Because it is a too personal film, it may be much closer to one's own inner experience than "The Tree of Life", so it is likely that there are only people with similar spiritual and emotional experience, or people who have watched such an experience from the sidelines ( An angle such as Malik's in this film) can produce a mixed urge to be infected. People with different worldviews cannot be expected to be emotionally invested in To the Wonder's complete emotional framework. But I think it is still possible to rationally understand the intention of this film, especially since it also touches on the predicaments that each of us encounters, consciously and unconsciously, more or less.
1. The key background comes from the introduction of IMDB. Malik met a girl named Michèle Morette in France in the 1980s, married her and returned to Texas. The two divorced in 1998. Therefore, the leap-forward journey described in To the Wonder, the life and shuttle between Paris and Texas, as well as the delicate situational entanglements in it, are all based on real inner experiences in reality. In the words of IMDB, this is another semi-autobiographical big-screen work by Malik.
2. Because of the special form, is it like the perception of many people, there is no difference between watching one minute and one hundred and twenty minutes? Or is there still an inner emotional cognitive circuit that gradually unfolds like a cocoon?
The entry into the film's true intentions probably came from my biggest puzzlement the first time I watched it: Bardem's priest. What is the role of this character? He lingered at the door of a poor family in the parish, tried to enter several times and finally walked away sadly; he left the gleeful wedding of the newlyweds he presided over; Desperate minds, in the prisoner's mania, try to pray for his detachment; especially crucially, in the final moments of the film, when Ben Affleck is about to finally separate from Olga Kurylenko, we see him finally and Ben gathered in the room—and now he seemed no longer perplexed by his feeble sermons and prayers, but silenced instead. In a voice-over he murmurs: "God is in my body". . . Is it a description or an anticipation with confusion and despair?
3. The key to understanding the role of the priest lies in the heroine played by Olga.
In fact, she is the absolute center of the film, and one of the core purposes of the entire film is to try to create a unique psychological statue of Olga. And this shaping process is finally completed at the end of the film: she wakes up in the early morning wilderness, confused and sleepy, but infected by the unfettered freedom of the wilderness that follows; she sticks out her tongue and licks the branches of the branches. Dewdrops, walking and jumping lightly in the sunlight, nothing can stop her from moving aimlessly with a stubborn and cruel expression. The only thing she may be concerned about is that she can look back at the moment. She worked briefly with Ben at the Mont-Saint-Michel castle. But that was just a glimpse before leaving.
Olga's near-vacuum state of mental freedom at the end of the film is in stark contrast to her presence throughout the rest of the film: an image of herself perplexed. She looks warm and happy, looking forward to a stable life, the happy experience she and Ben Affleck had in Paris at the Mont Saint Michel Castle, the fixed life in Texas gradually brought her boredom, and after returning to Paris Facing the loneliness, melancholy, despair, and yearning for seeking dependence in material life, the hope and expectation that once placed on the child itself gradually fell apart after returning to Texas and Ben Affleck after marrying him (marriage). Out-of-body encounters, a couple of lost states on Texas wide highways) … blah blah blah. This is a person whose inner cravings and desires are too strong and multiple, so he cannot clearly know what he needs in most of the entire film: dependence, affection, family affection, physical desire or spiritual freedom, these The contradictory directions stimulated her senses and inner desires at the same time, causing her to constantly send contradictory messages to the people around her, making all kinds of emotional expressions that are completely paradoxical. Only near the end of the film, the crazy Spanish-speaking gypsy woman begins to constantly stimulate Olga's hidden inner wild and unrestrained side. Only then did she gradually understand what she could not give up in her nature, that is, not to join any human group or real life, but to run along the freedom in the wilderness forever. This is her kind of personality - a person whose nature is always wandering, a person who always has a strong desire to see newer and more beautiful scenery on the journey, a person whose desire is always to leave (as she said to Ben at the beginning: "Just together It's just a short walk") - the only way to finally get out (and possibly escape yourself in reality).
4. It should be emphasized that this film is an absolutely subjective film. This perspective comes from Ben Affleck, Malik's double in the film.
In fact, attracted to women like Olga, he was caught in a huge paradox. He was magnetized by the latter's irresistible energy and charisma (the parts of the film that describe Olga's dynamism are definitely the best, on the train, at Mont Saint-Michel, the ballet dance, the crazy in the supermarket chasing, etc., etc.), has been unable to extricate himself, she is the only spiritual comfort he can rely on in the indifferent real life (oil, polluted water, dusty construction site); but on the other hand, he is used to The way of life, the way of expressing emotions, and the cognition of the key points of life are all incompatible with Olga. While he provides Olga with a shoulder to rely on, he is completely unable to meet her inner spiritual and emotional expectations. He held out a saving hand to Olga, but it was not at all what the latter needed. For her own inner needs and desires, she must and can only leave.
Olga's two departures left him with a void that he couldn't fill: the first time he tried to be with a woman he met in the hospital, but he found that he was completely unimpressed by such ordinary people. The void of his second departure is something he can't get out of his head - the film ends with a few very brief but tragically powerful shots of Ben Affleck: he walks across the room into the courtyard in the sun, The child in the courtyard disappears in a flash behind the arch leaving the courtyard empty - a gigantic pallor of loss leaps across the screen for a few seconds (magical strokes!).
5. Faced with such an irreplaceable void and irretrievable loss, what does Ben Affleck hope to accomplish? What ordinary people can generate is actually an unquenchable feeling of resentment. However, Malik, who was deeply influenced by religious complexes, had a side that was higher than ordinary people's understanding - the priest played by Bardem runs through the whole film, going around such a big circle of spiritual demands. The character of the priest is because of Olga's extreme The endless pain left behind by a particular way of behavior finds its meaning.
If I understand correctly, Baldun and Ben Affleck are actually two aspects of the same soul: on a worldly level, Ben is tormented by the void in his life that he has given everything for, but he doesn't want to put this void Converted to a rage of resentment; thus on a spiritual level he realized that even if he could not understand Olga, he could still try to pursue the tolerance and even the tolerance expressed in the divinity, if possible, to a lost Those who are in desire, give the hand of salvation. And it is precisely for the same purpose that Baldun tries in the film to respond proactively to the face of hardship, poverty and sin that erases one's personal attitude. (This is also why the few times the priest appears in the film is precisely the moment when Olga starts to turn away from Ben Affleck. At this moment, Ben's inner confusion is extremely obvious, and he needs Baldun to appear. To heal the pain, resentment and hatred that stirred up in the heart, I hope to replace it with understanding tolerance)
6. But Malik is a rare creator with a very sincere attitude. He will not leave such a question to God like some so-called "authors" who advocate false emptiness and leave the suffering person with a vacant and pale psychological relief. He realized that a person's desire for tolerance and whether or not tolerance is achieved are two completely different things. Therefore, Barden desperately questioned himself the position of God in his heart at the end of the film. He felt deeply that he was powerless in the face of pain, hatred, sin and despair. Even tolerant forgiveness can't be done. And what Baldun's confusion returns to Ben Affleck is a greater confusion, which means that the latter can never be freed from the emotions that linger on the two levels, can never let go of himself, and can never complete his dealings with others (Olga ) process of tolerance and salvation. That's the intent of the silent meeting between Ben and Bardem at the end. Sad void and pain will forever wander between resentment and tolerance within oneself while giving freedom to the deeply emotional characters he has endowed. Man cannot attain divinity, because in the face of God, none of this would have happened in the first place. And all this is destined to become a tolerance with only concept but no touch and a wishful but half-way rescue.
This is the tragic part of what the final film wants to show in its entirety.
To the Wonder is a huge chapter in the history of private relationships.
First of all, it perfectly created the image of a woman drifting away from the world, expressing infinite admiration and admiration for her (Michèle Morette must be such a charming character), and she has chosen the path of spiritual freedom. Give maximum tolerance to understanding (the film ends with Olga's extremely dissociative but intoxicating state, Malik expresses a very complex vision of Olga's character in this concise combination of shots, he is aware of the character's self-seeking The coldness brought to the other - Olga's eccentric, bewildered indifference, and he realized what it meant for her own whole body - the lightness of freedom in the sun). Because such characters, from the most realistic perspective, are likely to end tragically in the real world, but they still have great significance for the external world.
But at the same time, appearing as a bystander and an experiencer, especially from the perspective of a real-life flesh-and-blood person, stabbed by a double-edged sword such as the opponent's personal "freedom" and inner desire, After being left in the blank by loneliness, Malik made the most sincere emotional expression of the emotional torture he suffered, and his inner desire to transcend the torture and pain of "tolerance".
This is a gorgeous visual adoration for a soul that is outside all human groups, who is gentle on the outside but reliant on the outside, but wild and yearns for freedom on the inside. From the perspective.
From the point of view of film creation, Malik found such a simple, direct and bloody form to perfectly carry it with his natural inspiration and eye-popping talent for such a subject that is extremely delicate and complex and difficult to understand. . It's not really just the word "genius" that can be summed up simply. Admiration can only be expressed with admiration and admiration.
There are still many things that can be analyzed and discussed about the film's gorgeous form, technique and the characteristics of the film itself. Of course this is another huge topic.
This article is just a clue to a personal understanding of this extremely personal emotional history.
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