Jacques Rivette is a loyal practitioner of the "author theory" of the French New Wave. He always insists on writing and directing himself, and maintains the absolute right to speak about the content of the film. This four-hour literary film - "The Uninhibited Beauty" No exception, however, there are quite a lot of melodramatic elements in the film, such as the partner of the aged painter and the young beauty, the jealousy between the painter's wife and the beautiful boyfriend, and the painter's tough demands on the beauties. These factors tempted the market, and the United States also edited a 125-minute version to suit the melodrama.
However, even with so many fascinating elements, this is still a thoroughly literary film, and Rivett didn't intend to cater to the audience's entertainment interests from the beginning, he just happened to come across this type of story That's all, this story is adapted from a short story by French realist writer Balzac, and only uses the characters and story settings in it.
Rivett's family is wealthy, which is what we often call the bourgeoisie. In his works, the stories that take place among the bourgeoisie are full of ugliness and unbearableness.
The film has two themes, the "gender war" between painters and models, and the artist's creative process.
The works of the old painter in his early years have accumulated enough fame and high social status for him, while the female model is just a little-known writer. When facing the painter's tough posture adjustment to her, she was always in a state of anger and dare not speak, and there was even a bit of SM-style ambiguity in the back. This self-evident relationship was revealed in a dialogue. After the first painting, the model said goodbye. : Then we, next time, see you in New York. The painter looked down at his painting, and said indifferently without raising his head: "I don't need to see you in New York. We will continue at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning." The model looked angry, but she just left with her bag and arrived on time tomorrow morning. We can see that for this unequal requirement, the painter has always practiced his subject status by default. In his eyes, completing the painting is the only thing he needs to think about. The female model is a materialized body, and he does not even need to go to Thinking about how to keep female models.
So, from here, the gender theme of the film becomes clear.
If the film only tells a story from beginning to end where women are always suppressed by men, it would be out of cliché, and the film would also be involved in the film river and be quickly forgotten. However, Rivett is an artist with an advanced world view and profound insights. He knows that whether it is reality or film, women will inevitably resist, and show a subject spirit that overwhelms men. The model is in the second half of the film, whose The spirit of the subject begins to awaken, she no longer thinks that this painting is only the work of the painter, but her own work. She is not only a materialized naked female body, but also a person capable of expressing herself in the true sense. People, from that moment on, in the relationship between the two, the model began to take the initiative to play a leading role. She hoped that her expression, her persistence, could enable the painter to paint that great work. This is not only the success of the painter. , and her own success.
As a result, the painter did paint that masterpiece, and as spectators we waited eagerly for that painting, expecting it to make us tremble with the extreme excitement, the sublime that comes from art, and we look forward to it, looking forward to it , however, only saw a pair of blue feet inadvertently exposed on the drawing board, nothing else appeared, director Rivette did not show us.
Did he think that the painting was just a MacGuffin and that it didn't matter at all, I felt like I was being played for four hours.
Now that he has been tricked, let's see what Rivett is thinking.
The painter drew the painting, the model's persistence and self-expression worked, which meant women's success, if the film accepted it here, it would be a win-win happy ending, Rivette did not, the painter finally embedded the painting into the wall, It was not made public. Not many people knew about the existence of this painting. Then, he drew a simple picture in one night, fooling everyone, claiming that it was the famous painting.
Why do this? Try to think about what Rivett is thinking, have women really succeeded? In feminist movies, women often beat men, but is this really the case? No, not at all. Women are at an extreme disadvantage in front of men. Rivette has cleverly designed the role of the painter's wife in it. Like the painter, the painter's wife is faced with the dilemma of aging. With the enthusiasm for creation, his wife lost the wonderful youthful body. However, with the age of the painter, the great fame and high social status followed, and he could always hold the right to speak in social relations. Here There is a sharp contrast, the female model boyfriend is also a painter, but because he is young and immature, he is always in a tangled, angry, and helpless position. As for the painter's wife, she is old, what has she gained? Nothing, she lost her most valuable thing and got nothing. This severe inequality between men and women was caused by the capitalist society at the time, and I think that's what Rivett wanted to express.
Therefore, the female model is still the loser. She is looking forward to the real masterpiece that symbolizes her struggle, but it is forever embedded in the stone wall by the male painter, and will never see the light of day. The old painter won. He materialized his surging emotions into an immortal masterpiece and fulfilled his wish. I think every artist who has experience in art creation knows that the moment when an artist is truly satisfied is the perfection of the work. The moment of completion, for this moment, the artist is willing no matter how much effort he puts in, and the acceptance of art is irrelevant, because they have already pleased themselves.
The bald, fat, speechless, eccentric painter has triumphed again, both as an artist and as a man.
View more about The Beautiful Troublemaker reviews
