--after reading the movie "Genius Ripley"
for many years, I still remember Zheng Zhihua's song: "Walking alone, the long street; walking alone, the cold night What is a person escaping from? It's not someone else but himself." I
also remember that in "The Pianist at Sea", in 1900, he tried to step off his own ship world for the first time. American continent. No one expected that his footsteps would eventually freeze on the stairs of disembarkation, and his figure stopped on the screen, with the blue sky and ocean in the background, no close-up expressions, only slow motion pauses, as if the whole world was holding its breath , waiting for his arrival. And what you waited for was just a farewell, a hat spinning in the air. The talented pianist twisted into the boat and refused the invitation of the world. Let the hat fly across the strait to a metropolis wider than the sea and noisier than the cabin.
Although the ships on the sea are not the legendary Utopia and Peach Blossom Land, but more people can't even find such a temporary shelter. Desire, gradually lost himself. Have you ever seen a drowning person desperately grabbing every object they pass by? For the genius Mr. Ripley, the life-saving straw is Dick, the son of the ship king.
beggar and prince
"The Genius Ripley" is the most famous series of novels by the famous American suspense novelist Highsmith. Ripley, the protagonist in the book, lost both his parents when he was a child, and was raised by his aunt who lived in Boston. Living under a fence made Ripley more and more introverted and gloomy in his youth, and gradually grew a dark and rebellious mentality in his heart. He eventually left his aunt and went out alone, but without a background or foreign aid, he did not find a decent job. He first worked odd jobs around, and because his body was far from being strong enough to withstand hard physical labor, he ended up living alone in New York. He lived a life of no fixed place in the market, but his extraordinary computing ability and gifted imitation ability finally gave him a chance to change his life: a rich man approached him and hoped to pay him to travel to Europe and Italy To persuade his only son, Dick, who refused to return to the United States to come home. At this point Ripley was down and out and was starting to experiment with scams. The opportunity offered by Mr. Greenleaf is well placed. Saying goodbye to an unbearable old life, Ripley embarks on a journey of destiny. He spends other people's money to live in first class, and enjoys first-class meals. Everything seems to be a dream. He found Dick and his girlfriend Maggie, who lived in a fishing village in Italy, and went to great lengths to live in Dick's house. Ripley sees Dick and realizes that he looks very much like Dick. The only difference is their fate. Dick was a pampered young man who, in order to escape his family responsibilities and "find himself", lived the quiet life he wanted, refused to go back to the United States, and tried to succeed in painting, despite his parents' old age and even his mother suffering from Terminally ill, thinking of children anxiously. At the beginning, Ripley and Dick got along well, but Maggie got in the way, and Dick became alert to Ripley. Seeing that his expectations of living with Dick were shattered, Ripley became angry and suddenly wanted to kill. on their last outing together. Ripley tricked Dick into the sea, brutally killed Dick on board, and wrecked the ship. After that, the story of chasing and fleeing began. Ripley used various tactics to repeatedly escape police investigation. In the meantime, he killed Dick's friend Freddie while revealing the secret, and then forged Dick's signature and will, permanently deceiving Dick's entire estate.
After the beggar and the prince in the fairy tale exchanged clothes, no one recognized the original self again. The real world turned out to be the same: the beggar turned and became a prince. More like a prince than a prince.
Humanity under the Lens
Compared with the original book, the interpretation of the film is different. In the short story of 2 hours and 05 minutes, we see an embarrassed and lonely young man working humbly to make a living. The piano seems to be the only bright color in his life, but The elegant sound of the piano is incompatible with the noisy basement environment. The young man's heart seems to have unlimited desires, but he can only rush around the venue with piano accompaniment all day long, until he meets the ship king, and a clothes from a famous school that he accidentally borrowed makes him. Because of a misunderstanding, I have won the praise and trust of the shipbuilder. I think the happiest moments in Ripley's life, the most eloquent encounters are when they are regarded as "other people", whether it is an elite of a famous school. Still a playboy Dick, the feeling of playing someone else is really very happy, spending other people's money, living in other people's mansions, liking other people's music, imitating other people's suave. As if he was reborn, he transformed instantly, with gestures and demeanor. And as the film progresses, his inner world, a dark and twisted space, is revealed to the audience for the first time. When Dick and Ripley were boating in the Mediterranean, when Dick ran out of patience and rudely drove Ripley home, Ripley desperately expressed his love to Dick, but Dick just shouted: "You are bored to death, It's a parasite." This sentence should be referring to Ripley's pain point, not only rejecting his "love", ending the life he longed for, but also seeing his hypocritical nature. So Ripley misses and hurts Dick, Ripley fights with Dick, Ripley kills Dick fiercely, Ripley curls up in Dick's arms, the red blood spreads under him like a baby's wrap . As Ripley later said: "You can keep the past in the basement, lock the door of your heart, and never think about it. Until you meet your sweetheart, give him the key, let him unlock the lock of your heart, and walk into your Atrium, but you can't do it, because your heart is too dark, you hide your inner demons, and you don't want people to see your ugliness." The door to Mr. Ripley's heart was never opened again. He is like a clown dancing on a golden thread, trading his soul with the devil. And what we spectators are looking forward to with relish: it's just the process of his tragic death. Who can see the despair and sadness before his grim expression? People who kill are the most vulnerable.
Director Anthony Minghella said of Ripley's casting: "Matt Damon was amazing in Good Will Hunting, but he couldn't remind me of Ripley at the time. He talked about the movie script for a long time in New York, he had unique insights, the resonance of the script coincided with mine, and I immediately felt that he was the Ripley I was looking for.”
It is precisely because of the director and actor Their persistent pursuit makes the whole film have a unique charm that is independent of the original work and an amazing and heart-wrenching power.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the corner of Dick is played by the handsome man Qiu Diluo, whose decadent and uninhibited charm is also very eye-catching.
Who lives in your heart?
There is a comic "Parasitic Beast", which tells the story of alien creatures invading human beings by parasitizing the human body. One of the parasitic beasts said before his death: "The happiest thing is to stand in front of a mirror and imitate human beings. "The Pretender" is also very impressive to me. It's about a little boy who runs out of a laboratory and is trained to be a genius pretender who can be anything he wants. become the role. Hipster racers, majestic cops, and more. The protagonist in the play has occupied my inner idol status for 5 years, spanning the entire middle school stage. Whether it is a mysterious alien creature or a genius idol who can change identities every day, they have become the excitement in my lonely heart, helping me to complete the infinite reverie of experiencing other people's lives. Thinking about it now, there must have been a lot of people living in my heart at that time. Many years have passed, people like him have come and gone, some new ones live in and some old ones go out. Only one figure remains the same, sometimes very familiar and sometimes unfamiliar. The face became clearer and clearer, and when I looked back, I realized that it was me.
And Ripley must always have Dick in his heart, but he expelled himself.
I would like to write this article in memory of Anthony Minghella, director and screenwriter of "The Genius Ripley" who just passed away. He was also the director of "The English Patient", "Cold Mountain" and "Deconstructed Life".
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