Mirrors appear 8 times in the movie [Joker], and 14 times if you include car windows and things like that.
This kind of thing is also called "jian". It is an item with a smooth surface and the ability to reflect light. It is often used to organize grooming.
According to legend, Narcissus in Greek mythology liked to look in the mirror very much. After returning from hunting one day, he saw his beautiful face in the pond. He couldn't hold it anymore, he fell in love with it deeply, and he couldn't even leave the pond, and finally became haggard. And die.
The "Fengyue Baojian" in "A Dream of Red Mansions" also has this meaning, but it has a more illusory flavor of ambiguity and mirroring.
It was originally designed to treat the disease of evil thoughts and delusions, but it must not be exposed to the front. It's a pity that Jia Rui didn't listen, and turned to the front to see that it was Sister Feng who had been coveted for a long time, so he entered Fengyue Baojian in a daze, day and night with Sister Feng, the "strong slap" disappeared.
Margaret's "The Handmaid's Tale" has a kind of isolation and prophecy that everything is about to collapse.
She wrote of the heroine, Offfred, coming downstairs, passing a bulging mirror in the hallway, and caught a glimpse of herself " like a deformed shadow, a poor imitation, slowly descending toward a moment of carelessness and danger at the same time. " .
Roman Polanski stuffed four mirrors in [The Strange Tenant]. In the hall, in front of the wardrobe, in the corners and in his hands, several people crowded out of the small room, each of them was him, but not him. Suggestions of split personality.
And [Joker] has all the meanings of the mirror above.
The male protagonist Arthur first danced in front of the mirror, and then had an indiscriminate relationship with the female neighbor. Then, because of a phone call, he raised his forehead and smashed the glass of the phone booth, and finally sat in front of his mother's dresser, right. Wearing a three-way mirror with clown makeup.
Narcissism, illusion, collapse, split, where is this mirror? Clearly a big mouth of fangs swallows the boundary between reality and nothingness.
01 Narcissism
There is no doubt that the Joker is narcissistic.
In order to find out his own background, he went to the nursing home where his mother lived and called up the files, and found that his mother suffered from narcissistic personality disorder - a permanent personality disorder, patients tend to overemphasize the importance of self and excessively desire others appreciation, and a lack of empathy for the behavior of others.
Regardless of whether the clown is the woman's biological child or not, the person who is close to the ink is black. From childhood to adulthood, he must have been fascinated by his ears and eyes, and gradually formed his own narcissistic personality.
Otherwise, he would not have imagined that the female neighbor praised his humor, and he would not have said to the administrator of the nursing home, " I killed a few people to vent my anger. I thought I would feel guilty, but I didn't. "
Yes, on the subway that night, he killed three people with one shot. There was no panic or guilt, but there was a brief tinnitus. Then, he ran out of the subway station with his bag and got into a nearby public toilet.
The mirror in the toilet saw him panic and gasp for a moment, but it was only a moment. Soon he was back to his normal breathing rhythm, raised his arms and danced in front of the mirror.
The dancing posture is complacent, as if he did not kill someone just now, but did a very remarkable thing.
This kind of works that express the narcissism of the characters through the mirror, there have been many works in the film history, the earliest should be traced back to [Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs] in 1937 .
Wearing a crown on her head, the queen threw the black cloak and asked, "The mirror and mirror tell me, who is the most beautiful woman in the world?" After a while, the mirror said, "Of course it's you, my dear queen."
So the queen was satisfied, raised her chin proudly, and decided that she was indescribably beautiful.
[Prague Love] is also narcissistic to death.
The surgeon, played by Lewis, is obsessed with chasing the pleasures of women and enjoying the pleasure of sex.
Later, he felt that ordinary scenes could not satisfy his appetite, so he began to do it in front of the mirror. Looking at the woman in the mirror who was pressed under him, his sense of conquest and pleasure doubled. It's the same thing as [Bind me, bind me].
There is also Roxie in [Chicago] , standing in front of a polygonal mirror in bright clothes, with avatars lining the entire stage, all with hot figures and undisguised desires, like blood-stained silk wrapped in satin dagger.
No, it's not a dagger, it's an ego that expands with more mirrors.
When this ego arrives [sunny day] , it becomes Ma Xiaojun's pretentious hero complex.
He stole his father's medal, kicked in front of the mirror, fantasized about being a hero Paul, a railway guerrilla, or Wang Cheng in the movie [Heroes and Sons], shouting "For victory, shoot at me", shaking all over Feel good about yourself.
Alfie is beautiful.
No matter when, it always seems out of place to praise a man's beauty, but Ah Fei is beautiful.
He knows this too well, after all, there are two women who are fascinated by him. He has long been fascinated by himself, nostalgic for his cute skin in the mirror, so he slowly finished telling the story of the footless bird, got up and danced in front of the mirror.
Much like Arthur the Clown, and very much like Narcissus.
Wong Kar-wai likes mirrors, so it's not only in [A Fei Zhengzhuan], but also in the movie [2046] .
Zhang Ziyi played Bai Ling, snarky, vivid, flirtatious on the face, but she really loved Zhou Muyun in her heart, and asked with a sullen face, "You treat all women the same, don't you, so will I be an exception?"
But what kind of person is Zhou Muyun? Knows the sense of proportion and understands the wind and moon, but he is used to wandering. He only walks on the road of wandering, gambles and eats, and comes to everything. He has no intention of marriage and happiness.
He didn't agree, just looked at Bai Ling playfully through the mirror, the reflections on both sides accentuated the peeping. But Bai Ling didn't look at him, but it was rather Gu Ying's self-pity.
Like Zhang Ailing's "Love in a Fallen City", Bai Liusu's marriage failed, and he was ridiculed by the third master and the fourth grandmother, and he felt very unhappy. She went upstairs, went to her own room, turned on the light, and threw herself on the full-length mirror: " Fortunately, she is not very old. Her face used to be as white as porcelain, but now it has changed from porcelain to jade. Delicate clear eyes. "
So I found comfort in the mirror, and felt that I could give it a go and marry a good family.
Therefore, Lacan wrote in "Mirror Theory", " People get an image of themselves from the mirror, and this image will be combined with self-feeling into a structure, forming an individual's identity for self-existence. "
Presumably, these people just want some kind of recognition.
02 Diaphragm
"Hamlet" is on the contrary, the appearance of the mirror reveals a strong introspection.
Shakespeare wrote this, saying that Hamlet went to his mother's bedroom and was angry: " Come, come, sit down, and don't move. I will put a mirror in front of you, and let you look at your own soul! " As if the mirror can really Take care of people's hearts.
The same goes for the Italian movie [Leopard] .
At the ball, the Duke inadvertently raised his head, saw himself in the mirror, then turned to look at the young girls around him, and suddenly realized that he was old.
He looked at himself for a moment in disbelief, as if the high-spirited duke had passed away.
So Isaac refused to see his face.
He is the "incompetent love" in [Wild Strawberry] . The eighty-year-old recalled the past and dreamed that the cousin whom he admired in his childhood knelt in front of him, "Isaac, have you ever looked in the mirror? I'll show you."
So in the oval glass mirror, he has white hair and sad eyes, ignoring the indifference of his family for eighty years, and pressing it on his face like an inscription.
He was terrified, because it was an embarrassing introspection and a testament to the estrangement between him and his family.
[Chun Guang Xia Xie] made this sense of estrangement very obscure.
It is a small rental house next to the port. He Baorong quarreled with Li Yaohui. I can't remember what it was for. They quarreled too many times. Look at their names, Yili Yihe, right?
But this time is different, even if "it's better for us to start over", the two mirrors on the wall have already separated their feelings.
In [Farewell My Concubine] , Cheng Dieyi and Shige painted their faces in the dressing room. The mirrors they faced were different in shape, one circle and one side, indicating the beginning of their differences in this life. The image of the two people reflected in the mirror also proves that their relationship is elusive.
Sure enough, Dieyi turned around and asked as if to please: Brother Shi, just let me sing with you for a lifetime, okay? The elder brother also turned his face, and his tone was perfunctory: I have sung this for half my life.
He was in a hurry, clinging to the back of the chair and shouting: No! I mean a lifetime, a year, a month, a day and an hour are not counted as a lifetime!
Unfortunately, Sabina did not pay attention to such details.
In [My Beautiful Guardian Angel] , she loves Jung so much that she wants to swallow him, curry favor with him, and even offer to have children for him.
Jung's body flickered, still awakened from a dream, and pushed her away, causing the two people in the mirror to be on both sides of the dividing line, suggesting a rift in this relationship.
But Sabina is still struggling to survive.
She forgot that Jung was a man with a family. Today he is fond of tequila and cigarettes, but tomorrow he hopes to simply wake up, the coffee pot is rumbling, the reading is turned over, and there is a kiss from his wife in the space.
[Dream of Paris] also borrowed the mirror to metaphorize the relationship between closeness and estrangement.
The three take a bath together, and a three-way mirror is placed in the middle of the bathtub to reflect the complex relationship between the characters: Matthew is actually in love with the twins, while Isabella and Theo are actually alone Two-faced character.
[Joker] used the window glass to express the abstract relationship between Arthur and the Joker from separation to closeness.
For example, when Arthur takes the bus and subway, he always puts his head against the window and looks out. The director's shot is shot from outside the window inward, with a layer of glass in between, which is not only the barrier between Arthur and the audience, but also the barrier between Arthur and the world.
Not long after, Arthur was fired by his boss for entering a children's hospital with a gun. He tried to explain the cause and effect, but the boss didn't listen. This indifference and rejection was the beginning of Arthur becoming the clown.
Probably afraid that the audience wouldn't see such signs, so after hanging up the phone, Arthur made a move: slammed his forehead against the glass of the phone booth - which meant that he had to break the barrier with the world and no longer forced a smile , In order to fit in with the group, I try my best to get the kind of jokes that everyone finds funny, but follow my heart, be myself, and step into the world of clowns.
Sure enough, after watching the talk show, Arthur walked down the street and passed a taxi. There was a man wearing a clown mask sitting in the back seat of the car. The two looked at each other for a long time, and there was a tacit understanding in their eyes.
What's more, this time, the windows are rolled down.
That is to say, there is no separation between Arthur and the Joker. As long as he wants to, he is only one step away.
So does he really want to be a clown? It is not stated in the film, but once again with the help of mirror-like glass.
Downstairs in the hospital, Arthur sat on a bench and was questioned by the police, then got up and left. Maybe the glass door was wiped so cleanly that he didn't notice the door and accidentally bumped it head-on.
At the time of embarrassment, the policeman behind him said, "This door can only go in and out." As soon as the voice fell, a person came out of the door. Arthur just took advantage of this gap to enter, isolating the world from the door.
Ten minutes later, the movie ushered in another bus ride.
The difference is that Arthur no longer looks out against the window, but sits in the back seat, leaving the window behind him. The camera no longer shoots from the outside in, but instead enters the bus like Arthur.
No, he wasn't Arthur, he walked in, already a clown.
03 Reality
In addition, [Joker] also used a mirror technique to express Arthur's indistinguishability between reality and reality.
Note that the "mirror technique" here is a film critic term, and it does not mean that there must be a mirror, but two scenes in the film that are similar but different like looking in a mirror.
For example, the emotional line between Arthur and the female neighbor, it was only near the end that the audience was told that this was just Arthur's paranoid attack.
Another example is that Arthur went to his father Thomas Wayne. After receiving an old punch, Arthur put his hands on the sink, which overlapped with his actions at home on the table, which made one have to doubt that he actually Never went to Thomas Wayne at all.
And after Arthur killed his mother, he returned home in an unusually relaxed state, put on a suit, combed his hair, turned on the TV, and played his favorite "The Maureen Show".
He also specifically pulled the progress bar to the beginning, waiting for Ethan Chase to appear, and then quickly ran behind the curtain, pretending that it was himself who was about to make his debut. It's not over, he even moves in sync with Ethan Chase on the TV.
Very much like the movie [Comet Beauty] , the girl named Phoebe, young, delicate face, new to Broadway, hiding in the dressing room and sneaking in the dresses of top celebrities, posing in the mirror, imagining that she will hold a golden statue in the future The appearance of the trophy curtain call.
[Miss Shanghai], [Red Pepper] and [Dragon Fight] also have such psychological projections.
The avatar in the mirror reflects all the desires and passions of the protagonist, even the fluctuating heart. But when the avatar becomes more and more clear, the anti-guest is the main, and the real body is entangled, the real body will be misunderstood as a mirror image, gradually blurred, and it is like a backward dream, and all realms are empty.
[Citizen Kane] and [Inception] are shown through "Mirror Abyss", which comes from the French "mise en abyme". They also have avatars, but they are like an abyss and can't see the end at a glance.
After looking at it for a long time, I always feel that the real body has also fallen into a bottomless pit of falsehood and falsehood, like a mirror.
04 Split
But Borges believes that mirrors are filthy.
In his novel "Tron, Uqbal, Orbis Tertius," he wrote, " Mirrors and fatherhood are repulsive, and the intersection of two mirrors produces innumerable images, which multiply the universe and multiply the population. "
If it were me, I would change this sentence by one word: multiply the personality.
In 1976's "Strange Tenant" , Roman Polanski put at least four mirrors in the apartment. The originally small and cramped room suddenly squeezed out several people, normal, abnormal, heavy makeup, panic, suggesting that of his multiple personalities.
[The Shining] uses a mirror to represent a dual personality disorder.
Son Danny's dual personality is called Tony, an image that forced himself to fantasize due to psychological trauma left by his father's injury.
Another character of father Jack is called Debert Grandy, because of the exhaustion of writing inspiration, he has a nervous breakdown and split off this role. It can be seen from the reflection in the mirror that it is indeed his distorted personality.
In [Razor's Edge] , the tall and handsome psychiatrist always glances at the mirror unconsciously, because there is his dark side hidden there.
[Double Personality] It's more straightforward. The male protagonist thought that someone exactly like him broke into his life, but that was just his reflection in the mirror. It also implied that he had a split personality, but he didn't know it. .
The male lead in [American Psycho] is totally twisted.
He is a hall-level stockbroker on Wall Street. During the day, he is graceful and humorous, earning thousands of family fortunes for his clients. At night, he was a perverted murderer who kidnapped girls one by one to an apartment and tortured them with an axe.
No one knew that there were human heads hidden in his refrigerator, and female corpses were displayed in the room. Only the mirror surface of the axe reflected his inner demon.
Nina sensed the existence of this demon.
She is the white swan in the [Black Swan], pure as a sonnet, more like a handkerchief, able to wipe away all the tears of pain in the world.
Until the black swan turned around in the mirror, jealous, aggressive, wild, egoistic, defiant, contemptuous of everything, bloodthirsty for destruction, always with a sly smile on his face, devoured her inch by inch.
Then, a brand new she fluttered on the stage, like a dormant volcano, once it erupted, the ground shook.
[Extraordinary Apartment] There is no such thing as a split personality, but when the male protagonist reached out and wiped the water vapor from the mirror, he began to fall into memory, and his emotions were broken and distorted a little bit, gradually transitioning from a normal person to being destroyed with a destroyed self.
Arthur is not a split personality, but a schizophrenic.
These two concepts have always been easily confused, but they are two completely different things. Schizophrenia refers to the existence of two or more completely different personalities in patients, which can be converted to each other, and each personality can survive independently; while schizophrenia often has symptoms such as auditory hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. A state in which the personality is almost disintegrated, unable to survive on its own.
[Joker] hints at Arthur's condition at the beginning.
He put on clown makeup in front of the mirror, listened to the news reports about "garbage", and rubbed the corners of his mouth with both hands, trying to pull out a smile, but only a tear slipped from his face mixed with the makeup.
Just like this, he saw his heart: he was not happy.
The irony is that a man who has never been happy in his life, his profession is a clown who makes people laugh, and he also has a nickname called "Happy". This sense of division full of contradictions is also a boost to his schizophrenia.
Finally, he sits at his mother's dresser, looks at his three selves in the mirror, and puts on clown makeup. After that, he sat in the dressing room of "Molin Show" again, looking at a series of sentences written by someone with lipstick on the mirror: Put on a happy face.
From the faint flames in front to the raging flames at the end, from the warm smile to the shady eyes, these mirrors contain the fact that he has been schizophrenic.
You see, this is the mirror. When you can't see yourself clearly, this clean mirror has already illuminated all possible you very clearly.
One stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke, one stroke and one stroke: Your life will be like this.
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Text/Aunt Liu
This article was first published on the WeChat public account [Brocier (ID: pocier)]
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