At the Venice Film Festival last September, 18 feature films were selected for the main campaign unit, competing for the highest honor, the Golden Lion Award. Interestingly, British actress Vanessa Kirby starred in two of them: "Opening the Heart" and "Women's Fragments". In the end, Vanessa Kirby, who was only 32 years old, won the Venetian actress with her superb acting in Fragment of a Woman. In recent years, Vanessa Kirby has come into the public eye through her appearance in TV series ("The Crown") and some commercial films ("Speed and Furious: Special Operations" and "Mission Impossible 6: Total Disintegration"). Winning the award from the Queen of Venice proves that Vanessa Kirby has made a breakthrough in performance in recent years. Such an honor will surely make her future performance road smoother and make great progress.
"Fragments of a Woman" is a film about "sadness" produced by Netflix (on the Netflix platform today) and directed by the Hungarian director Kenel Mudluzzo who has been selected for many Cannes Film Festivals. I think "The Fragment of Woman" can be regarded as a female film. It emphasizes realism, and many details are promoted by subtle lines and performances. At the end of the film, the whole film is sublimated to another level.
The main line of "Fragment of Woman" is very clear: Martha and her husband Sean, the protagonist who is about to give birth, decided to have a midwife help deliver the baby at home, but after the accident, their daughter died shortly after Martha gave birth. The whole story is also the court of the document accident. Advance in time for litigation. The two clear sidelines are the change in the relationship between Martha and her husband, and her own mother after the accident. In fact, there are not many pregnant women in the United States who choose to give birth at home. According to an article from the National Public Radio of the United States, only one percent of pregnant women choose this method to give birth each year.
Thirty minutes before the beginning, director Kenel Mudluzzo designed a 20-minute long Steadicam shot (Long take), using an extremely realistic approach to portray Martha's childbirth situation. Vanessa Kirby showed her superb and powerful performance in this 20-minute long shot, which fully reflected the anxiety of pregnant women before delivery and the pain during childbirth. I can't even think of a more suitable way to describe this scene than a long shot. Presumably these twenty minutes is also one of the important factors that finally impressed the judges of the Venice Film Festival.
When her newborn baby died unexpectedly, Martha's life also changed dramatically: the disagreement with her mother on legal proceedings (Martha was initially unwilling to face the whole world and refused to appear in court) and her husband Sean was in great grief. Lead to emotional alienation. In fact, Sean’s line has something to be tapped - Sean’s job is to build bridges and is a blue-collar class, while her wife Martha is a middle-to-high-level company with her own office. She also comes from a middle-to-upper-class family. (Living in a big house and buying a car with the support of my mother), this cross-class marriage between the two parties also fell apart because of a sad accident: the two became more and more alienated to the point that they seemed to be separated from each other, and each had derailed. In many cases, when a couple gets along for a long time, their children become the glue in their emotional life, and the couple's death in the film also indicates the breakdown of the relationship. Martha also began to become negative about life, and was struck painfully by this accident, unable to extricate herself from it.
At the same time, Martha has a very strong mother. She never liked Martha's husband, Sean, because she thought he was a vulgar person in her heart. She is a symbol of the elite class, hoping to finally go to court, imprison the midwife and compensate her daughter to get spiritual comfort, but she never really talked to Martha, and she didn't know what Martha really wanted. Taking this opportunity, Martha's mother also told Sean to leave her daughter, not to come back to look for her.
If the first twenty minutes of the long shot composes the beginning of this song of women, then the next thirty minutes will create a strong ending. Martha unexpectedly appeared in court to testify. When the court was adjourned, she picked up the previously undeveloped film negatives in the camera shop and saw that she had a daughter who was breathing slightly when she gave birth. Back to the court, she spoke sincerely: expressing her forgiveness for the midwife, and also symbolizing that she has let go of this endless sorrow and raised her head to move forward. In the bridge section of the court, Vanessa Kirby once again dedicated a very tense performance, pushing the emotions to the extreme, and the eyes of the mother of tears also overflowed with a moving emotion.
Interestingly, director Kenel Mudluzzo used the bridge under construction (the bridge built by Sean's work) to reflect every time shift. At the beginning of the film, the two ends of the bridge were separated by two sides. When the film was nearing the end, the two ends finally met. Martha stood in the middle of the bridge and sprinkled the ashes of her deceased daughter into the river. This symbolizes Martha's letting go of sadness and a brave leap. Just like this seemingly inexhaustible bridge-time provides the workers with the possibility of repairing the bridge, and at the same time soothes the injured soul. However, to truly connect the two ends of the bridge, it relies on months of hard work by countless workers; in the same way, it is her strength to face reality that makes Martha truly cross the "unrepairable" bridge of grief. The bravery of raising your head, looking forward, and rekindling hope for the future.
Vanessa Kirby has portrayed a strong and brave female character in this film. Her outstanding performance is worthy of an Oscar nomination this year. Let us also look forward to seeing more of her superb performance on the big screen!
01/07/21
Written in Chicago
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