two lonely people meet
There is nothing in this world that is more touching and desperate than the embrace of two lonely people. It is like holding two pieces of ice together. Everyone longs for warmth, but no one can warm the other.
The protagonist of the film, Alexander, has achieved fame and fame, and is famous for his poetry, but he seems to have nothing. Severely ill, time is short, she will be admitted to the hospital tomorrow, treatment, pain, treatment, pain... The only daughter is deeply estranged, has not been in contact for a long time, and knows almost nothing about his condition. The mother suffers from Alzheimer's disease and spends the rest of her life in the hospital. And the only warm port can only be docked in memory - Anna, his wife, the woman who loved him deeply but was always forgotten by him. The nanny repeatedly asked to accompany him to the hospital, but he refused. When faced with death, he wanted to be like an elephant, preferring to walk into the forest alone. And the Albanian child who smuggled in has no relatives at home, and his only friend, Sailin, was also killed in a car accident. In this country where the language does not speak, he is lonelier than anyone else. Lonely people have a kind of light, not the kind of raging fire, but like the fireflies in the cold night, the light is weak but will not go out, carrying the weak fire to identify each other. Alexander was preparing to say goodbye before being hospitalized, but he met this Albanian boy. It was not so much that Alexander rescued the Albanian boy, but that the boy brought a glimmer of light to the desperate Alexander. The end of your life may not be the most terrifying, but even more terrifying is the annihilation of everything you once held dear. Alexander, the poet who made his name in the world through words, seemed to be aphasia at this time. He wanted to continue the poems of the nineteenth-century poet Solomus, but he had no clue. Boys sold lexicons to Alexander, just as 19th-century Greeks sold lexicons to the poet Solomus. "Cofla," "Outcast," and "too late" were the three words the boy sold to Alexander.
Yes, both Alexander and the boy were exiles, the boy was exiled by his geographical country, and Alexander was exiled by the language country. On the occasion of his parting, the Albanian boy boarded the ship. Many years later, he will travel all over the port and the world, being illuminated by the night of the port and being blown by the sea breeze. And the old poet Alexander took the vocabulary given to him by the boy and recited it repeatedly by the sea. When two lonely people are together, no one has changed the other, but that short-lived warmth will last forever. One day's warmth is an eternal memory.
Ocean
What is the sea? The sea is a never-ending drift and temptation. One side of the sea is the shore, which is a stable and stable life, the root of life, while the other side is the undulating waves, which are endless drifting. Anyone who lives by the sea has been tempted by the sea. The sound of the waves is like the song of a siren, tempting people by the sea to go on a voyage and explore the world beyond the sea. And if the dream is built on the sea, it is destined to be a wandering life.
The protagonist of the film, Alexander, lives by the sea. A friend told him that there is a lost ancient city in the middle of the sea. When the morning star misses the earth, the ancient city will appear in the sea. The seaside is home, the wife who loves him and the daughter he loves. What about the ancient city? It is a prosperous city in the past and an ideal country for poets. People work by the sea, fall in love, and thrive, but he wants to climb the mountains and yearn for the ancient city in the sea. You will find that every time and space transition in the movie is related to the sea. At the beginning of the story, little Alexander and his partner swim into the sea, from one sea to another, the young Alexander turns into an aging Alexander. The first time I recalled my wife, the camera went through the screen window. My wife stood by the sea with myself. Every memory with my wife was related to the sea.
Even the time travel of old Greek poets is related to the sea. Alexander and the child are strolling by the river (a variant of the sea), and as the camera slowly moves to the right, the nineteenth-century poet Solomus stands by the river. Villagers came by boat to sell vocabulary to poets on the seaside city walls.
That famous bus travel in time and space also happened by the sea. At the end of the film, Alexander returned to the house by the sea and saw the dilapidated house. His mother was not there, his wife was not there, his relatives and friends were not there, and the boy himself was not there. Only the sound of the waves echoed endlessly, and Alexander burst into tears. When the window facing the sea slowly opened, he reconstructed the lost world with his memories. In the melodious singing, everything seemed to be intact, and he danced with his wife and friends.
I still remember little Alexander looking back before walking into the sea, and the call of his mother sounded outside the painting. Hasn't every teenager ever been like this, thinking about his hometown but longing to leave his hometown. The film begins with the mother's call and ends with the mother's call, "Alexander, Alexander..."
Time travel on the bus
If it is a classic, this passage is a veritable classic. Before Alexander and the boy parted, he got on the bus of time and space, and the bus was still a parade of workers, a student couple discussing art, a music student, and the 19th century poet Solomus. Traveling, Alexander seems to have experienced a lifetime, these passengers, as if alluding to the various periods of Alexander's life, politics, love, art and his ideal poetry. In this passage, Angelopoulos invented a new vocabulary of film, which he sold to film history.
what is tomorrow
What is the time? Time is the child playing with the sand by the sea. He painted castles, gardens, countless individuals and lives, and the future and memories. However, when the waves came, they were washed away and nothing was left. Life. Not so. Alexander set off from the sea to find the ancient city in the sea. He had received love, happiness, and honor. However, at this moment, when the old Alexander was standing by the sea, all these no longer exist. He asked his wife, "What's tomorrow?" How long will tomorrow last, maybe a day, that particular day, the Saturday after Friday; maybe eternity, because every day has a tomorrow. Where is the border between day and eternity, and where is the border between life and death? Poets are not politicians and cannot give exact answers, but they present a poetic picture to the audience. What you feel at the moment is a day and an infinite eternity.
Liao Ruoshui on January 29, 2019 in Shenmeng Building, Qingyun Mountain
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