Cold and warm
text / Su Qiqi
1.
Frankie was a hard-of-hearing nine-year-old boy. He looked very ordinary and had a little freckles. When you are not smiling, it looks a little faint, but when you laugh and your eyes light up, it is really beautiful. People can suddenly discover how happy and beautiful a small person and a small heart can be. When the movie started, he moved with his mother and grandmother again to a small town by the sea.
The town under the lens is cold tones, and the whole movie is generally cold tones of gray and blue. But this cool color is not a hard, depressing cool color, but a comfortable, fresh cool color. In the old-fashioned rented apartment, the narrow entrance halls, corridors and doors are painted in a plump and slightly darker olive green, with tile strips with sailing patterns embedded in the middle. Frankie likes to reach out and touch the shallow sailing boat on the tiles. This shot is a bit intentional, because his mother told him that his father was a seaman and was on a ship called ACCRA. This ship has been to all parts of the world because his father was from Letters and stamps were sent to him from various places. On the wall on the side of Frankie's bed, there is a large world map, with small flags marking the ship's voyage. On the other wall, there are various paintings, fish, boats, etc., to make the simple room look very beautiful. Frankie is a child in the show, he is a champion of lip language, and he also learns geography. Very good.
2.
This small town is a well-meaning town. Mary at the fast food restaurant filled Frankie with French fries. The fat aunt librarian in the library lent him several favorite books. He even knew him but was right. He is very kind and friendly little girl. But the other little boy in the school was not so friendly anymore. He brought Frankie a newspaper, and the newspaper stated that the ACCRA number will be anchored in this port. They made a bet - betting on whether Frankie's father would come to see him, in fact, betting on whether Frankie really has a father. Children’s world also has doubts about the truth, and simple and cruel ways to find the truth, although the bets seem to be football cards, stamps, and knives.
Frankie wrote a letter to his father, and then his mother Liz received the letter. All the letters he received were written by his mother, who made up a brave and careful father who wandered around the world for him. His real father was the source of his deafness, and his mother took him away from his former home in order to escape domestic violence. Shazi wants to find a temporary dad for Frankie. She must use a new lie to round up the old one. She even went to the port bar where the seamen gathered to try it, but she was hurried under the unscrupulous gazes and laughter of the men. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to do, and sat blankly all night in the cold mist on the bench by the sea.
3.
Shatz is played by EMILY MORTIMER, she is not beautiful in this movie, she has big eyes, scribbled hairstyle, and a short jacket in an old sweater coat. But she played an "ordinary woman" very well, which is actually very difficult, her fragility (she collapsed when the children looked through her closet), her strength (she was when the husband asked to see the child for the last time) Resolutely refused), her kindness (but she still took the painting by Frankie and gave it to her husband). She is a single mother who has suffered a major blow in life and is forced to hide, but she still has a charm in her body, which not only comes from her not yet completely faded appearance, plump and soft body, but also from her My self-love, and my love for Frankie. Her beauty that is not overwhelmed is very moving, and of course someone needs to be able to appreciate this beauty. She can do her best to "protect" something: protect the child, protect the love in the child's heart, and in this protection of others, let her heart not be destroyed by violence.
It is more difficult to justify logically for such a warm film, but with domestic violence as the starting point of the plot. Because if life has been overwhelmed by sudden violence and has lived for a long time under the threat of violence, then how can one believe in the power of warmth and love? Can you forgive someone who has hurt yourself heavily? In this film, the director and screenwriter provide a particularly reasonable and reasonable way of "conditional forgiveness". Shazi also visited her husband who was seriously ill. She also had a certain understanding of his uncontrollable rage. However, she kept her children away from possible physical and spiritual harm. She did not pursue the sensational effect of "relatives will always be relatives", but let her He bears what he has to bear, let him get what he can get-what he has to bear is that because of his violence against the child, he has no right to see him again, and because he has this child, the child has the right to his father Natural love and expectation, then, bringing him the paintings that the child draws for the father in his mind is the best thing he can get.
4.
This kind of very balanced decision and choice, which can only be made after careful consideration, is naturally presented in the movie. From a mother’s perspective, Shaz can intuitively choose the best option for Frankie. Out of understanding and kindness, she did not choose to "hate" her husband. If resentment towards others and fate take over her life, I am afraid she would not make up an imaginary father for her son, right? There are a few lines in the film that are very thorough. She also thinks that this kind of communication is a lie that will be exposed sooner or later, but sometimes she can’t let it go, because in the letter she really knows what the child thinks, and these letters, In addition to giving hope to the child, why not also giving yourself hope?
If it is a more cruel movie, a more cruel director, it is estimated that there will be no way out for this hope. It is so full of loopholes and pretentious that it can only be used to prove the weakness and ridiculousness of people. But this movie only slowed down the pace of the lie being exposed. It did not turn the lie into the truth in one go, making that kind uncle really become the father in reality. Little Frankie finally knew it. The father passed away, and what he saw was not the real father. But this fake father met his spiritual needs for his father, and in fact became his spiritual father. The power he gained from this father enabled him to have the power to face his biological father, which is not the case. , And the truth that has passed away.
5.
Facing his father who came to the house suddenly, little Frankie lost all his eyes, as if he was about to faint. This is a particularly good show. The feeling of being taken out of time is something a child can show. But he did not faint, but insisted on returning to his senses calmly. Why do children need a father? What can a dad who has never seen him bring to him?
As soon as this very MAN man in a leather jacket appeared, the little boy who bet with him gave him a pile of football cards. Frankie hesitated whether to take it, and his father said, "A bet is a bet. This is what you deserve." He took him to the water float, taught him how to make several splashes, and picked him a flat one. "Champion Stone". He took him to eat fries and cream rolls. He took him and his mother to the dance party, and he danced with his mother. ——He satisfied all Frankie's imagination and needs of his father, and he even gave more. He had a strong, calm, patient, and kind to his mother, father. There is one scene that is very moving. Three people, "Dad", Frankie, and Mother, are lying in front of the railing watching the sea and chatting. Frankie suddenly stepped aside, and he left "Dad" and mother with him. Together. He didn't know why Dad hardly came back. Mom's words seemed to imply that it was a problem between her and Dad. He hoped Dad would come back, and he hoped that Dad and Mom would become two people in love. It seems that the child naturally understands what is most important to him. Little Frankie is especially a distressed child who is sensible.
6.
"Searching for the Father" is an artistic motif. There are many movies with the theme of "Searching for the Father", and many of them are very deep, such as "Landscape in the Mist". From a profound point of view, "Frankie, My Love" is indeed far behind, but the warmth of this film is very moderate, and there is a very rational attitude toward life as the support of warmth. Its producers, screenwriters, and directors are all women, and it is also the first film of the director SHONA AUERBACH, but it has become smooth and mature. In this film about finding a father, there are also women asking themselves how to face life in violence and escape. The answer is very non-feminist. In the film, single mothers still have to make up a father for their children. The positive male image is still a very traditional and very "manly" male. When women and children are persecuted by men, they are still waiting for a male savior to appear. This seems to be very incorrect in gender politics, but This kind of ideology is not avant-garde at all, but it has made the film a simple, homely and friendly side. To survive in the existing society, as an ordinary person, you can only long for the best things an ordinary person can get, and you can’t force yourself to become a person who opposes the social order (in this movie, the gender order) Not ordinary people. The mother and "dad" in the movie are not elevated in behavior and morality. They try to work hard in the soil of life and find the most beautiful and practical lifestyle possible from the most ordinary images.
What’s more interesting is that the most avant-garde person in the movie looks like Frankie’s grandmother. She is very addicted to cigarettes. She wears hair curlers and red nails. She is very dissatisfied with her daughter’s weaving of lies, and she is very dissatisfied with the fakes her daughter brought back. Dad is even more suspicious. In the movie, Liz has a line saying: "I live with my mother, and she will prevent me from running home."-Many women who suffer from domestic violence are trapped in it, unable to extricate themselves, and are affected by external violence and internal violence The fear dragged into the abyss, and this grandma became a useful reaction force, and the director also had ulterior motives for the arrangement of this supporting role. But after a good man came to the house, the night seemed full and beautiful. The house no longer looked deserted and desolate. The old lady was painting her nails, and her daughter washed her hair and took a shower, looking refreshed-this is in the movie. A small cutscene with few warm colors.
7.
DEAR FRANKIE is the English title of this movie. This is the initial title of the letter. It is the voice of the father calling the child in the fictitious letter from the mother. At the end of the movie, the child is still writing and receiving letters. He and his "two-day father" wrote letters like friends, and he also called him affectionately: DEAR FRANKIE. This is a perfect ending. A lie is exposed, but in the lie, something real grows. The boundary between truth and falsehood is not so clear. The important thing is, love, hope, communication, these words that sound familiar after they enter the matter, they will not change the truth and falsehood of the matter, but they will change the truth and falsehood. With the help of time and destiny, it may change the order of things, pave the way for the truth, and empower children. They will not bring “revolution”, but may bring “improvement” and bring life to life. Come to the warm side, and let the children "grow up healthily". To be honest, this is basically not so profound, the efforts of women.
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