First of all, there are hints about sexual desire and physical liberation. I think this film does allude to a female rebellion against shackles and physical liberation. The exquisite aristocratic attire of the Victorian era was a symbol of civilization, but it also implied a physical bondage-so as soon as the young ladies on the carriage left the town and entered the forest, they couldn't wait to take off their gloves. When Miranda turned her head when she was last parting, the French teacher suddenly said very excitedly, I found out that Miranda is Botticelli's angel. In that picture, Miranda really resembles the Venus in Botticelli's painting, with her golden hair flowing out, with angelic beauty and indescribable wild beauty. When I first saw this scene, I originally thought that some paintings would be used as clues in the back of the movie to discover some secrets like the Da Vinci Code. The focus of these secrets is on the mysterious and beautiful Miranda who has disappeared strangely. . Especially when Emma is found alive under the cliff, and other people are still nowhere to be seen, my guess is that other people will gradually appear one by one as the plot goes on, of course, not necessarily all like Emma. Fortunately, all are alive. In the end, only Miranda is still missing, and her last appearance will be accompanied by a huge secret-this secret may be related to history, culture, or even being unlocked by ghosts. What happened in this place: And Miranda played an important role in it, just as she suddenly turned her head to make the French female teacher suddenly realize that she suddenly recognized her, oh, it turns out that she is an angel of Botticelli. Of course, the final direction of the plot is not like this. This makes me a little bit frustrated, and I feel that the meaning is still unfinished, but the story without ending will make people guess more, and even have the urge to read the original novel. , Eager to find out what happened. In retrospect, then, in the film, the comparison of Miranda to Botticelli's Venus may be just a metaphor, and it does not bear any more clues, but at least Venus itself symbolizes women's erotic desire and sex. .
In addition, I think the most obvious part of this suggestion in the film is that Miranda saw the shadow of the rock and Emma took off her shoes and socks, standing on the rock and shaking her messy hair, and then she lowered her head and took it off. I took my black stockings, and then the camera gave a close-up of the bare feet of the two girls on the dirt. It’s also worth mentioning here that when I watched this movie for the first time, I didn’t recognize that the girl standing on a rock and shaking her hair in the weird sunlight was Emma, the most exquisitely dressed girl. , A French girl with curly hair tied with a bow-I took it as Miranda's phantom. She saw the phantom at this time. A woman was standing on the edge of a cliff, as if she was about to jump down. Maybe this woman was a solution. The key to why a few of them disappeared. So after the film is over, I will pull the film here again, wanting to see what this scene means, but unexpectedly find that this girl turned out to be Emma. In the first second of this picture, Emma was still sitting next to Edith who was lying and comforted her and said, we will go back soon, still the image of the elegant French girl, and in the next second it will be that in Miranda’s eyes. Phantom-like people, this strong contrast also seems to imply a desire to break free.
Of course, there are many strong sexual cues. For example, Edith said that he saw the missing female teacher wearing only underwear, and Emma was found to be missing her bra, etc. However, the film did not explain what the two implied. As for some film critics, it is said that the close-ups of the towering rocks on the cliffs that often appear are a symbol of male penis. Although this association cannot be said to be tangible, at least the abrupt stones give people a savage and frantic feeling. The exquisite attire on the girl forms a strong contrast, which conforms to and supports this association to a certain extent.
Regarding the unresolved ending of the film, where did the girls go, why they disappeared, and what happened. This is also a mystery that I have always wanted to know. I have seen all the film reviews, and hardly have given a reasonable explanation, except that the disappearance of girls, especially Miranda, means a kind of rebellion and resistance to tradition. Of course, I am very supportive of this argument, because in the play, I really think about and question life and the meaning of human existence all the time. For example, there is a scene where Edith looked at the people at the foot of the mountain and said, apart from those people at the foot of the mountain, we should be the only creatures here. Just after speaking, the screen immediately switched to countless ants crawling on the cake. This scene seems to be silently responding to and mocking her words-in fact, you who think you are the only creatures, your living conditions are just like ants. And this sentence was confirmed in the mouth of the girl with glasses who was also missing: She said that people live like ants, without knowing what it is for, just to repeat a certain ritual. This sentence also appeared in Michael's dream. In his dream, the scene accompanied by this sentence was the last figure before the disappearance of Miranda and the other two girls, as if their disappearance were also performing some kind of mysterious ritual. . All this seems destined to happen, just like the rocks are there for 10,000 years just to wait for them. In a sense, although it is a Western film, many of the words in it are reminiscent of Eastern fatalistic views, whether it is the phrase that the girl on the carriage accidentally said "(these rocks) wait a million years, just for us !", or Miranda's most profound sentence, "Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place", which shocked people suddenly, as if some things were destined to happen. In addition, before the girl disappeared, they had been talking about "destined". It seems that at that moment, they were talking about their destiny. Of course, they compared Sara to the deer that was destined to die. It also implies the fate of Sarah's final suicide.
Of course, there is a speculation about the ending mentioned in a comment, and I think it makes sense, that is, Miranda and the others actually ended up being killed by a falling rock after climbing to that rock. This explanation is also in line with the fatalistic ending: the stone waited 10,000 years, and at a certain time, a certain place (right time and right place) rolled down, ending some lives that should end (such as Miranda, she had already Foretelling that I might not come back again), leaving some lives that shouldn’t end (such as Emma), although we can’t predict which lives are destined to end at a certain time, and which are not the same-so people The state of is still like an ant, sometimes full of randomness, but there is also destiny in randomness. Moreover, I think the most convincing support for this explanation is that when the three girls disappeared behind the rock, the fat girl Edith suddenly screamed loudly and rushed down the mountain without warning. It stands to reason that she must have seen something to scream like this, not just because they left her, because there have been many times before the three of them have left her and walked forward, and she screamed every time. Their names then followed in embarrassment, only this time she yelled Miranda not to go up, and then screamed loudly-as you can imagine, at that time Edith discovered that maybe the rock above was about to roll down and yelled you not to go up. But the speed of the stone was too fast, she heard the sound of the rock falling, so she screamed loudly and rushed down the mountain. Her voice may have been heard by the older female teacher at the foot of the mountain (there is a scene in front where all the people at the foot of the mountain are asleep, and only the older female teacher is still reading the geometry book, so why only she can hear it The voice rushed up the mountain and finally disappeared) In fact, Edith did not lose her memory afterwards, she was afraid to tell the truth out of timidity. From the film, we can also see that she is actually the kind of girl who is very annoying, selfish and timid. At that time, she asked to go up the mountain together. After going up, she complained constantly, so she could do it after things happened. , She did not try to save other people, or go to the mountain for help, but rushed down the mountain alone and was unwilling to tell the truth afterwards. And, behind the film, there is also a proof of this view, that is, when everyone yelled at Emma in the dance classroom, Edith also yelled, "Actually, they are all dead!", indicating that she has always known what happened. , And then the French female teacher rushed to slap Edith and said, "You liar and fool!" Maybe she also guessed what might have happened.
Emma did indeed have amnesia because her head was severely scratched, and her hand was also severely scratched by ten nails, which seems to indicate that they were caught in the process of climbing a rock. The falling rocks hit the mountain. It should be noted that Emma was the last of the three people walking at the time, so it can be speculated that when the stone rolled down from above, only the last Emma was not dead, just scratched her head, and Miranda and the girl with glasses were both Died and was crushed under the rock.
According to this speculation, Michael should have seen the dead Miranda. In the film, when Potty spotted Michael on the mountain, he sat down at the bottom of the mountain with scratches and eyes, and gave Potty a piece of lace from Miranda before leaving. There is a plot in the play. During the search and rescue, the police dog had already found the place where the three girls were missing and barked. It was just that the police only looked up and the picture was cut. It can be seen that they didn't look for it. Michael was the first to climb up, and the rocks above kept appearing on the screen of him climbing up, which seemed to imply that they were there at the time. When the girls climbed up, rocks fell and hit them. In other words, when Michael climbed up the cliff, he had already found the girls trapped under the rock. He had successfully lifted Emma out of the rock, but found that Miranda and the other girl had been crushed under the rock. They died under the stone and could not be rescued, so he was heartbroken and tore off the lace on Miranda's clothes and sat down alone at the foot of the mountain. This can also explain why Potty saw Emma when he climbed the cliff. He didn't find anyone else because he was eager to save Emma. And Michael gave Lace to Potty, surely he hoped that he would go back to save Emma who was still alive, but the reason why he didn’t say where Miranda was could be explained that he felt that since he was sure that Miranda was dead, he didn’t. The courage to face this fact is open to the public, and would rather live in self-deception, or would rather Miranda just stay quietly among the rocks for millions of years. In fact, there are many scenes in the back where Michael has hallucinations, hallucinations of a swan appearing on the head of her bed, hallucinations saw Miranda's figure among the green leaves, and then she turned into a swan on the surface of the water, and a pool of ripples was raised after she flew up. .
But there are some unexplainable aspects of this speculation. For example, why did Emma lose the bra after discovering it? Why did Edith say that he saw an elderly female teacher running up the mountain wearing underwear? This is unexplainable. In addition, this ending is not very good to explain why female teachers will also disappear. Of course, it can be explained that she was smashed to death by rocks in the same place. But I always feel a bit far-fetched.
Finally, I really like the soundtrack in this movie. The sharp and exotic melody of a bagpipe (or a woodwind instrument similar to a flute) suggests that the location of the story is in Australia. When people’s eyes remain in the Victorian British-style exquisite decorations, this sounded in the ears. This kind of exotic music has a sense of mystery, and to a certain extent it makes people feel very secretive. When depicting typical aristocratic scenes, such as Bach's preludes, Mozart's serenades and Chopin's music, it makes people feel that time and space are disordered in the typical European aristocracy and Australia's wild barbarity. This also seems to be the intention of this film-in fact, what is missing is to disappear. There is no need to go into the cause and destination. It just disappears from one time and space and exists in another time and space.
So, Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place
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