"The Twentieth Century": As time goes by

Set in the 1970s, director Mike Mils' "Them of the Twentieth Century" tells the story of three women growing up with a boy. The original title of the film, 20th Century Women, sounds grand and directly covers the entire group, but in fact the film itself is not so difficult to get close to, and the translation of "the women of the twentieth century" is closer to its daily atmosphere. "Them" narrows down and clearly refers to the three women who accompany the male protagonist in his youth: his mother, his close friend Julie, and the feminist photographer Abbie who lives upstairs. Through the interaction between the male protagonist and the three, the director lightly depicts the American life in the late 1970s, punk, feminism, flower shirts, President Carter... . There is not too intense conflict or dramatic development, the rhythm of the whole film is slow, and it gradually becomes a taste in the childhood past events. The use of multiple perspectives, narration from different people's perspectives, and repeated dialectics of the same event also give the event a different appearance. A large number of narrations are interspersed, whether it is about others or about oneself, it gives a single plot multiple meanings.

Boys' growth education, how to hang out in bars, how to accompany women to see obstetrics and gynecology, or how to smoke casually. He has established different relationships with the three women, but he can't really understand them. Whether he plays the role of being loved, manipulated or educated, he is always less eye-catching than the three women. But he subtly connects them, and by interacting with them, he reflects three distinct values.

As the title suggests, this is a film about women. In 1979, three generations of women met in a house where boys and mothers depended on each other. She is an enlightened and avant-garde mother, and it is gradually difficult to understand the values ​​of the new generation. The topic of menstruation in a dinner table group scene pointed out their different attitudes towards their own bodies. The mother who grew up in the 1930s objected to openly discussing it. Abby provocatively asked why not, and Julie, who was caught in the middle, was still groping. Julie told the story of her first menstrual cramp, when she was watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with others, and she had to leave in a hurry because something was wrong, so that she never knew about "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" The End of the Nest. As if an indictment of not being freed, or--even if it were ostensibly obtained, it was a false freedom of polite refusal of others at the table. The difference between generations becomes more and more obvious later, but whether the young generation is avant-garde and rebellious, or the middle-aged generation is caught off guard, the director is not critical, just showing a microcosm of the changes.

In the film, Abby takes a series of photos of her belongings, underwear, shoes, Susan Sontag's "On Photography"..., through these independent objects, linked to a certain degree. self-portrait. When pictures are placed together, a certain outline gradually emerges, but suddenly there is also a sentimental atmosphere. The director intersperses data images, major events, or private histories from time to time in the film. These irrelevant images are connected by the characters' experiences, as if they suddenly found a place to belong. Echoing the title of "Twentieth Century", when historical terms are combined with the details of life, it is as if empty objects depict the character of the owner, and one flesh and blood image gradually emerges, clear and full of vitality.

It was a rushing generation, and it was also a nihilistic generation. Everything is boring, everything is just a game. Life seems to be peaceful, but it is like a car that spontaneously ignites without warning at the beginning, and I don't know when it will turn around and burn you to nothing. The era has advanced, and the era will continue to advance. AIDS, the Internet, and global warming are all about to emerge. And all of this seems so remote to a fifteen-year-old boy who lives in Santa Barbara, California, trying to spy on the future from everything around him. In the movie, there are many scenes of the male protagonist skateboarding on the road. The same road in adolescence, back and forth, once thought it was impossible to be more familiar, but after all, he had to leave. Several highway shots in the film all use psychedelic special effects. No matter which direction you go, you will never look back, and you can only accept the inevitable changes in the future.

In addition, the recurring theme song of "Casablanca" in the film, As Time Goes By, not only adds to the nostalgia, but also points to the theme of the film. The passage of time, the ravines and ravines, or the fertile fields, the next century is about to come, the same old story will be played out in the world, but some things have quietly disappeared. At the end of the play, the main characters narrate their life in the future, the effect of alienation, and from the perspective of hindsight, show the audience how to move towards the future that has been written step by step. "I'm going to die of cancer," "I'm going to have two kids," "I'm going to lose touch with other people," stretches out, flattens, what happened in Santa Barbara in the summer of 1979, like A leaf in the forest, fluttering in the wind, finally fell to the ground silently. Many years later, the male protagonist tried to explain to his son what kind of person his grandmother was, but "it will never be clear." And how can one life under the macroscopic history be clear?

View more about 20th Century Women reviews