Nocturnal Animals: Face and Escape

Kiel 2022-04-22 07:01:07

Does fashionista Tom Ford hold a grudge against fashionable women?

At the age of 52, he made the transition from fashion design to the film industry. After directing "Single Man", he directed "Nocturnal Animals" (2016) again, focusing on the mind and body of fashion and wealthy gallery owner Susan (Amy Adams). .

In the face of her husband Holden's cheating, she kept secret, like self-brewed bitter wine, reading the manuscript of her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the long lonely night. After a lapse of 20 years, there is a certain echo and intersection with her ex-husband again.

The best part of the film is the in-film, the part presented in the manuscript of the novel Nocturnal Animals. It happens that the truth of Susan and Edward's first marriage intersects with the situation presented in the novel, highlighting the fragility of human nature and the helplessness of marriage.

When you truly love someone, you must take care of them with your heart, otherwise you will make mistakes. This is what ex-husband Edward said to Susan. Therefore, in my opinion, facing or escaping constitutes the two major themes of the film. In other words, after facing it, you need to escape, and after escaping, you need to face it. This is the repetitive and ambiguous human nature.

The film combines reality, aftertaste and fiction, intertwined in multiple time and space - the bustling Los Angeles on the surface, the wild Texas under the night, and Susan flashes back to the snowy streets of New York 20 years ago, those scenes with Edward's affectionate gurgling .

Both of them are from Texas, and both are top students, but Susan is from a prominent family, and Edward is from an authentic poor family. This led Susan's mother to scold her daughter's relationship with Edward for being inappropriate, and Edward's cowardice would doom her daughter to fail to find true happiness.

Unfortunate words. When Edward was diligent in writing, the novel was disliked by Susan and caused a quarrel, and they finally said goodbye. Horton's insertion was just a foot in the door. The problem is that she is pregnant, and she is a Catholic, and she has an abortion without the other party's knowledge. Even in Susan's eyes 20 years later, this is unforgivable.

The demise of her marriage to Horton, and the novel Nocturnal Animals evoked her long-silent heart. Flashy, empty and lonely are the best fashion labels for this woman.

Nocturnal animals, the unknown of the night, and animal instincts complement each other, revealing the most real, primitive and bloody animal side of human nature. Since Edward's fragility was mentioned by Susan's mother early in the morning, Susan's courage to face it is also doomed to be short-lived, and her fickleness is accompanied by escape, which is doomed to the failure of this marriage.

It's just that Xin Huan is a big radish with a big heart, and it's not satisfactory. Deception and lies seem to be the constant themes in these fashionista marriages, just to varying degrees.

Tony and Edward in the novel "Nocturnal Animals" have always been immersed in deep self-blame for the accident that his wife and daughter were raped and killed by three people including the madman Lei. Mike, an old police officer suffering from lung cancer, was determined to achieve justice. This just happens to marry Tony's deep guilt, and eventually he stumbles into another form of nocturnal animal.

At the end of the film, the thug Ray was unafraid of Tony, who was holding a gun, and said that the reason for that night was because he saw his fragility, he did not dare to resist, and could not hear his wife's madness. Howling, Lei Koukou claimed that he is the kind of person who the more you think I don't dare to do it, that is, the pleasure of rape and murder. Ray didn't believe that Tony dared to shoot, but this time the gunshots really sounded, and Ray could only appreciate the immediate pleasure of death.

The most unforgettable thing in the film is the quietness and commitment of the old policeman Mike. When he knew that the prosecution had released Lei and other thugs on the grounds of insufficient evidence, he found Tony and encouraged him to chase Lei bravely and never let them go. This is Tony's face after escaping. Of course, vulnerable people are always vulnerable, but after Lei, in a trance, he stumbled and let the gun go off and ended himself.

The presentation in the novel is actually in the same line as Susan's lonely mood at the moment. Disappointment at re-marriage and guilt towards her ex-husband (private abortion) made her eager to meet her ex-husband. Obviously, she wanted to get back together. This is also the face of escape. She dresses up carefully, as if returning to the scene 20 years ago, when she met him smilingly on the streets of New York.

Finally, when she sat down in the cafe, she believed in Edward's agreement. But people come and go, but he has never been seen, and the smile is gradually replaced by loss, leaving only her frustration and frustration. This is of course Edward's little revenge for her in real life, or that he must escape after facing it.

In the fashion circle, accustomed to seeing the luxurious appearance and the empty heart, Tom Ford has long been tired of the flashy world. His creative intention is obvious, pointing directly to the ruthlessness of the materialistic world. Susan's emotional helplessness stems from her ruthlessness towards Edward.

The film in the film is more like a black humorous sad song, in order to irony the human nature in the shape of a trapped beast. It seems natural to be ravaged and trampled by the rogue proletarians. Even the process of justice is like a lame duck process.

At the same time, the film also seems to remind people that when you are considered or consider yourself a nocturnal animal, you are disconnected from normal reality and cannot be integrated, which coincides with the sad ending of her marriage and even the final agreement, as if her new love deceived her Saying that she is on a business trip is actually just dating her lover, just like the daughter she cares about, she is actually in love with her lover. This is the real world faced by the nocturnal animal, who alone is lonely and devoid.

There is a subtle detail in the film. There is a large "revenge" (revenge) on the inner wall of the art gallery hosted by Susan, which corresponds to "Nocturnal Animals". The assistant reminded her that this was exactly what she had set up two years ago, and she completely forgot.

This also shows that nocturnal animals are good at forgetting animals, like walking dead scarecrows, and only a thrilling plot like "Nocturnal Animals" can awaken her ignorant heart.

Insomnia at night, day and night, there is no agreement. Facing and escaping are like two sides of the same human being. The outer and inner, darkness and light, freedom and detention, which follow cause and effect, are all human nature.

2017, 2, 8

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Extended Reading

Nocturnal Animals quotes

  • Edward Sheffield: [to Susan] When you love someone you have to be careful with it, you might never get it again.

  • Tony Hastings: What we're gonna do?

    Bobby Andes: It's a question of how serious you are about seeing justice done.