Teenage Women and Dying Flesh

Libby 2022-03-25 08:01:01

Spanish female director Isabel Cosette had two famous works before, namely "Days Without Me" and "The Secret Life of Words". Both films, starring Sarah Polley, deal with the conflict between love and death from a female perspective. "Elegy" continues the female theme of Cosette's previous works, but the first-person narrative is replaced by a male. The film is adapted from the novel "The Dying Flesh" by American writer Philip Roth, and it has a lot of influence after its release. The original book has inevitable sexual descriptions, but it focuses more on describing the life and emotions of the old professor, reflecting on his life and past.

The focus of "Elegy" is naturally an old professor and a female student who cross the age gap, a sensual relationship that is unacceptable to ordinary people. This is the first impression of the film. The old professor once kept himself clean, but was bewitched by the beauty of the female student. But the audience, like his rationality, is not optimistic about the enthusiasm and future of this relationship. In other words, let’s not talk about age differences and different backgrounds. Nine times out of ten, the relationship between men and women at this starting point can only be used as a good memory. Like ordinary people caught in the game, the old professor can talk freely and read the masterpieces of his predecessors, but he still has difficulties in basic emotional issues. He does not have a complete family and is very indifferent to his relatives. He has a constant lover who happens to be his schoolgirl from twenty years ago.

The old professor had no confidence in the relationship between the two, but he couldn't restrain his curiosity and possessiveness towards the female student-he was afraid that she would find a young boyfriend and that she would leave. The old professor's worries were justified. His age and gray hair showed that his youth was no longer there, and his thoughts on girls were even more unpredictable. Maybe it was her curiosity that led to the encounter. This suspicion made him lost, thinking that the relationship would not last long. Until one day, the girl wanted him to go to a family party, the old professor made his instinctive judgment response. When he really lost, the old professor just wanted to comfort himself, and did not take the initiative to explain or retain it, as if this long-awaited end was doomed.

"Elegy" pays great attention to similar psychological descriptions, and there are a lot of fantasy images in the performance of the old professor. In the way of narration, some secret conversations between old professors and friends and the content of TV programs are constantly interspersed, revealing his ideological values ​​and making the central character more vivid and three-dimensional. From a movie perspective, themes of aging and dying are not uncommon, and it is not an easy thing to do how the text can be imaged and still retain its original flavor. However, the film is biased in some key areas. Penelope Cruz, a Spanish national treasure, plays the role of a female college student. Although she has the enthusiasm of a Latin woman and her charm is still there, compared with the 24-year-old female student in the original book, Still somewhat old-fashioned. Ben Kingsley, who is also nominated for an Oscar, played well, fully revealing the old professor's loss and helplessness. He grows old day by day, has an irresistible sense of powerlessness, and can only gain the desire for youth and life in girls in disguise.

Cosette is also too emotional in dealing with the plot. For example, the way of promoting the plot is too simple, relying entirely on personal subjective narration, tends to babble, and lacks enough atmosphere. The piano in the film expresses his sincere feelings, and the use of photography to remember the best and most beautiful moments in life includes showing the obsession with the female carcass itself, which is somewhat formalized. The time at the seaside and the ending point also appeared in many similar films. The act of retouching and painting will not affect the audience's judgment of the protagonist's likes and dislikes. Simply put, the relationship between them is not complicated, or even just dislocated and monotonous. With the power of daily life, it cannot be changed. Only by making mistakes and the accidental influence of life can the old professor understand what he has lost. 【Beijing Youth Daily】

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Extended Reading
  • Axel 2022-03-26 09:01:15

    When she cut off her breast because of breast cancer, he finally felt that he would no longer be anxious. He felt that the two of them were equal and could think of the future. But in my opinion, this is just an excuse for men, equality is not equal, together or apart, it is because of themselves and not because of each other.

  • Letitia 2022-04-02 09:01:14

    This female director always drags the show

Elegy quotes

  • David Kepesh: [interview on the Charlie Rose show] We're not all descended from the Puritans.

    Charlie Rose: No?

    David Kepesh: There was another colony 30 miles from Plymouth, it's not on the maps today. Marymount it was called.

    Charlie Rose: Yeah, alright, you mention in your book...

    David Kepesh: The colony where anything goes, went.

    Charlie Rose: There was booze...

    David Kepesh: here was booze. There was fornication. There was music. There was... they even ah, ah, ah, you name it, you name it. They even danced around the maypole once a month, wearing masks, worshiping god knows what, Whites and Indians together, all going for broke...

    Charlie Rose: Who was responsible for all of this?

    David Kepesh: A character by the name of Thomas Morton.

    Charlie Rose: Aah, the "Hugh Hefner" of the Puritans.

    David Kepesh: You could say that. I'm going to read you a quote of what the Puritans thought of Morton's followers: 'Debauched bacchanalians and atheists, falling into great licentiousness, and leading degenerate lives'. When I heard that, I packed my bags, I left Oxford, and I came straight to America, America the licentious.

    Charlie Rose: So what happened to all of those people?

    David Kepesh: Well, the Puritans shot them down. They sent in Miles Standish leading the militia. He chopped down the maypole, cut down those colored ribbons, banners, everything; party was over

    Charlie Rose: And we became a nation of straight-laced Puritans.

    David Kepesh: Well...

    Charlie Rose: Isn't that your point though? The Puritans won, they stamped out all things sexual... how would you say it?

    David Kepesh: Sexual happiness.

    Charlie Rose: Exactly. Until the 1960s.

    David Kepesh: Until the 1960s when it all exploded again all over the place.

    Charlie Rose: Right, everyone was dancing around the maypole, then, make love not war.

    David Kepesh: If you remember, only a decade earlier, if you wanted to have sex, if you wanted to make love in the 1950s, you had to beg for it, you had to cop a feel.

    Charlie Rose: Or... get married.

    David Kepesh: As I did in the 1960s.

    Charlie Rose: Any regrets?

    David Kepesh: Plenty. Um, but that's our secret. Don't tell anybody.

    [laughter]

    David Kepesh: That's just between you and me.

  • George O'Hearn: Life always keeps back more surprises than we could ever imagine.