From the perspective of character dressing, perhaps we can also make a certain interpretation of "The Cocktail Party": The black-dressed Appel is an icy advocate of realism, manifested in his strong dissatisfaction with the British Parliament and the medical system, and his disdain for religious beliefs. , Advocating the present newspaper and instigating Janet to murder her husband; Martha and Janet in white clothes represent the pursuit and illusion of utopian life, which is reflected in the understanding and connivance of Martha Bill and Marianne’s extramarital relationship. It is manifested in Janet’s pursuit of beautiful political ideas; Gottfried, wearing a gray vest, is an admirer of agnosticism: on the one hand, he firmly believes that western medicine is useless, on the other hand, he believes that western medicine can indeed cure diseases; on the other hand, he believes that the human body can heal itself. , While admitting that there are some things people can’t do. He believes that his ideas can cover everything in the world, and at the same time throw all human curiosity to so-called beliefs. This is also what his partner, who is striving for efficiency and practicality, cannot tolerate;
And Bill and Tom used to be supporters of rationalism (of course the ideas of the two are different). But after Bill was sentenced to death by the doctor and Tom was derailed, after Gottfried’s sermon, their beliefs were greatly impacted or even changed, so their clothes appeared in the film as dark and light colors coexist; In the latter part of the film, the director deliberately gave Martha a shot of smoking after taking off her white coat and revealing her black shirt. This alludes to Martha's reflection on what she has done-idealists often disregard all the concepts and actual conditions of the current society when practicing their beliefs, which leads to or aggravates the occurrence of a family or social tragedy.
But must realism be better? It is precisely because of the realism of Epel’s remarks that Janet has the courage to shoot Marianne at the end; it is also because of the negative influence of realistic and pessimistic remarks that idealistic political leaders finally put themselves His political ambitions stayed on slogans, and became a politician hated by civilians.
How can we stop the tragedy from happening? How can we clarify our thinking in the chaos to help society move forward? At the end, the director threw this complicated subject to the audience. Perhaps this subject will never have a unified conclusion-but when we begin to think about this issue comprehensively and objectively, we have already begun to move in the right direction.
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