"Women of Power" is the work of the famous American underground experimental film director John Cassavetes in 1974. This film was nominated for the Oscar for best director, and the director played the heroine Mabel in the film. His wife, the famous actress Gina Rowlands, was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscar for this film. Not only that, but the film also won the actress successive Golden Globe Awards, National Critics Association, A string of best actress laurels at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and the Kansas Film Critics Awards. The film describes a series of twists and turns of an ordinary blue-collar couple in the United States, from various disputes and fission, fierce fighting and confrontation, which were led by trivial life and unsatisfactory life, to the inexplicable sudden reconciliation at the end. The title of the film is "A woman under the influence", which is literally translated as "The Influenced Woman", but it has another Chinese name called "The Woman under the Influence". Of course, this translation is a bit different from the literal translation, but I More inclined to "Women Under Power": First of all, the word power is oppressive and coercive, which can better reflect the plight of Maeb; The direction of the force exerted by the film can be clearly defined.
Meb the Chameleon:
The Meb family all have their own plights. The opening scene shows her husband Nick, a blue-collar worker, wading in a river to work. This scene sets the tone for the entire film. Like this fast-flowing river, people are staggering and struggling in it. The three children who jumped out suddenly, the dining room and the bedroom in the cramped and cramped residence, the old and tired Mayb, the busy and dirty husband day and night, the easily ruined couple's night, a lot of early morning visits and hungry stomachs A man on a roll, a mother who is ill and needs to be taken care of... Whether it's Meb or Nick, they are poor creatures under the weight of this heavy life, and they have little time to rest, let alone a chance to breathe .
Meb was crushed by life and began to become hysterical, like an ant on a hot pan, unable to find a place where he could find satisfaction and peace. Angrily and repressed, she struggles to play roles, and her inability to hide her boredom, resentment, anger, depression, and loneliness terrifies the characters and circumstances she needs to please and serve. From an empty and unbearable mistress who sneaks fun at night and deliberately forgetful in the morning, to a good wife who can take care of a dozen men at the same time to eat at the same time, she sends three children away and can't wait to be alone with her husband, but when she is alone, her love has long since dissipated; She rolled over from the empty bed, turned into a hysterical mother, anxiously and affectionately welcomed her children, but could not handle the relationship with the parents of the children in the neighborhood, she was misunderstood and beaten, and turned into a cunning and evasive The mentally ill tried to use the name of love to escape punishment, but she was not a professional actress after all, so she could not hide her condemnation and hatred for her husband, which made her husband finally decide to force her to stay in a mental hospital and suffer inhuman electroshock therapy; When she returned home, she was full of grievances and became a strong and unyielding female fighter, but her relatives and friends left one after another. Behind her were three weak boys. She had to deal with her husband's ruthless fists and scolding with bare hands and blood. Submissive submission and becoming a wife who is in tune with her husband seems to be the only way she can save herself from being sent to a mental hospital and be reunited with her children.
Gina dedicates the best character performance behind this character, expressing the complex and fickle heart of the character, the need to please others, and the hatred and distortion that have been suppressed in the heart for a long time, through the rich and exaggerated similar to the close-up stage play Expressions and body language are revealed one by one in an orderly manner. Meibu is sometimes bitter and cursed, sometimes pitiful, sometimes gentle and beautiful, sometimes crazy and arrogant, sometimes ugly and sometimes beautiful, sometimes female and sometimes male. The audience sometimes pitied her, sometimes feared her, sometimes sympathized with her, and sometimes puzzled. In addition to being immersed in Gina's clever, complex and vivid performances, they could feel the mists shrouded in human nature and appreciate the deceitfulness and fickleness of the human heart.
Meib likes to listen to classical music. She dances to the classical music and expresses her yearning for freedom, egoism and selflessness. However, she has always been unable to break away from her various heavy roles and is firmly nailed to the mud of real life. On the board; trying to get rid of it can only lead to the denial and resentment of others, causing damage to her own. When she speaks for her own rights, no one thinks she is normal. On the contrary, everyone thinks that she abandons the role she should play and rebels against her husband's humiliating traditions, which is crazy.
When husband Nick and his mother find their young daughter Maria running around naked, Nick's mother accuses Meb of failing to fulfill her mother's obligations; and Nick finds her sitting on a bed with a male neighbor, and he takes it from a The good husband who endured his wife's madness suddenly ripped his face into a violent and powerful man. He attacked Meib without hesitation, scolded her, misunderstood her, distrusted her, and once again caused Meib's chaotic and fragile body and mind to be betrayed and hurt . The failure to perform the dual roles of mother and wife sent Meb to a mental hospital. The audience originally sympathized with Nick's experience, but as he gradually lost patience and tolerance towards Meb: from the initial public reprimand to the relentless use of violence at the end, we re-examine this man who endured humiliation and realize that he is arbitrary. cold heart. After Meib was sent to a mental hospital, Nick had to play the role of a temporary mother, struggling to take care of the three children. At this time, he experienced Meib's heavy family tasks and realized the essence of Meib's daily life. Exhausted, but this did not make him understand his wife, but only forced him to wait more eagerly for her to return home, and did not hesitate to abuse her, so as to force her to return to her family duties obediently and take care of the family. Responsibility.
Chameleon fights back:
Meb, who returns home from a mental hospital, does not recover, instead, months of electroshock therapy and isolation from loved ones fuel her hatred and loneliness. There was a welcome meeting when she returned home, and she explicitly requested her father's assistance, but her parents sat idly by and left; when she and her husband were the only ones left, she was like a desperate dog, full of humiliation and anger, and had to implement it. One last fight back.
In a small scene similar to an indoor drama, it is full of a sense of oppression, with extra tension and expressiveness, and the intricate interaction and confrontation of characters make this climax full of gongs and drums, ups and downs, and tightly attracts the attention of the audience. This is Mayb's last-ditch effort. She reprimanded her husband, attacked him, and fled and evaded, like a she-wolf who fought back. She tried to defend herself and to protect the children. She stood on the sofa and danced in an attempt to free herself and rescue herself mentally, but was knocked to the ground by her husband with a precise punch.
The children acted as the mother's entourage in this family war. In their eyes, the mother was so lonely and pitiful. The director expressed his assistance to Meib through the rescue of the children. The children are pulling their violent fathers and chasing and defending their desperate mothers. At this moment, only they can see and feel the mother's collapse and injuries. The door is closed, outsiders will never intervene in family disputes, and the mother has no other savior. The weak they guarded the stumbling mother, ran and cried among the parents who became enemies; the son tried to resist the strong father and shook his fist at him. Although these efforts were minimal, the whole scene was so shocking and moving .
Only at that moment can we wake up to how isolated and helpless Meb has always been. She is so weak and weak that only the weak are left to defend her. She cannot speak, exert force, and escape. She could only be dizzy and retreating, lying on the floor bleeding; but her husband, who no longer cared that she was a patient who had just returned from a mental hospital, became violent and fierce, and held a party the moment before to greet her return. People are different, and it is worth noting that Nick's Italian family background, many Italian families are characterized by "patriarchal" family traditions, which are very concretely reflected in "The Godfather". Nick's father is dead, but his mother, a strong, strong and rational woman, continues the family tradition and acts as a "paternalistic" image of Nick's family composition revision. In a family, there are actually a lot of power comparisons and battles between the strong and the weak. The relationship between the closest people is also treacherous, subtle and unpredictable. The strong is the master of the family, creating the rules of family life. He does not hesitate to receive money without merit, and accepts the unknown contributions of other family members. For the disobedient family members, he also has so many, so powerful. Such ruthless means to force them into submission, forcing them to undertake hard labor and obligations. And these wrists include physical violence as well as mental destruction. Husband Nick seems to be the victim of his wife's madness, but in fact, is he not the culprit of his wife's madness, and the first person to attack and hurt his wife?
Meb is also not a silent person willing to be humiliated. After being reprimanded by her husband in public, she still vented her dissatisfaction and resistance. She has her own logical and clever way of dealing with getting out of trouble. She uses one role and jumps into another. After her husband's confrontation is fruitless, she quickly exploits their love for each other. come to try to be rescued; when she fails, she changes her face, accusing others of madness, and she quickly tires of this series of flattering characters, tired of these tactics. The constant pressure and stimulation from the outside world made her repeat various tricks like a chameleon. She kept covering up and exposing her true heart; The voice; she kept reinventing and ripping apart her regular role; she kept running away, and couldn't help but return the blow, which came from her instinctive unwillingness and dignity. All kinds of emotions passed through Meib's face that was changing and almost distorted in an instant, aggravating the complexity and profundity of this woman, aggravating her madness and incomprehension, and deepening the misunderstanding and distance of others towards her, which led to her final of division and self-renunciation.
Gina performed a complex woman who didn't want to give up herself but wanted to please the environment, vividly and legendary. In life, each of us is a helpless chameleon, actively or passively changing the mask, sometimes the environment changes faster than our reaction, sometimes the change is slower than us; or our changes are not in harmony with the outside world, or Exactly the same. Of course, there are too few consistent times, and most of the time in life is in the process of difficult discoloration and tossing and adapting, which makes our life situation always unsatisfactory regardless of our success or failure. Change makes us adapt to the environment, and change also changes our heart; we change ourselves consciously or unconsciously, and we also change the environment unknowingly. Meib is a difficult woman to comment on. For a housewife whose life is closed, family may be her entire living space and meaning. She was tired, but found that she could never get rid of it; she wanted to get out, but found that she had no way out.
Notable endings:
Meb had to succumb to the tyrannical ideology and environment in order to survive and live in peace. From this level, we understand her as a woman, under her unpredictable appearance, the sad heart that has been unable to hold on to herself, and her profound passivity and loneliness. Therefore, we can understand the ending that many people can't understand: why after a fierce dispute and resistance, after calming the children to sleep, Maeb suddenly reconciled with her husband, and the two smiled and tacitly made the bed and went to bed. Like none of this happened. Because this is the side that the family wants her to show and what she wants to do; she resolutely returned to the family quickly and resolutely after experiencing various failures in resistance, succumbed to her husband, and became a virtuous "normal" wife. The chameleon, who can't break free from the cage, adapts to the environment and changes color in order to survive. And all the vigorous efforts she made before this turned into a farce that passed away silently.
So far, the story of a chameleon's resistance has come to an end. The director successfully analyzed this story that happened in a small living space, and successfully analyzed the many avatars and divisions of human nature in family life, deeply analyzed the subtle and complex multiple relationships and contradictions between the characters, and refracted and deduced the survival of society and family jungle. The tragicomedy of the law, the law of the jungle is indestructible, the order of life defined by the strong has a high weight, and the resistance from the pursuit of freedom and dignity is instinctive, but ultimately pays a heavy price. Giving in goes against the grain and giving up is so hard, but at times they are undoubtedly an effective path to liberation and peace.
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