Continuing this dynamic film "Elegy" premiered in Berlin on the 10th, based on Philip Roth's epic novel "The Dying Flesh", in addition to the novel's mockery of the flesh and male power, and director Isabel Cossey A special sigh of love.
Ben Kingsley plays David, an aging professor who is a cultural critic and part-time university student. An old man like David, with charming eyes, a graceful figure, and great knowledge. His weapon is the imprint left by the years after his body and mind have been polished. He is proficient in all the eighteen martial arts of hooking up with women - good at classical poetry, painting analysis and playing the piano, and he is gentle with women.
The whole film unfolds from David's point of view, telling about a love game that spans the age gap between him and the female student Consula (Penelope). He was obsessed with Kang Sura's body, bewitched by her youthful aura. But because David was unwilling to meet with Consula's relatives and friends to establish their official relationship, Consula resolutely left him. When Consula appeared, she was already suffering from cancer, and she asked David to take a set of nude photos of herself...
In the love competition between the two, David was always in the position of taking the initiative to dabble, and he used his charm to open Consula's body, and Kangsula surrendered under the attack of the old man. It can be said that in the middle of the film, Penelope only exists as a symbol of carnal desire, and her inner feelings and feelings are not involved. But, in the scene where Kangsula left David, she poured out her love and despair for David on the phone. In an instant, she had absolute dominance, and the relationship between the two was instantly subverted. When Consula appeared, her request led to a renewed relationship between the two.
David is an American who experienced sexual liberation in the 1960s, and his distrust and infidelity in his marriage led to the disintegration of the family, and his son broke off with him. They reconcile because of Consula's illness.
Interestingly enough, David had an old lover before Consula. Two women of different ages have vast differences in the texture and firmness of their skin, the enchanting curves of their bodies, and the charm of their facial features. But the young woman is always seduced statically, and the camera captures the beauty of her limbs; on the contrary, the aged one is swaying and discharging in front of the camera. Irony is obvious.
Ben Kingsley plays David, a very mature and charming old man, with ease, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is himself. In addition to being charming, he is inferior and selfish at heart, and devoted to wrestling with women. Penelope is far from the traditional Lolita image, and her sensuality attracts men's attention more than Lolita's thinness. She shows off her beautiful breasts and slender legs without shyness in the film, and the fine hair and small wrinkles around her mouth are more sexy and unique. After her illness, her performance felt reborn, from a completely symbolic image to a woman with active consciousness and behavior who needed love and fought against the disease.
The atmosphere of the film is deep and quiet, and the movement of the mirror is calm. Especially the fantasy passages of David, which are smooth and profound. David gradually became obsessed with Consula, his subconscious jealousy grew, and the old fantasy Consula had an affair with other young men. As soon as he closed his eyes, he saw that his woman was entangled with other young men. Before the sudden change in the relationship between the two, he could not bear the strange eyes from Kangsuola's relatives and friends in his imagination. He was trapped in the demonic barriers of jealousy and self-confidence, and fantasy passages outlined the vulnerability of his subconscious.
Elegy, or the dying body, means that the woman in love will eventually leave the world due to illness, and the living man will eventually grow older due to the death of the lover. Obviously, the director believed in love, so he asked David to find Consula on the sick bed. I can hear her sigh at the end of the film, for the dying of the flesh, but also for the eternity of love. Zhao Jing/Text
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