The window plays an extremely important role in the audiovisual language of movies. Although Chinese directors don't like to use windows to express allegorical images, windows have always been the language that Western directors are good at and love. How important is it? To put it vulgarly, it's probably like the "moon" of Chinese people playing mahjong.
The film "Atonement" briefly introduces the relationship between the 13-year-old girl Brioni's dream and the main characters in the film, and then presents the whole theme of the film in a window paragraph.
Isn't the theme of "Atonement" the destruction of happiness and Brioni's atonement? Are there any other themes?
Yes, of course.
If "Hamlet" (please note that the name appears in the film) can be translated into "Prince's Revenge", then "Atonement" is another version of Hamlet, which can be translated into "Girl Atonement" , Because it is about the same problem as "Hamlet": to be or not to be. (I wonder if you remember it cleverly hidden in a line of dialogue in the film.)
For the British, Shakespeare is in Their status in their minds is like Cao Xueqin's to Chinese people (their research papers on Shakespeare's research on Shakespeare is more confident than that of domestic scholars in Cao Xueqin). And "Hamlet" is the most cited English work in the world besides the Bible. And among all the quoted words, I guess that the most frequently quoted sentence is probably to be or not to be (maybe followed by a woman, your name is weak.) The
book is back. When the 13-year-old Brioni stood in the window and looked out, what she saw was not so much a scene where her sister Cecilia flirted with her secret crush and servant’s son Robbie, but rather she saw it. What is the fate of the three of them: to be or not to be. Moreover, in order to remind us, the director arranged a small episode for us ingeniously.
Now, please answer me, when Brioni walked a long way, walked to the window, tried to look out the window, what was the first thing she saw? What interrupted her voyeurism?
It's the bee (BEE).
The bee prevented her from peeping, but she drove away the bee willfully. So she saw a scene she shouldn't have seen: Cecilia took off her coat in front of Robbie. After she took a breath, instinctively, the 13-year-old girl turned back.
What should I do next? If she does not have such a strong curiosity, and she chooses not to turn around, then the tragedy will not happen. However, unfortunately, she chose to turn around. This choice is equivalent to her choice on the proposition of To be or not to be-she chose destruction.
Brioni turned her head and looked at the pond outside the window again. She didn't know that this turn would lead herself to the abyss.
What she saw was that Cecilia climbed up from the water, almost naked, and Brioni was calmly controlling her emotions, and the bees did not make trouble again. Cecilia put on his clothes and left, and Robbie hesitated and saw that there was no one around, so he tried to touch the surface of the water where Cecilia had stayed.
Obviously, in the subconscious mind of the viewer Brioni and the viewer Robbie, this touch symbolizes the touch of Cecilia's body. If Brioni did not see this scene, but left the window when Cecilia left, then, although she was already on the edge of a terrible abyss, she might still be saved, because she might not be able to. So firmly came to the conclusion that Robbie was a "sexual maniac".
At this time, which annoying bee (BEE) appeared again. Of course, it is the director's arrangement for it to appear uninterestingly and in time. As a result, Brioni, who was disturbed by the bees to watch and also disturbed her heart by Robbie's touch, chose to destroy her. Although the picture does not show the death of the bee bloody, there is no doubt that the audience knows it is dead.
The director's compassion and restraint in his presentation of the death of the bee can be said to be consistent throughout. All the scenes about death in the film, such as the Dunkirk retreat, the death of the wounded, the death of Robbie, and the death of Cecilia, are all powerful, true and restrained.
Regrettably, although "Atonement" won 7 nominations for the 80th Oscars, it is the only one that has not been nominated for best director among the 5 best films nominated. Perhaps, to understand such an incisive and meticulous plot arrangement, it is simply mission impossible for the judges in a hurry to watch the film.
The bad things done by sinful people get revenge, while the bad things done by good people are atonement. Brioni used her life to atone for her sins, and in the end, she finally paid off. God arranged for her to have the kind of disease that is considered beautiful to me: she will lose her memory, which means that she will finally forget Robbie, who has troubled her all her life and always flashes by in the crowd but never finds it. Forgetting her beautiful sister who is so beautiful that she is jealous, forgetting all the memories that make her painful, she will spend the rest of her life in a painless silence. For her, isn't this the best reward and compensation?
Speaking of Brioni's love for Robbie, I still want to start with Hamlet. Today’s Western scholars like to use Freud’s psychoanalytic theory to explain Hamlet. The reason why he is so rude and blames his mother with that rather erotic language is because he has a strong Oedipus Complex. I think it might not be an exaggeration for Brioni to use Freud's Electra complex to explain her love for Robbie. Anyway, she was not in love with Robbie. She was just a blunder, but she was kind but did bad things. Just like Father Lawrence in "Romeo and Juliet", she originally wanted to help the lovers, but she didn’t realize it. They both died in love.
It is worth mentioning that the film depicts Brioni's cousin Laura and the businessman Paul Marshall who raped and abused her in just a few strokes, with great skill.
One question I haven’t found the answer for is the first long shot at the beginning of the film: from the door of the toy castle (the castle later appeared on the postcard that Cecilia gave to Robbie, it symbolizes home), the camera takes We followed a group of wild animals that seemed to be migrating until Brioni was behind. This should not come from real life scenes, but deliberately arranged by the director. As the first moving shot of the whole film, the director obviously tried to imply something through it.
What exactly does director Joe Wright want to express? Does it mean that there is a group of wolves behind Brioni looking at her but she doesn't know it, or is it that life is always perilous? I really didn't want to understand.
Under the theme of the supremacy of human beings like to be or not to be, it seems too frivolous and superficial to evaluate the performances of the heroes and heroines. Perhaps it is for this reason that neither of the protagonists have been nominated for Oscars. However, in my opinion, it should be reasonable for the film to win the best Oscar soundtrack. Italian composer Dario Marianelli (Dario Marianelli) and director Joe Wrightly successfully collaborated on "Pride and Prejudice" in 2005, and once again joined forces to create a romantic and deep musical melody for this film. In the film, the percussive sound of the ancient typewriter gradually turns into a note that strikes people’s hearts, which is truly amazing. In the first half of the film, the picturesque rural landscapes of the English countryside are reminiscent of the work "Tess" directed by director Roman Polanski in the 1980s and reflecting the life of the English countryside (that is another to be or not to be story).
Hamlet completed his revenge with his sword and his gorgeous rhyming poems, while the young girl Brioni completed her atonement with her pen, just as she promised, no rhyme, no rhetoric. But in fact, every paragraph and every character in the film has the same rhyme: to be or not to be.
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