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

  • Christopher Giles: Tastes can get worn out, kind of like desire.

  • Maria Enders: [Referring to the proposed role of Helena] Time's gone by and she can't accept it. Me neither, I guess.

    Klaus Diesterweg: There is no antagonism. It's the attraction of two women with the same wound. Sigrid and Helena are one and the same person. One and the same person. That's what the play's about. And because you were Sigrid, only you can be Helena now.

    Maria Enders: How can you be so sure?

    Klaus Diesterweg: You know as well as I do that Wilhelm Melchior had been working on a sequel for years.

    Maria Enders: Yes. But it was about Sigrid at 40 years old.

    Klaus Diesterweg: No, it was about Sigrid 20 years later became Helena.

    Maria Enders: So who's going to play Sigrid?

    Klaus Diesterweg: Jo-Ann Ellis. She did a superhero movie that just opened in the States.

    Maria Enders: And besides that?

    Klaus Diesterweg: Not much. She's 19. She's a lot more interesting that her interviews and profiles. She has a theatrical background. She doesn't want to be swallowed up by Hollywood. She admires you and is willing to pull out of her other commitments.

    Maria Enders: I'll listen carefully. But to be honest, the role scares me. Helena scares me. I'm in the middle of a divorce. I feel alone, and vulnerable. Probably too vulnerable to do this.

    Klaus Diesterweg: If you refuse, I'll understand, but it will be a missed opportunity, especially for Wilhelm.

    Maria Enders: I should get going.

    Klaus Diesterweg: Excuse me, but I won't be staying for dinner. Good evening madam.

    Maria Enders: Klaus, I have another reason. Susan Rosenberg. She played Helena with me.

    Klaus Diesterweg: I remember Susan Rosenberg.

    Maria Enders: She died in a car accident a year after. It's a superstition; I've always associated her death with Helena's suicide.

    Klaus Diesterweg: She was a lousy actress who didn't understand a thing about the role. And her conventional style of acting highlighted the modernity of your performance. You should be grateful to her.