Undoubtedly, art must be related to the political environment, but politics is not the most important thing.
The director mentioned in previous interviews that I have no radical views on homosexuality, nor do I ignore it. Everything is so natural. All I care about is two people who love each other.
I am indeed quite disgusted with certain works that reflect the gay community, using this as a gimmick, self-isolation or self-promotion, or a gesture of complete marginalization. Any act of labeling yourself is a stupid harm to yourself and others. If you can’t treat yourself normally, how can you let others treat you normally.
Therefore, the director's remarks and position did make me love it before I saw the film. Because most of the previous films that showed homosexuality could not get around the issues of social confrontation and identification, such as "Brokeback Mountain"'s ethically suppressed love, "Philadelphia Story", the human rights and social justice issues, "Harvey Mi K> points directly to politics. There are exceptions, and their perspectives are also "representative" drifting between loneliness, desire, and humanity, with a certain blackness. For example,
Under such circumstances,
No credits, no complicated lens language, the soundtrack seems to be active sound, natural light, live ambient sound, and editing is extremely simple. In many cases, I don't even feel that this is a movie, but the huge and subtle emotional changes are intertwined and spread among the usual and calm, and even the tedious details.
In abstract terms, the whole film is almost composed of close-ups and food, mixed with intermittent dialogue. Corresponding to it is probably emotion, lust and life itself. As for the sex scenes, I think there is a kind of oppression caused by being too real, and I can feel that the actors are indeed very hard.
The film spans six years. The director did not deliberately construct a certain symbolic space for ideology, and there is no obvious time segmentation line. The patchwork of life-like scenes seems to be scattered, but it cannot be said that there is no structure, just like A piece of warm blue sea without cracks contains infinite tranquility, secretly undulating ripples, and waves that come from nowhere. Adele's life is the carrier of the film. We found that every time Adele walks alone on the road, it corresponds to an "existentialist" process of finding, losing, and rebuilding. And the most important part, the love between Adele and Emma, their subtle changes are integrated in the minimalist lens division, which is the director's style and skill.
Everything starts and ends because of differences. The difference here is not only the class, but also the transcendental personal temperament in the film. Deleuze said that existence is difference. We encounter differences in seemingly identical and repetitive lives, and change in the overlap and collision of differences, and change is the inevitability of the same.
According to Sartre's existentialism, man is such an existence, and its appearance brings about the existence of the world. How humans exist should be the result of their own choices. People first exist in the world, and then they freely choose their own behaviors to become what kind of people, and human behavior determines the nature of human beings, so "existence precedes essence ". And "nothingness" comes from the freedom of thought, the freedom of the power to say no to any simple givenness.
We see that Emma's self-cognition and positioning are always clear, just like the French spirit, love, equality and freedom. As a painter, she has romantic and charming gentleness and maverick free temperament. She is confident and determined, and has a very firm personal will. For example, I will try my best to maintain my creative freedom and aesthetic taste. For example, I like Sartre and my English is not very good. She said that since she was 14 years old, she was sure that she liked girls, she was very sure. This is a free choice of man, and it is also a kind of resistance to the era's obstacles to "freedom".
Adele, as a descendant of North Africa, seems to be in a dazed chaos all the time. There is nothing very clear about her that can be called "self-awareness". She doesn't seem to care about anything. She loves to read some literature, likes to eat everything, listens to a little bit of music, and always explores her own life based on some inner feelings. In a trance, I feel as if something is going to happen, or something is wrong, but I don't know what it is. She will also like American movies, Scorsese and Kubrick like teenagers all over the world. Will associate with boys because of the throbbing of adolescence, and feel like girls because of an inadvertent kiss. The ideal is to be a teacher, because I like children. This is actually a very vague but true thing, just like the omnipresent "desire" in human nature.
It is this difference that initially creates a novel attraction for the other party that is different from the original life. Just as Emma always said that Adele's ignorance and innocence are very interesting, and Adele also has a fascination and admiration for such a mature and special "spiritual enlightenment".
This is the first time, there is a kind of illusion-like vague tacit understanding, naked and unfettered, a strong ambiguity flowing freely between the two.
Then the real life officially came. The three sex scenes fully express the "transformation". And this change is still initiated by differences, or it can be said that it was there, just waiting for the moment to be triggered.
We clearly know that since it is love, there is naturally no right or wrong in this relationship. Baudelaire described love in this way, and it is a crime committed by two conspirators. So people must be responsible for their choices. The so-called fate does not need to be stated, only the consequences of it.
Afterwards, reconstruction was a long and lonely process. Just like Spielberg's evaluation, Adele's silence here is very moving, and sometimes silence is more powerful than words.
I think the most poetic shot of the whole film, on the beach, Adele untied her hair and jumped into the water. The blue water soaks her face, we see her loneliness, but also her desire, or nothing, floating in the endless blue, making people cry inexplicably.
Reunion at the coffee shop. The emotions that have been accumulated for a long time are only a period of frank and desperate frankness and obsession in the end.
Two people think and love each other, but there is no way to be together again. This can be regarded as a certain kind of insurmountable dilemma in human perception.
"You won't see me anymore?" "No."
"You don't love me anymore?" Shaking his head
"Are you sure?" Shaking his head
"But I will leave infinite tenderness to you."
This may be what Sartre said. "Others are hell."
Regarding the social background, Cauchyxu did not exaggerate or avoid deliberately. After all, it is indeed a situation that a homosexual couple must encounter. It’s worth noting that Adele never acknowledged her relationship with Emma, whether it was to classmates, family members or later colleagues. She said, "This is a matter for the two of us, and there is no need to let others know."
Cauchy Xu is indeed a master . The director of detail and rhythm. In the last scene, in the gap between people, only a few shots are cut, but they clearly continue the love that the two can't give up.
For a period of time, there are always some things present and some things leaving, all due to certain "factors". They have no meaning in themselves, including love. What makes sense is the "endowment" of people. Adele has lost a love, and perhaps more, but she has confirmed the existence of herself from the things that have passed away.
If Adele has found anything in the process, I think there is nothing. Adele's attitude has not changed because of this, and it has not reached the so-called "destination". People are always looking for some kind of fit with the present from the differences outside of themselves. So Heidegger said that man is a lonely existence.
In the end, Adele is still moving forward alone, unclear, towards the huge unknown and established in the future.
What's interesting is that the gallery owner in the film asked Adele what is the difference between being with a girl and being with a boy. Adele said that there is a point, I can't say it, I can't explain it.
This is exactly what I like most about this film, and there are a lot of things that I can't explain. For example, love at first sight and meeting again, such as Adele's "I miss you so much I don't believe you are not", such as Emma's "I don't know, but she is different from when she was with you before." The accidents in the world of the sea and the destiny in the world are absurd, but consistent with our experience, which can be experienced but cannot be explained by common sense.
Mai Wanxin explained in "Butterfly": "Premeditated", everything is written.
The same excellent movies or works of art cannot be interpreted in words. Just as Tarkovsky said that film is a kind of "hot intuitive art", in his films, those slow and solemn dreams, mixed colors and recurring mysteries have nothing to do with the understanding of the film, but the author The presentation of the spiritual world. However, Tarkovsky leads us to religious pain and sacredness, and Abu Dai Kexi Xu, using his kind of gentle and intimate medium, brings us into love.
The literal translation of the film "Adele's Life" may be the most accurate, but the Hong Kong translation of "Close to Infinite Warm Blue" and the Taiwanese translation of "Blue is the warmest color" are closer to the soft texture of the film. The uniqueness of the film is that it is "not unique", it is a wonderful mixture of passion and dim sadness scattered in life, lonely but not heavy. Adele's entire film is infiltrated and wrapped in blue. Whether in the sweetness of love or the tingling of loss, what can reach our hearts can be called something "warm". Because all the joys and sorrows evoke our most real existence in this world.
Think of Cauchy Xu’s previous work
Couscous and pasta, lonely dance, endless pursuit.
Love, in the empty universe, may have no meaning. But as long as we are still alive, it means that we will not reject all existence, the will to live, and love.
But in the final analysis, this is only Chapters 1&2, and we can't predict it afterwards. What is certain is that until the last moment of the film, the two are still in love.
In a small French town, one of them is a painter and the other is a teacher. They will always love each other and be free forever.
Good luck to Adele. Good luck to Emma.
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After the screening of the first HKFFF screening Q&A, I probably asked about sex The filming of the play, the controversy of the original author, and the problem of excessive pasta and close-up shots. The director has actually answered in previous interviews.
Cauchyxu is a very gentle person. His way of filming may not be recognized by others, but he definitely has an extraordinary dedication to movies. This is the most basic and important thing for a director or an artistic creation.
Maybe many years later, when we look at "Adele's Life" again, we can also form a family with our lover, man or woman as in the film, and live a normal life.
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