Duration: 187 minutes. Is 187 minutes an integer? Or is it a prime number? For director Robert Altman, it was an ambitious movie, but in this spring of 2016, it was divided into the evening of the day before yesterday, the morning of yesterday, the afternoon and the evening, and the morning of this morning before me. , Time is continuously cut into small parts, and the story is like paragraphs, splitting the huge Los Angeles into independent life fragments. Yes, the number of 187 minutes can not only be resolved into the 11×17 equation, but also You can also tell nine short stories separately.
He and her, she and him, and they and them all dissolve the wholeness of 187 minutes in various ways. In the clip is the estrangement between the restaurant waiter Dolly and the always drunk husband Earl, the strong affection between Clay and her husband Stuart, the quarrel between police officer Gini and his wife Sheri, and Betty and the pilot’s ex-husband Stormi The entanglement between the news commentator Howard, his wife Anne, and his son Cather’s happiness, the misunderstanding of the painter "the clown" Marianne and the doctor’s husband Love, is the misunderstanding of Bill and Jon, and it’s the pool cleaner Jay. The contradiction between Li and his wife Louis is the indifference of the cello-playing mother Tez, who plays the cello and sings in the bar. Nine stories, nine families, all sliding on their own tracks of life, they form a closed system independent of each other, as long as they close the doors and windows, live together in the room, or sleep on the same bed, they can have nothing to do with what happened outside. Everything lives every day in their respective "short story collections".
However, 187 minutes is only a relatively aggregated passage of time, and various family stories only enter their own system in relative time and space. They are open and intersecting, and they have never escaped from a certain overlooked fate. The helicopters spraying drugs in the air seem to be a metaphor for the life in this city. They fly in the night sky of the city to prevent the impact of insect disasters on life, and when the entire city is spraying. After the collective action, its looking down becomes a way of breaking the independent intrusion, entering the room from the open window, or it is uncomfortable to diffuse in the air, or it will pollute all the water in the swimming pool, even the TV. The broadcasted reports on insect disasters have also entered thousands of households in an all-pervasive manner.
It seems to be unstoppable, and the individual’s independence is vulnerable to such a bird’s-eye view, and if replaced in another way, the nine stories in Robert Altman’s work will be completely crossed and influenced by each other. In the loop that cannot be escaped. But where is the starting point? If you enter it by force cutting, you can choose the theme of "birthday". The birthday itself is related to the helicopter overlooking the city in the air. That day was the birthday of Betty, the ex-wife of Stormi, who sprayed drugs. They had separated long ago. Stormi bought the cake just because he wanted to be with his son Chad. Betty and the policeman Gini fall in love. An extension of a clue is that Gini is actually a married woman. The relationship between him and his wife’s house became very stiff. He hated the dog the children liked, and even took the dog to the street and abandoned it there. Sheri can only call Marianne to complain. Marianne and her husband Love also seem to have a certain emotional conflict. They invited Situ A and Klay to a family party that day, and Situ A brought the fish he had caught at the party. In fact, when Situ A was fishing in a small river in the wild with some friends, he found a female body floating in the river. They called the police three days later. Before Situ A and his friends left the city to go hiking and fishing, they ate in Dolly's restaurant. By the way, they also watched Dolly's butt lifted up when he took food. Dolly and her husband Earl, who is always drinking, always have a lot of problems. Dolly’s daughter Jon even called Earl a "drunk stupid pig." In contrast, the relationship between her and Bill seems to be much more harmonious. They Always go to the bar with Jerry, Louis and his wife, or go on a picnic. However, there is a gap between Jerry and Louis, who is a pornographic telephone service worker. Jerry can only stare at An, who is swimming naked while washing others in the swimming pool. Ann, who likes to play the cello, lives with her mother. She can’t let go of her father who committed suicide when she was 6 years old. Ann’s neighbors are a happy family of three. Her husband Howard is a TV news commentator. His wife Anne and her son Kaiser Enjoying life in this happy home, Anne went to the cake shop to order a cake for Cather, because tomorrow is Cather’s 8th birthday.
From Betty’s birthday to Cather’s birthday, it seems to be back on the same day, back to the same intersection. Yes, Annie walked into Bicau’s cake shop and met Stormi who had just bought the cake—a circle The cycle of reincarnation is actually the birth of many nodes. These nodes are crisscrossed and formed a complex network of urban modern life. For example, Jon and Earl once met in a bar, but the father and daughter seemed to be full of resentment; In the bar frequented by Earl, Tess came here to sing every night; and because of the unpleasantness that happened with Earl that day, Dolly almost ran into Cather, who was going to school by himself while driving, causing Cather to go to school alone. Was sent to the hospital; and the doctor who treated Cather was Marian’s husband Lav; in the hospital, Marian "the clown" was often invited to perform. Next, I was going to go to the phone number, which caused the house to be upset, and the relationship between the husband and wife was in crisis again; and the doctor Love and the painter’s wife Marianne met Clay and Stuart at the cello concert in Ann. , They decided to share dinner on the weekend...The
independent families are finally intertwined in different ways, and at these many intersections, each story does not seem to be presented in a fragmented way. In Robert Altman It has become an interlocking whole, and in this whole, there are nothing more than two prominent themes: life and love. From the beginning of the birthday to the end of the birthday, this is just a sort of artificial structure, but after the birthday, there is a ubiquitous but hidden death trap. Situ A and friends met to go fishing. The place they went was a wild place far away from the city, escaped from the noise and enjoyed life in the deliciousness of fish and the tranquility of the night, but the female corpse was sinking and floating in the creek. Death broke into their lives suddenly, who is she? Did it drown or was murdered? These problems are unsolvable problems for them, so death has become a mysterious event. They did not change their plans, did not call the police immediately, and death was by their side, but it still became an outside matter. They waited until they left, waited until they called the police, and waited until they read the newspaper, only to realize that this was a 32-year-old bassist named Caroline Avi who was strangled to death after being raped.
The truth is always hidden outside the scene, but what about Cather's death? It was even more absurd. At first, he was walking happily on the way to school. Because tomorrow was his birthday, his mother had already ordered a birthday cake, but when he was crossing the road, Dolly's car drove up and saw the child, Dolly was in a hurry. Brake, obviously, there was no direct collision between the car and the person. Perhaps Cather was frightened. He fell to the ground. Dolly got out of the car and asked him if it didn’t matter, and offered to drive him to the hospital, but Cather Following the mother's "not talking to strangers, not getting into strangers' cars", she returned home. When his mother Anne asked him where he was uncomfortable, he said that it was okay and that he was not injured, and that the female driver was a good person, but after speaking, Cather fell asleep on the bed and never woke up ever since. When Cather was sent to the hospital, the doctor only diagnosed him with a small congestion, which was not dangerous. Just a little sleep. But Cather never woke up. Anne and her husband Howard had waited hopefully, but finally witnessed Cather’s death. The last time Cather’s eyes opened was actually a flashback, and then all the values on the instrument were no longer there. Presented in a curved manner. After this car accident, Dolly always thought of the little boy and thought guiltily that her life would change from now on, but until Kaiser finally died in the hospital, she still knew nothing.
After hearing the news of Cather’s death, neighbor Ann fell into a kind of unknown sadness. Even when he was very young, his father Chico also left himself and his mother in death, and now Mother and daughter who depend on each other rarely communicate. One always holds the violin for concerts, and the other sings in the bar every night. Their estrangement finally made Ann, who scratched her palm with a cup, chose to commit suicide. She went first. At the bar where mother Tes rehearsed, her mother heard that the neighbor boy Cather was dead, and seemed indifferent. Ann returned home, set up the cello in the garage, and chose to end her life in the sound of music.
The female corpse was strangled to death in the river, Cather died in the hospital, and Ann committed suicide in the garage. Every death has a secretive taste. It may not even deserve to die, but it becomes impossible in the modern metropolis of Los Angeles. The theme of getting rid of, and in the end, the death of the strange girl in front of Jie inside seemed to be the revenge of Jerry whose marriage was in a certain crisis. He slammed the girl hard, and after a call, there was a lot of blood on his face, and At this time, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake suddenly came and the boulders on the mountain rolled down. According to media reports, the earthquake temporarily caused one death, and the deceased was the girl who was killed by Jerry while traveling in the field. It was just replaced with "smashed to death by falling rocks." Death, as usual, has become a hidden event, just like murder, death from illness, and suicide, it has become a hidden fate.
Death is a way of life passing away, but in this reality intersected in Ukiyo-e, various deaths also occur, and this death is the death of love. Almost every family has a crisis that is difficult to resolve. There is a problem in the marriage between Gini and Sheri. He will only yell at the child and abandon the dog. When he leaves the house, he betrays his wife. Here, fell in love with the divorced Betty. And Betty not only dated Gini, but when she left the city, she was on vacation with Wari, a man who had never met her son. During the vacation, her ex-husband Stormi quietly came to Betty’s house and took everything Everything is destroyed, like a prank, more like revenge. Sheri’s sister Marianne and her husband Love seem to have a good relationship, but when it comes to kissing by drunk Mitchell Anderson three years ago, the two are caught in endless quarrels; and Jerry And Louis, in front of a large number of children, they are more like strangers. Jerry can only see the naked Ann while cleaning the swimming pool and feel a certain satisfaction, but when he returns home, he can only perform erotic phone services on the phone. His wife, that lewd voice and naked words are just a kind of virtual eroticism, but in reality, there is only a night when the lights are separated from each other to sleep, so in the end Jerry will attack a strange girl in the extreme . Bill and Jon seem to be a good pair, but Jon's mother Dolly and father Earl are also in a crisis of marriage. In these nine stories, the happiest family is Howard and Annie, but what fate ultimately gave them was the death of their son Cather. Apart from the pain of losing his son, Howard’s story has not been seen for many years. The unforgettable story of his father, why did he leave his mother, why would Ola lie? Why is Howard indifferent when he is sick? In the conversation between father and son, the past doubts were not relieved. Instead, they became a hidden pain in Howard's happy life.
Father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife, these are many relationships in the family, but these relationships are not fixed and immutable. Between people, family and family, they cross and evolve into neighbors, friends, and lovers. They form a complex In this network, their identities are diverse. But now that the story continues to develop, the contradictory relationship, the ruined love, and even the estranged marriage seem to be slowly moving towards harmony. Gini finally returned home and became intimate with the house, and finally even promised the child to find the one he abandoned. A dog; Dolly and Earle also enjoyed an hour of happy time after the misunderstanding was cleared, and Howard and Annie, who had lost their sons, finally found the clue to the harassing call. It was called by Bico, who ordered the cake. After Annie wept bitterly and cursed, Bicao seemed to invite them to eat cake in a sympathetic way... But this kind of reconciliation was not a complete ending. The earthquake came suddenly, Jerry who killed people, Anne and Howar in the bakery, Tes who found her daughter suicide in the garage, Gini, his wife and the children at home, Dolly and the children who were full of laughter. Earle, Marian, Love, Stuart, and Klein who were partying are all in the same experience of the earthquake. Although the turbulence and horror of the earthquake will pass immediately, although everything has returned to normal, it is just like life itself. The same, full of unknown disasters, and the last earthquake, like the first insect pests, became an inevitable crisis in this city, just as Tes said sadly at the end: "If you are a prisoner, call another Sing; I’m a prisoner, go back to the bathtub."
Birthdays, deaths, love, marriages, crises, disasters, it seems that everyone has become a prisoner in life, it seems that everyone has to return to the bathtub—the water in the bathtub, It is free, but it is also inescapable. It is updated every day, but it also creates suffocation. The exposed buttocks, the nakedness in the swimming pool, the words on the phone, the peeing against the river, directly The way of presenting desires dissolves the sublime and beauty, and in the intersecting stories, the intersecting time, and the intersecting characters, the entire city has become a huge ukiyo-e.
This is a "short story collection" of nine families. The director Robert Altman changed from Raymond Carver's short story, but also weaves many "intersections of life" in his own way, and this 187 minutes In addition to the "Nine Links", the crossover actually extends to the text outside the movie, the story of Dolly and Earl in "They are not your husband", the story of free vacuuming and carpet cleaning services in "The Collector", "There is so much water at the doorstep" Stuart’s encounter with the girl’s body in the river after fishing, the child’s car accident in "Beneficial Little Things", the narrative "They swallowed brown bread" seems to be Carver's novel and Austrian The intersection of Terman's movies. And when the story returned to daily life, when the 187-minute story became a whole in the divided time in 2016 in a holistic way, nothing seemed to have changed, just like Carverzi’s "Distance" Said it like: "It's over, he said, the story is over. I admit it's not a story."
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