Sexual assault , when you see these two words, even if you don't tell the story, you can make up the picture.
Empathy becomes nonsense. We pity the victims without asking them if they want to be pitied.
American documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox put herself on the screen to tell her true experience of being sexually assaulted at the age of 13 from the perspective of a so-called "victim" - "Letterhead Stories"
Nowadays, the adaptation of real events is not a big deal, and it can even be one of the ways to measure bad movies.
There are countless movies that make money under the banner of adaptations of real people, let alone people who really want to tell stories.
Jennifer Fox appears to be bold, tenacious, and, as the title suggests, full of unusual strength.
1. You're going to see a story that actually happened, at least as far as I know
That's what Jennifer Fox said in the opening credits, and it's more of a warning, like the event is untouchable, and with that comes the depressing vibe of the whole movie.
In the following time, Jennifer Fox controlled the rhythm of the narrative through self-reporting. This narration-like existence was like saying: "This is a very personal diary, I can show you, but Please don't touch my bottom line."
The story begins with Jenny in her 40s, who is already a documentary filmmaker and teacher, when her mother saw her childhood diary and began to trace the traces of the past.
She is more like a bystander, looking "coldly" at the experience she had suffered in the past, calmly and objectively analyzing her psychology at that time.
The narrative style of "Letterhead Stories" is not as straightforward as the previous themes, but places the main line in the present time and space.
What happened more than 30 years ago follows the memory trajectory of the current Jennifer Fox, and even changes history due to the revision of her memory, which is a very interesting way.
For example, the memory in Jenny's mind is what happened when she was 15 years old, but when she was told by her mother that she was 13 years old, the slim girl in the picture 30 years ago immediately became an introverted and cute little girl.
The inaccurate memory of Jenny, who is in her 40s, is as her lines say, "I don't know how I became who I am now."
Therefore, the so-called true story may not even be known to the parties involved, which explains why the director said at the very beginning, "At least that's what I know".
2. This story, I want to start with something beautiful
This phrase appears 4 times in the movie, but when we learn that it's not a good thing, how do we think about the director's intentions?
Is this what she really thinks, or is it to comfort herself?
Until the end of the film, Jenny figured out everything, but still said this sentence, "I want to start with some beautiful things."
What a 13-year-old flower girl thinks is beautiful is a lack of self-judgment.
The introverted Jenny tells her heart in writing, but the mediocre family and new things instill in her that she thinks she is more mature than her peers.
When two people who are willing to listen to their hearts and treat themselves equally, suddenly appear in life, they feel the purest happiness.
The crimes of Bill and Ms. G began to be carried out. Their sweet coat was a good medicine for Jenny at that time. A divorced man, a married woman, they were lovers, what kind of relationship was this?
When Jenny was looking forward to such a relationship, she just said, "Why don't you stay tonight", the pimp went home, and the beast succeeded.
This is not a tragedy, the most important thing is Jenny's own opinion.
That is, the "victim" she has never been able to admit. What she thinks is not that she was violated, but a beautiful "first love", but the object is a man more than 30 years older than her.
It's not Jenny's fault, because the one who keeps teaching her right and wrong is Bill.
The correspondence made Jenny mistakenly believe that Bill knew his world, and all of Bill's flattery were transformed into "love words" and were put away by Jenny. When Bill told her to take off her shirt, little Jenny had a shy smile on her face.
3. Growth means change, and change is almost painful, so pain is pleasure
This is what Bill told Jenny, and Jenny still believes it to this day.
This has affected her all her life. Even though she stopped this unethical "love affair" 30 years ago, what follows is the current problem. Jenny doesn't pay attention to her relationship, and she has a relationship with different foreign men. , a married man having an inappropriate relationship.
When Jenny approached the truth step by step and found that there were other people violated besides her, she began to realize that the "love" in her memory was just a general means of venting pleasure for Bill. The pain she believed in before was Happiness, immediately became a bubble.
In this passage, Jenny's character is transformed through Jenny asking students about her first night's feelings, and the women in the documentary describe the beauty of sex. The more beautiful they described, every stroke hit Jenny's pain point. She was heartbroken, because her first night was only painful, and she would never experience the little beauty they said in the future.
The biggest highlight of this film compared with similar themes is the confrontation between the characters, and they will have a dialogue through time and space.
The director turned the camera into Jenny 30 years later, and Jenny was like a stranger who broke into 30 years ago and communicated with everyone.
The deepest impression was that Jenny was talking to her 13-year-old self. Jenny questioned her 13-year-old self why she wanted to stay, and little Jenny left rebelliously.
This scene is very similar to the daily dialogue between parents and children, but in the memory, Jenny can't change.
Just like Jenny's parents, as early as back then, her mother had noticed that something was wrong, but she chose to forget it just because she thought it was safe. And Jenny chose dog men and women instead of parents just because they didn't know how to listen, which led to tragedy.
The whole movie progresses step by step through Jenny's investigation, and the truth slowly emerges. Jenny goes from almost forgetting to being unable to forget, dissecting herself, and hurting herself.
Jenny didn't listen to little Jenny's dissuasion, and went to the current Bill without hesitation. She not only sought answers, but wanted to convince herself.
When faced with a man who once said that she loved her deeply, but couldn't recognize herself back then, she broke down and her emotions surged, but the man ran away in a hurry.
In the toilet in the final shot, Jenny sits alone, comforting her 13-year-old self.
This is reality, and reality is often more brutal, it portrays things without any exaggerated embellishments, and is always calm, just like this movie.
So how should we face sexual assault with empathy? No one can really understand the client's mood, they can only save themselves, and all we can do is to cast aside the colored glasses and look at them.
"I'm part of them both and I'm lucky to share their love".
This almost helpless white lie, I am willing to believe, I hope she can deceive herself, this may be the best way for her to forget the past.
But whether she really forgot, only she knew in her own heart .
Welcome to pay attention to AME, the unpopular movies continue to be recommended~
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