(Spoiler) In the realm of romance, it is "true love" that is exalted, transcending the barriers of class, gender, and race to distinguish what is essential to love (such as sincerity) and what is irrelevant (e.g. family circumstances). " Up For Love " just found a factor that many thought was unfounded, but still influential—height difference—a hurdle to overcome as a film's protagonist. There are still many cultural prejudices in the Western society where the development of equality consciousness is relatively mature; and what is puzzling is that in the modern capitalist society where IQ is more important than physique, the factor of height seems to be very "primitive", there is a kind of "primitive". Isn't this ancient prejudice supposed to have disappeared a long time ago", but it does exist. Online forums often have the topic "Should short boys kill themselves?" but no one can adequately explain why short men are a problem. "Shrinking Lover's Dream", as a final happy romantic comedy, its mission seems to be to cut off this residual prejudice that "should not exist".
Borrowing from film and gender studies scholar Betty Kaklamanidou [1] , Hollywood romance films that have emerged in recent years can be further subdivided into different categories, including career women comedy, male comedy (Man-com) and gender wrestling ( Battle of the sexes) elements can be seen in the French film "Shrinking Lover's Dream". The heroine Diane is a lawyer who runs a law firm with her ex-husband and is about to break up with him. In the setting of social status, she is on an equal footing with men. The actor, Alexandre, is an architect who picked up Diane's lost phone and took the opportunity to pursue her [2] , but he is only 136cm tall and sits on a chair with his legs in the air. And Diane's ex-husband is romantic, but refuses to let go of Diane; at work, the two people's ways of doing things often conflict.
In comparison, the wrestling between the sexes is only a sub-line of the movie, which acts as a foil. In Kaklamanidou's research, in romantic comedies with career women as the main line, the drama mainly comes from the tension between work and love, and it tells how the heroine takes care of both in the end. However, the dramatic tension of "Shrinking Lover's Dream" does not come from Diane's difficulty balancing work and emotional life (there is no conflict between the two in the plot), but from Alexandre's short stature, which makes them walk together in the eyes of everyone. Feel out of place. Therefore, the narrative of this film is ostensibly from a female point of view (the story is developed by Diane, and finally wins the love of the other party through her actions), but the core is actually a male comedy, because the dominant factor in the love relationship in the play is masculinity. (masculinity). Issues related to height and other masculinity are not only troubles to overcome for the hero, but also for the heroine—so her status as a "professional woman" and her social status as equal to that of men are just a reference. points to help address masculinity issues. It can be said that "Shrinking Lover's Dream" is a male comedy from a female perspective.
"Short men with tall girls" is a comical image in itself. Compared with "men should be better than women to be pleasing to the eye", it is a comedy creation model based on cultural prejudice. Many of the laughing positions in "Shrinking Lover's Dream" are slapstick designs related to Alexandre's small body, such as being knocked down by a dog, clinging to the top of the cabinet with both hands... The other "smiles" focus on the sense of visual incongruity. For example, from the horizontal perspective of the table, only half of his head can be seen. Diane gave him a large size children's clothing, but he "collided" with the child of the owner of the children's clothing store. It's actually a visual concept, not an objective measure of body size and weight. The tension in "Shrinking Lover's Dream" refers to both physical (literal) and metaphorical or symbolic levels, including the evaluation of social status and cultural identity.
Regarding the question of the level of men and women, "Shrinking Lover's Dream" uses a reverse strategy: for many years, the gender issue has been how women change from a lower position to an equal position, but this film makes the heroine have an "equal" status as soon as she appears. (with her ex-husband as a reference), and then let the male protagonist who is shorter than her appear, so the question of "equality" seems to change to the challenge of "how do men have the same status as women", that is, the audience will be led to sympathize with the male protagonist. And to give him the direction of "refueling". The problem is that this operation just disturbs the notion of "equality" that many people are accustomed to. Alexandre's setting is that it can be said to be "perfect" except for his body: handsome, mature, humorous, successful in his career, good father, good employer... But Diane, who is set as a "princess", still fantasizes about meeting "Prince Charming". " rather than "dwarf" - and Alexandre is a prince with a dwarf shape, that is, he has not yet achieved the "perfect Masculinity" of "Prince Charming". Alexandre's body proportion is not a dwarf, nor is it different from the hobbit in "The Lord of the Rings", but stays in the style of a teenager - this is evident in the scene where he "zipped shirts" face to face with the young son of the owner of the children's clothing store. Perhaps it is this "ungrown" size that undercuts his masculinity.
Diane's "prince" fantasies are part of the mainstream consciousness, as evidenced by her mother's mockery of Alexandre. Diane's mother retorted that although her current husband is also disabled, but he is hearing impaired, so it's okay if outsiders can't see it, and it's not as eye-catching as Alexandre. The foreign gaze thus becomes a disciplinary force over reason (the modern consciousness of liberty and equality). Although Diane is a learned and introspective person, her eyes are still influenced by the eyes of the society. How she sees Alexandre, and how she sees the relationship, is subject to the eyes of society—even though she knows there is a prejudice, it does challenge the idea that "the most important thing in love is the individual's ability to stay true to his own emotions." concept of free love. It can even be said that the so-called "own emotions" themselves are already mixed with various cultural prejudices.
Alexandre himself is not immune to the constraints of this prejudice; even though he has been excellent in career and character for many years, he has never been able to remove the pressure brought by "shortness", which also affects how he views himself and feels that he is masculine. There is always something missing. In the end, the solution provided by the movie depends on whether the important people in life can get rid of the constraints formed by external eyes - which important people's eyes are important, and which outsiders' prejudices are irrelevant. For Alexandre, the most important people are his son and Diane, so the success of the ending depends on the complete acceptance of the male protagonist by the latter two. Such a big reunion seems to have eliminated the last remaining cultural prejudice and completed the task of free love in modern society. But on the other hand, in fact, the reunion of "Shrinking Lover's Dream" further consolidates the difference in height in other aspects-don't forget that Alexandre's settings are "perfect" in addition to height. After removing "height" from the "ideal masculinity", the male protagonist of "short, rich and handsome" is a "rich and handsome" without flaws. Would Diane still like him if he wasn't handsome or rich, just good things like humor and character? When the son and Diane expressed their intentions to Alexandre successively, confirming that "you are a good father/good lover", they kneeled on the ground at the same time, so as to maintain an equal eye level with the male protagonist. The surface is equality, but it is actually a gesture of surrender .
The last point to mention is that, although the ending of a comedy based on cultural prejudice is often aimed at eliminating that kind of prejudice, the so-called comedy cannot only be about "reunion". It's the process of continuing to make the audience laugh. In the funny process of "laughing from head to tail", most of the jokes are still based on cultural prejudice - that is, the short stature of the male protagonist is indeed the object of ridicule. This highlights that comedies based on cultural prejudice always have a paradoxical characteristic: if a certain characteristic is no longer cultural prejudice, it cannot make the audience laugh, and it is a failure as a comedy, so that prejudice cannot really be eliminated. In other words, in a comedy with cultural bias as its main axis, there is always tension between its hilarious process and its narrative conclusion. The funnier the play, the deeper the contradiction with the ending of "eliminating prejudice". "Shrinking Lover's Dream" ostensibly proposes a solution to a social stereotype, but at the same time consolidates mainstream consciousness and prejudice.
Notes:
[1] Betty Kaklamanidou. Genre, Gender and the Effects of Neoliberalism: The new millennium Hollywood rom com . Routledge, 2013.
[2] Diane is set as a "goddess who loves immediately at a glance, regardless of gender", and the persuasiveness is decided by the audience.
[Originally published in "The People of the Movie" October 31, 2016 ]
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