Text/Peter Cat
French director François Ou Jong's new film "The New Girlfriend" was completed in two sets of ceremonial dress-ups. The film kicked off in a group of gorgeous dress-ups that looked like classical oil paintings, but it witnessed the funeral of the "old girlfriend" Laura; and at the end of the film, the "new girlfriend" Virginia ushered in the change of clothes on the sick bed. newborn. On the surface, this Almodovar-style story about a man becoming a woman seems to best interpret Simone de Beauvoir’s famous saying: “We are not born as women, but we are born to be changed. It’s a success.” But gay author Ou Rong’s gender writing goes farther than that. In "New Girlfriend", he tried to break the roughness between gay/heterosexuality with a melodrama compatible with comedy and suspense. The dichotomy of "Sexuality" eloquently shows to every audience: Sexual orientation is never absolute, but fluid. In this sense, the film is also a pure, reflexive meta-queer film.
If we say that the richness of the text of the film "Into the Hall" is due to Ou Rong's clever use of the medium characteristics of "writing" that intersect reality and reality; then, the complexity of the text of "New Girlfriend" benefits from the postmodern discourse, Multiple aspects of "sexual identity". In Ou Rong's story, it is meaningless to label everyone as man or woman, homosexual or heterosexual in a crude way of duality. The name and definition here are only a temporary expedient to serve the communication, as in Ou Rong's film, and the same in the subsequent writing of this article. Because there is no absolute distinction, but only an illusory order constructed by reason for modern society: you are David today, and you may be Virginia tomorrow.
Before David became Virginia, "Virginia" was just a "hotel" opposite the heroine Claire's company. When Claire is depressed, she often looks out the window, towards the hotel, because there are hidden secrets of Claire's suppressed——
When Claire and her best friend Laura made the vow of "live and die", the two of them still didn't know what it was. This pair of chief acquaintances, along the way, have nothing to talk about, witnessing each other's important moments in life. It wasn't until Lola gave birth to a daughter and died soon after. After the funeral, Claire endured her grief and fulfilled her promise to help Laura's husband David, and together they raised their daughter. But it was accidentally discovered that David was a transvestite, dressing himself up as his dead wife at home to feed his daughter. Although David, after changing his clothes, is tender and delicate, he appeared in Claire's life as a female "Virginia", taking care of the children, making up, shopping, and outing together, almost filling the lack of his girlfriend Laura. However, his strong social consciousness made David's hobby "pathological" in Claire's eyes after all, and he kept suppressing his goodwill for "Virginia". Once, also out of the same social moral consciousness, Claire suppressed the ambiguous desire for "old girlfriend" Laura. This kind of lust can only be released in the dream for a moment when she sleeps in the crib of Lola's childhood, although what follows is still the awakening caused by the self-warning of "great treason".
If the emergence of "Virginia" makes Claire have to face the social "superego" unconsciously suppressing a certain part of her sexual orientation; then, the lingering "David" behind "Virginia" constitutes Claire is consciously confused in ethics in the real world. The irresistible fascination with "Virginia", replacing the identity and body of "David" with the identity and body of "Virginia" means a double betrayal to his girlfriend and husband. It is in this kind of social moral discourse and single-absolute gender culture that this complex eroticism is led to a suspenseful story. Among them are the laughter caused by the abnormality of cross-dressing, and the moving tears that are shrouded in the shadow of morality and sincere friendship.
As the only character whose sexual orientation seems to be "stable" among the three protagonists of the film, the existence of Claire's husband Jill has a dual function in the film. First, as a heterosexual, Jill intervened in the film from the point of view of the "most people" (audience). On the one hand, this was subtly transformed by Ou Jong into a comedic embellishment, that is, to satirize the awkward attitude of the public when facing homosexuality—political tolerance and emotional estrangement; on the other hand, Jill acted as a construct The social disorder of drama tension (Due to the existence of her husband, Claire refused to continue a dangerous relationship with "Virginia" and urged him to receive treatment and return to a normal life). Second, the two sex scenes between Claire and Jill in the film also endow Claire's "sexual identity" with complexity. Simply defining Claire as heterosexual/same/bisexual is an overly crude classification.
What's interesting is that although the title of the film is "New Girlfriend", and the media's attention is focused on the female actor Roman Duris. But the core soul of the film is not actually this "new girlfriend". Just like, the two dress-ups of a lifetime are done with the hands of the "him/her" person. If David’s dressing up for his deceased wife is a kind of self-recognition, it is to face his own sexual identity bravely, and he is determined to become the new mother of his daughter and become Claire’s new girlfriend; then Claire’s dressing up for David means one thing. This comes from his/her identity. Here, David cannot be Virginia alone—although on the surface, such a double dislocation of "has a man's body but is actually a woman, and loves women" is so absurd, but the audience is from David and In the dress-up game that has been unfolded between the dead wives, David has already glimpsed in the closed two-person world, David’s frankness to his true identity-but David who lost his wife is also losing his "girlfriend" ( His/her gender identity) Virginia. Only when David finds his "new girlfriend" can he become Virginia again. And that lost "new girlfriend" is Claire, that Claire is firmly bound by social morals. Therefore, the dilemma of Davidic identity conversion is not so much entangled in a kind of "David/Virginia" self-confusion, but rather a long wait for Claire's "self-awakening". There is no doubt that this is the text game that Ou Rong is best at. In this story, the "new girlfriend" is actually two-way, and there are actually two "new girlfriends". But for each of them, the "new girlfriend" is precisely the singular, indispensable singular. Without any of them, they cannot be themselves alone.
Because of this, all the tension in the film is transferred back to Claire and the "heterosexual" closed society. It is how Claire overcomes the "morbidity" of society and accepts the true self honestly. Therefore, what Claire tried to awaken on the sick bed was not so much Virginia, but herself as Virginia's "new girlfriend", how she could overcome the inconsistency between "David" and "Virginia" on different occasions. That is how to overcome her superego (David) and finally achieve her self (Virginia).
The film was originally titled "I Am a Woman", adapted from Ruth Rendell's 1985 short story "New Girlfriend". As one of the endless sources of film adaptation, Lendl's novels have been put on the screen by Chabrol, Claude Miller and Almodovar. In fact, as early as in the early days of Ou Jong's career-when shooting "Summer Sling Skirt" (1996), he tried to adapt this story into a short film in a very faithful way. But at that time he had neither money nor ideal actors. Nearly two decades later, Ou Rong set off again, but chose to rewrite the novel in a relatively free way, making the film "New Girlfriend" appear in front of the audience in a completely "queer movie" style. If we say that the broad definition of "queer movies" includes all those movies related to "marginal" sexual culture; then, Ou Yung's film attempts to be sexual in itself and the desire to shape "queer culture" Expand your own description.
In the 104-minute film, the audience will witness various sexual desire possibilities on the big screen, and the diversity of this sexual identity is not shaped by multiple roles in number, but only in two The protagonist unfolds within himself. Therefore, the main purpose of the film is not to demonstrate the legitimacy of cross-dressers, transgender, bisexual or homosexual people, but to try to remove the static definition of “labeled” sexual identity, so that the audience can see that the label is Under the circumstances, the individual’s sexual desire and even sexual identity are fluid in life: a wife who indulges in a happy marriage with her husband may also be obsessed with the girlfriends who have come all the way from childhood; while a model husband who is stable and generous may be She often fantasizes about becoming a woman, and she is gently accepted in her costume. Ou Rong’s genius lies in his keen grasp of: there is a natural isomorphism between the suspenseful film’s tension requirements for the underlying trend of the plot and the multiple possibilities of individuality. Just set the two protagonists of the film as daily men and women who are confused and anxious about their own sexuality, and implement the film's puzzles to the physical, psychological, and ethical obstructive erotic relationship between them. The audience will inevitably be involved in such a love/friendship adventure that focuses on diverse cultures. And this process is like listening to a lecture on sex by Dr. Kinsey half a century ago.
Although Dr. Kinsey’s research more than half a century ago has shown that most people have implemented or harbored non-single forms of sexual behavior or sexual desires in their lifetimes (absolutely heterosexual or homosexual). But even in French society where the ideology is relatively open and the social atmosphere is generally tolerant, heterosexual politics still dominates. The legitimacy of exclusion of other sexual forms other than heterosexuality is still one of the fundamental positions of far-right Le Penists in attracting voters. Therefore, seven years later, when the warm scene of Claire picking up her daughter at the school gate together with Virginia appeared at the end of the film, it was not just a clichéd happy ending, but carefully planned by the director Ou Rong-although in the film It is a political declaration that is a bit blunt and deliberate in China, which is to use movies to intervene in politics and use movies to promote the rights of LGBT (L lesbians, G gays, B bisexuals, T transgenders). Therefore, in explaining the theme of the film, Ou Rong said, "Transvestite is not the theme of this film, but just a way to touch those prejudices and differences."
This is even more clear in relation to the status quo of French society. Although France was the first country in Europe to legalize gay marriage and passed related bills in May 2013, whether LGBT groups have the right to adopt children has always been the focus of public opinion in France. The opposition even blocked the passage of the bill by saying that the adopted children would lose the right to "have a father and a mother" granted by the constitution after gay marriage was legalized. What the whole film of "New Girlfriend" aims to erase is this absolute distinction between "man and woman" and "father and mother". Just as Roman Duris corresponds to neither David nor Virginia in the cast and crew list, but David/Virginia. Ou Rong is trying to use such a sexually inverted role to show that even if everyone has a physical gender, their emotions, desires, and identification are all plastic and fluid. The gender distinction under the dichotomy can only be an order myth constructed by modern rationality. It is an attempt to regulate social individuals and brutally use fictional "morbidities" to discipline and exclude minorities and marginalized people in society. So, when "New Girlfriend" won the Sebastian Film Festival Sebastiani Award (this award is given to the best film in the festival that reflects the reality and value of the LGBT community), Ou Rong said so : "Every child has the right to be treated equally in their family, regardless of their composition."
(Part of the content in the article was published in "Watching Movies" in November 2014; "Movie World" in December 2014.)
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