This story reminds me of Shitai Yi Shu's novel "Xi Bao". The almighty old man, Xu Cunzi, took care of Jiang Xibao, who was studying law at Cambridge. The good thing was that he wouldn't let her drop her Cambridge studies. He likes girls who can read, smart and tenacious. Her youth also came to an end when she lost the vitality that thrived for survival like a weed. When she was lost in love and sank in material things, she just felt that life was more boring, and she didn't find more interesting meaning.
"I want to read the books I want to read, listen to the music I want to listen to, and visit art exhibitions and watch French films, and then, chat with a lot of erudite people..." The young girl Jenny whispered to the adult man she met for the first time. What a beautiful and touching voice of a young girl who said these words! This must have resonated strongly with countless literary and artistic women, and the next plot must be what they have fantasized about: put aside the boring schoolwork, exude the charm of girls, put on high heels, and can be led by mature men to the auction, Concerts, high-end restaurants, bars, horse racing (dog) venues, Paris... Youth is a prosperous feast.
However, have you ever asked yourself, is this our ultimate dream?
two
The film of "Growing Up Education" is flat and straightforward, and the focus is unclear. Call it a youth film, but it has a dog-blooded plot, and call it an inspirational film, and it exudes an air of irony involuntarily. But its main function is obviously to make many young women of literature and art can't help but feel a sense of life experience. It's a pity that when I saw the seemingly romantic but contrived encounter in the rain at the beginning, (Male: "If you have common sense, you will never get into a stranger's car casually, but I feel sorry for your cello in the rain, I can ask Can I take your cello?" Female: "...Can I ride with my cello?") I waited mercilessly for a show that could be titled "Little Girls Love Vanity, Old Men Love Youth" The drama is over. It just doesn't stop me from liking the colors in the film, the wood furniture-like textures and colors of 1960s England; the uniforms of high school girls; Oxford's college buildings and green fields; Jeanne in Seine Monet's water lily-like dress by the river; such a pleasing detail. To be honest, the heroine feels that she lacks the persuasiveness of loli, because her cheeks are not tight enough, the skin on her jaw is a little loose, and there are wrinkles when she smiles, maybe this is a common problem of foreign girls. But the actress is very expressive. The girl's three parts are reserved, three parts vanity, three parts stubbornness and one part ambition, all written on her face.
3.
She witnessed David and his friends stealing old maps from an old house in the Oxford countryside. She understood that David used the method of recruiting black people to drive away the old ladies and do his real estate business. Skilled and shameless. Of course she knew that cheating and profiting could not make it on the stage, and those wonderful dinners and concerts suddenly became less pure and noble. She got out of his car and turned away. Unfortunately, she also quickly understood that it was these black and white interests that allowed her to enjoy the so-called noble things. "Everything has a price." So, she just struggled a little and accepted it all. From that moment on, you can see that her principles are blurred, and she is not innocent.
To put it bluntly, she loves vanity.
It's just that the little girl doesn't love vanity, just like, which old man doesn't love youth?
Just like Jiang Xibao felt insulted after hearing Xu Cunzi's request for foster care, and left angrily but turned back: "I just think that the stone is not big enough."
Why does David like Jenny? Because she is young, clean, vigorous, full of curiosity about the world, knows appreciation and taste, has a wild nature, and is a student who is going to take the Oxford exam. These things in her are things that he, a man who came out of the so-called "social university", will never have, and that Helen, the vase woman, will never have. They even envy her secretly. And she, with her eyes wide open, expressed her envy at their bright and beautiful world.
Four
Back to the first question: "Is this our ultimate dream?"
I thought, maybe Jenny's conflict with the teachers is actually asking an ultimate question.
In the principal's office, Jenny questioned the lady who has been engaged in education all her life: What is the purpose of studying so hard? If you can have a wonderful world directly through a man? I don't think this poor lady will be the first or last time she will face the big questions of life posed by these blooming schoolgirls. Fifty years later, the question asked by the British girl Jenny in the 1960s still confuses countless young girls.
The headmistress said that there are no shortcuts in life.
I like the house of the female teacher with glasses, a room of my own. She was once said by Jenny as "what if she studied at Cambridge, today's life is just correcting empty articles every day, which is no different from death." But she rejected the demonstration-like Paris perfume and calmly used a room decorated with heart , let Jenny see the rich spiritual world. Her piano, her books, hardcover paperbacks, wall paintings and postcards. She likes Burne Jones just like Jenny, but instead of going to the auction house to watch famous paintings, she keeps small pictures on her desk.
It reminds me of girls I've seen with their rooms. Think of a bunch of daisies, a poster, a running book on the desk, a row of carefully numbered notebooks, a wall of colorful postcards, a column of wine corks. These girls whom I admire and love have never given up their youthful dreams, nor have they given up building their own world with their hands.
five
One of my favorite scenes is Jenny lying on the rug listening to a vinyl record. In a gray school uniform sweater and lace-up leather shoes, she hid in the corner of her room under the pressure of Latin and Oxford exams, with a dark orange record player box beside her, humming her favorite songs arbitrarily, Imagine Paris. The sun shines on the young face through the window, if youth and dreams are turned into a picture, this is probably the case.
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