film mainly reflects the lack of meaning of Eber himself, and does not go further to the absurdity of the world. After all, the film does not want to talk about philosophy, and even on the surface, Woody Allen spit out the groove of existentialism.
College campuses, philosophy and music, love triangle between teachers and students—the taste of literature and art is strong enough, but the content is very reasonable and basically life-like. Eber loses his appetite and sexuality due to his own lack of meaning, both of which are fundamental manifestations of personal vitality, at which point another of Eber's fantasies eloped with his lover who eloped to Europe (sorry I can never remember name) is equivalent to a tool-type character, the purpose is to show the change of Eber. The setting of Eber's turning point is also meaningful: dining room (food), Jill (sex) across the table. There's nothing obviously unexpected in the movie, and when Eber had the idea of "killing the judge", my heart was: oh oh oh that's true. This is even a little cliché. Didn't Uncle Lei Feng practice "serving the people"? It's just too understandable for us viewers: it's not the right way, but - oh, isn't this our official orthodox "helping others" value? Here, I instantly had a sense of "world harmony" brought about by economic globalization.
The following development was expected: Eber's withered life was rejuvenated because of this idea, and through a sophisticated plan, he killed the judge unknowingly. It's a legendary deed in itself, but the righteous nature of Eber's killing was quickly buried in his apparent smugness. In fact, everything people do is based on themselves as a benchmark, because everyone only exists in their own world, people can only push themselves and others, and it is impossible to do it from the standpoint of others. Uncle Lei Feng is willing to serve the people, and this great spirit ultimately comes down to his own values. Eber's initial motive was a spirit of helping him in the face of difficulties, but after a long preparation for the murder, the motive behind the motive was reflected: the murder is to realize his own value, to find a foothold for his own existence. From this, we realize that Eber's selfishness far outweighs the sympathy of "petty bourgeois intellectuals", that his view of justice is only a by-product of his pursuit of self-worth, and there is no need to blame him for his completely changed face. Yu was mad—he had always been like this, just gradually peeling away his skin, revealing the dark essence within.
At the end, I almost think the movie is a kind of sarcasm style, full of literary black satire: Eber's "righteous act" of murder to help others, but in the end he kills again in order to escape the crime, originally pursuing death , but he was greedy for life before the "death" of life imprisonment, and the flashlight of the "token of love" finally let him die in an ingenious trap designed by his own work experience. The soundtrack of the film is always fresh and cheerful, and the overall narrative of the film also has a smile of British humor. The characters and events are no longer important, and the sense of legend and shock is reduced. The story itself is a tragedy, but it is said by the storyteller as "Comedy". Although it is inevitable to be disappointed after watching it, especially because I have some kind of "utilitarian" purpose because of my similar experience with the characters, in retrospect, the handling of the film shows the personal taste of the artwork.
I don't recommend looking at the relationships between characters through the lens of moral criticism. But about Eber's former voluptuousness - Sartre was also voluptuous, and even advocated understanding a country from a woman. This is a coincidence.
I am an inexperienced existentialist believer in free choice and suffer from "meaninglessness" as a result. When life loses its motive for existence, suicidal thoughts inevitably dominate the mainstream. Eber's Russian turntable almost made me stunned - oh well, wasn't that what I played back then! Of course I don't have some kind of dangerous hot weapon, and at the most troubled time, I hesitated over the choice between life and death to the point where I couldn't hold anything else in my mind, and ended up doing it in a rather simple and crude way Decision: Roll the dice, if it is an odd number, I can climb up to such and such a building as I wish, and feel the only fall from the sky in my life; if it is an even number, I will give up the act of suicide from now on. The probability of 1/2 is very fair. Although it does not have the thrilling feeling of Russian gambling, it is still quite exciting. I've been lucky enough to live to this day, and perhaps the odds of winning the lottery are higher for those who want to die.
I failed to address the lack of meaning and confronted it by loving life or pretending to love life. Eber only established his existence with this one-time murder (I was beginning to think he was going to be a rational and crazy serial killer), and the murder was more like a child-like ritual, such as doing something Things can be as they are, like my pseudo-Russian table. The change of Eber's attitude towards life is not because he has done "just things", but his motive for doing "just things". Even though he has lost confidence in life, he is subconsciously struggling to find a turning point in his dark life. . It is biased to understand this way, but for those who are still struggling in a dark life, it is not a path that can be walked.
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