This article also contains spoilers for The Purple Rose of Cairo.
This movie reminds me of the previous Woody Allen film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, from which the title of this article comes from. Stanley met a woman who was very special to him, and even the whole world view changed because of this woman, became emotional and happy. But in the end, it's all just a hoax. The plot of this movie is somewhat similar to "Purple Rose of Cairo", but the ending is a Happy End. The two actors, Uncle Colin and Sister Stone, are both my favorites. Their looks and acting skills coexist. Watching their performances, I am very satisfied with this movie.
At the beginning of the film, the image of Wei Linxiu made me feel a little uncomfortable. It looks too much like Fu Manchu. The long and narrow eyes and eyebrows, the ugly braids, and the "combination of Chinese and Western" Qing Dynasty official robes and costumes reflect the stereotypes of Europeans about China in that era. The male protagonist, Stanley, plays a mysterious Chinese magician as a white man, consuming the audience's curiosity about this country in the far east. In the era when the story took place (the 1820s), there were also some white people who painted their faces black and pretended to be black people to perform stereotyped comedies, and now those old artists have been scolded bloody, so in the same way, as Chinese people see I'm also a little unhappy with this Stanley for a white guy playing the Chinese stereotype.
With the development of the story, Stanley's image gradually enriched. He is a particularly attractive middle-aged uncle, very knowledgeable, talented, and at the same time very rational, rational enough to make people feel a little "not human", a bit like Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory". It was such a straight man of steel who finally fell under the pomegranate skirt of the heroine Sophie. Similarly, Sophie also fell in love with this special man during their relationship.
Why did Stanley fall in love with Sophie?
At the beginning of the meeting, he was very disdainful of Sophie, sneering openly and secretly. He tried to pierce Sophie's psychic ritual several times. Although he could not find any flaws, he still believed that what Sophie showed was just magic, and the yin and yang were strange. Praise "Your magic is so powerful, I can't see it".
So he decided to do another "experiment" and invited Sophie to his aunt's house.
At my aunt's house, everything changed. Sophie accurately told her aunt's story, and Stanley was shocked, "Aunt, I never told her that!"
In any case, Stanley was convinced, and his attitude towards Sophie changed 180 degrees. Hold a press conference to bring Sophie's story to the world, bow his head high, admit that his previous knowledge was wrong (this is really too rare for him), swim and dance with Sophie, he in love with this girl.
Seeing this, let us think again, why did Stanley fall in love with Sophie? I think it's because of what makes her special, her psychic abilities, that Stanley has renewed hope and enthusiasm for the world. Judging from the conversation between him and his aunt, because he is too rational, he has always held a negative attitude towards things such as miracles/sixth sense/the soul after death that cannot be explained by science, and he has not lived a happy life before. Being too rational is doomed to not be too happy. So he said to his aunt, "If only she was real, it would lift the dark cloud that's followed me since childhood.)”
Sophie's psychic ability gave him fantasy, gave him hope, and turned him into another person, a very ordinary, very "superstitious" person. After his aunt had an accident, he would pray to God, and he also thought that even if his aunt died unfortunately, he could communicate with his aunt through psychic rituals. As an atheist, he despised these things the most, but after Sophie showed him his miraculous psychic abilities, he began to believe and his "dark cloud" was dispelled. So he lost his previous rationality and became a superstitious and happy man, just like a rich old lady who has been kept in the dark and felt extremely happy because her husband's "soul" said that she had never cheated. He had a good night's sleep in the planetarium, "I haven't slept so well in a long, long time. (It's the first peaceful sleep I've had in a very long time.)"
It's all so beautiful, but unfortunately it's not true.
Stanley's rationality finally awakened. "This is the stupidest load of twaddle I have ever heard. My common sense tells me, I'm falling into a seductive morass of sugarcoated claptrap.)" and he went back to the manor and used his great magic skills to debunk the deception. This is indeed a scam. After learning the truth, he immediately became the old self, rational and ruthless, "All my optimism was an illusion."
I thought the next development would be very rational for him, he would expose his deception to the public, then go back to marry his fiancee Olivia, continue to be a rational person, and continue to expose new mediums. But things took a somewhat unexpected turn.
Stanley suddenly became irrational, not only failed to expose the scam to the public to save his reputation, but also broke up with her fiancée and proposed to what he considered a "liar".
Sophie also became irrational. Note that Sophie was actually a very rational person before. She didn't really love her fiancé that much, the rich boy who played ukulele to her every day. Even if she falls in love with Stanley later, for the sake of her and her mother's life, she is still willing to accept the proposal of a rich boy and live with a person she doesn't love all her life. Yachting, endless travel, a whole lot of new clothes, she used to value these more than her love. However, at the end of the film, Sophie also suddenly decides to give up her future life as a prostitute and finds Stanley, willing to spend the rest of her life with him.
After they get married, will they really be as happy and happy as they think? I find it difficult. Because in their previous relationship, Stanley was so happy and happy, a large part of the reason was that Sophie gave him hope and comfort, not "she looks good when she smiles" as he said. So, after the novelty wears off, will Stanley become a rational person and still fall in love with this American girl who he thinks "hasn't read much"? It's hard to tell, but Woody Allen probably wants them to grow old together.
Such a "successful" ending makes me feel a little strange. A forced Happy Ending, like a fairy tale, is sweet but unrealistic.
In "Purple Rose of Cairo", the male protagonist and the female protagonist also fought hotly. The audience thought they were getting married and waited for the Happy Ending. As a result, the male protagonist was very rational at the end, and abandoned the female protagonist, and flew away alone by plane. . Although it looks uncomfortable, such ups and downs are more like our life.
Compare the two films.
"Purple Rose of Cairo" tells a very fantastic story. Like a fairy tale, handsome movie characters walked out of the movie and fell in love with the female audience. But the final ending is icy and chilling, as if a basin of ice water was poured from overhead, telling you that "this is the reality".
"Magic Moonlight" gives people a lot of realism, and there is no doubt that the entire story is adapted from real events. However, the final ending is a little too good, making people feel a little unreal.
Perhaps Woody Allen has become more and more emotional as he grows older, so he made "Magic Moonlight", which can be said to be almost the exact opposite of "Purple Rose of Cairo".
Perhaps Woody Allen also gradually understood that people always have to be "stupid" to live happier.
Finish
PS: Emma Stone's performance always reminds me of her previous movies. The first movie I saw she starred in was "Birdman", in this "Magic Moonlight" she was finally exposed by Stanley's loud accusation against Stanley, and her character in "Birdman" found her smoking marijuana. His father's complaint was exactly the same.
PS2: As a film photographer, I am very fascinated by the color of this film. The retro and unobtrusive color cast was a little uncomfortable at first. After I got used to it, I found the color very intoxicating, reminding me of the color film of the last century. Film colors were first invented. really like.
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