Wim Wenders said after filming "Days Above the Clouds" with Antonioni: "Michelangelo could be difficult, sometimes hurtful, but he was never forgiving of himself. I I remember one of his often-quoted words, who knows when he said it - 'There is only one thing in life for me: to make movies.'" He also said that the films that influenced him earlier included "Adventures", "Night" and "Eclipse" (also translated as "Sea of Desires Shy Flowers").
So far, I still think that the three films that best reflect Antonioni's creative style are the three films made in 1960, 1961, and 1962, commonly known as the "emotional trilogy." Its spiritual orientation can be defined as "seeking, confusion and fear", which is also the main "vital sign" brought by the so-called modern industrial civilization. Seeking is for consolation, confusion is for escape, and fear is for lack of direction.
The three influence each other and cause and effect each other. Although his later films such as "Red Desert" and "A Woman's Identity Proof" have some changes in the narrative, the style of his films has never deviates from these creative ideas and frameworks that accompanied Antonioni throughout his life. Some call it "psychological realism cinema". This is compared to the "neorealist films" of Desica et al. before Italy.
Claudia, the heroine played by Monica Vitti in "Adventures", has been looking north since her girlfriend Anna disappeared on the island. And Anna's boyfriend Sandro followed closely. Although Claudia didn't want Sandro to accompany him, the two still came together in the separation and reunion of the two, but it was not the final dust. Certainly. The two, who were both physically and mentally exhausted, were sitting on the rushing train, and the tumbling waves seemed to beat the embankment in their hearts. This shocking scene appears from time to time throughout the film. Finally, in the hotel, they could finally rest in peace.
The elusive relationship made Claudia, who had always refused and longed for love, seemed to accept Sandro's courtship in hesitation, but she still said "Tell me, you love me." "I love you!" Say it again!" "I-I don't love you." Claudia said deflatedly, "I knew it would be like this." Then, Sandro let her sleep first, while he walked out of the room and wandered downstairs.
But Claudia is disturbed by Mo Ming's unease, and she looks for Sandro Wusang. Worried, she told her girlfriend that I was afraid that he would be with Anna again, and now I really hope that Anna is dead. She ran downstairs early in the morning, but saw Sandro entangled on the sofa with a strange girl, and she ran out sadly. Sandro also ran out. On the top of the building with solid concrete walls, she has been staring at the Etna Snow Mountain in front of her. It seems that she has calmed down like the snow mountain, but Sandro, who is sitting on a wooden chair, is hugging her head and crying, and she comes over to caress with his messy hair.
The landscapes, buildings and people in the film are in stark contrast in the movie. A found love seems to be close, but it is extremely unstable, or extremely fragile. It is far less safe, quiet and majestic than the snow-capped mountains in the distance. . This is a metaphor for deterrence and isolation. The picture is as contemplative and powerful as Antonioni's gouache. The two have been looking for others, but in the end they are looking for their own. It turns out that life is just a process of finding yourself. This kind of artistic sublimation in the sense of life is a spiritual height that is unattainable for ordinary people.
The wife played by Jeanne Moreau in "Night", after attending a dinner party with her husband, in order to relieve her inner depression and loneliness, she quietly walked out of the mansion and wandered the streets alone. Everything the outside world brought about by industrialization—the towering electrical towers and chimneys—had not brought her the slightest peace, but made her more and more confused. Along the way, she could not see any scenery that would make her inner peace for a moment, but she also understood that a marriage that was on the verge of breaking up was like a backwater, and it was not worth lingering on. So she lingered among construction sites, muddy puddles and uninteresting crowds. And the husband, played by Mastroianni, is looking around, no less confused than his wife.
Night itself means uncertainty, erratic and predicament. It wasn't just her marriage that came to the end, or the unbearable "smell" that industrialization brought to human beings. This is the dark sulfur smell that permeates human beings. Antonioni's metaphors and worries have become a choking reality in today's haze.
Thinking of his 1964 "Red Desert", the heroine Yuliana stared at the towering chimney with her young son for a long time. The son asked, "Why is the smoke yellow?" "Because it's poisonous." "Mom, the birds are dead." This kind of heart-wrenching pure and quiet narrative was quietly captured in his 1972 film "China". extend. Among them, his group of nine suddenly broke into a village in Lin County, which was separated from the world. The expressions of curiosity and fear in the village, men, women, and children, were equally sighing.
Antonioni said after "Night" "I believe that I have stripped myself completely and freed myself from the many unnecessary formal techniques that are commonly abused in our time... Today's cinema should be tied to truth, not logic. The method of expression should be absolutely free, as free as an abstract painting; perhaps a film can even constitute a poem, a rhyming poem.” And the deconstruction of this film poem is an unprecedented opportunity brought to itself by modern industry. It is caused by the feeling of squeezing and is derived from people's own behaviors that constantly destroy human nature and conscience.
If compared to the films of Dreyer, Bergman, and Angelopoulos, I would prefer Antonioni's films to be great modernist experimental films rather than poetic films in the true sense of the word. Because I don't get the slightest hint of the poetry in his films, only the overflowing absinthe flavor and the shielded melancholy. Eliot's poetry should carry the meaning behind his films, or more aptly. Although some people label him a "dull filmmaker", the narrative structure of traditional films has undoubtedly been subverted again in his films.
This feeling is even stronger in Eclipse. Victoria, also played by Monica Vitti, thought that breaking up with her boyfriend Ricardo might bring her a new life, at least let her calm down from now on, and she doesn't have to be for this seemingly "10 years of happiness" love bears a psychological yoke of contradictions. Too long happiness will also make people feel numb, it is better to say goodbye in advance.
The truth is, after the breakup, an impulse brought about by Ricardo's pain kept her in a state of panic. She walked into the stock exchange where her mother went all day. The roar of voices here, with gestures, eager running, and hoarse voices, also made her uneasy. Mom's only hope is stocks.
Pierrot, played by Alain Delon, is his mother's stock trader. His handsomeness did not attract Victoria's attention at first, and was only regarded as an ordinary friend. But the stock market is like falling in love, there are highs and lows, and the most feared thing is the collapse. In this scene, because of the "cold war" between the two camps in international relations, the stock markets of all Western countries plummeted, and all of the mother's hard-earned money was sucked back. People's complaints, crying and various forms of dumbfounded chickens are presented one by one in Victoria's eyes.
She saw an old man who had lost 50 million lire, bought a bottle of Valium at the pharmacy, sat at the table outside the cafe, ate one, and wrote something on the paper. After he left, he picked it up and looked at it. , a page full of shapeless paintings. She thought the old man was going to kill himself by taking medicine on the spot, but she didn't expect him to laugh at himself by drawing, maybe he wouldn't necessarily eat a full bottle of medicine when he got home.
It is very strange that a person who is terrified of love sees a stock market that is more terrifying than love. Life is not easy inside and outside. At this time, Pierrot slowly approached her. It was because he didn't have to spend all day on the trading floor that he had time to chase after Victoria. And she still dared not accept his courtship.
The two walked through the wind-blown woods, through the deserted countryside, and through the abandoned oil drums, as if they had walked past the hearts that passed by, and they could never meet together. She didn't know how long this fear of love would last. She was in a turmoil in her heart, and her direction was unclear, but Pierrot told her to let us love each other and prepare for marriage. She hadn't had time to comb the feathers of the previous love, but someone wanted to fly her high in the next one, so she inevitably fell into a deep unease, and she was afraid that she would fall to her death.
Eclipse means loss, which is the meaning of profit and loss in Eastern philosophy. Antonioni, who is well versed in this, repeatedly presents the chaotic stock market trading scenes, his intention is obvious, and the reflected reality has an impact on people's hearts everywhere, and it is easier said than done to escape. The highlight of the film is that her girlfriend, who was born in Kenya, made Victoria dress up as a black African drumming dance, implying the true happiness of the beginning of civilization. But once she walked out of the street in the dark, the swaying suspension bridge stirred her fear again, making her restless.
Searching, bewildering, and fearing are all intertwined and disorganized, and it's hard to tell which is before and which is after. Antonioni is unique and extraordinary in revealing the confusion of modern people. The common characteristics of these women's anxiety - emotional instability, capriciousness, and unwillingness to communicate calmly, and then always fall into deep confusion. Longing for love and fearing love. This perpetually uncertain hesitation highlights the ambivalence of modern man. As the heroine often said, "You always ask why? Why? Why?" Because even they themselves don't understand: what kind of love do they need...
2013, 7, 25
From the film critic collection "Invisible Movies" published by Haitian Publishing House
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