[aka: Silent Julieta]
(Originally published on am730, October 18 & 25)
Who is the male lead in 'Julieta'? In this new work of Amedowa, the female play of the bond between mother and daughter is the same theme, but the humorous "weird chicken" style has been replaced with the heavy tone of classical tragedy. The heroine Julieta's husband Xoan died early and did not appear again, but since then, he has transformed into a lingering pain in the hearts of his wife, daughter, and mistress. However, there is a small statue "sitting man" in the play, which is like Xoan incarnation--there is a scene where Xoan is sitting on a chair and watching Julieta's naked body lying on the bed, sitting in a similar position to the statue--although it does not appear in the scene. Many, together can be regarded as a complete male protagonist.
There are actually more than one "Sitting Man". It is the work of Julieta's family friend and sculptor Ava, who later gave Julieta's favorite one to her. The statue is about the size of two hands, with simple lines, the naked man sitting with his legs slightly spread, his penis not drooping but showing a semi-excited shape, but it has been cut off like a comical tube. It is a paradoxical state where desire arises and is traumatized. Xoan is a man who is charming and lustful at the same time. When he met Julieta on the train and it rained overnight, he had a paralyzed wife at home, and he had a long-term sexual relationship with Ava, which continued until he gave birth to a daughter with Julieta; It was also the discovery of Ava and Xoan's secret relationship that indirectly led to Xoan's death. However, it is not a soap opera-style "Retribution of a Mean Boy", but a source of more pain; the half castrated penis of "The Seated Man" is not a symbol of revenge like the news "A jealous wife cuts off her prostitute's roots" . If the excited phallus points to the original vitality and lust, and the broken root points to the death of a man, it is also a knife to the hearts of several women, a wound that cannot be healed.
Although the statue "Sitting Man" and Xoan together are a male protagonist, in fact, it is not just a symbol of Xoan alone. The excited half phallus can also represent Julieta's father who caught a maid; on the other hand, Julieta's trauma is mixed with abandoned loneliness and guilt for the dead; but the first man who brings guilt is not Xoan, But a lonely man on a train. He strikes up a conversation with Julieta, who gets upset and avoids the meal card, only to meet Xoan. Unexpectedly, the man committed suicide by lying on the rails, Julieta blamed himself, and the man's despairing expression has been in his heart ever since. Years later, Xoan was killed at sea, adding another person to the "last side" of her heart. Both men are the broken penis.
The meaning of "sitting man" is not limited to styling. Julieta looked at Ava's statue and told her a myth that gods made man out of fire and clay, which only involved the statue's nakedness, but couldn't explain its heaviness. The statue seems to be made of light terracotta, but it is actually made of heavy copper, just like the director tells the suffering and hardship of life with gorgeous colors. But the contrast between clay and copper is also a contrast between fragility and strength. Lorenzo is a researcher of Ava's work; Julieta falls in love with him, but this time it's her turn to be a deserter. But he doesn't get angry, waits patiently, shows up when she needs him. Lorenzo's femininity makes him different from other male characters, reminiscent of Ava's gesture of stroking clay on a bronze mold. It is the supple power of motherhood, which is enough to restore Julieta, a lost mother. The material of "Seated Man" symbolizes Lorenzo and the power of motherhood, and its meaning is not limited to men.
By the way, Darío Grandinetti, who plays Lorenzo, is Marco who cried when he saw Pina Bausch's "Café Mueller" in "Something About Her".
View more about Julieta reviews
