If the free realm of fiction and poetry is likened to a wonderland, then Columbia University freshman, Allen Ginsburg, is a wonderland intruder. With a sense of recklessness, ignorance and stubbornness, he is like Alice in fairy tales, followed by a talking rabbit with a pocket watch, he suddenly broke into the land of fairy tales, and saw the real joy and decadence, excitement and happiness. resist. And the rabbit who led him into the new world is also a part of fairy tales and one of the creators of fairyland. He leads people to the creation of new poems and absolute freedom, but there are only half tails left in all the narratives and illustrations. There is also a vague figure.
Like Allen Ginsburg, Lucian Carr is a representative figure of the Beat Generation, the famous American literary genre after World War II. He is the enchanting monster and god, the soul and muse of the beat generation, the dream of countless people's youth, but because of a certain incident, he was deliberately buried and rarely appeared in the public eye and literary works. Those clues about Lucian, the clues hidden between the lines, those passions and struggles, doubts and proofs, life and death make people feel crazy and fascinating.
The film opens with a raucous, hilarious atmosphere in which Allen Ginsburg arrives at Columbia University before World War II begins, as mainstream culture struggles to preserve the Victorian literary order. Here he met the bohemian, stereotype-defying Lucian Carr, gradually attracted and fell in love with him, and through him met two other original writers of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. He also gradually got to know Lucian in the process, discovered his dilemma in life, and experienced his ultimate outburst.
On Allen's first day at university, his roommate saw him looking at a certain site on the road map on the wall, and said to him in a playful tone, "Do you want to go there? It's a fairy tale land. . Go there and you'll never come back."
The most important feature of the film "Kill Your Love" is also revealed through these humble words. The words "land of fairy tales", "wonderland" and "dream" are vividly reflected in the film. The two main characters, Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, take us back to the dreamlike madness, madness, indulging, struggling and bewilderment of the 1940s in a style that complements each other. "Kill Your Love" shows the process of American literary giants getting to know and gather with each other before the start of World War II. It is also the first time that a director is so close to Lucian Carr in a film and television narrative. It depicts the murder in which Lucian was deeply involved, offering a kind of speculation, allowing us to glimpse the beginning and end of what happened, and look beyond the fog to see another world.
As said before, they are a stark contrast. Daniel's emotional expression is a little forceful and awkward, while Dane DeHaan is so lazy, casual and easy-going. As a former little Harry Potter, Daniel still hasn't come out of this series completely, he seems stumbling and not smooth enough, rusty and lacking in expression. He still had that stupid Gryffindor courage in Harry, desperately trying to explain it, desperately trying to make it clear, with a kind of candor and honesty that didn't distinguish between us. But this flaw also highlights the character's own characteristics to a certain extent. Daniel thus created the image of a young poet with thick-rimmed glasses, curly black hair, pale, thin, and neurotic. He loves him foolishly. He is Xiaobai and an unopened flower bud. He desperately gets himself drunk and rushes into the feasting. Under the leadership of Lucian, he rebelled against tradition for the first time, drank alcohol for the first time, smoked marijuana for the first time, and wrote poetry for the first time. They co-founded the literary organization "New Horizons", breaking through the constraints of rhythm.
In the first conversation, Lucian said to Allen, "Life is a circle, and we're caught in the wheel of living and dying, constantly cycling between life and death. It's an endless circle. Until someone comes Here, the rules here are broken. Then, the whole world suddenly becomes wider."
This is also the philosophy of life he has always believed in. The structure of "Kill Your Love" basically follows the trajectory of a circle, and the image of a circle also runs through the whole film. For example, Allen initially applied to Columbia University without telling his father, who, when he learned he was accepted, told him to try writing poetry himself. At the end of the film, the father and son finally reconcile, and Allen is typing a draft in his father's office. He's back to square one. William Burroughs, the rich kid of the original Beat quartet, dropped out of Harvard to lead a slutty life and eventually returned to school. His life, likewise drawn a circle, returned to where it started.
Finally, there is Lucian. To him, the meaning of circle is heavy and dark. When he killed his beloved and the person he hated the most, David Camole, Lucian found out with exhaustion and pain, Some things, once you love them, they belong to you forever, lingering. And if you try to let go, they just come back to you like a circle. They have become part of you. Unable to split, killing them is equivalent to killing yourself.
The sense of dream is vividly reflected in many places. For example, Allen and Lucian follow William to smoke marijuana in David's apartment, seeking sensory stimulation for inspiration. In the hazy blue-blue light, they saw in a trance that the band was quiet, and people's movements gradually slowed down like slow motion until they stopped. Allen looked around at a loss, William touched his fingers with flames and moved in front of him to light a cigarette, then slowly retracted his hand and licked his own fingers. Then they followed Lucian to their feet, observed people in different poses, and gradually woke up the still people who were still asleep by touching them, and made them kiss each other. This passage shows the subtle and strange hallucination world in Allen's mind. He is like a dream and has a strong metaphorical meaning. Another is that after many days of neuroticism, madness and confusion under the influence of drugs, Allen wrote the first poem of New Horizons. He ran to find Lucian to show him, but learned that Lucian went out with others, and found that he was not the only one in his eyes. Disillusioned, Alan rubbed his manuscript in confusion and frustration. Afterwards, Lucian took Alan to meet Jack Kerouac, the real writer he said. They stole a boat at night to violate the curfew and went to sea, and the three chatted on the boat. At this time, the screen was almost completely black, and the lights on the distant shore hit them far away. People who were ignited by a poem gathered together to imagine the future. They fantasized about joining the merchant fleet and sailing the world until the war was over. Then hop on a boat and go to Paris for real freedom.
But before they could finish their thoughts, they were interrupted by the shrill sound of steamboat sirens. They were forced to go back to school with detention on their backs, and Lucian faced expulsion.
In the president's office, Lucian's mother was called, the president listed his series of violations, and finally asked why you came to Columbia University. Lucian replied frivolously, "Liberate the Barnard girls." He was wearing a suit, plaid shirt, and tie. His blond hair was meticulously combed, but he revealed a strong rebelliousness in his soul, relaxed, presumptuous, and indifferent. But when he found out that his mother had told the school all about his past experiences, his calm shell suddenly burst, and the surrounding voices seemed to be getting more and more hazy like a bell jar, and his easy-going tone was far away from him. Breathing faster and faster, the anger like a torrent finally erupted. It was extreme anger, disgust at being out of place, disgust with conformity, and despair that even these stable living conditions could not be maintained.
At this point, Lucian's chaotic past has emerged as a sharp corner, like the silt brought out by pulling reeds from the water, and the darkness and despair slowly emerged. His frequent school transfers and extreme emotions all stem from his guard and his correctional officer, David Camorer. The accumulated contradictions finally broke out the moment Lucian found that he could not get rid of David. He wanted to take a boat to Paris as he said before, but being overtaken by David at the dock left him devastated and desperate. Lucian chose to solve it alone, and then there were chaotic shots, messy footsteps, blood and tears.
David is dead and Lucian is arrested. Allen rummaged through his room desperately, trying to find evidence for him to bail, and the try breathing that kept playing in the background music was breathtaking. Through William's words and the notes in the book, Allen finally pieced together the approximate truth. Lucian accepted David Camerer's guard and harassment when he was very young. At the age of 18, he attempted suicide and was rescued by David. After that, he transferred several schools and tried to get rid of David without success. This man ruined his life, a huge shadow hung over his head, changed his orientation, imprisoned his freedom, left him speechless and unable to write. The emotional line between David Camerle and Lucian Carr is not directly inked in the whole film, but runs through the whole film and penetrates the back of the paper.
We got a glimpse of that night's scene through Alan's backtracking. They were walking by the lake. The conflict intensified and they couldn't communicate. There was a physical conflict. Lucian broke free from David's arm and took out a dagger at him. David said now that I know how you feel, when you were trying to kill yourself. When he said let's do it, he probably never thought that Lucian would actually stab the dagger into his chest. But he still wasn't dead, and eventually Lucian tied him up, filled his pockets with rocks, and threw him into the Hudson River.
"Some things, once you've loved them, they're yours forever and never go away. And if you try to let go, they just come back to you like a circle. They've become a part of you. Or they will destroy you."
It was a cycle that went on and on, Lucian killed David, and then Allen listened to his mother's words and chose to let go and not appeal for him, which was equivalent to indirectly killing Lucian. They are killing the people they love the most, and they are killing your love.
Lucian eventually attempted suicide in prison. Alan combined his own guesses and wrote a novel about the night and turned it in as a final assignment. He was rejected and then chose to drop out of school. He smoked and wrote poetry in the corner of the tavern. Like all people in love and sorrow, he is a poet. The camera moves closer to the framed newspaper above Ellen's head, and we see Lucian in the black and white newspaper news section, the murder. Such a hazy ending makes people feel that they have all been reborn in literature in a sense, that the circle has come to the end and returned to the original point, and death also represents rebirth.
"Be careful
you are not in wonderland
I've heard of the madness that grows deep in your soul
But your ignorance is your luck
on your independence day
You are the one who suffers
find where the love is
give, share and give
Lest we die before we open up"
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