The narrative of a declining director

Anahi 2021-12-28 08:02:09

This is Almodovar's "Eight and a half", with Spanish dance and surreal, with a half-concealed self-confession, it is here.

Almodovar has a kind of narcissism, or in other words, Saldova, the lead actor in the film, has a kind of narcissism. Of course, he has sufficient reasons to support this kind of narcissism. The reason why the word "Glory" is included in the movie's name is that he has a coffin with himself that has not yet ended. For the films he has made in the past, he has won awards. He received all the favorites he won, and he was proud of it. While waiting for the test results of stomach tumors, El Saldova also specifically mentioned, “I can’t figure out why they (Icelanders) like me so much.”

For the long-lived career of director (after all, Antonioni is still making movies in his eighties), whether for Almodovar or El Saldova, you don’t have to be so sad, just film yourself in such a hurry. "Unless he has a hidden story, for Fellini, the bottleneck and psychological crisis in creation have spawned the famous film history "Eight and a half". For Almodovar, according to what is revealed in the film, it is estimated to be His body is getting aging. "Reaper lives in the next room, and you can hear his breathing when you close your eyes." This is Almodovar's pain.

Only then did we realize that Almodovar is already 70 years old, and he really is no longer young. Although he looks young and has babyface, he is already a standard old man.

In the film, Saldovar looks a few octaves more handsome than Almodóvar himself. He is played by the unruly Spanish boy Banderas. Although Almodóvar did not mention it directly, everyone can see that. Saldovia is Almodóvar. We can learn some clues about Almodóvar’s life from this film. In the film, Saldovar uses segments of dreams, hallucinations after inhaling white powder, unexpected memories and conscious The script creation has opened up part of myself a little bit. For example, poor childhood, beautiful mothers and fathers who are always absent, having to go to a church school, the "initial desire" for the same sex in life, another lover of the same sex, a break with a partner, etc. This is the double life of Saldova and Almodovar, reflecting each other, true and false. This is also the mirrored life of a film director. We can understand him through his works, but you don't have to believe that art is a precious lie.

Almodovar is both glorious and painful. The glory comes from the glory of the movie and the success of the world, and the pain comes from the decline of the body. It's the same in El Saldova. People are in old age. What we have to face is the torture caused by the body itself, which has been a vivid reminder of how time flows through this body, and you cannot refuse this.

Glory is like Saldova, and it cannot refuse this hint from the flesh. It keeps telling us on the gate of time that you are not immortal. Like Almodovar, the director of the film, Saldova, seems to enjoy the glory of a national treasure director. There is also a dedicated and loving secretary who responds to letters from fans all over the world. He wrote more than 30 years ago. The film was restored and screened in the Film Archive, and continued to receive lectures from foreign countries. For Saldovia, the honor brought to him by his career success is the bright spot in his life. But under this light, there are also shadows.

Diseases continue to invade his aging body. Almodovar humorously uses 3D animated medical science films to list us a lot of minor illnesses and incurable diseases: gastroesophageal reflux, peptic ulcer, Endogenous asthma, migraines, tension headaches, cluster headaches and backaches usually cause pain in the nerves of the whole body, especially the sciatic nerve. Naturally, since many years ago, there have been alternate episodes of depression... which led him to "when multiple diseases strike, I believe in God and I pray to him; when only one disease strikes, I am an atheist" , But in the end, in order to alleviate this kind of illness, he did not believe in God sincerely. Instead, he accepted the "fan of peace" handed by the actor in the first movie more than 30 years ago, who was also a friend of his own for many years. Under the torture of, started a reckless K fan career.

If this is in your country, this plot would have been dragged out and shot 180 times a long time ago. Do you still have the face to go to a foreign film festival? You are recalled for technical reasons. But they are outside the wall after all. When I saw this, I couldn't help but envy the fresh air outside. Of course, this kind of behavior should be prohibited, but this kind of true expression should be opened.

All in all, he is an old man who has been tortured by his illness and turned into anger, and he has started the wild journey of K-fans until dawn. The audience couldn't help but sweat for the old man. Fortunately, Marcelo, the lover who was separated because of drug abuse when he was young, appeared in time, as if the rescue angel sent by God made him lose his way. After the old friends got together, he flushed the rest of the white powder into the toilet, and then chopped off the analgesic medicine he had eaten in the past with a knife (this paragraph is very funny), and withstood the withdrawal reaction.

Illness makes people lose their dignity, even the world-renowned directors are just like ordinary people. At the beginning and the end, everyone is similar.

Old people have as many tears as memories, because they are afraid that time will run out and all they have are memories. When people get old, their genders start to become blurred, and tears will flow at every turn. Sooner or later, everyone will return to the initial stage of infancy. Saldovia really loves to cry in the movie. Whenever the memory comes, or the past lover or memorial items appear, I can’t stop crying, especially when I dive at the bottom of the pool at the beginning of the movie, I’m suspected to be crying. (Suspected of two tears in the corner of the eye), people admire Banderas's proficiency in acting, and it is worthwhile to take the Cannes actor.

In order to re-release the movie more than 30 years ago, I went to find the severed male protagonist to attend the premiere, and was encouraged to take drugs; because of aging and disease, he became addicted to drugs, so I wrote the script "Addiction"; "Addiction" "Was filmed into a work that attracted drug addicts and separated homosexuals in the old days, so they quit drugs; because of a childhood portrait, recalling the first sexual impulse towards a man in life, because that’s how they got into the basic passion. Road, and I think of my mother’s feelings for me; I have never let go of the pain of bereavement, so let’s make a movie, so the fragments of past memories turned out to be fragments of my new movie. This can be regarded as a story that starts with a movie and ends with a movie. El Salvador/Almodova also said: "The movie saved me."

As a lgbt pioneer, Almodovar never minded that his incarnation, Saldova, was scolded by the actor Alberto as a "dead friend" in the film. In fact, it doesn't matter, you can also reply: "dead friend". In the matter of cursing people, there is no distinction between bends and straights. Everyone is equal. When El Salvador went to the slums to buy drugs, the graffiti on the wall also smelled of equality: "Sister, I really believe in you."

However, this autobiographical film is still mediocre and self-abusive. Perhaps Almodovar has self-knowledge, and his self-deprecation of "abusive emotions" is also revealed in the film. This is not like a work with any ambitions and aesthetic pursuits, but more like the constant complaints and complaints of an elderly director. It is inevitable that there is no breakthrough in the form. There is a problem with creative motivation. When movies are almost exclusively private movies, there is less meaning to circulate.

Almodovar is really old.

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Extended Reading

Pain and Glory quotes

  • Salvador Mallo: Life disgusts me like a useless medicine. And it is then when I feel with clear visions how easy it would be to get away from this tedium if I had the simple strength of wanting to really push him away.

  • Federico Delgado: "Love is not enough to save the person you love." It's in your monologue.

    Salvador Mallo: Let's not talk about the monologue, it's a very sad text.