This film is the first American film to be rated NC-17 after the president of the American Film Institute, Jack Valenti, announced in September 1990 that the X-level was abolished and the NC-17 level was added (not suitable for children under the age of 17). In this sense, the film occupies a certain place in the history of American cinema.
This is a biographical film in which the characters appear by their real names and their real circumstances or whereabouts are explained at the end.
Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American writer. Before he started writing, he worked in menial jobs such as cleaners, and also inherited his father's business as a tailor. In 1917, he married an older piano teacher, Beatrice Wickens, with whom he had a daughter. In the sixth year of their marriage, he met Joan in a ballroom. Joan is beautiful and full of lust, which makes Henry infatuated. When Beatrice found out about their relationship, Henry kicked Henry out of the house, but Henry remarried Joan and started writing. It didn't go well at first, though, and no one liked his work. Later, the two raised a sum of money to travel to Paris. In the artistic atmosphere of Paris, Henry continued to write and gradually became famous. In the winter of 1931, he met Annes Ning. His masterpiece "The Tropic of Cancer" (1934) is the result of his love with Annes. A close-up of the title appears in the film. They remained close until Annes' death in 1977. His works were banned in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1960s due to their sexually explicit descriptions, and were instead published in France. Judging from his private life, he is truly human. After his divorce from Joan in 1934, he had three wives.
Annes Ning (1903-1977) was born in Paris and loved writing since childhood. His father was a composer and his mother was a singer. Later, her father abandoned them, and her mother took her and two older brothers to New York to earn a living. Annes married banker Hugo Gilles at the age of 20. Two years later, Hugo was transferred to Paris, where she accompanied her, returning to her birthplace, where she met Henry. She wrote many novels in her life, but the most notable is her diary. We see her in the film sorting through these diaries between sex with Henry. Annes's diary collection, published after her death, depicts her strong attachment to Henry and Joan, which became the main basis for the screenplay.
Like many biopics, the film ends with subtitles explaining the circumstances or whereabouts of the main characters in the film: "Annes Ning wanted their stories to be made public after the death of the last survivor - Hugo."
"Hugo became a film director. His short films are now at the Museum of Modern Art, New York."
"The Tropic of Cancer was published in 1934 with the support of Annes Ning. The book was banned in all English-speaking countries for 27 years."
"Annes Ning and Henry Miller became lifelong friends and supported each other. Both have written many books about Joan."
"Joan became a social worker in Queens, New York."
This film is director Kaufman's another film dedicated to reflecting people's emotions and lust after "Heavy Floating Life", describing the awakening of a writer's lust. The film portrays a brilliant, informal, unconventional man, a demure, beautiful, lustful woman, and a striking, erotic, flamboyant woman. They are Henry, Annes and Jean. Annes is the central character of the film, and the whole story revolves around her. At the beginning of the film, the lovely image of Annes - a typical innocent girl image appeared. She was so sweet, touching, pure, and lovely that people couldn't associate her with "sexy," "sexy." But this outward beauty and inner lust unite in Annes. Through the portrayal of this image, the director convinces the audience that sex is an indispensable part of life. Annes stumbled across some hidden erotic photos in her apartment closet. This is Annes's first exposure to highly provocative pornographic material outside of the couple's normal sex life. These materials mobilize Annes' subconscious desire for abnormal sexuality, and make us feel that Annes' "sexual awakening" will become more and more unacceptable from now on. Then, in a study conversation, Henry saw the scene of an octopus and a naked woman entangled in love in the Japanese Ukiyo paintings collected by Annes. Although it flashed by, it heralded the madness of their future lust.
Crazy lust is the focus of the film's description. Freud believed that although eroticism has its physiological basis, it is also a psychological tendency in itself. In his view, the individual has two emotions, one is tender love, and the other is sensual impulse. Freud's theory of eroticism summarizes the basic ideas of psychoanalysis. Marcuse, a Western Marxist, pointed out that Freud's discourse on eroticism undoubtedly revealed many problems in the modern Western morbid society. Many Western film artists often regard eroticism as the theme of their creations. The film's portrayal of eroticism is as crazy and perverted as it is realistic and believable. Lust makes Henry and Joan marry, Lust makes Henry and Annes love, Lust makes Joan and Annes share the forbidden fruit of homosexuality, Lust makes Hugo deeply infatuated with Annes. The film is full of nudity and erotic scenes, and the depiction of normal and abnormal eroticism is displayed in front of the audience through the picture, giving the audience a strong sexual stimulation. For example, Henry and Annes had many fanatical sexual relations on different occasions, Joan taught Annes pornographic experience and slept with Annes, Annes and Hugo paid prostitutes to perform sex shows in brothels, Annes was raped but received Surprise pleasure and more. The film faithfully portrays Annes' most disgusting thoughts and her interpretation of sexual liberation ideals.
Henry and Annes have similar interests, both are obsessed with writing and indulge in eroticism. Joan is the model and the object of their lust, but from the appearance, Henry and Annes are completely different. Henry's bald, long-faced, unpretentious appearance, vulgar in speech, a lively Yankee image, while petite and delicate Annes is depicted as a demure and beautiful European lady. In the film, Annes expressed her inner voice through a voice-over, "He is like me". Where is the "like", the film does not clearly say. Apparently "like" in their shared fascination with literature and sexual thirst.
The role of Joan is the embodiment of lust in the film and holds a special place. Joan first appeared in a photo to impress Annes and then in an underground film to grieve Henry. The two appearances left the audience with the image of a coquettish woman. In the film, Joan suddenly appears in front of the audience like a ghost, and disappears like a ghost from the audience's eyes, just like the film fades in and out, giving people a sense of mystery, and each appearance of her not only strengthens the three of them. Lust deepens the contradiction between the three.
Hugo's infatuation with Annes was to the point of infatuation. As long as Annes asked, he would do it. Out of a dark psychological and jealous instinct, Annes asked Hugo to imagine her as Joan when he had sex with her, and he complied. In order to teach him pornography, Annes took him to a brothel to watch prostitutes have sex, and he accepted. In the film, Hugo is a lovable and pitiful character who actually becomes a stand-in for either Henry or Jean in the Henry, Annes, Jean love triangle, and of course Annes' fantasy stand-in.
The film received a cold reception in the United States, and its box office value was not high. An October 4, 1990, Los Angeles Times article commented: "Kaufman finds in actress Maria de Midiros a resemblance to Annes of her youth. Annes's The image is more memorable than her performance. She has the lovely girlishness of Lillian Gish in her youth, but lacks Lillian Gish's sturdiness and shrewdness. In the film, she plays Annes who becomes Pretty avant-garde ad girl. Fred Ward's Henry, on the other hand, is a dull, blunt, half gangster, half harlequin man. He likes Annes' fragile beauty. They go against each other and form a pair Lover. If Annes is inner space, Henry is outer space. Annes is like an Americanized European wife, and Henry is like a Europeanized American."
Although the film was unpopular in the United States, it received high reviews in France. This can only be answered from the differences in European and American cultural backgrounds and differences in aesthetic viewpoints. In the 1960s, Swedish, Italian and French films entered the United States. These serious films changed the traditional Hollywood-style narrative structure and appeared many subconscious dreams and complex flashbacks. After watching an Ingmar Bergman film, people debate which part is dreamy and which part is real (and the audience asks the same question in this film), and what the whole film is about ? Sexually, European films are also less restrictive and more revealing than Hollywood films. Fans of art films can be both spiritually enlightened and sensually stimulated. For a time, Hollywood directors were shooting European-style films. However, this is just another U.S. foray into extreme styles. Soon, with films like Star Wars, Hollywood was again catering to those eternal teenage audiences. It's no surprise that the film, as a personally stylized, beautifully photographed, and poetic European-style film, was not popular with American audiences and was favored by French audiences.
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