If you are a person who believes in intuition, you may be attracted to a stranger because of a dream or a piece of music. Even if you mistake some indescribable feelings for like or love, once you convince yourself and begin to believe in this feeling, you will definitely not be able to get away for a while, but will be dominated by your will and gradually indulged. Just as Ondajie described Caitlin's feeling when she was attracted to Emmashu in "The English Patient": "Who threw these food crumbs to lure you and lure you to someone you have never noticed? A dream. Then there are more dreams." In the movie "Cafe Flore", the song Café de Flore with the same title is such a song. In this movie, it has almost nothing to do with the famous cafe in Paris.
"Cafe Flora" is a film written and directed by Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée, which premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. The director’s most famous work is probably "Dallas Buyers Club". Why should it be emphasized that the director is a Quebec, because it is related to the background of the story. The story in "Cafe Flora" is divided into two lines, one timeline is Montreal in 2010, and the other is Paris in 1969. The plot of the movie is slightly complicated, and different interpretations can be produced from different angles. It involves religion, ethics, psychoanalysis, occultism, etc. Music plays a very important role in movies, which can also be seen from the origin of the title of the film. May wish to sort out the plot by dividing the line first. The movie started in Montreal in 2011. The first narration is "This is a happy man, and he can clearly realize this." The protagonist Antoine, who is nearly forty years old, is a well-known DJ. He loves his job, his health, and his economy. Shang is carefree and has two lovely daughters. And, being in love. At the beginning of the movie, there is a short paragraph of Breathe (In The Air) by Pink Floyd , and the first song is the Café de Flore that the male protagonist puts in the car , which is "Cafe of Flower God".
With the transition of the plane across the sky, the story cuts from Montreal to Paris in 1969. The second male in the movie, Laurent, a young boy suffering from Down syndrome, appears. The well-known actor Vanessa Paradis plays his mother. At this time, it should be noted that in the Paris timeline, the first piece of music that appeared was Café de Flore hummed by the little boy when he went down the stairs . Although the song was out of tune, it was still audible. It turns out that this is the music played when the kindergarten teacher takes the children to dance. Then the director also played a game with the audience. The mother and son counted the chairs when passing by a cafe that had not yet opened. Judging from the color of the chairs, the cafe that did not show its signature was the Flower God Cafe.
Then the first narration of the Paris line sounded: "This is a child who lacks happiness, but he is not clearly aware of this." The two male protagonists who seemed to have no intersection were connected by music in this way. Together. The story can be interpreted from two perspectives, one is the theory of reincarnation, and the other is the theory of dreams. Both make sense. Here first adopt the logic of reincarnation. The protagonist Antoine of the Montreal line has been in love with Carole, who loves British rock since his adolescence. Records and notes bring them together. "Very few girls are so familiar with those records and can name those bands," he said. The Cure's Faith sounded, and the two young men kissed tacitly, and both regarded each other as their destined soul mates. They became a husband and wife, decorated the room with everything related to music, and gave birth to two children who also love music. Time flies, Carole's protective color-like smoky makeup is replaced by a gentle maternal brilliance, but what has not changed is that they always believe that each other is the home of God arranged for themselves. "Our destiny is already engraved on the stars," Carole said to a child who was worried that his father would empathize.
However, this seemingly flawless love was shaken by a piece of music, this is Café de Flore . At a party attended by the whole family, Antoine was attracted by a graceful woman Rose on the dance floor, and the other party noticed him for the first time. But after seeing Antoine's wife and children, Rose left wisely. Antoine just silently wrote down the name of the song. But Rose's figure lingered in Antoine's mind, and because of this, he was irritable and began to drink heavily. Carole perceives Antoine's changes. In order to help him, she arranges for him to meet with his family. Unexpectedly, it facilitates the opportunity for him and Rose to meet again. Like the ending of many vulgar cheating stories, Antoine and Rose chose each other, but this seemed to be a fate they couldn't avoid. Carole became Antoine's ex-wife. On the surface, she accepted this fact peacefully, but the pain of being unable to expel her had already caused her to have symptoms of sleepwalking.
Antoine also began to question her belief that if the other person is really a soul mate, that feeling shouldn't fade away, and it shouldn't happen twice. However, the irresistible gravitational force with Rose is so real. Compared with the soul communication with Carole, the relationship between Antoine and Rose is more instinctive, physical, lustful, and closer to the source of life.
The story cuts to Paris again. Laurent, who suffers from Down syndrome, was abandoned by his father at birth. Fortunately, his mother Jacqueline did not give up on him, but insisted on letting him receive education from normal children and taught him to use strength and language to resist harm. Laurent is the only meaning in Jaqueline's life. Laurent didn't let her down either. He learned quickly and even showed precocity beyond children of the same age in some things. Jacqueline firmly believes that the love she poured out will make a miracle happen to the child, and he will live as long as a normal child.
But the peaceful life did not last long. One day, a little girl was transferred to Laurent's class. She went straight to him when she stared at Laurent, and the two innocent children hugged each other tightly, as if We've been together like that since birth. At first, the parents of both sides didn't notice the difference, but soon the teacher realized that it was impossible to separate the two children who were stuck together. Laurent confessed to her mother that she was in love with the little girl Vero. Driven by an inner force, he went to find her on the subway alone. Jacqueline also realized the seriousness of the matter. She couldn't tolerate her son being taken away by the girl who appeared suddenly, but she couldn't resist the strength of her wrist. She watched her efforts in vain, but did not realize that her love had already turned to paranoia.
Seeing the audience here, under the montage’s series of hints and clarifications, they have realized: It turns out that Antoine is the reincarnation of a little boy, Carole was the mother of the little boy in the previous life, and Rose is a little girl who suddenly broke into a peaceful daily life. . Memories of previous life emerged in Carole's dream. She realized their relationship through the story of the previous life and began to reflect on her mentality. Although she had accepted the divorce before, she still convinced herself that Antoine would always come back because she believed there was a connection between them. In the Paris timeline, Jacqueline could not accept the fact that her position was replaced. She said that she would take Laurent to find her little lover, but on the way she lost control and slammed on the gas pedal. The mother and son were killed in a car accident.
The ending of the mother and son completely awakened Carole, and she realized that she could no longer cling to it. It's probably time to let Antoine go, otherwise, the three will be destroyed together. She deeply felt the constant fetters between Antoine and Rose, and accepted the fact that the love that sprouted from adolescence was extinguished. At the end of the movie, she attended the wedding of Antoine and Rose.
It sounds a bit mysterious. If we were Carole, it would probably be difficult to persuade. So the director introduced two occult concepts in the story: soulmate and twin flames, and explained them through the mouth of a psychic. Soul mate is a vocabulary we are familiar with. Although it has more complex meanings in occultism, in general, soul mate is the soul-communicating partner we encounter in the journey of life. There may be many soul mates, and they may be our lovers, friends, teachers, etc. But the corresponding twin flame refers to two people who were originally a whole. Therefore, for everyone, their own twin flame is unique. When you meet each other, the resonance of your mind will be stronger than ever. In the movie, Antoine and Rose are each other's twin flames, and Carole is at most Antoine's soul mate. The concept of twin flames mostly originated from the remarks made by the ancient Greek comedy writer Aristophanes in The Meeting:
Once humans wanted to rebel against the gods, Zeus proposed to split people in half to weaken their power. Zeus told Apollo to turn the people's faces, let them lower their heads to look at their severed bodies, and then felt terrified and stopped rebelling. Those who were split in half miss their significant other.
If we could only see Antoine's love triangle relationship, we would probably think that he was a man who was attracted by Rose's hue and derailed, and could not arouse sympathy at all. But corresponding to the relationship between a little boy, a mother and a little girl, this impulse is understandable, because it is like "written on the stars", something carved in the genetic chain. What human emotions are all about, whether they first have their own thoughts or first have the guidance of their destiny, is probably something we can't determine.
The above is a story sorted out according to the theory of reincarnation, which can be seen as the bright line of the story. But there is a dark thread hidden in the film, which can be explained by the logic of dreams. At the beginning of the film we can hear a person’s nervous breathing, and then the first scene: an airplane exploding in the sky. The last shot of the whole movie appears after the ending song, and it is also an airplane exploding in the sky. The film also interspersed with the image of the plane flying across the sky from time to time. The male protagonist Antoine took a plane to another city for business trip at the beginning of the story. He could see that he was nervous and restless during the voyage, especially after seeing the drinks provided by the flight attendants, because it aroused his alcohol addiction, so he relied on listening to music. Relieve anxiety. The plane was caught in a storm on the way, and it began to turbulence. Just looking at the story of the bright line, Antoine successfully arrived at the destination, which caused a series of plots later. However, if we use the plane as a clue to cut into the dark line, we will also find that the director may be suggesting us: the plane exploded from the beginning, Antoine has died, and Carole could not recover from the bad news of her husband’s death, so she made up Rose in a dream. And the story of reincarnation to convince myself to accept Antoine's departure, in fact, there is no such thing as derailment at all. There are many hints in the film about dreams. For example, Carole is always dreaming, and he also reads books such as "Analysis of Dreams" and "Our Past Life". When Antoine was a DJ, he saw a clown-like person on the dance floor, who later appeared in his hallucinations again. The role of the clown is reminiscent of the cowboy in Mulholland Road. The appearance of the cowboy is to remind the heroine that she is in a dream. Probably the clown here also has the function of reminding the audience. When Antoine went to the boarding gate, with Breathe in the background, the faces of the passengers passing by him gradually became clear. Obviously, they were all patients with Down syndrome. This kind of scene is unlikely to appear in reality. Perhaps from this moment on, everything that happens is Carole's dream. Moreover, at the end of the film, in the group photo of the young Antoine and Carole, we can see a pair of mothers and sons beckoning on the banks of the river with the background of Notre Dame de Paris behind them. This is exactly the Laurent mother and son who appeared in the movie towards the Seine. Shot of tourists saying hello. Perhaps this is the switch that triggered Carole's fantasy.
The music at the end of the film, Le vent nous portera "We Will Go With the Wind " performed by Swiss female singer Sophine Hunger is also worth mentioning. The original singer of this song is Noir Désir, a well-known French rock band. French people often ridicule themselves of no rock in France. In this environment, Noir Désir, founded in 1980, has a very important position. They are regarded as one of the best rock bands in the history of French music. But just as their career was flourishing, the lead singer Bertrand Cantat was imprisoned for assaulting his girlfriend and causing the other's death. Some netizens commented on the MV of this song on Youtube: This is the prelude to the death of the lead singer's girlfriend. This association may be too exaggerated, but Le vent nous portera is indeed a dark song. The version of Sophie's cover has a sense of helplessness, while the version of Noir Désir is even darker and lonely. The interesting thing is that the MV of the original song and the movie "Cafe of Flower God" correspond to each other. The protagonist of the MV is also a pair of mother and son. The two are playing on the beach. But the sky changed suddenly, sandstorms swept across the beach, the children hid behind the built castle, but the mother had nowhere to hide. When the wind is calm and the waves are calm, only the children are left on the beach. The atmosphere of the entire MV is very strange. I think this is probably talking about the close people who protect us when we grow up will inevitably leave, and we have to face life alone. The song comes first and the movie comes later. I even guessed that the song inspired the director. The mother and son in the movie may be a reflection of the mother and son in the MV. Jacqueline must let Laurent go, just as the mother in the film must disappear. Here is the lyrics translation of the ending song
Noir Désir-Le Vent Nous Portera
Je n'ai pas peur de la route
I am fearless in the face of the unknown
Faudrait voir, faut qu'on y goûte
Need to taste, need to experience
Des méandres au creux des reins
The journey spreads along your waistline
Et tout ira bien
The bad will pass
Le vent l'emportera
Everything will go with the wind
Ton message à la grande ourse
Message for Big Bear
Et la trajectoire de la course
Drew a long trajectory
A l'instantané de velours
It's an instant gentle soothing
Même s'il ne sert à rien
But it will eventually lose its meaning
Le vent l'emportera
The wind will take it away
Tout disparaîtra
Everything will eventually disappear
Le vent nous portera
We will go with the wind
La caresse et la mitraille
The intersection of caress and injury
Cette plaie qui nous tiraille
The torment of wounds on us
Le palais des autres jours
The memory palace of that time
D'hier et demain
Store the past and the future
Le vent les portera
They will go with the wind
Génétique en bandoulière
Gene chain
Des chromosomes dans l'atmosphère
Chromosomes in the air
Des taxis pour les galaxies
The aircraft leading to the galaxy
Et mon tapis volant dis
My flying carpet mumbles
Le vent l'emportera
The wind will take it away
Tout disparaîtra
Everything will eventually disappear
Le vent nous portera
We will go with the wind
Ce parfum de nos années mortes
The breath of the old days
Ceux qui peuvent frapper à ta porte
Can still recall your memory
Infinité de destin
Endless fate is calling
On en pose un, qu'est-ce qu'on en retient?
Can the chosen one be retained
Le vent l'emportera
Everything will go with the wind
Pendant que la marée monte
Just when the tide is rising
Et que chacun refait ses comptes
Everyone calculates gains and losses
J'emmène au creux de mon ombre
Deep in my heart i keep
Des poussières de toi
About your memory dust
Le vent les portera
Wind will take them away
Tout disparaîtra mais
Everything will disappear
Le vent nous portera
We will go with the wind
View more about Café de Flore reviews
