As in the past, I like to blindly select a film for the competition. This year, I chose "Little England" at the Shanghai Film Festival. In my imagination, it was an exotic and strong style film. I went to the island to watch it, but I was completely saddened by the film.
In the beautiful and deep Aegean Sea, Andros Island, men who make a living out of the sea are responsible for the family's economic sources, while women stay on the island to preside over their daily lives. Beautiful places breed vivid love stories, and love often comes with a sad ending. At the age of 12, he fell in love with Spiros' sister Osa, and was forced to marry a captain before his sweetheart returned triumphantly. The mother who arranged the marriage warned Osa: "Love will die, life is all. It's better for a woman not to marry the man she loves, so that it won't be so painful when he leaves."
Years later, the sister, who was completely unaware, Mosja becomes the bride of the successful Spiros. "Little England" is the voyage cruise under his name.
On this small island where it is common for men to be shipwrecked, the resolute mother uses her decades of life experience to "care" her daughter's life. She completely rejected the softest part of people's heart because she was afraid of being hurt, but her sister Osa responded to her with silence for most of her life: the love that happened in a moment can also become eternal. A mother cannot kill love, but kills the happiness of her two daughters.
The director used a lot of slow motion in the film. The waves of the deep sea at the beginning and end of the film fluctuated extremely slowly, and the dark blue sea water was particularly heavy. It seemed to be flat and straightforward, and it actually laid a light and painful tone for "Little England". This leads to the story, and finally returns to the sea.
Another slow motion, and the turning point of the whole film, takes place on the night when the bad news of "Little England" comes. My sister, who had been suppressed for more than ten years, could no longer restrain her inner love and grief when she heard the news that Spiros had sent the crew to the lifeboat and died, and cried out "I love Spiros". The heart is no longer silent. The director used a partially muted slow motion to express Osa's inner world vividly. Compared with the light tone of the whole film, this scene is so shocking and direct to the heart that I, as an audience, can't bear to look directly.
The director uses slow motion to express the painful parts of life, and uses close-up shots to capture the romantic and beautiful parts of love. The second half of the story unfolds in the clues to Osa and Spiros's underground relationship, and with the foreshadowing of the first half, Osa, who seems to be calm and silent, gradually fills up the character image. She silently resisted this marriage contract by refusing to move to her husband's private house; she had children with peace of mind, and still worked hard to live in the face of the injustice of fate; however, the marriage of her sister and the reunion of her old love were the most abhorrent ceilings of cutting corners ( soundproofing issues), making it difficult for her to stay out of the past. So, she changed back to the girl who had a heartbeat at the age of 12 and a private life at the age of 20, struggling between herself and reality, and the boundaries between emotions and morals no longer existed for her.
And it is not only Osa who is struggling, the most innocent sister Mosga, the mother who lost her way in protection and care, and Spiros, who is caught in the middle of the sisters, all of them are vulnerable in this farce of life . In the scene on the rock pile by the sea, the former lovers finally open their hearts after 10 years of reunion, and Spiros writes the three letters "SOS" on Osa's chest, which means save my soul. In this story, there is no right or wrong, everyone has made the most reasonable choice at the moment, but when being pushed away by fate, the soul may really have nowhere to be placed.
Back to love, the film is not all pessimistic.
The mother said that love would die, and Osa's love never left. With the emotional release and the publicity of the relationship, the sun shines on Osa's face. Even when she was terminally ill and refused medical treatment, her beauty was long gone, but there was always sunshine on Osa's face on the screen until she said goodbye to the world.
The mother said that love would die because of his never-returned captain's husband. But after more than ten years of wandering, although it was too late to change the fate of her daughters, she still returned to Andros Island. He returned to the woman who had been waiting for him, and returned safely before the start of World War II.
The mother said that love would die, because many housewives like her on Andros Island did not wait for their husbands, but maybe only a medal and an empty coffin. However, when the women gathered in front of the radio to wait, cheer, and sing, those women who were widows but stubbornly lived, recalled their husbands who died ten or twenty years ago, and their sorrows have long since left, and only Intense love is in the heart.
Love is something that makes people better. Even if the process is twists and turns, it often becomes a victim in the entanglement of fate, but those who have loved will also have soft and tough beauty at the same time. Seventy-four-year-old Greek director Pandori Fogari once again used the lens to discuss this timeless topic with the audience.
Love is a moment of eternity.
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