Her confusion is like a cloud

Diego 2022-01-15 08:02:24

Valena played by K is the positive energy of this film! The performance was great.

This film seems to cast a warm and firm gaze at you not far away, giving the middle-aged women who are trapped in confusion a kind of courage to move on.

When she was young, Maria was ambitious and had a smooth journey, and she has become famous today. All this is beautiful like a dream. But the mid-life crisis, emotional breakdown, and the frustration caused by the lack of focus made her once ambitious. She hates and ridicules the young Hollywood actors who are about to replace her.

She hates the role of Helena, but she is actually afraid that she will end like Helena, be defeated, and disappear!

Her assistant Valena gave Maria a lot of attention and persuasion, who was in emotional disorder. Valena is a young man, and her ideas are not the same as Maria. They therefore have conflicts and arguments. Maria, this middle-aged woman, has worries, fears and injustices in her heart, hysterically despising and mocking those commercial blockbusters, behaving very nervously. She used a strong attitude and insisted on her own opinions in the discussion with Valena.

As Valena said, because Maria has always been stubborn from the point of view that she is Sigrid (the young winner), she feels that Helena is a loser who is nothing.

And Valena saw more of Helena's advantages-human power, and a certain coldness of Sigrid.

Although in the dialogue, we see Maria is strong and suppressed, but Valena's words finally entered her heart, touched and changed her, and finally Maria accepted these changes.

In fact, it can be seen in the movie that Valena's words have caused Maria's silence and thinking, but it's just that Maria must strongly convey her opinions. After all, Valena is just a small assistant.

Only Valena is gone, Maria has never been able to spontaneously promote her own changes, after all, changes cannot be driven only by external forces. The existence of Valena makes Maria rely on Valena's companionship and comfort to passively accept reality on the one hand, and psychologically suppress Valena to obtain psychological advantages and compensation. This relationship is very dangerous. So finally Valenna is gone. It was the right step for both Valena and Maria. Valena has completed her mission very well, and the enlightenment has triggered Maria, which makes Maria more psychologically prepared and thinking about future changes, and it is also a gentle way of mood changes.

It can be seen that although little K still doesn't laugh much in the film, this character has a lot of positive concepts and a tolerant attitude, and is very positive. Little K's interpretation has always been that kind of relaxed "lazy", without a deep expression, just like a normal life. But after careful experience, it can be seen that Xiao K is very attentive to the character. Her character's emotion definition is accurate and her thoughts are complete. It's just that the performance is not very "strength".

In this era of information explosion, blockbuster films require strong facial makeup and "forced expressions" to make opinions easier to understand and convey. After all, it is an era of excess information acceptance, and stronger stimulation can massage the numb senses. But Xiao K has always maintained this light style, which made his reputation of "facial paralysis" spread. I think Xiao K’s indifferent treatment does make the character’s emotions much harder to read (but more resistant to reading), but this is similar to reality. We often ignore the expressions of people around us because they don’t have enough "deep" expressions. Remind us. Only when we are very, very caring enough, do we know the meaning of those slight frowns. This is the negative effect after we were repeatedly bombed. The threshold for our feelings has been raised.

I think that Maria finally accepted who she is now and identified with who she is now. Excessive emphasis on the term loser is just a reflection of my fear and anxiety. Excessive attachment can easily blind the eyes to see more things.

Moreover, it is not necessarily a loser if you are not at the center of the times. The current glory will pass sooner or later, and the future will always update and iterate. The era will not stop its pace. Your glory will inevitably be buried with the old era when the new era comes. This is the law of mankind. This is not personal fault. The focal point of each era is different, and it is always in transition. Although the trend is fierce, it is wave after wave, sometimes it is cyclical, and sometimes it is impermanent. The transition from Sigrid to Helena is a recurring melody, just a representation in life.

Stubbornly obsessed with appearances and stuck to the so-called "successors" and "losers" expressions, isn't it that I missed the more sincere and richer and wonderful things in life, as Valenna said, human nature.

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Extended Reading

Clouds of Sils Maria quotes

  • Maria Enders: Jo-Ann?

    Jo-Ann Ellis: What's up?

    Maria Enders: I wanted to ask you. You know the scene at the beginning of Act 3 when you tell me you want to leave and I get on my knees and I beg you to stay? You're on the phone ordering pepperoncini pizza for your coworkers in accounting. You leave without looking at me. As if I didn't exist. If you could pause for a second. Helena's distress would last longer when she's left alone in her office. Well, the way you're playing it, the audience follows you out but instantly forgets about her. So...

    Jo-Ann Ellis: So? So what?

    Maria Enders: When, when I played Sigrid I held it longer. I thought it was more powerful. Erotically. I mean, it really played well.

    Jo-Ann Ellis: No one gives a fuck about Helena at that point, do they? I'm sorry, it's pretty clear to me that this woman is all washed up. I mean, your character, Maria, not you. And when Sigrid leaves Helena's office, Helena's a wreck, and we get it. You know, it's time to move on. I think they want what comes next.

    Maria Enders: If you just held it a few seconds longer.

    Jo-Ann Ellis: It doesn't really feel right for me, Maria.

    Maria Enders: You're right. Yeah. I - I - I think I'm - I'm lost in my memories. You think you've forgotten your old habits, but their all - they all come back. Have to break them.

    Jo-Ann Ellis: I guess you do!

  • Piers Roaldson: [Piers proposes new movie mutant role for Maria] I'm trying to consider genetics from a more human point of view.

    Maria Enders: When I was reading it, I imagined someone much younger. Maybe me younger, actually, but you were seeing me in movies that were made years ago. I - I've changed.

    Piers Roaldson: She has no age. Or else, she's every age at once. Like all of us.

    Maria Enders: Can I be frank? Maybe it's because I'm working with her, but as I was reading it, I - I kept thinking about Jo-Ann.

    Piers Roaldson: Yeah, well personally, I never think about Jo-Ann Ellis.

    Maria Enders: You're wrong. She's smart. And talented. She's modern, just like your character.

    Piers Roaldson: My character isn't modern. Not in that way, anyway. She's, outside of time.

    Maria Enders: Outside of time. I don't understand. It's too abstract for me. It's all right.

    Piers Roaldson: I - I don't like this era.

    Maria Enders: You're wrong. It's yours!

    Piers Roaldson: Amen! I didn't choose it.

    Maria Enders: [laughs]

    Piers Roaldson: And if my era is Jo-Ann Ellis and viral Internet scandals I think I'm entitled to feel unrelated, aren't I. I mean, it's nothing against her, I guess I just assumed you'd understand.