The audience followed Andre Arnold's shaking camera and entered the world of Mia, through the hidden life of a 15-year-old girl to structure the loss and return of women's self-consciousness in modern society, and the disorder of women's self-identity in a patriarchal society and complex.
1. Father and the collapse
Father and dance are two of the most important elements in Mia's self-constructed world, arguably her window to escape from a disgusting mutilated family, disgusting dissolute mother, and disgusting troublesome sister. It's just that the dance is touchable and the father is completely fanciful. In the house where Mia lives with her mother and sister in the film, there are no male symbols, no father or any male compatriots. This is a closed space completely constructed by female symbols. The influence of a single-sex growth environment on women will inevitably lead to two extremes: one is the rejection and disgust of men, which is reflected in Mia's attitude towards boys of the same age; the other is the obsession and dependence on men, which is reflected in Mia's attitude towards Connor. Therefore, the consequences of the absence of the "father" role in the purely female family life are obvious, that is, Mia's "mother-loathing and Electra" plot. Connor's intrusion undoubtedly brought a long-lost masculinity to the family. In Connor leading Mia's family to go fishing by the river and a series of subsequent contacts, the image of his humorous and steady father and understanding friend quietly formed. So Mia's emotional positioning for Connor is difficult to categorize, lover? Father? tutor? ideal? There were many "breathings" between the two of them, and we can get a glimpse of them:
the first time: the mother held a party at home, Mia saw the intimate gesture of Connor and her mother, and took advantage of the wine Drunk looking for cosmetics in her mother's room, trying to dress up sexy and enchanting. Then he fell asleep on the bed in his mother's room. After the party, Connor took Mia back to her room downstairs. At this time, the camera follows Connor's footsteps into the narrow and dark corridor, and at this time, only the sound of Connor's muddy, deep and sexy breathing echoes in the audience's ears. Mia's head pressed tightly against Connor's chest, like a daughter in her father's arms, reassuring and natural, and like a girl in her lover's arms, heartbroken and nervous. At that moment, the audience outside the screen also felt such an emotion strongly.
The second time: Connor led Mia's family to the river to fish, and Mia volunteered to be Connor's assistant. Mia bruised her foot while fishing. Connor asked to carry Mia on his back, and Mia lay on Connor's shoulders. The sun shone on the two of them warmly, with mottled tree shadows and fresh air, Mia slowly closed her eyes and listened to Connor's breathing and her own heartbeat. At this moment, whether it was the girl lying on her father's shoulder or the mutual affection between lovers, Mia couldn't think at the moment, just quietly enjoying this, the moment in her dream.
The third time: The journey of the broken place in the blur. We have no way of verifying whether Mia is still a virgin. But on that slightly eccentric night, under the psychedelic effect of "California Dreams," under the eccentric sexiness of Mia dancing in her unattractive, oversized pajamas. Connor enters Mia's body, and we can see from Mia's nervousness and overwhelm that Connor becomes Mia's first night and first man, at least on a psychological level. Connor becomes Mia's sexual enlightener. The sound of breathing caused by sex is mixed with the extravagance of sexual desire. The age gap between the two makes this couch sex act a bit like "seduction", but it's actually consensual, and Mia really enjoyed it." seduction", since she spied on her mother's sex with Connor in the middle of the night, she fantasized about being that "her" one day. However, this lovemaking made the relationship between Mia and Connor go uncontrollable until it ended.
The fourth time: When Connor completed a night of sexual enlightenment education for Mia, his panic and panic were not unusual. The sentence "I crossed the line" made a man face the problem of things beyond his control. Identity loss and inner anxiety. For Connor, this sexual enlightenment was too out of control. Facing fifteen-year-old Mia, an unconscious psychology based on the incest taboo of primitive blood relatives became an indescribable knot for Connor, and escape was his only way out. Mia, based on her fascination with the symbol of Connor's "father", had extraordinary courage and came to Connor's home. And went back and forth, sneaking into Connor's house. And found the truth of the truth from that vital camera. At that moment, the father image that Mia had painstakingly built in her heart and the sanctity of the patriarchy she worshipped collapsed. The ensuing incontinence and the abduction of Connor's daughter Kira were both provocative and unconscious behaviors. Connor chased Mia at night. In the dark night, Connor behind was not gentle but an angry, fierce father, and Mia was just a weak woman. In the quiet woods, there was only the gasping sound of the two of them running. Scary and tense. In the end, Connor woke Mia with a slap in the face. Everything is in the mirror, and my life needs to let go of the past and start again.
And Connor played by Michael Fassbender (I really love him, completely conquered) also shows that men are lost in modern society, a successful career does not mean family happiness, and lovers and wives can't replace each other. They are torn apart.
The camera played an irreplaceable role as an important prop connecting Mia and Connor, who lent the camera to Mia in order to show her support for Mia's dance career. In the camera, we saw three videos. One is the scene where Connor is changing clothes. This is Mia’s candid work, showing Mia’s infatuation with Connor and her father’s image; The video recorded, which recorded Mia's most important step towards her dream with Connor's encouragement; the third is a video of Connor's biological daughter Kira, which is the key to revealing the truth. It can be said that the camera has witnessed the whole process of the construction and collapse of the father symbol in Mia's heart. It truly records life.
2. The White Horse and Salvation
In the film, Mia repeatedly tried to save the white horse that was imprisoned by chains, and the white horse represented in the western world is handsome, galloping, rebellious and reliable. From these scenes arranged by the director, we can speculate on the metaphorical connection between the white horse and the girl. The incompleteness of Mia's family structure makes her rescue of the white horse more like a way to change her own situation, which contains a kind of self-rescue of the female subject. In connection with the single-parent family where Mia lives, the psychological projection of the white horse on the girl is quite intriguing. In the end, Mia fell to the ground to cover her face and cried after learning of the death of the white horse from the mouth of the teenager, expressing the powerlessness in her heart at this time, but also representing the weak and subordinate status of women in social culture, and feeling that this status is socially unconscious. The inevitable result, and he has inevitably been involved in it.
3. Mother and Return
We have already discussed Mia's "mother-loathing and father-in-law" plot. As a single-parent family, the director did not give a clear explanation of the origins of Mia and her sister. That would suggest that there is no precise definition of the relationship between Mia's biological father and her mother. Divorce, pregnancy out of wedlock, or illegitimate birth without knowing it? The audience doesn't know. From the film, we can know that Mia's mother is a willful, kitsch, debauched woman with a chaotic private life. She frequently associates with different men, and is frequently hurt and abandoned by different men, but she never learns her lessons. Mia despised women like her mother, so she became confused about her female subject identity. It is Mia's belief to become a woman who is completely different from her mother, so she chooses dance, and hopes that dance will make herself stronger and no longer a vassal of men. It is not until the end of the film, after the image of the patriarchy represented by Connor collapses, that the image of the mother is truly returned and reshaped. The passage where Mia dances with her mother is a response to this, and life returns to peace but has a different flavor.
4. Dance and Self-
Dance is the bridge between Mia and the outside world, the way of Mia's self-liberation, and the embodiment of Mia's personal value. So she likes to be alone in that practice room and dance to the rhythm of the music, just dance and herself. There is her closed heart, and no one is allowed to violate it. In Mia's eyes, dance is the purest and purest place, the spiritual Eden.
However, the real world is far more complicated than she imagined. When she walked into an adult club to perform a long-prepared dance, when the dance teacher asked her to put her hair down, saying that it would be more feminine, she realized that she was Once used as a dance of faith and redemption, it is also a tool for male recreation and entertainment. The utterly ridiculous sense of that one made her walk off the stage and give up dancing. This is a scene that completely announces the awakening of female consciousness. Because at this moment, Mia has stepped out of the disordered stage of female self-identification, and she is clearly aware that the fish tank that binds her is the patriarchal cultural order of the society. Any adjustment is a kind of flattery, a kind of begging.
"California Dream" is actually the embodiment of all the connotations of this film, the so-called patriarchy and dance, the so-called worship and liberation. All swaying and trance like this song. The stage that Mia yearns for is nothing but a place for men to enjoy after undressing, and the father she yearns for is nothing but a bubble woven by lies and deceit.
Away from home, Mia is back on the road. It's not the ignorant 15-year-old girl, but a mature woman after self-awakening.
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