Unlike the black-and-white films I've seen from the golden age of Hollywood, "A Streetcar Named Desire" is all too real, both in its characters and in its setting.
For a long time, I was often "face blind" to the male protagonists in black and white films. They all wear suits with big backs, mustaches, tall, mighty, handsome, and more romantic and infatuated. It's hard for me to tell whether the male protagonists in each of Hitchcock's films, "Gone with the Wind", "Blue Bridge" and "Roman Holiday" are the same person. And the biggest difference is that some people grow older. Hollywood's standard for gentlemen is so consistent that the male actors in black and white films are always less distinctive than the female lead.
And Maran Brando's appearance in "A Streetcar Named Desire" is really eye-catching, giving up the decency and courtesy of a gentleman, giving people the most primitive and true sexual charm. So much so that Marlon Brando himself doesn't like this character, and admits that this character is just a "beast". This kind of sexy in the true sense makes even a straight girl like me feel heartbroken. The characters in the movie are also quite different from the usual movies. The male protagonist becomes a mechanic in an auto repair shop, and the story scene has changed from an orderly and decent house to a messy and dirty shabby house. The characters are mostly workers and women at the bottom. They speak loudly, act rudely, and have no sympathy. The communication between people is often violent and vulgar, as if returning to an uncivilized primitive society overnight. If the films before A Streetcar Named Desire were romantic fairy tales, this one is stark reality.
Like other films, Vivien Leigh is an absolute protagonist. The Blanche played by her has the strongest sense of drama and is a combination of all contradictions. Possess the decency and cultivation of a civilized person, but cannot get rid of the selfishness and hypocrisy of primitive human nature. Although Bai Lanzhi is unfortunate, although she has the arrogance of "being able to observe with her own body, and being swayed by the tenderness of things", she has not been able to resist the temptation of emptiness and selfishness, leading to depravity and vulgarity. This kind of character really can't be loved by the audience.
Human beings have entered the era of civilization from consuming blood and drinking blood to knowledge and reasoning. Reason, value, morality, etiquette, etc. become the correct value. But high-level animals are also animals, and the hypocrisy, cowardice, and vanity that exist in human nature will not disappear because of this. Decorating oneself with decent clothes, solemn words and rational thinking cannot cover up the innate animal nature of human beings. A corner that the sun doesn't reach doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
And it's hard for me to tell whether the romantic films of the past are more charming, or the films that expose the harsh reality are more rare. Although the plot of the old movie is simple and rough, it always entrusts the most pure and beautiful wishes of people, so it is even more rare. "The drama is fake and true", this is the charm of old movies. Sincere work always touches people. But I will yearn for the pure and sincere beautiful emotions in the movie, but I also deeply understand the cruelty and difficulty of reality. Whenever I chat with my friends, I always sigh about the difficulty and helplessness of life. Although I don't consider myself an idealist, nor am I narcissistic enough to think I'm out of place, there are always many things that conflict with the worldview I've been educated and built, so I can quite understand the heroine's mood. There are too many helpless and powerless things in this world, and too many people are unreasonable and difficult to communicate with.
Later, when I was extremely distressed, I saw what Schopenhauer said, "The essence of life is pain." I finally realized that pain is the normal state of life, and happiness is just a temporary escape. And the whole source of suffering is desire. If you want something, you will suffer. In this world, if you want to avoid suffering, you can only abandon all desires. Unfortunately, no matter what the situation is, people have things they want, which also determines that as long as they live, they must suffer. The difference is that some people are confused, so they can't feel the pain; some people ask for it, so they get longer happiness; and most people don't get it, so they can only suffer day after day. Struggling. No wonder Wang Guowei said: Desire, life and pain are only one.
In this way, human beings are born guilty, probably because living is a punishment. Therefore, all happiness is nothing but the pleasure of suffering, and the purpose of all actions is to please oneself. Once you understand it, you will be able to face your mediocrity and selfishness openly and openly, and accept your truest self. Desire itself is neither terrible nor shameful, but desire makes human beings. Spiritual civilization brings us closer to divinity, but material desires keep us human. Desire is a life experience in itself, and there is something to love. Lower your desires a little bit, and your spirit demands a little less, and maybe we'll find that the world isn't as bad as everyone says.
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