"If Walls Can Talk 2" also has a more common Chinese translation called "Women Bubble Women". I personally don't like this translation. The film itself is a very serious gay film. The original English name not only reveals a heavy sense of history, but also It embodies the concern for human nature. Although the name is straightforward, it is clever and clumsy. It is a pity that Chinese is interpreted as such a grandstanding gimmick.
"If Walls Could Talk 2" is divided into three parts, respectively telling the love story of three gay couples who took place in the same house in the 1960s, 1970s, and the turn of the century. The film takes the American women's movement and the gay movement as the historical background, showing the joys and sorrows of individual les life in this social wave again and again.
The first story takes place in 1961. Edith (Vanessa Redgrave) and Abby (Marian Seldes) lived a loving life together. Under the pressure of conservative society, the two kept their relationship secret in front of outsiders. Looking for a trace of freedom and sweetness in the love nest built. But the good times didn't last long. Abby accidentally fell and was sent to the hospital for rescue. Although Edith was in a hurry, he could only wait outside the ward as a "friend" and could not accompany him around the hospital bed. After waiting all night, Edith finally got the bad news that Abby had passed away in the middle of the night, but he was not able to see him for the last time, Edith could only go home alone. Edith informed Abby's nephew to come to deal with her funeral. Since the house they shared was in Abby's name, the latter asked to sell the house, and Edith, who had no name, could only watch himself and Abby jointly own it. Memories of people are ripped out of their own lives.
The tone of this story is undoubtedly very sad, but what makes people sad is not only the ending of the story, but also the director's meticulous grasp of many key details, so that this sentimental emotion shrouds the story from beginning to end, and also inadvertently penetrates into the viewer's mind. in sensory nerves. The beginning of the film is a clip of Shirley's confession to Hepburn in "The Double Resentment". The theme of same-sex love is immediately clear. The confession part, but her attitude towards homosexuality is actually very conservative. Shirley always called herself a "sinner" in the process of confessing, and it was not rumors that drove her to the end, but this inescapable sense of guilt. , "Homosexuality equals sin, leading people to death" is one of the main ideological tones of the film, and the degree of conservativeness is evident. Such a film was still popular in the 1960s, and it also added a silent footnote to the social atmosphere at that time. But even if it is conservative, it will offend the tastes of many audiences (middle-aged and elderly audiences leave the audience when they see the confession, while some young people make fun of them), the social atmosphere of the 1960s is really suffocating to the point To the extent that the director did not spend much time writing, the difficult situation of Edith and Abby was expressed so vividly. When the two walked out of the theater and were asked about their experience of watching the movie, Abby first gave a thoughtful meal, and then duly answered "Too much drama for my age...", in the eyes of a group of hippie teenagers, the two People didn't dare to hold hands, they just left silently, and the desolate back made people feel sad.
The second story takes place in 1972. Linda (Michelle Williams), a female college student and a radical feminist, forms a women's club with three roommates and other female students to fight for equal rights between men and women. The women's movement in the 1960s and 1970s took female liberation as the main trend of thought, and Linda was also influenced by this. She believed that women should liberate themselves from the oppression of patriarchy and oppose all the imprints on women in the patriarchal society. Can't accept women who dress up, thinking that crossdressing is the legacy of the patriarchal society, but Linda prefers to love Amy (Chloe Sevigny) who likes to dress up as a boy. After some psychological struggle, she accepts Amy and accepts Own.
This story is romantic and warm. From a historical context, it exposed the problems of the feminist movement at that time. The women's liberation movement in the 1970s made great contributions to improving the status of women, but some of these claims were also poisonous because they were too extreme. , one of which is that feminists overemphasize breaking with tradition and fall into another hegemonic discourse cycle. Linda's words to her friends: "You know why you don't like Amy? Because you are afraid of anyone who is not just like you." exemplifies this question. Homosexuals were originally "heretics" excluded from the heterosexual world, and in their efforts to break with tradition, they unconsciously shaped themselves as the only "orthodox", thus falling into a self-contradictory philosophical paradox.
The third story is the story of two lesbians, Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres), who go to great lengths to have a child, and finally their wish comes true. The pair initially considered using sperm from a gay pair, but the plan fell through because they wanted to intervene in their children's lives. In the end, the pair were able to conceive by ordering sperm from a sperm company.
Gay people in this period don't have to worry about other people's opinions. They can boldly fall in love, live together, and even have children. The situation is very different from the era of Edith and Abby, so this story is also a complete comedy. Sharon Stone and Abby Ellen also showed a good talent for comedy. Although Ellen has always been brooding about I can't get you pregnant., but the two of them are finally a very happy couple. If walls could speak, Fran and Kal's Today may give Edith and Abby some solace, and the three periods and three journeys of love should be "a relationship" for many les who are still chasing happiness.
View more about If These Walls Could Talk 2 reviews
