Earlier, I saw the trailer of this movie in the movie patch trailer. Seeing Ronan’s face can basically confirm that the movie will not be worse, plus the author's name that will appear later-Yi En McEwan, therefore, is full of expectations for this movie.
Looking at the trailer, it’s actually not quite possible to guess exactly what happened in the story, but it also vaguely allows people to guess something: something went wrong between the hero and the heroine. And this faint, paradoxical feeling is like the problem itself, something that everyone avoids talking about but has to face—sex.
When I was reading idle books in my senior year, I was fortunate enough to read a few books by Ian. I know that his description of stories is basically from a young age, but the emotional description is very delicate, and it is even suspicious that he is a male writer. , How to describe the psychological and emotional changes of some women in depth and detail. The screenwriter of this film is also Ian. Although he has not read the original work, he still believes that this delicate psychological change will be retained in the movie as much as possible. Naturally, 20 minutes before the start of the film, I began to look forward to how the director would use the lens to reflect the details and emotional changes that are difficult to capture.
The film adopts a narrative approach, taking the couple's first wedding night spent in a hotel on the beach of Chessel as the main line, interspersed with flashbacks from their early childhood and romance from time to time. Unsurprisingly, under the subtle lens, one can see the silent psychological changes of the two: the kind of restraint, shyness, tension, fear, expectation... But these emotions are all recalled and the moment, both positive and negative. Magnified by the experience.
The female protagonist was born in a relatively wealthy middle-class family, and her parents are very strict. Therefore, she is very picky about her daughter’s education, whether it is talking at the table, when the female protagonist goes to sea with her father when she is young, and then the father angry questions at the tennis court. Wait, it can be seen that the heroine is always in a state of repression. Due to the authority of the parents, in order to win the love and attention of the parents, she can sacrifice her own will and compromise step by step. In the end, the hostess herself admitted on the beach. She always thought that she could not meet the expectations of others, and always had to promise and meet the demands of others, but in fact she was not happy at all.
The male protagonist is different from the female protagonist. Born in a rural family, the family is not rich and has a large number of people in the family. Therefore, his family does not pay much attention to him. Even if he has excellent results, his family is either not interested or interested. Don't understand. In addition to the mother’s mental illness, the male protagonist feels a little inferior to this, but because of face, he is always reluctant to admit it, whether it is he was ridiculed by the waiter in the hotel, was arranged to work in the father’s factory, etc. Wait, he feels unconfident about his social status. As a result, the male protagonist is depressed, and this cannot be vented at home, so he chooses to burst out when he is usually with friends or alone.
It just so happens that these two personalities collide together, they all hope that everything is perfect, but once a problem arises, one blames others and the other blames oneself. Coupled with the fact that they have no experience in having sex in the first night after they got married, the conflict has escalated.
The plot of the movie is slowly advancing, and we have also learned about the emotional experience of these two people through the flashback part. It is undeniable that they really love each other deeply: playing for each other, applauding each other, encouraging and supporting each other, comforting each other's mother with impaired brain function, accepting the work arrangement of the other's father, in order to please the father-in-law's tennis match... However All this fell apart in the face of the two men's attitudes towards sex.
Although the plot of the first night may seem ridiculous (after all, the TV and movies promoted the natural and dry nature of fire), but the reaction of the two people was very careful and scary, because it may be very real, according to their respective Look at the influence of the native family on their character.
From my personal point of view, there are two climaxes in the whole film: one is the confession and quarrel on the beach; the other is that the male protagonist finally listens to the female protagonist's concert.
The quarrel on the beach basically completed the two men's psychological problems. After the male protagonist had a problem, because of inferiority, he felt that the other party was humiliating himself, coupled with the impulsive personality, eager to vent, so all the bad emotions were vented out, and he was unwilling to forgive the other party. The female protagonist still believes that patience is the way to solve the problem. She loves the male protagonist deeply, so she would rather take a step back and allow the male protagonist to sleep with other women than to destroy the marriage.
And the heroine finally saw the daughter of the heroine, and realized that the heroine actually really loved him, maybe it was just that he could not accept sex at the time (the heroine herself confessed on the beach, maybe it will change later, but she doesn’t know) . It’s just that he was too impulsive and angry at the time, so facing the hostess’s retention, he chose (literally) turn a cold shoulder to her. This is also reflected in the last shot of the film, the feeling of "a world when you turn around".
In Hyundai, the male lead chose to go to the female lead’s concert for the last time. I think that scene is almost comparable to the last scene in "City of Philharmonic". Mia went to Seb's to watch Sebastian perform. The kind that actually still loves each other deeply, but finally missed it, and the music expresses those fond memories and dreams that we were together back then. Seeing the male and female protagonists looking at each other, silently weeping, can't help but remind people of Byron's famous verse in "The Passing of Spring":
If I should see you, after long year. How should I greet, with tears, with silence. How should I congratulate you, with tears, with silence.
So in the end, the scene cuts back to the original beach, watching the two people drifting away from their backs. As an audience, I kept asking myself: If their choices were different at the beginning, would the ending be different? Because the heroine eventually had children, even grandchildren. It shows that she still accepted sex in the end. Did she accept sex due to life, or did she really change and accept her current husband? I prefer to believe in the former. As she herself said on the beach, they can have only love and no sex, and they can still live happily. So she finally compromised and accepted sex. Does she really feel happy? If so, why can't you stop crying when you see the hero?
It's a pity that this movie is not "City of Philharmonic", there is no way to have a fantasy parallel space, another ending that changed the trajectory of the two people's fate. (Of course I think this is also possible. After all, Ian and Ronan used this technique in "Atonement" before, but this will make the reality more cruel.)
Finally, talk about the filming itself. The pictures and colors of this film are so beautiful. There are also various skirts of the heroine and the natural scenery of Britain. I wanted to take screenshots as the background. Haha. And it may be because the story mainly took place in the 1960s, so the film quality still has a grainy feeling, not the particularly clear feeling of modern times, it adds a sense of artistic conception.
The music of the movie is also very beautiful, which may be related to the heroine’s musical background. Most of the film is classical music, especially the time between the two. But at the end of the performance, it turns out that the hero actually loves rock music (from When I was a student, I went to a bar to listen to the band and finally opened a record shop), so I don’t know if this is also a hint. In fact, the challenge that the two need to face is not only sex, but also social class and even musical taste. ?
The shots of the whole film are very beautiful whether it is the scenery or the characters, or the details (such as the hands of two people shaking hands, and the feet of two people under the hotel table, etc.). It can be said that the composition is very well-proportioned and beautiful, especially the scene where the last two people broke up on the beach. A long shot extends from the male protagonist’s stern face to the full body of the two people in the shot, and adjusted with the shot, within a few minutes. Still trying to include the two people who are going farther and farther in the same shot. At the very end, reaching the limit of the lens range, the heroine can only slowly step out of the lens, leaving the lonely back of the hero and the long coastline.
The performances of the male and female protagonists are very good. Needless to say, the female protagonist Ronan can see the subtle changes in his psychological changes, such as the slightly frowning brows when he went to see the pastor, and the kind when reading the "Little Yellow Book". Not very comfortable feeling. The male protagonist showed the kind of dull, honest, and very emotional (will secretly wipe the tears), and the anger and cold emotions on the beach later appeared just right, and then finally told his story to others The look at the time and the irresistible tears of the heroine at the end, the performance can be said to be very amazing.
After watching this movie, I was deeply impressed. The story feels small, but it is always true, delicate and terrible, like a fine net, and finally it wraps up the emotions of the audience. So, I think I have a chance to go and read the original book.
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