Through the analysis of the psychological process experienced by the hero and heroine in the film, this paper briefly analyzes the inevitability of the development of the film's plot and the truth of human nature revealed by its narrative structure. In "Bitter Moon", Oscar and Mimi's love experience can be roughly divided into the following stages.
Stage 1: Attraction
The initial attraction to each other is an inescapable fate. Oscar and Mimi, one is a writer who inherits the inheritance and has no worries of food and clothing, and the other is a dance class student who works as a waiter in a restaurant. It seems that the two of them are difficult to meet, but it happens that they both have the dream of breaking away from life and the passion that is about to explode. At the same time, they are also in a state of emptiness in their lives - Oscar's writing dream has not been fulfilled, and Mimi's dancing dream is just a phantom. . They all need an emotional outlet, a sustenance that is more accessible than their own dreams.
Under such circumstances, they met. He first saw her on the 96 bus—white sneakers, no socks. She is so different from the women around him, she doesn't wear makeup and doesn't stick to kitsch, she is pure and natural but shows a different kind of sexy. He fell in love with her at first sight, so he began to search and wait persistently until he met her again. The shock of the joy of reunion and the romantic madness of their nature made them fall in love, and it was out of control.
Stage 2: Passion
Passion is an inevitable stage in almost every love relationship. It lasts for different lengths of time, but the beginning and end of its birth and death are roughly the same. Soon, the passionate years of Oscar and Mimi came sweetly, warmly and logically.
Mimi is innocent, she is full of curiosity about the relationship between the sexes, sex is not only a sensual pleasure for her, but also a persistent exploration of the unknown; she knows how to use her beautiful body, and is keen to continue to go further through the practice of sex-rich forms Control each other, thus occupying an absolute dominant position in the relationship between the two at this stage. Mimi's natural and pure sexiness is a fatal attraction for Oscar, and he willingly worships and looks up, even at the cost of becoming her sex slave.
At this time, the constant physical exploration of each other became the focus of their lives, and their desperate love annihilated them. At the beginning, I was just addicted to lust, and accidentally, only lust was left.
Stage 3: Anti-dependence
All passions are time-bound, and the more intense the desire, the faster it will be consumed. In romantic relationships, men tend to dominate the beginning of a relationship with their powerful explosiveness and control, while women maintain relationships that tend to be flat with their stamina and endurance.
When Mimi was still addicted to love and couldn't extricate herself, Oscar, who was exhausted of energy and patience, had calmed down first. The independent consciousness in the male nature made him embark on the process of anti-dependence between the sexes. The specific manifestation of this psychological process is boredom. Oscar tries to give each other space and distance because he realizes that endless physical exploration will eventually lead to a suffocating relationship between the two, he needs breathing, space and freedom, and so does this relationship. At this time, Mimi, who is obsessed with staying together for a long time, naturally cannot understand.
Stage 4:
The extreme intimacy of greed distorted the two, so when the passion subsided, they could not stand in the perspective of separation and rationality to deal with the direction of the relationship. At this moment, the essence of greed in human nature is in both of them. performed to the extreme.
Oscar and Mimi's greed are completely different, and their respective psychology represents the psychology of both men and women in a relationship. After enjoying all of Mimi, Oscar regenerates his yearning for freedom and more women; what he wants is not only one woman, but more. After falling in love with Oscar, Mimi is obsessed with occupying more of Oscar. What she wants is not only now, but forever.
A man is always greedy and wants to conquer more women, and a woman is always greedy and wants to have all of him.
Stage 5: Abusive Love
At this point, the man who is eager to get rid of the relationship and the woman who is obsessed with it have switched positions in love.
Oscar is cruel. In order to separate, he tortured Mimi by any means, making love on Mimi but calling other women's names. He didn't even taste the turkey that Mimi cooked for him, and he even forced Mimi to beat him. Losing her own child... Mimi is tragic. She loses her personality. In order to maintain the relationship between the two, she gave up everything and endured everything. She allowed Oscar to be with other women. It is silent cooperation, even the tears are silent.
Oscar is not a sadist, he is just avoiding real emotions with a self-assured attitude. It's not that he doesn't love this woman, but he can't bear to stay with her at the cost of giving up his freedom. Therefore, he magnified the disgust the two had for each other in the previous relationship without gaps, and used the cruelty to Mimi to make up for the repression that he felt in this relationship before. Mimi is not a masochist either, she just can't accept her disillusionment about "everlasting", and tries to fulfill her obsession with finally possessing this man through superficial complacency.
Everything happened naturally, but it also inadvertently went to doom.
Stage 6: Revenge
Finally, Oscar used deception to get rid of Mimi's entanglement and tears, and returned to his rotten life, indulging every day and singing every night. Until two years later in a car accident, he was injured in the leg.
The flexibility of women is amazing. They may put down their posture for feelings, but they are not so easy to be completely destroyed - Mimi's survival from the dead proves this. After accumulating strength and hatred for two years, she returned to Oscar on the hospital bed. The only reason that prompted Mimi to come back was revenge. At this time, Oscar has already tasted the sweetness of freedom, just as Mimi at this time has already digested the humiliation of being abandoned, and their relationship can no longer be repaired.
The reason why Mimi in those days was able to attract Oscar was precisely because of the hidden energy in her that was different from ordinary people; Oscar would not have thought that this energy would finally destroy him completely one day. After dragging Oscar out of the hospital bed and crippled, Mimi officially switched to the role of leading the relationship between the two. She was in charge of administering injections for Oscar, and used needles that fell on the ground and then picked up to prick his legs; she washed his hair with cold water, and ran to call his lover in the middle of the wash, leaving him shivering from the cold; She brought her young dance partner back and showed him that they danced close to each other and made love in the room next to him... She saw him in pain as a way of her own pleasure.
Does Mimi really only have pure hatred for Oscar? Obviously not, she could have abandoned Oscar, who no one cared about, and let him die alone in desolation and despair, but she didn't, she chose to live with Oscar. Obviously, she still loves him, so she chose to marry him and stay with him, and finally complete her possession of this man as much as possible - even if she can't keep his heart, she must keep his people.
It's just that this love has been distorted and deformed by the huge damage in the past. Mimi's empty love can't be found, but the real hatred is full of reasons. She has to find a balance for the torment she has suffered in the relationship between the two. Thus, a seemingly absurd but genuine relationship was born.
Stage 7: Death
A relationship that started with extreme carnival, at this stage, is already riddled with holes. Oscar lost the freedom he wanted, and Mimi was no longer able to bear children, and the seemingly peaceful life became a kind of irony. For two romantic people, all their fantasies have been shattered, they can no longer find fresh passion, which means, they can no longer find a reason to live. So death became the final logical order of this relationship, and it also smoothly brought the two people's love to the end.
Perhaps most couples will spend the rest of their lives under the false appearance of tranquility and tranquility like the other couple in the film, but this does not deny Oscar and Mimi's ultimate choice. They are honest, lively, candid and unpretentious. The first lust is like the sugar coating wrapped in poison, which melts in the mouth and makes people lose in an instant. However, after the passion is peeled off, the poison of greed in human nature will inevitably lead the two to the ultimate destruction.
summary
Throughout the film, director Polanski's narration is calm, forbearance, and impassive. It is this restrained narrative that makes the film's plot so ups and downs so gripping.
Throughout the whole film, "Bitter Moon" is very vivid in the description and characterization of the psychology of the sexes. In the film, whether it is the mutual attraction and passion of the two sexes, the burnout and exhaustion after the sexual instinct is satisfied, or the two protagonists torture each other. The journey of retribution and revenge, and the journey to Huangquan without any suspense in the end, are all true descriptions and expressions of human nature.
It's all doomed. Even if Oscar finally sees the essential contradiction of "we are all too greedy", if everything starts over again, they will still lead to their destined destiny under the guidance of human nature. Faced with human nature, everyone has no choice.
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