foreword
The film is adapted from the play "Under the Moonlight" by Yale drama professor and black homosexual Tarell Alvin McLaney, which is strongly autobiographical (not even a script, according to Tarell himself, just artist try to figure things out). In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.
The original screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney and the director grew up in a single-parent family in the same poor African-American community in Miami in the 1980s. They attended the same elementary school. Their mothers were both cocaine-addicted (and HIV-positive), and both were abused at school. Tyrant experience.
Homes are sometimes without food, or without water and electricity. As a child, McCraney was indeed protected by a drug dealer and taught to swim. Chiron's story is almost a private memory of their autobiography.
The African-American singer-actor Janelle Monáe, who played Juan's girlfriend Teresa, cried during the filming, because these characters are relatives and friends in her hometown of Kansas City, some drug dealers, some suffering because of their sexual orientation. .
If we look at this movie without the labels "black" and "gay", it's about a boy who grows into a boy and eventually a man. In terms of story type, it is a Coming-Of-Age movie, which belongs to the same type as the aforementioned "Boyhood", and even the story line is almost the same.
A facialized character is often very predictable and conforms to stereotypes, and the inner drama can be seen through at a glance, so only one face is needed. "Moonlight" uses various means to oppose the shaping of this label.
little
Chiron, who had just met the audience, was taciturn and wary of people, because even if he was black, he was discriminated against in the entire ethnic group because he was too little. Even if Juan deliberately expressed kindness, he was rejected by him.
Chiron's mom lacks concern for Chiron. As a single mother, the pressure of life can only force her to find solace in drugs. In order to maintain her addiction, she can only sell her body. Her anger at Chiron is actually a vent to her disappointment. Her struggles come from the force of life, and of course Chiron can't understand it, so she hates her.
Juan tried his best to be a father before he caught Chiron's mother taking drugs. When he knew the truth, his love for Chiron also made him miserable because of his status as a drug dealer. His struggle stems from emotional powerlessness, so it's more helpless.
Kevin appeared as Chiron's childhood friend. He naively thought that as long as he resisted, he would not be bullied. In fact, Kevin was just a bystander of Chiron's growth experience. Chickens are like peanuts.
And the first explanation about Moonlight Boy came from Juan's mouth: You run and overlap the light and shadow in the moonlight, the black child looks blue, so you are blue.
Blue represents melancholy, introverted, like the sea in front of you, vast and inclusive.
Chiron
The first close-up focuses on the long shot of the man's lips that Chiron is staring at, and the long shot of the classmates gradually alienating after class, highlighting Chiron's incompatibility with the classmates around him.
Chiron's expression was subtle when he heard kevin describe his affair, and he wasn't sure if the person in front of him was the one he should like.
The mother's state was still on the verge of collapse. When Juan was alive, she wanted someone to play the role of a father, but she refused. And now, as a mother, what she has done for Chiron is not as much as Teresa. She is jealous. As a mother, she is in pain, but in the face of drug addiction, I can only give in, even in front of her only son.
When Chiron was verbally violent, he tried to resist, but he knew what his own emotions were like? And how is your mother? I was powerless to change this situation, so in the face of oppression, he could only give up resistance. Like a fist he clenched and then loosened.
It is also the beach swept by the breeze, the words about Moonlight Boy are still vivid in my mind, and this first temptation, Chiron is shy like a child, maybe as Juan said, what kind of person do you want to be, don’t let Others change your mind because only then will you shine.
Therefore, the kiss on the beach under the moon became extremely precious. Before this kiss, no one had really stepped inside him and brought him caresses. It may be that the night was too gentle that night, but such a kiss did not know the origin, and it was deeply in love.
Facing the fist swung by the person he loves deeply, he did not back down. He gradually raised his head and told Kevin that the fist you swung at me hit my face and your face, which means that Because you did not choose me for yourself, but gave up on me. At this time my tears are not for you, but for myself.
When the blood turned into anger, when the resolute eyes turned into disappointment, perhaps Chiron's emotions were dusty. A long shot and a couple of clean chops, purposeful and well executed.
Black
This scene is a journey to prove love, love for mother, love for kevin.
A phone call can remove all his disguise. At this moment, Chiron hesitated. After so many years, the emotions that should have been dusted should not be turbulent, but he still wanted to confirm the person on the other side of the conversation. What does he really mean?
After so many years, Chiron cried for her mother's apology and her unspoken love. At this moment, her identity is mother and Chiron is son.
When Kevin showed Chiron a picture of his daughter, he knew once again that Kevin really didn't understand him, his disguise, his single-mindedness, and his subtlety.
The moment I said these words, I knew that I had reconciled with my past self, and I had reconciled with you.
write at the end
The inspiration for the three-paragraph narrative structure of "Moonlight", Jenkins said, came from Hou Hsiao-hsien's film "The Best Time" (2005), especially the billiard room scene - when he was studying filmmaking at Florida State University, he took a year off, Expo film magazines and world films, especially Asian films. In addition to Hou Hsiao-hsien, it is also easy to see traces of Wong Kar-wai's "Breakthrough" and "Blueberry Night" in "Moonlight". And the Spanish song "Cucurrucucú Paloma" used has appeared in "Happy Together";
The usual propositions of heterosexual films are: How can I love you more;
And movies that show homosexuality, in addition to completing a proposition: should I love you or not.
So the director chose such a story setting to shoot, just to show how a person grows up and how to learn to love under the multiple external and internal conflicts.
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