Rohmer's "The Female Collector" continues the themes of "The Bakery Girl" and "The Story of Susanna", and consistently conducts a moral examination of men. Rohmer is really a philosopher. In this movie, people who understand will love it, and those who don't understand will have to talk nonsense.
The film tells about the obscenity of a morally anxious man. The male protagonist Adrian is a morally anxious hypocrite. He has almost noble fantasies about love and women, but he cannot avoid physical desires. The split and interweaving of the two personalities makes Adrian promote his moral guardian view, at the same time attribute the original sin of his desire to vent to women, and materialize women to achieve the noble and pure self and the relationship between men and women in the fantasy. Women are pure, warm, beautiful, kind, and daring to love and hate, just like the previous work, which contrasts with the hypocrisy of men.
Preface to the beginning of the film. The first preface is Heidi wearing a bikini by the sea. The camera captures Heidi's graceful figure and close-up shots of her body parts, like a peeping man's perspective. It can be said that the tone laid by the preface for Heidi is the object of desire, the object of objectification and appreciation. In the second preface, the artist Daniel talked with a man about metaphysical artistic thought. The man played with a glass pole full of blades and was accidentally scratched by it. It can be said that Daniel is like this glass cylinder, sharp, direct and pursuing noble morals without hesitating to hurt others. He is more pure than the hero Adrian. The third preface states that the main character Adrian and two girls talked about whether the first characteristic of liking the opposite sex was thought or appearance. One girl insisted on appearance first, while Adrian and another girl (girlfriend) insisted that the connotation of thought is more important. The two walked to the grove. Adrian invited his girlfriend and himself to go on a quiet vacation away from the noise on the Côte d’Azur, while his girlfriend preferred London and his friends in July. The two broke up unhappy.
Adrian went to the beach for vacation for the first time in many years, dreaming of a quiet and comfortable life away from the hustle and bustle, and discussing philosophical life with the artist Daniel. He was disturbed by the girl Heidi who lives here. In the eyes of the two men, Heidi, who changes one man every night, is like a collector, collecting all kinds of men, including themselves. At least the hero Adrian thinks so. In the lonely vacation, Adrian faced the beautiful Heidi and couldn't hide his inner desires, so he fantasized that Heidi had already set himself as a goal when he had fun with men day and night... When the two men joined hands to drive away After Heidi's boyfriend, Adrian and Daniel started to act. Adrian is a fanatic, he asked Heidi to get up early to swim and said, "I can see that you like me, but I have a moral and cleanliness..." Compared with the arrogance of the male protagonist, Heidi is more calm and calm. More purely, it can be said that Heidi and Daniel are somewhat similar. So the two went to bed.
But after going to bed, Daniel discovered that Heidi Kong had a beautiful appearance, but it was a vulgar and thoughtless beauty. In addition, Adrian was discussing business with collectors, and his greedy gesture disgusted him. Daniel then ran away.
Daniel has something in common with Adrian. They are misogynistic, objectify women, pursue perfect morals but can't help vent their desires. Daniel is also the radicalization of Adrian's pursuit of lofty morality, and he doesn't see the least vulgarity in his eyes. But Adrian would only justify himself, fantasizing his desires as Heidi’s hookup, using Heidi as a tool and utensil from beginning to end, as can be seen from the fact that he dedicated Heidi to antique dealers.
And Heidi, like the women in the previous two works, is pure, simple, and passionately seeking love, and has the upper hand in the film's relationship between men and women.
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