Director: Tom Tykwer
Screenwriters: Andrew Birjin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer
Actors: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman After
seeing friends enjoy Perfume: "The Story of a Murderer" has some echoes, and I am also a little excited to share. Personally, I think "Perfume" has a lot of expositions on existentialism, telling people's pursuit of "existence" and "desire".
The protagonist has an extraordinary sense of smell, but he can't find his own smell, which is obviously a metaphor for "existence". Existentialism says that "existence precedes essence", according to Sartre, it is actually stating that "man first exists, confronts himself, fluctuates in the world - and then defines himself". It means that "the existence of man precedes his objective essence", that is, it means that man is not first given any meaning and created, so it means that man's existence is not to achieve any pre-set purpose. And because our purpose and meaning are not determined before our existence, our existence is prior to any purpose, and therefore, it is impossible for people to find their own meaning of existence from themselves, and all purposes and meanings are also Seek from the outside. Therefore, the protagonist in the story is also set as an individual who has no body odor (no preset meaning of existence). And different people have different smells, doesn't it just show the uniqueness of people, isn't that the uniqueness emphasized by existentialism?
The madness, hesitation, and helplessness of the protagonist after discovering that he has no body taste reflects the helplessness of those who live in the moment. We are living in the world, we are toiling for unknown reasons, and we are not set to have the meaning of existence, which allows us to be free, and thus makes us fall into nothingness and helplessness, unable to find our own meaning inside and outside, forming a "being" Throwing and being", a state of helplessness. Then he establishes a meaning for himself, giving himself a scent (meaning of being) at the end of the film.
After talking about the main theme of the story, let's talk about how to reflect existentialism from the protagonist's experience. The most important quality of an existing individual is to be a subjective thinker. What a subjective thinker must do is to "choose", but to become a subjective thinker actually needs to go through three stages, which Kierkegaard calls "the three realms of life". They are the perceptual, ethical and religious stages.
Perceptual stage 1: It means that people will test various possibilities, but will not make up their minds to put themselves into them and make choices. From the story, we can define this stage from the beginning to the protagonist working in the dyeing factory. The protagonist has an extraordinary sense of smell. Normally, he should have a greater aversion to odors, but the protagonist does not choose smells in this way. Instead, he is curious about all the smells, flowers, fruits, people, and even dead mice. Smell all odors, dislike and dislike. This is the best reflection of the temptation of all things.
Perceptual Stage 2: The existence of perceptual forms will cause boredom, depression, and eventually emptiness and despair (despair can also be interpreted as the failure of hope). From the first time the protagonist goes to the city and meets the first woman who drives him crazy, to when he realizes that he has no body odor in the cave and feels desperate, this stage can be interpreted as this stage. He wants to retain the scent of women, so he uses the perfumer played by Dustin Hoffman as a teacher, hoping to keep the scent forever. But then he was disappointed, and the perfumer couldn't teach him to keep the scent, causing the first disappointment. Then a man finds himself in a cave with no smell, causing his greatest despair.
Ethical stage: Despair makes people enter the stage of practice, and for the sake of practice, there is a choice (choice contains the meaning of investment). The choice is the most important proposition of the ethical stage. Having a choice can bring people into the "real existence" and discover themselves from a situation where they have nothing. The main decision of the whole film appeared when the protagonist began to seek the "fat storage method". On the way, he lost his goal and stayed in the cave. After realizing that he had no body odor, he experienced despair and started to learn the "fat storage method" again. He made the most important decision in his life, and thus started his "real existence" path.
Religious stage: In fact, it is more reasonable to define the religious stage as the "ethics-religious" stage, because the religious stage is based on the ethical stage - that is, choice and investment - plus God's will. When Kierkegaard explained this, he mentioned the story of Abraham, to the effect that God ordered him to sacrifice his son in order to tempt him, and he complied with God's request. Here he actually encountered a dilemma: obeying God; obeying the rules of not killing. Therefore, at this stage there is even more a meaning of "obedience to God". This stage is reflected in the development of the story when the protagonist is sent to the guillotine. The most obvious one is the word "angel" uttered by the executioner. In addition, the introduction of bishops and other characters also outlines this meaning. The father whose daughter was killed can't do anything, and it can also be seen that he understands that the protagonist is acting in accordance with God's will, so he gives up the idea of killing him.
So far, the film also completes the narrative of the "Three Realms of Life".
Now let's talk about "desire". There are descriptions of "desire" in various places in the film. For example, women who make a living by buying and selling children, owners of dyeing factories, and perfumers are all slaves in pursuit of money (material desire). In addition, of course, it is the protagonist's pursuit of smell. He is not for money, but for his own "existence".
Finally, let's talk about the ending (which should be the one that most people don't understand). The film ends in an absurd way, with people moving out of the city having sex in groups and having the protagonist end up being eaten whole by the neighbors, which, in general, is really unclear. However, in this film, it just shows that the pursuit of "existence" by human beings is actually so instinctive. The protagonist pursues "existence" instinctively, and people also respond to it with instinctive activities. As the so-called "eating sex is also", it just reflects the "instinct". In the end, the protagonist (and the three characters mentioned above) ends the story with death, which actually expresses "existence" from another aspect. Death is actually a feature of existence, which may be regarded as a counter-evidence!
In the movie, the overall shooting is actually quite good, but the length of the chase of the last woman at the end is a bit too long, which ruins the rhythm of the film, and I don't know how the length of the original book is distributed. Then find a chance to read the original novel and compare it!
PS Wow! Whoa! Whoa! Big event! "The Blue Door" seems to be in the process of filming! In terms of casting, of course Hui Gui Lunmei and Chen Bolin will be used. Although the title of the film is still undecided, the story will continue at the end of the "Blue" film - Kerou: "Three years and five years later, or even longer, we will become What kind of adults are they?" - Telling that they have become college students. Hope the news is true! Very much looking forward to it!
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