"Elegy" (also translated "Abstinence") produced in 2008, directed by Isabelle Cosette. The male and female leads are played by Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, respectively. Not to mention Kingsley's acting skills, Cruz's performance also has a great breakthrough, after all, this is a completely different interpretation from her previous films. The film expresses his many academic views on love through a long-term relationship between old professor David and his student Consulla.
The balance of love - eroded in the trivial life and eventually lost its fulcrum and came to an abrupt end. Love is always there. When Kang Su-ra called to see him on New Year's Eve, he couldn't refuse, in fact, he had been longing for it. Surprisingly, she had a request. This last request was a pity for him to take pictures of her most beautiful breasts, because she had breast cancer and was about to undergo surgery to remove it. This made the old David's love for her stronger and stronger, and he was determined to accompany Consula through these painful days forever.
And David's girlfriend Caroline, who has been in love with, is another foil role. This woman was also a student of David 20 years ago. Later, she became a businessman, had a prosperous career, and flew all over the world. Only when she returned to New York every month could she be with him. Once she found out that David was passionately in love The clues left him.
The reason why Consula cut off contact with David was that Consula decided to invite David to her house to meet her parents. He originally agreed, but when they met that day, he found a reason to back out. . This makes Consula so sad. It seems that David is reluctant to get involved in this clichéd state. Maybe he feels that love is only a matter for both parties, and there is no need to disturb others. As he said to his son Kenny, who is a doctor: "You are looking for a female lover who has three children outside, but you are going to Miami to meet her parents, child, don't you feel too tired... "
David has an old friend, George, a poet who has won the Putzer Prize, and he talks to him when he has troubles. One day, when David praised George's poems at George's poetry review meeting, the excited George suffered a stroke on the stage. George passed away soon after, which made David very depressed. Having lost an old friend, no one can understand his unhappy style. Since that time David didn't attend Consula's birthday party, he hadn't seen Consula again. Consula called him and said, "The love between us is stuck, and I'm stuck with myself..."
Consula, who came to the United States with her parents from Cuba when she was 11 years old, is fascinated by the Latin American flair she exudes. Later, she chose to major in art at university, which showed her distinctive elegance. David described her as having an elegant seriousness like the women in Goya's paintings. David once pointed to Goya's famous painting and said to Consula, "You are very like the woman in his painting." Of course, what attracted David was the femininity, youthfulness and heat that Consula permeated throughout his body. Taste, this must be difficult for a man to stop. Besides, he was her teacher. Later, they fell in love with each other without hesitation. He was overwhelmed by her body and took many lovely photos of her by the sea. When they cut off the news, he could only retreat into the darkroom and look at these pictures of her smiling to pass the boring and boring days.
They haven't heard from each other for more than two years, and neither of them have contacted each other actively, so let's go with the wind. Who would have thought that on New Year's Eve two years later, Consula, who had cut short hair, came to his house and told her the fact that she had cancer. She didn't come to find a cure, she just wanted to keep the beauty of this love, because she didn't have another boyfriend in the past two years, which surprised David a lot. David is not like that. He has always been in love with her. It was only because of the triviality of the world and the scruples of age that it swelled in my heart. When love really came again, I didn't expect it to be an elegy-style painful ending, because this is to race against cancer cells with the scale of life.
There are a lot of dialogues in the film which are quite wonderful. David's voiceover begins by saying, "Old age is not for the faint of heart, as Bette Davis said... The greatest accident in a man's life is old age, as Tolstoy said. .” This opening shows that old and young love has never been an easy topic, it requires both courage and surprise, otherwise it will be as pale and rotten as dead wood.
For an elderly person, love can activate all potential energy, but it also inevitably erodes the density that lies in front of their eyes. In any case, love may need a balance, which can eliminate the mundane and integrate into reality, but this is not easy, otherwise there will not be so many loves that end in fruitless. It's just that whether you love or not, it may be more important to have a heart that can love. Just as the elegy is not the final death knell, but the continuation of love.
2012, 11, 29
From the film critic collection "Invisible Movies" published by Haitian Publishing House
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