A 19-year-old boy sets his alarm clock every night and uses his binoculars to peek at a strange woman in the opposite building. The accident-stricken woman was annoyed and confused when she found out:
"Why, why are you spying on me?"
"because I love you."
"what."
"Really, I love you."
"Then what do you want to do? Kiss me, run off to Budapest with me, or... do *?"
"It's nothing."
"Nothing?"
"It's nothing."
The "love" that a boy breeds through the binoculars cannot be said to originate from an interactive relationship, but it cannot be simply attributed to lust. For this sensitive boy, in addition to the physical agitation during adolescence, I am afraid there are also the pains of struggling with the gradual awakening of "self". When he suddenly realized that he was alone between heaven and earth, a sense of insignificance and rootless fear rose from the bottom of his heart. A quote from Haruki Murakami applies: "For men without women, the world is a vast and painful mixture, as silent as the back of the moon" (Men Without Women). The awakening of self may come with the "broad and painful" world.
The mature woman in the binoculars lifts the brush and tilts her head to examine the painting, throws her hair back on her shoulders after taking a shower, or can't wait to open the door and hug her lover on tiptoe... For boys, this woman's arousal The intense desire and concern for her seem to indicate that everything about her is beautiful beyond reality. The woman in the binoculars is portrayed as an idol, and he gives her a meaning beyond reality, far from being an object of lust. Her presence implies a "better world", and that's enough. The more thorough worship is accompanied by the more thorough inferiority complex with nowhere to escape; if you have to say "what you want to do", it is probably "don't go down the altar, so that I will always worship you". It's like a middle school student lying on his back in a bunk after turning off the lights, thinking about the girl in the next class who has never spoken, and when he finds that his scattered thoughts touch the girl's body, he will feel frightened and guilty, as if he has blasphemed the gods.
Fromm said that "love is the answer to the problem of human existence" ("The Art of Love"), "love is to be united with others or things other than oneself while maintaining the independence and integrity of oneself" ("Soundness"). society" ch.3). Fromm praised "love" as man's redemption, and he said "love" very ideally. But the "love" he talks about has an implicit premise, that is, a firm enough "self" and the courage to explore, look directly, and accept the "self". Otherwise, "love" can easily fall into the danger of convergence, attachment, and control because of the inherent fear of "separation and separation" ("The Art of Love" ch.2). This premise alone is difficult. Perhaps in the eyes of Master Fu, the "love" in the world is mostly lust and obsession that has been poorly packaged.
In the film, the woman brings the boy into the room, perhaps consciously exploring love and saying:
"You know I don't wear anything inside...you have gentle hands...I want it now...that's love."
She smashes his idol with sensual logic, caught off guard. The solace and sustenance it carried was gone, and he was thrown back into the "vast and bitter mix." He hid in the bathroom and slashed his wrist with a blade.
In her memoir, DH Lawrence's wife compared her love with Lawrence to her own rebirth: "Birth is painful, and rebirth is not as simple as a joke. Letting oneself into the inner self, which is different from the self of others, is indeed a pain. process.” (“It’s Not Me, It’s the Wind”) This “self” is too heavy to keep in one’s hands, and it is understandable to rush to find a reason to hand it over. There may be quite a few of the martyrs who would rather sacrifice their lives to something that they think is transcendent and holy, rather than have the courage to face the "broad and painful" vagueness with a small and vague self. As the saying goes, "I am only waiting for love to give myself up at last into his hands ("Gitanjali")".
This "Love Short" is the sixth episode of Kieslowski's 10-episode series "The Ten Commandments". At the end of the original film, the boy returned to work at the post office after being discharged from the hospital, and the woman came to visit outside the counter; the boy raised his head and said:
"I won't spy on you anymore."
This is not a pessimistic ending. He no longer entrusted his "self" to other things, and began to face the world, that is, transformation. It is better to embark on a long journey than to indulge in a mirage-like paradise.
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