In recent years, Woody has made a lot of films set in Europe, such as "Midnight in Paris", such as "Midnight in Barcelona", such as "Love in Rome". However, after watching his new film this year (also the opening film in Cannes), "Coffee Commune", I still feel that he is still the most suitable story to tell New York.
The plot of "Coffee Commune" is not complicated. Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) from New York goes to Hollywood to join his uncle Phil, falls in love with his secretary, Pooh (Kristen Stewart), but never expects Pooh to have a romantic relationship with married Phil. . Phil eventually divorced and married Pooh, and Bobby returned to New York to start a new life, with a wife and children. However, he and Pooh meet again later, only to find that they still can't forget each other. They are still ambiguous, but they have not given up their marriages for this.
I'm not a big fan of the love lines in Woody Allen's recent films. In my opinion, Woody's views on love and marriage are a bit too open (in a derogatory sense here). Fortunately, even if love is a plotline, it's never everything in a Woody movie.
The 81-year-old old Woody, still chattering about his New York, his Jewishness. Bobby, who was in Hollywood for the first time, called home. "It's warm and sunny here (Hollywood), but this isn't New York. I don't know anyone here. They call danishes sweet rolls." He later reunited with his former lover, Pooh, in New York and asked her why she didn't choose New York, "Everything. Not like Broadway, or the cheesecake at Lindy's." Bobby's mother couldn't accept that her eldest son, Ben, converted to Christianity in order to have an afterlife after being sentenced to death. "(My son) first became a murderer, then became a Christian!" It is hard to believe that even in the face of crime and death, Woody still does not forget the topic of Jewish identity. When New York and Jewish families form the backdrop for the story, and when Woody speaks about the things he knows best, everything becomes more real.
The 81-year-old old man Woody is still warm and vicious, and all kinds of gods make up for it.
I've always said that Woody Allen's wisdom is hidden in his jokes that are actually serious.
Death is often discussed in his films. But when he talks about these things, he doesn't give people a sense of mystery. He doesn't seem to like the inspirational words of "Take every day as the last day to live" when persuading people to cherish. He makes us face death and truly accept the basic fact that "birth, old age, sickness and death are the laws of nature", even if we really fear it.
His films rarely have big ups and downs, but they express thoughts in trivialities. In fact, only those who truly understand death can truly understand life. The image of "neurotic intellectual" and "neurotic comedian" has accompanied Woody Allen for many years. He is willing to observe life, to examine life, and to love it after seeing the truth, even if the truth is not always good.
In fact, life is like that. When we go to explore everything about it, we should not hold the idea of "I hope everything will be as I want", but come from an instinct that is willing to understand ourselves and the world. Woody Allen represents a group of people who would rather choose an "examined" bad life than an "unexamined" life that is not worth living.
Therefore, in "Coffee Commune", Woody Allen misses the golden age of Hollywood with stars (and invited the great photographer Storaro to shoot it like a dream), and at the same time exposes its sanctimonious appearance behind the scenes. The appearance of all beings; while making Jesse Eisenberg into his younger self, talking about moving back to New York, but after returning to New York, he turned into the one he hated. He knew New York wasn't that clean, but he loved it, as he did with life.
Movies are both artistic and commercial. As smart as Woody Allen, have you also asked yourself if he has the same delicate side as a businessman like Eisenberg in the film?
As brutal as it sounds, director and writer Woody Allen has no shortage of sharp irony in his films.
In the film, Pooh, who is married to Phil, tells Bobby that when he thinks back to the past, he will start to dream (dreaming about her and Bobby together), however, dreams are dreams after all. Bobby's wife said that she had dreamed of Bobby's cheating behavior, and asked him if he had cheated. Bobby answered no, and told his wife that dreams are dreams after all.
Pooh's mention of dreams means we'll never go back. Bobby mentioned dreams, but he used it to prevaricate his wife. In fact, even if he didn't have a deeper relationship with Pooh, he had already betrayed his wife spiritually.
As I mentioned earlier, in recent years Woody's films seem to have been escaping from looking at love from a moral point of view, which I can't agree with. However, the phrase "a dream is a dream after all" really makes people feel emotional.
Our dreams often come from our wishes or inferences. However, what has actually happened, or is about to happen, is not based on this. So sometimes, people use dreams to deceive themselves and others. Then, when we wake up, we find that real life is not written by feeling like a dream. In real life, there are the ugliness of human nature and the unhappiness of life.
On the one hand, they cannot shake a person who loves life's cognition of "life is comedy", on the other hand, they also bring us many tests.
This is probably the 81-year-old old Woody, a sober and profound analysis of himself and others. Through examination, we have deepened our understanding of life, and the quality of life, which is a different kind of comedy, has never changed.
Dreams are dreams after all; life is life after all.
(All the pictures are screenshots of the author, and the subtitles in the pictures are from online resources, which are intrusive and deleted.)
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