In the early 1960s, on a beach called Chesil in England, a young man and woman were welcoming their wedding night in a seaside hotel. There was no warmth and sweetness in the room, but a gloomy and eerie atmosphere like the sky above the beach. The two pretended to talk calmly and ate dinner, but there were various signs that the two were uneasy and uneasy. The minds of both of them at the moment were troubled by the same thing: neither of them had sexual experience. Seeing that the main event of the new marriage is approaching, how will this virgin couple face the first test of marriage?
The camera cuts to before they met. The protagonist Edward's family lives in the countryside. He is the eldest son in the family and has two younger sisters. His father is the principal of a rural elementary school, and his mother is an art lover before her brain problems. Edward grew up in the countryside with nature, flowers and trees. He can tell the species of each bird and has a simple and romantic nature. The heroine Florence was born in a wealthy middle-class family. After receiving an elite education, she grew up as a literate, dignified and demure lady. Her pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty is in stark contrast to her snobbish parents, and she is an outlier at home.
Edward has received a transcript from the college - he has a first class degree in history. Edward couldn't hold back his excitement. After running around at home, his mother couldn't understand, his sister ignored him, and his father was not at home. Edward dashed to town on a bicycle and couldn't find anyone to talk to, so he had to drink alone. He walked into a meeting, and when he was leaning on the door to observe the noisy crowd, his eyes suddenly fixed on a quiet woman in front of him. The girl stepped forward and handed the flyer to Edward. The two looked at each other. Edward told the person in front of him what he had endured for a day: "I got a first-class degree." Florence looked him in the eyes and said, "That's great. !"
Edward completely opened up the conversation here in Florence, and told the person he just met almost everything in his life. Florence just looked at Edward's face that looked like a child full of candy, and she was so satisfied that she didn't need to tell the other party, in fact, she also got a first-class degree in music herself. Love at first sight is nothing more than the joy of the narrator finding the object of narration, and the listener finding the happiness that is needed.
This is how the love between the two "three good students" began. Edward taught Florence to recognize birds in the forest, and Florence taught Edward to appreciate classical music. He liked that she couldn't guess the bird's name wrong every time, and she liked his foolishness to put on the wrong socks. Both are unique in each other's eyes.
The first time Florence took the train to Edward's house, he was both moved and nervous. My mother has suffered a brain injury since an accident, leading to bizarre behavior that often brings shame to her family. Edward subconsciously thinks of his mother whenever he hears other people's laughter. His mother is the source of his inferiority complex. He didn't know and didn't dare to imagine what would happen when Florence met his mother. As a result, Florence not only accepted her mother, but also took the initiative to chat with her about art. The two talked and laughed like friends. Edward suddenly put down his heart and rushed into the kitchen to cry. In the evening, Florence cooks herself, and her two sisters surround her, as if they became a family. Edward's father secretly said to his son, "Hurry up and marry him!"
According to this development trend, marriage is a matter of time. The man's family can't wait for the sooner the better, but the woman's family doesn't think so. After all, a prospective son-in-law who is so "different" in the eyes of his daughter is a countryman in the eyes of shrewd parents. But no matter what, meeting parents, looking for a job, and engagement date have all been decided one by one. Florence's father promised his daughter a position for Edward in his factory, and he did not forget to say a few embarrassing words when he was alone with Edward.
Everything is going well so far, there is only one problem left, and Florence is ashamed to talk about it anyway. She knew Edward wanted to be close to her, but she never gave it a chance. She knew the problem, and she had tried to learn about it from books, but the crude sex journals had deepened her childhood notion that sex was disgusting.
The background at this time was the early 1960s, the last "age of innocence" on the eve of the "sexual liberation" movement in the West. At that time, the social ethos of men and women was relatively conservative, and the dissemination of sexual knowledge was limited. Florence is more reserved than the other girls, she can't even make out in the theater. Edward once bitterly described Florence as the most disciplined person in the entire Western civilization.
In this way, everything was not communicated and resolved, and it came to the wedding night. This necessary ceremony leading to marriage began from Florence's half-push. Edward is also guilty. The fact that he is a virgin makes him nervous and clumsy, and he makes frequent appearances like a fool. In order to comfort the exasperated Edward, Florence closed her eyes and took the initiative to lie on the bed, like a sacrifice lying in an ancient cemetery. Edward pressed Florence's stiff body and crawled forward like a soldier on the battlefield. Florence heard a moan, opened her eyes to see Edward twitching, his face contorted. The stranger in front of her was not the Edward she knew. She pushed him away, frantically wiped the cloudy liquid from her thighs, and rushed out of the door in a panic.
Edward got dressed and chased out, and the two broke out into a heated argument on the beach. Edward frantically blamed Florence, he was very confused at the time, and many of the attacks on Florence were unintentional, but it was in a state of being out of control. Florence was hurt, and she had only a deep sense of powerlessness for not being able to satisfy Edward. Edward couldn't understand or listen to Florence's explanation. Florence said: "I'm not good at it, and I don't need sex. Let's live a sexless married life." He also suggested that Edward could go out to find women, she wouldn't mind, As long as he is happy.
It is conceivable that Edward's five thunders hit his top at this moment, and ten thousand arrows pierce his heart. It was a shame for a man that his wife said such a thing. Maybe at this moment he thought of his mother again, and there were other bad words against him. He never imagined that the person who gave him the most encouragement would shatter all his self-esteem at his most vulnerable moment. He raised a rock the size of a palm towards Florence, then turned and threw it at the sea. The last words he said to Florence were "slut", "liar" and "frigidity"... an end to a marriage that lasted only six hours.
Time came to the 70s, experienced the baptism of hippie culture, rock music and sexual liberation movement, the whole Western society was reborn, including Edward. He makes a living by running a record store by day, and leads a self-indulgent private life by night. One day, a primary school student came to the record store, picking out records for my mother as a birthday present. Edward looked at this serious little girl, thought it was very interesting, and started chatting with her. During their brief conversation, he vaguely guessed that the mother described by the little girl was Florence. Edward held back his excitement, packed the record and handed it to the little girl, insisting not to take her money. Finally, when the little girl left, Edward asked her name - "Chloe" the little girl answered. Sure enough, Chloe was the name he and Florence fantasized about their daughter. Edward chased out of the store and watched Chloe walk away with her musical instrument, just like he had watched Florence countless times before.
Edward's house was full of men and women drinking and chatting as usual. He didn't listen to his friend's dirty jokes, but slowly told a sad story. Friends can hear it, knowing that Edward is talking about himself. In the story, he clearly saw his anger on the beach back then, and finally realized that the reason why Florence said those words that made him unacceptable was precisely because he loved him.
After so many years, the knot in my heart has finally been solved - Florence is not frigid. So what's the meaning of her weird words and actions on her wedding day? Looking back at this after Edward has rich sexual experience, it can actually be understood in this way: if he had been meticulous and patient enough to help her remove the "frigid" disguise, he would have seen that what he was pressing was just a frightened thumping Butterfly. What he needs to do is to heal her wounds, accompany her to overcome her fears, guide her to take the first step of exploration in the dark, and gradually find a consistent breathing rate and rhythm of body ups and downs. , dance a pas de deux that resonates with the soul and the body. Then he will see the butterfly release its original beauty.
What makes me most embarrassed is that Florence, who has always tolerated Edward, asked the other party to tolerate it just once, but Edward was only busy venting his anger from his inferiority, and turned a blind eye to the signal sent by Florence. After all, the two of them were unable to cross this small threshold of newly married. Chloe's appearance was an arrangement made by God, letting Edward know that someone and Florence had overcome psychological barriers, built a family, and opened up branches, but this person was not him.
The last time the two of them met was in a classical music concert half a century later. Florence led her quartet in a farewell performance to the fans. Edward sat in the auditorium under the stage, and the two were already white-haired. The pale old man. Edward listened to the familiar Mozak works and burst into tears. What did he think of at this moment? Remember the Chesil Beach that changed their lives? If you give him a chance, if he really can, he will happily walk up to the young and vigorous guy, pat him on the shoulder, and say two words to him as an old man: "Don't worry, you will become mature. Yes. You will prove to her that sex is not terrible, it will make your love sweet and full. Get her back, you still love her, don't you?" Florence then swept across the auditorium. At a glance, Edward's heart trembled, and a thought seemed to flash in an instant: maybe she once thought about it, maybe she still loves herself... The old man closed his eyes and let the tears wash his face.
The ending goes back to the original Chesil Beach. In the silent stalemate, Florence walked up to Edward and asked Edward to come back with her one last time. Edward kept his back to Florence and remained unmoved. Florence turns and takes weary steps, bit by bit out of the camera, out of this beach, out of his life.
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