The first brief period of confusion for most people comes when they graduate from high school, and the distance between old friends and themselves is extended to schools, cities and even countries. Along with this process are changes in preferences, circles of friends and outlook on life. Many years later, at the class reunion, someone will talk about that so-and-so is not as humorous as before, or that people who used to text each other all night now have nothing in common with them. the original source.
The protagonist in "Old Dreams" also has a similar situation. Mark, who is married and becomes a father-to-be, lives a dull and boring life, searching for the missing part of his life all day long. Kurt, an old friend over 30 years old, is uninhibited and does not live in a fixed place. He seems to be in two worlds with himself, and he has been out of touch for many years. One day, Kurt called and invited Mark to go to the mountains to find hot springs, and Mark readily agreed.
The screenwriter uses very simple details to confirm a long-standing assumption that friendship will not die with time, just like a bonfire that naturally goes out, and a little dead branches can be ignited again.
Here's a quote and translation from Stanley Kauffmann's 2006 TNR review of "Old Dreams":
"In 1952, Jack Kerouac and John Clennon Holmes joined forces to launch the escapism movement ( The Beat movement) raised the banner of Beat literature in the literary world. However, there is still no data to date when the escapist movement began to have an impact on the film industry. The first beat in my memory Movies - Richard Linklater's "Slacker" came belatedly in 1991, 30 years after the rise of the escapist movement, and the Beats have since become a relatively formal film genre.
I prefer to call this genre of films Listless Films, although the meaning of the word "burnout" is easily misunderstood by the public. Most of the protagonists of these films are young people in their twenties. They are not dull or lazy, and most of them even have a job of their own. But they are quite lacking in passion, and there is very little that can excite them. The main purpose of a burnout film is to bring these usually wise but lifeless characters to the audience. Vitality is the enemy is the creed of the characters who have reached the age when they should be integrated into society but refuse the world's pulling hand. In the eyes of most viewers, this behavior is as unreasonable as a senior student refusing to accept a diploma issued by a national university.
Burnout movies usually don't bother to explain to the audience what is causing the characters' negative attitudes, because there's been so much talk about the "Beat Generation" - if you can't understand the behavior of the characters, it's just proof that you're not a good fit Watch such movies. But burnout movies also have a standout feature, and while the plot may seem obscure at first, it eventually touches our sensibilities somewhere, as in many of Linklater's works. Certain burnout films are kept so private from start to finish that they look like they're tailor-made for a small audience. An excellent burnout film should take care of the perception of most people, so that outsiders can feel the melancholy and melancholy of the people in the play, and feel a little regret and sadness for the world that made them a little hard.
"Old Dream" is an excellent film that meets this standard, of course, you still need a little patience to wait for the plot to unfold. The first 1/3 of the film looks floating and casual, the transition of time is slow and direct, and the atmosphere of "burnout" is grasped quite precisely. Then, the direction of the story gradually became clear, but when the audience thought it was close to the end, it turned into a deeper discussion. This design allows "Old Dreams" to successfully provide the audience with double the feelings and thoughts of the characters in the film.
The story begins in Portland, Oregon. Mark's wife is pregnant. His old friend Kurt, by nature, likes freedom and does not want to take any responsibility, his job, address and relationships are always in the process of constant change. He managed to convince Mark to plan an excursion to the hot springs of Rapids with him before he officially became a father.
As Kurt's minivan drives through several of Portland's main streets, the radio broadcasts a boring political debate show, and the audience becomes airy as the psychedelic sound of the guitar gradually dominates the background music. The voice of Mark dialing his wife's phone became the only bridge to the "real" world. (Kelly Reichardt's treatment of Mark's wife as an image that prevents the character from approaching freedom shows the reserved and reserved quality of female directors.) The dog that follows the protagonist all the time may be the only one in the film. Energetic presence implies warmth and other similar things that are necessary in life.
The two spent their first night on old furniture at a campsite. They sat around the campfire and played shooting games with an air gun they had found on the ground. The atmosphere gradually softened, and Kurt said something quite spiritual:
"The world is like a huge drop of tear, a tear slowly dropping through space." The next day, while the two were
enjoying the hot springs, Kurt said again: " Sorrow
is nothing but worn-out joy" (Sorrow is nothing but worn-out joy.)"
The theme of the whole film is clear. The screenwriter proposes another understanding of friendship here - the happiness that friendship can bring has a time limit, and we cannot ask it to produce more in the remaining days.
Title < Old Joy > also brings a lot of associations, it may refer to the youthful years that the two have spent as close friends, the absolute freedom that Mark is about to lose because of his fatherhood, and the exhaustion that Kurt gradually felt during the long wandering time. and boredom, or hiking, a pastime that is being forgotten by modern society.
Throughout the whole film, there are several thoughts that are very catchy:
natural light throughout, shot with Super 16 combination, the colors look very comfortable
When the director moves the camera, he leaves a lot of space for the scenery, and restores the
small details of the real perspective of daily life: Kurt intentionally or unintentionally used Mark as a reference to
shoot when walking in the mountains to create a stable atmosphere.
Hot spring wooden shed lit cigarettes, orange-red The firelight and the background blend perfectly, and the green is even more melancholy. When the
two finally parted, the camera followed Kurt, inadvertently completing a protagonist cycle
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