"We obviously got to a new place, but why is everything the same!" Like the character Eddie in the film couldn't help but complain after he went to Cleveland, this film tells the life of three young people at a loss.
There is almost no story in the whole story. The characters seem to try to get rid of boredom, try to have fun, get together and then separate and get together again, the boredom of one person, the boredom of two people, and the boredom of three people. The audience cannot guess how the plot develops, and there are no clues. It is like life itself, there is no strong drama, but there are those exquisite small and beautiful, shining moments.
In order to save film, this film is not edited, and each scene is shot to the end, and the black screen transitions to form interesting silent passages, just like a prose poem. It is divided into three parts according to the scene.
The first part【New York】
My cousin Eva came to the United States from Hungary to stay in Willie’s house for 10 days. Willie reluctantly said to Aunt Lotte (Lotte) on the phone, take care of my sister? That would disrupt all my life!
However, after Eva’s arrival, we saw Willie’s life consisted of watching TV, sleeping, eating fast food, and drinking beer and watching TV with his friend Eddie who had nothing to do with the same thing. In the end of the plot, what they did together was horse racing, gambling, and racing. Dogs bet money, play cards and bet money.
When Eva first appeared in the movie, he stood on a slope of rubble and took his luggage around. It seemed that he was not sure where he was going. After a gap, the plane in the background flew away in the opposite direction to Eva. In the following two scenes, Eva moves from the right to the left, and from the top left to the bottom right of the screen. The discontinuous movement lines indicate the emptiness and indifferent state of the characters.
It is this indifferent attitude towards life that has made Willie feel better for Eva during the ten days of getting along. Eva doesn’t seem to mind Willie’s alienation and ignorance of her, but instead buys Willie fast food and cooperation. Willie's joking made the relationship between the two seem to draw closer. However, at the end of the ten days, Willie bought a skirt for Eva to wear and leave. Eva took off at the corner of the street and threw it into the trash basket, still wearing the clothes she always liked to look loose and sloppy.
Part Two【Cleveland】
At the end of the New York chapter, Willie and Eddie won a sum of money by playing cards. What do they do if they have money? The two couldn't even think of it. Let's rent a car and drive, get in the car and still have nothing to do on the streets of New York, so boring that it is so awkward to talk to passers-by.
So the boring two decided to go to Cleveland to find Eva, a bit of Godard's "Outlaws" feeling, and began a classic threesome. When I arrived in Cleveland, I played cards at my aunt's house, and I was still bored. Eddie couldn't help but say the essence of the film: You come to someplace new, and everything just looks the same.
Eva took the two to see the famous scenic spots in Cleveland, a big lake, the lake in the wind and snow was white and there was nothing. Eddie said far-fetched that it's so beautiful.
The two bored people were unwilling to be so bored back to New York and decided to take Eva to Florida. The three people on the highway were extremely happy until the car stopped in front of a wall that said Welcome to Florida.
Part Three【Florida】
The tired three people live in the shabby motel at night, and the audience may be looking forward to the sunny beach bikinis that they will wake up tomorrow.
However, when Eva woke up the next day, Willie and Eddie disappeared. They did not take her when they went to the dog racing, just like they did not take her to the horse racing in the first part. The alienation seems to be getting closer, but it is not, calm. Eva complained that the two of them didn't even leave a note, and for the first time they had mood swings. The trip to Florida was just when Eva had nothing to do and waited around the motel, betting on greyhounds with Willie and Eddie, gambling on horsebacks and returning blood to the horse, the nothingness remained the same.
Towards the end, it can be said that it is the biggest plot in the whole film. Eva is walking by the sea, and is mistaken for a connector by a drug dealer and gives her a lot of money. After taking the money, Eva left a note and went straight to the airport. Today, there is only one flight to Budapest for Europe, and the flight to Madrid and Paris has to wait until tomorrow. The Hungarian girl seemed unwilling to return to her hometown, and hesitated to buy a ticket to Budapest.
Wiilie saw the note and went to the airport to find Eva. He asked Eddie to wait for him in the car, but the plane took off and Eddie stood by the car door feebly watching Willie leave him. Drive away alone.
Eva, who didn't get on the plane at the end of the movie, went back to the motel to find two people, and they went to the empty room.
The alienated people finally go forward separately, with no purpose or direction. Everywhere is the same except on the road.
At the end of Jamush’s first feature-length "Long Holiday Slowly", the protagonist got on the ship about to leave New York, standing on the deck and muttering to himself: "I don't want work, home, or taxes, but maybe the car can Yes. I prefer where I go instead of staying there all the time. I can say with certainty that I am a traveler, in eternal vacation." Let's just say I'm a certain kind of tourist, a tourist that's on a permanent vacation.
Everywhere we feel similar boring and empty, only the road is the brightest eternity.
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