"I'm still young, and I'm eager to hit the road." --Jack Kerouac
, The Waltz Girl, a 1974 film that naturally brings back memories of the Beat that started in the 1950s faction movement. Director Bertrand Brier was born in 1939. That mighty and far-reaching freedom movement must have set off a huge wave in his inner world. From the novel to the film, Brier has devoted himself to the creation of unparalleled enthusiasm. At the same time, it also fulfilled Depardieu and Patrick DiVall's road to superstardom.
In my impression, Jean-Claude and Pierre are always on the road outside of the erotic scenes in the film. Or running wild, or speeding, the scenery on the road receded at a high speed; and the chasers who often appeared behind, waving their arms and taking advantage of them, together with the anger of the smoke, were left far behind. Although they had the joy and revelry of their successful escape, what their sexy bell-bottoms and wild long hair couldn't hide was when the little boy who ran to the beach in "The Four Hundred Blows" was still buried under his mature face, he turned his head. The utter confusion.
The film does not explain why the two became hippies, and it seems unnecessary to reflect on them. The existentialist prophet said: The greatest freedom of man is his right to choose. Jean-Claude and Pierre just made choices about life, that's all. Because they choose, they will also bear the price of choice. The age of youth, the dream of dying, and the release of one's life on the road in the form of running, the fireworks of life that no one applauds, let it dissipate like that, without pain or regret. The sound of time passing became the rhythm that echoed in their brains as they ran. For those who have no value, the destination is always in front.
They rob, steal, and indulge their lusts as a way to ease the silence of life. Because those have become the proof that they are still alive, and the word value has already been thrown into the dead end of life by them upside down. They want to return to extreme ego and extreme pleasure, the essence of which is ultimately to return to the unrestrained nature of nature. But after all, being a natural person is just a dream, because of the social attributes that cannot be escaped, the ultimate survival problem will directly lead them to do things for nothing. I am very fortunate that the director did not deliberately carry the morality of the so-called righteous path in the world, which freed the film from the tiresome preaching. Straight to life is always the best way to express this type of noir reality. However, any expression will undoubtedly have a tendency, this film is obviously biased towards the protagonist, which is a kind of sympathetic affirmation. I just feel that to stand on the opposite side of morality requires not only the desire to express, but also the courage to express.
The pursuit of lust is the main interpretation of the two protagonists in the film. The film begins with Jean Claude and Pierre chasing a woman, and at the end, while looting the woman, they unceremoniously physically molest her. This actually sets the tone of survival for two people in just a few minutes, with money and women to lose. And the apparent need for women is addressed as the ultimate goal of their pursuit. They are very constructive to do arousal work for a cold woman, they are very active on the train to arouse the enthusiasm of a woman who has lived alone for a long time, they are very persistent in going to the gate of the women's prison to wait for the old woman who is released from prison. She asked for help, and they were very excited, grabbing a pair of girls' panties and desperately sniffing and talking about the smell of fresh women. Behind this extravagant debauchery is actually a kind of lingering about a temporary home, even a little bit of heterosexual worship. When they sent the indifferent masseuse home, the two asked to touch the liquid of the woman's genitals. This can be regarded as the creator's magic stroke. The two are focused and childish, natural and not arrogant, so complete and pure debauchery looks like nothing at all. Not obscene.
There are two scenes in the film that seem incredible. One is that the old woman who got out of prison is comforted by two young people, and after having dewy passion with the two, she commits suicide with a gun; The son suddenly found the feeling during sex, and the exclamation of comfort caused the two protagonists to be dumbfounded. Both of these are no doubt handled very strangely. The old woman's way of committing suicide is to kneel there and shoot her lower body, which is more like a deliberately created death ritual. Facing the blatant warmth of two young men, this became an unbearable weight in her life. After the joy, she no longer regretted her years, was intoxicated by the passionate moments, and despaired of the vague future. With a strong sexual connotation, she will forever keep this part in the depths of life in the form of death. The awakening of a frigid woman comes from the transformation of her self-awareness, from a receptive individual to a participant, which gives her the right to be happy. For the two male protagonists, they felt a great irony and ridicule, which is why they threw the woman who was chattering about pleasure into the pond over and over again. And this accident finally made the woman stick to each other firmly and persistently when the two men were about to escape. It can be said that Jean-Claude and Pierre gave two women different new lives with their unparalleled enthusiasm for women, but their fates were different because of their different ways of handling them.
The photography of the film presents a very powerful picture, such as the running of two people, or the speeding of the car. Often the camera reverses at a high speed, and the person or car rushes towards the camera. For example, in erotic scenes, there are often more than three people at the same time, and the camera is approaching the subject. , the screen is fully supported. The music is euphemistic and blurred, without a trace of madness, and sometimes it is extremely naughty. In terms of actor performance, Depardieu and Divar with big noses portrayed a pair of hippies like living treasures very successfully, but in terms of performance, Divar is better, and Depardieu's role setting is slightly old-fashioned. And surly, and DiVall's character is more in line with the tone of the whole film, such as DiVall's hysterical episode after he was shot next to his car for stealing his life. The speeches really make the characters come alive.
The story of the whole film has been moving in a lighthearted way, a typical dirge of survival in the background of black comedy. The director obviously has something he avoids in the handling of the plot. For example, violent killings in hippie life, drugs, and even homosexuality are very secretive in the film. The director's separation of these more extreme behaviors from the protagonist plays a vital role in expressing his sympathy. Even the director's handling makes the protagonist cute. The final ending setting did not push them to a dead end quite tragically. It was still on the road and let them run wild. This undoubtedly leaves an open ending. How they will face the ups and downs on the road to escape, and whether they will transform themselves, are left to people to think about. After just a reckless madness, they were confused with their young bodies and debauched passions, and went on the road again.
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