I recently watched the 2014 HBO miniseries Olive Stritch. I once said out loud, "I'm going to change my mind between writing the Harry Potter recaps". In fact, it not only changed my brain, but also my heart. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but those who have seen it will understand.
This play is adapted from the novel of the same name by American writer Elizabeth Strout, telling a short story of a parent in a small town in Maine. Among the 13 chapters in the book, the screenwriter only selected 4 chapters with the Stritch family as the main characters to put on the screen. In my opinion, they are very relevant and compact, and these 4 chapters are also my favorite.
Before starting the plot, let me briefly introduce the author himself. Elizabeth was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in small towns in Maine and New Hampshire. Olive Kittridge, her third novel, was published in 2008 and won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. At the time of writing this work, the author is 52 years old. She writes about the town life she is most familiar with, about the people in the town, about aging, death, helplessness, longing, loneliness... these are topics that humans cannot escape and are very heavy.
In autumn, people tend to become sentimental, lamenting the passing of life and the meaning of life. The seasons set in this drama are also in autumn and winter, so it is very suitable for a quiet night or afternoon to make a cup of hot tea and drink tea while tasting it slowly.
Alright, let's get started
title
Why write a separate title? Because it is very interesting, this is the charm of screen works.
The white frosting on the doughnut, the next shot becomes the snow on the ground, pure and icy; also white, and the pills. From the picture of distributing pills in the pharmacy, the camera cuts to the love on a certain fabric in the pharmacy, and then turns into a mass of blood and spreads; from the changing clouds in the sky, to the constantly rotating ice cubes in the wine glass, Then there is the crying face printed on the paper pad after taking the wine glass; the female lead's stockings, the lighthouse, the coast washed by the waves, a lonely boat... All these constitute an image system, which is a metaphor, Let the audience vaguely smell the theme that the show wants to express. The whole screen is full of retro, textured and philosophical tones, and I also like BGM.
Suddenly, I have a deeper appreciation for the audio-visual atmosphere created by the screen image and sound system, which can be figurative and direct, or abstract and euphemistic. In this shot, it can hit you like a wave and drown you, and in the next transition, you can see the disappearance of life in your sloppy eyes.
The first episode opens with the heroine walking into the woods to commit suicide, then goes back in flashbacks to something that happened 25 years ago. Students who have seen "Three Billboards" should know that the heroine is played by Frances McDormand, a very individual actress. She doesn't even need to act, just looking at her face that has been through the vicissitudes of life and refuses to admit defeat is very dramatic. In fact, her roles in these two films are somewhat similar, and they are all "hard". In this mini-series, the heroine is an unpleasant character who speaks straight, doesn't care about other people's feelings, and is harsh to her husband and children. Although her relationship with her son has been strained, her husband is very kind and loves her. Among the plots created by such three conflicting and personal characters, I will pick three that touch me the most.
1. "If the plane crashes, you know, I'll be thinking of you before it hits the ground."
At the beginning of the fourth episode, Oliver said half-jokingly, before saying goodbye to her stroked husband and taking care of her daughter-in-law.
I guess Olive would never have said such a thing when Henry was in good health. She always passively accepted Henry's love for her without caring. Then when Henry had a stroke, she realized how difficult it was. She hoped that Henry could hear the thoughts of a wife.
This section depicts the parental love that has entangled most of their lives very well. My parents are also like this. They are usually noisy, but now they are together wherever they go, and they have discussions with each other. I am envious of this, but I also know that in today's society, few people will restrain their temper and sacrifice their own demands for the other party. Everyone seems to be trying their best to live, but they have forgotten the meaning of life. Because it is rare, so envy it.
2. "You have a bad temper, and I don't want to be influenced."
The quarrel happened one day when Olive found herself eating with very obvious food residue on her clothes, and the kids didn't warn her. She felt ignored, like one of her aunts was getting old. The next morning she had a showdown with her son and asked to go back. To be honest, the son was a little surprised at first at his mother's sudden decision to leave, but quickly calmed down. But he did not intend to take his mother away himself, but chose to call a taxi, which angered Olive again. The two began to quarrel fiercely. Her son said so.
The son felt that his mother's mood changed too much and hurt the hearts of the people around him. Before, he would feel sad, but now he can face it very calmly; and Olive thinks that deep down is the way of loving his son. question. Although this sentence sounds cold, and although the old lady looks pitiful, I have to say that the way of love may be more important than love itself. Because the way is wrong, the other party can't realize that it is love at all.
The problem of the original family is so deep-rooted and so traumatic. Every parent is waiting for a thank you from their children, and every child is waiting for an excuse from their parents.
3. "He felt the sheer size of her body, and a thought flashed through his mind - as if sitting beside him was an innocent and lovely elephant who wanted to join the human kingdom."
This scene appeared in the second episode, and it was simply a stroke of genius.
A boy tries to kill himself by driving into the woods when he happens to bump into Olive, his seventh-grade teacher. So they started chatting. Olive talks about her father's suicide, while the boy talks about his mother's suicide. From the beginning of the boy's defense and resistance, to slowly accepting it, he hoped that she would not leave. The psychological description of this section is put on the screen, and it becomes a close-up shot of eyes, expressions, hand movements, etc., which is very brilliant.
The camera cut in the picture above may be a little scary if you haven't seen the original, but the visual impact and imagination are impressive.
Maybe the heroine got into the boy's car purely by accident, but after getting in the car, I dare say that she realized that something was wrong with the boy. While chatting with the boy, she ate donuts, and kept inviting the boys to have a piece too. Although the heroine was an inhuman and cold-hearted person before, it can be seen from this that her heart is warm.
This mini-series has no very subtle foreshadowing, and no deliberate arrangement of climaxes. It is like a day-to-day life. On the surface, it is calm and undercurrent (a bit like Hirokazu-eda's movie style). At the moment of watching, you can only feel it with your heart, and it is difficult to express that feeling in words. It's as if you follow the protagonist through a lot of scenery, you are shaken by those scenery, but you stay there and can't say a word.
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