Such a prominent and rich life is real and substantial to Jasmine. [Note 2] The "real" life belonging to Jasmine is constructed by the standard framework of the capital market for measuring people's "success": private villas that cover a large area, custom-made designer clothing, luxurious and casual lifestyle, access to luxury children of high school. These rules and regulations of the capital market have become the standard for measuring the value of people's lives. While demarcating people's classes, they regulate and affirm people's way of life to a certain extent. (the other) made derogatory comments and labels. Jasmine is thus a victim - the only possible and substantial life for her is the life of a rich wife.
Yes, whether it is Jasmine who was a rich wife in the past, or Jasmine who defected to Ginger after falling out, he has always lived in a self-created illusory life. In order to maintain the real life she understands, she would rather ignore her ex-husband's deceptive investment time and time again, and only be a signatory; she would rather not care about the occasional Ginger who visits her to point out her husband's cheating, and maintain a decent The perfect marriage... As Ginger puts it in the movie: "When Jasmine doesn't want to see something, she turns her head the other way." In this self-created perfect life, she runs away from reality while She enjoys the pleasure and pleasure of the vision: her family's fortune is increasing day by day, her marriage to her husband is flawless, she is proud of her son's excellence, and herself, New York The organizer of the most successful social gathering, the omnipotent perfect rich wife.
Sadly, when she fell to the bottom and went to Ginger, Jasmine couldn't control herself to bring her lost past into real life by talking to herself, and spurned everything in real life (Present) at the same time. Become an incompetent who is crushed by real life. Nostalgia for the past allows the ego to weave a web of illusion. While ranting about her own poverty and whiteness, she sat in an "unbearable" state-of-the-art cabin with LV's luggage and paid a large tip to the taxi driver. Unable to face her ex-husband's suicide in prison, she insisted on calling him "husband" rather than "ex-husband." She talks all the time about the extravagant life she used to enjoy: delicious Parisian chocolate cake, familiar Mexican embassy ambassadors, social gatherings... Jasmine keeps herself indulging in the visions of the past by babbling, which seems to be her self-liberation The method has also become the driving force for her to face the tragic reality. At the same time, Jasmine struggles with self-contradiction in reality: she spurns Ginger's boyfriend, who easily classifies him as a loser. She mocked Ginger's tastes and choices, arguing that Ginger should have made friends with important people instead of wasting his life on losers. She scoffed at Ginger's work as a cashier in a store, believing that she didn't work hard enough to end up like this; but at the same time, she refused to go to a real school to learn interior decoration, instead she chose to acquire skills in a virtual network, but she was proficient in everyone His computer operation is completely incompetent, and he can only delay his further study plan again and again. And when she had to be a receptionist in a private clinic that she didn't like, she was busy with her daily work, and was derelict in her work. Like the wealthy wives in Martin's report in The New York Times, due to her long-term self-isolation, she lost the basic skills to live in society, while also building her self-worth on a male attachment.
In this way, Jasmine, who could not accept the reality, finally entered the social circle of the substantial local celebrities under the introduction of friends, and was lucky enough to befriend a decent and wealthy man. In order to return to the luxurious life of the past by virtue of her intimate relationship with this man, she did not hesitate to fabricate lies one after another, making the future based on a series of falsehoods. Unsurprisingly, Woody Allen once again shattered the beautiful illusion that Jasmine was about to embrace. Her lies are exposed face to face by Ginger's ex-husband, and in an instant, she loses her upcoming marriage and life in high society.
Jasmine, who indulges in false illusions, is destined to be a tragedy. When her ex-husband's derailment and betrayal were brought to the fore, she had to face the failure of her perfect marriage. In the impulse of revenge, she called the FBI to report her husband, thus completely losing her marriage. property, her husband and son. Contrast that with the son of "wanna the past past" ('wanna the past past'), in order to pursue the same future as the past, Jasmine does not hesitate to fabricate lies to deceive love and marriage. And when she finally faced Ginger who reunited with her loser boyfriend, she once again weaved false illusions about Ginger in an attempt to support her false dignity. However, when she walked on the street alone, she no longer had the object of revenge and the ability to take revenge. She became a person who really had nothing, a person with only an illusory past, no present and no future.
Martin concluded his report by saying, "The wives of these cosmic masters, as far as I know, are more like mistresses - dependent on men and relatively powerless at the same time. Just to feel this power imbalance, put them The abyss that separates rights as understood from those of their husbands may keep a thoughtful woman awake all night.”[3]
In my opinion, Woody Allen, through this film, reminds millions of viewers that they are asking a question about their own lives: what is the real and the substantial that belongs to them? Is it an illusory perfect marriage or relationship created to satisfy ego's vanity? Is it fame or fortune? Is it the so-called secular way of life? Is it someone else's approval or self-affirmation? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to any proposition, but as the film's end suggests, it could be tragic if the real truth is lost.
Note 1: Original article description: “The women… were mostly 30-somethings with advanced degrees from prestigious universities and business schools. They were married to rich, powerful men”, The New York Times, May 16, 2015.
Note 2: Jasmine uses the word Substantial several times in the movie, which has a double meaning. In my opinion, on the one hand, it points to the importance of prominence according to the context in the movie, and on the other hand, it has the metaphorical meaning of "true".
Note 3: Original text: "The Wives of the masters of the universe, I learned, are a lot like mistresses – dependent and comparatively disempowered. Just sensing the disequilibrium, the abyss that separates her version of power from her man's might keep a thinking woman up at night.”
View more about Blue Jasmine reviews
