In essence, "Leon the Killer", "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" and "Afternoon with Margaret" are all French films of the same type. The former is a man's fairy tale, while the latter two are women's, especially literary and artistic. Feminine fairy tale.
In "The Elegance of the Hedgehog", the fifty-year-old widow Honey is a squat and ordinary concierge, indifferent and uncharacteristic, but behind Honey's closed door, there is a secret world full of books. The little girl Paloma and the new resident Mr. Ozugerang got a glimpse of Honey's secret, and they found that this unremarkable concierge has an incomparably elegant spiritual world, where there is Leo Tolstoy's Russian scenery and There are mountains of Yasujiro Ozu's "red bean pudding color", where lived a woman who was neither humble nor arrogant, delicate and knowledgeable. Honey has maintained a characteristic during her several contacts with Mr. Ozu, even if she knows that she is not a good match for Mr. Ozu, no matter how small and humble her identity is, her attitude is always the same, not hiding, not flattering, even though she He will feel sorry for himself behind his back, but he will never act. It was this magnanimity that fascinated little Paloma, who called it "the grace of the hedgehog". This elegance of Honey is the temperament of a true scholar - broad humility and aloof pride.
There is also a reader in "Afternoon with Margaret" - a ninety-year-old widowed old woman Margaret. Margaret lives in a nursing home, and her daily entertainment consists of walking to the park at noon and sitting on a bench in the sun to read. As I read, I met Germain, a hillbilly who also often went to lunch on a park bench. This Germain has dyslexia since childhood, is fat and vulgar, and doesn't really care if he is teased by his friends. Germain and Margaret knew each other because of counting pigeons and from Camus' book "The Plague". No one thought that Germain, who was not a reading material at all, had a rich and delicate imagination. He listened to Margaery. Teshu was fascinated by the reading, and waited for the appointment with the book on time every day.
"The Grace of the Hedgehog" and "Afternoon with Margaret" are both love stories, both happy and sad, and not very realistic. Whether it is the literary woman Honey or the country bumpkin Germain, they have entered a new world in a sense because of reading. What they love is not so much a specific person as a possibility of life. , a sublimation of "escape from the fish tank". Honey is actively and cautiously looking for these possibilities in her hidden spiritual world until she meets Mr. Ozu; Germain is ignorant and ignorant until he finally finds out in Roman Gary's autobiography "Dawn of the Dawn". The end of the relationship with the mother is found in The Promise. Neither movie is perfect, neither has a 100% convincing explanation and arrangement of the main characters' ins and outs, and both are strictly provocative products, but I'm still moved to the point where I don't care, as if I had Passionate about Leon, not asking why a killer only drinks milk, why street shootouts are commonplace - these are not the point of watching a movie at all. The reason why fairy tales are fairy tales is precisely because they abandon some of the logical constraints of the real world, dig out the most real desires hidden in people's hearts, give them shape, smell, feeling, give them life, and let them live in the most beautiful and brilliant places. sublimated in the situation.
So what is it about the humble ordinary people like Honey, Germain and Margaret that makes them so special, that they are separated from the gray real world and become the eyes of the audience. What about those with stories that shine like a rainbow?
Books, reading. Of course books.
Books are magical. Margaret gave Germain a dictionary, helped him read, and told him "You will pass from one world to another. You will get lost in the maze...you stop...you will dream..." Every love Book people say "read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles", but books are not as simple as taking people on ten thousand miles, what she takes you into is another dimension of world, where life is full of infinite possibilities, time Space is no longer an obstacle, from the zero seconds of the universe to the end of the world, from the heart of one person to the dreams of thousands of people, as long as you want, the book can slowly unfold these endless possibilities in front of you. , There is circumstance, there is affection.
Yes, there is love in the book. What kind of words that are soaked in love and hate are carried on those thin pages. Some books are warm and straightforward, and the details of emotions are all written down and explained clearly and unmistakably; some books are introverted and restrained, they do not talk about love, but they describe and describe the light and shadow that are the most difficult to capture in the changing seasons. Describe the most subtle and indefinable little activity, little change, little ripple. But who can deny that between those silent letters and blocks, between the writer's heart and the pen, there is no warm flow of love flowing? It's as if little Paloma never said "I love you" to Honey, but she draws Honey, stroke by stroke, her hut, her bookshelf, her books, and slips them into cards quietly. The crack in the door; as if Germain couldn't say anything nice, but he made Margaret a cane, and he practiced reading over and over again, just so that Margaret, as graceful as a deer, could continue to be with the book and read. Stay together forever.
Writers have love, and so do readers. Margaret never ridiculed Germain's ignorance. She chose to read to Germain the emotionally stimulating and curious passages. Germain thanked Margaret for reading to him, but Margaret said that the two read Camus together, "a good reader is a good listener." Honey calls the lazy cat who lives with her "Lev", and Mr. Ozu's two gray cats are "Levin" and the other "Kitty". This is the little secret between the reader and the writer. Who would have thought that those unrelated individuals in different spaces would come together across time and space because of those thin sheets of paper. There are no flowers, no applause, or even no chance to express at all, but as his eyes flicker one word, one word, one sentence after another, he or she has slowly entered his and her heart since then. This feeling does not even need to be expressed at all, no, no matter how gorgeous the form is, it is pale. Just read, read, read. Reading is a love letter from a reader to an author.
There is truth in this silent love letter. Is there anyone who doesn't "wail at his mother's grave", and which family doesn't "have their own misfortunes". The moving of the book is not only because she is beautiful, but also because she is full of interest. She is moved because of the sincerity, sincerity, and frankness of her emotions. Good works are hearts that have been cut open. All the secrets, thoughts, mature and immature thinking, questioning, depression, deposition, and pursuit are all spread out in front of the readers. What the author and the reader are looking for at the end of this road is something stable, true, and rock-solid in the chaotic life. This thing is truth and love.
I like the inexplicable love of Germain in "Afternoon with Margaret" by his beautiful young girlfriend Annette, the little message that Margaret's black and white photo with African children reveals, and I like In "The Elegance of the Hedgehog", the poor, old and uneducated Hani actually owns a bookstore and is an unparalleled spiritual aristocrat. Because the relationship between these characters and books, language, and reading is never accidental. Without a strong curiosity about the spiritual world, without the perseverance and perseverance that is willing to be lonely, without the heart of keeping the original child, they would not have been able to live with books for such a dull and wonderful life, and maintain such a long and passionate life. passion. I don't think such logic is too illusory and detached from reality. This is reality on another level, and it is the spiritual core of every character hidden behind the mundane identity.
So books make people discover love, and love makes people choose books. What an unusual love story this is.
View more about My Afternoons with Margueritte reviews
