back to 1961

Gaetano 2022-03-23 09:01:48

In today's Internet language, "An Education" is a story of a little loli and a strange mistress. The same story can be true in today's China: high school girls are facing the college entrance examination, and their life is dull and boring. One day, they meet a handsome uncle of unknown origin on the street. The handsome uncle always had an ambiguous smile on his face, and began to take her to and from concerts, high-end restaurants, art auction houses, and even took her to visit Peking University and go shopping in Hong Kong (after so many years, maybe he still bought Chanel No. .5?). The grades of the third-year girls began to decline, and she suddenly couldn't understand the meaning of learning. In front of the principal, she bravely asked: What is the college entrance examination for?

But this story does not take place in dystopian postmodern China. There is no rough reality or a bleak future in the movie. There is only a faint and sad little life. The young protagonist will smoke a cigarette and sit in a coffee shop with his friends and talk about Camus - in fact, it is very petty bourgeoisie. a movie. It happened in, among other things, the gorgeous 1960s.

The year 2009 saw a strong return to the 1960s with the hit of the TV series "Mad Men" in the fashion world. Retro has not only become one of the main trends in street fashion, but has also cast a strong nostalgic color on several "fashion movies". Some films directly set the background of the era in the 1960s, such as "Growing Up Education", "Rock Radio" and "Single Man", and there are also films like "500 Days with Shamo". Although the story takes place in contemporary times, the heroine wears Dress up but throw back the 60s every now and then. The director even let her ride a bicycle, imitating a segment of Truffaut's Les Mistons, like a tribute to its New Wave predecessors.

To be more precise, this return does not point to the booming 1960s that many are familiar with, the revolutionary, hippie, anti-war, civil rights movement of the 1960s (although the 1960s seemed to be in the "rock and roll" era. looming over the girls’ miniskirts in Radio), but a quieter and more conservative early ’60s. In "Growing Up Education", the post-war generation of baby-boomers has not yet reached the age of yearning for revolution. The women's dresses tighten their waists and bind them to the role of housewives; the protagonist's mother is still brushing in the middle of the night. Panzi, when his father learned that his daughter was going to get married soon, he immediately gave up his plan to let her go to Oxford University; the white old lady was still afraid of people of color, and the middle school principal still looked suspicious when he mentioned Jews—in 2009, it suddenly appeared in people's minds. In front of this is such a 60's. It was also such a middle-class, old-fashioned and oppressive 1960s that bore the brunt of the "revolution" wave a few years later and became the object of hatred by the younger generation.

Feng Shui turns. An era that was ideologically bland, is now a source of inspiration for artists. The costume designer Tom Ford even made his film debut for this era. The trailer for "Single Man" is full of sensual details, and seems to proclaim the hidden connection between the conservative and ambiguous eroticism of this era more than "Growing Up Education." And perhaps precisely because of the brief absence of politics, fashion has been particularly elegant, gorgeous and simple in recent years. At that time, women wore beautiful dresses and high-heeled shoes on the street. Compared with them, we who were wearing jeans and flip-flops were simply disgraced little beggars. However, jeans flip flops may just mean the freedom they never had.

A dress can reflect a lot. Benjamin sees memory in the folds of his skirt, sees eternity. I can't understand him. But he showed me that skirts can be so breathtaking. The reincarnation of skirts and the return of fashion are short-lived but constantly repeated stories, just like the strange Shu Mi seduces Xiao Luoli again and again, making her have to grow up.

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Extended Reading

An Education quotes

  • Headmistress: [On Jenny's career opportunities] It doesn't have to be teaching. There's always the Civil Service.

  • Jenny: If you never do anything, you never become anyone.