Woody Allen is a complete pessimist. He said frankly in the interview: "I have a very pessimistic view of life... I feel that living is a bleak, painful, nightmarish and meaningless experience. The only way to make yourself happy is to deceive yourself... People need illusions to live. If you look at life too honestly and too clearly, it will be too dark to bear..."
Woody Allen's pessimism stems from the questioning of ultimate meaning. Such questioning is destined to fall into nothingness and pain from the beginning. In his view, man is a boat that goes with the flow, no matter how hard he may drop the anchor, he can never touch a solid river bed. He said: "Everyone uses their own absurdity to give existence meaning, such as religion, love, art...Of course these things can play a role, but in the end they still cannot give life meaning. Everyone walks to the grave in a meaningless way. ."
This kind of pessimistic tone runs through his works throughout. Woody Allen seems to be keen to strip out the bleak colors of the "real" of life naked for others to see. In "The Purple Rose of Cairo" in 1985, just as the beautiful picture of the future can be reached in time, all hopes and ecstasy suddenly vanished; the better the illusion, the more painful it will be to fall back to reality. In the scene at the end of the film, the heroine puts her hands on her chest and stares hollowly into the distance, as if she wants to reach out to catch the last glimmer of light when the illusion is shattered. Nearly 30 years later, in 2013's "Blue Jasmine", "disillusionment" was recounted without mercy.
In 2011, the male protagonist of "Midnight Paris" experienced the travel of time and space, knowing that the pain and helplessness of life will never change. The "good times" are just wishful thinking; even if it is a dream, he does not want to wake up after all. The ending actor and the girl from the old record shop snuggle into Paris on the rainy night that is also true and illusory. I hope that the road will be endless and go on like this. Woody Allen's movies seem to have been swinging between disillusionment and fantasy. Hopefully, what you get from pursuing "reality" is nothingness and exhaustion. As he said, people need delusions and self-deception to survive. But dreams or disillusionment are essentially negating meaning.
The 2014 "Moonlight Magic" did not deviate from this tone. The male protagonist Stanley is a complete cynic (perhaps cynics are idealists who have experienced disillusionment), he advocates rationality, does not believe in God, does not believe in religion and other supernatural things. The more powerful the rational, the easier it is to experience disillusionment. When looking at the blue sea of Provence with Sophie, Sophie sighed: "It's so beautiful!" Stanley said, "It's fleeting." In Stanley's view, the beauty of short and perishable is erratic and unpredictable in nature. It is difficult to entrust meaning. Although reason cannot give an answer, it is much stronger in comparison. However, rational exploration and questioning of meaning are too easy to fall into nothingness, confusion, anxiety, and pain. When Stanley thought that Sophie was a real psychic, he was ecstatic, and the meaning was finally pinned on. From that moment on, the world was no longer barren, and people were no longer headless flies without knowing what to do; The starry sky is no longer frightening, but reminds people of warm and soft words. Stanley, who had escaped the shackles of reason, fell into ecstasy. But when Stan used his sharp eyes and keen reason to expose Sophie's "psychic" deception, the world that could give meaning also collapsed. For those who can hardly deceive themselves, the meaning is still elusive and hard to find after all.
Perhaps tired, the elderly Woody Allen did not want to ask any more questions. He turned to focus on the love between Stanley and Sophie, and he was also looking for sustenance for himself. The enthusiasm of love does not come from, reason, logic, and meaning are all swept away. Out-of-heart ecstasy and out-of-heart pain come unexpectedly. Even the painful heart is full, and the world is full of colors. People finally have to trek in the barren desert. Whether it is fleeting or Nanke Yimeng, love is a little oasis for a while to inhabit.
At the end of the film, Aunt Vanessa's words must also be Woody Allen's emotion: "This world may have a purpose, or it may not have a purpose, but it is not at all magical."
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