When I was very young, I saw an American black and white film called "Portrait of Jennie". The plot is that a painter who sells paintings for a living meets a little girl Jenny on the road on a winter night. She was singing, and the painter drew her a sketch. Unexpectedly, the owner of the painting shop took a fancy to this sketch, bought it, and asked him to draw another portrait. The painter asked Annie to paint her. Strangely, every time he saw Jenny she grew up quite a bit. By the time the painter completed her portrait, she was a mature and beautiful woman. Anne's portrait was included in the museum, and the situation of the painter improved.
Jenny and the painter, who are invisible and appearing, gradually develop feelings for each other. One day Jenny said she was going abroad to say goodbye to the painter. Shortly after the two said goodbye, the painter seemed to hear Anne's cry for help by the sea. The painter finally realizes that he has encountered Jenny's ghost and struggles to save her by the sea, trying to rewrite her life. During storms and rough seas, he jumped into the water to save Jenny. He was still late, Jenny disappeared into the raging sea, leaving only her melancholy song wafting in the sea wind:
Where I come from nobody knows
and where I am going everything goes
The wind blows, the sea flows, nobody knows
And where I am going
nobody knows...
The song was poignant and ethereal, and Jenny hummed her fate so casually.
I can't remember the specific plot of the movie, but after watching the movie, I was troubled by Annie's singing in the sea breeze for a long time, until the melody disappeared in my life. Although I don't know what she sang, at that time I was just in elementary school and could not understand English, but I will never forget the helplessness and sadness conveyed by the singing.
Many years later, when I read Sanmao's prose "Confused", I was surprised to find that she was also confused by this song. I went back to look for information related to the movie and wanted to know what she was singing about.
When she met the painter, she was singing: "Where do I come from, no one knows. Where I go, all must go..."
When they finally parted, she sang in despair: "Hold me tight, We are together now... there is only one love, and nothing can change it.... It doesn't matter what happens, because we will always be together, somewhere." When the
painter met Anne, she was a little girl, and he Watch her grow up until separation.
Annie lived the most perfect life with the people she loved in a special way. No wonder Jenny said as she bid farewell to the painter and was about to go abroad: "How beautiful the world is. The world exists for beauty. ──Whether we live now or lived many years ago."
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