A car, two people with different identities and personalities, a journey, will always be the favorite material of the movie. A two-person trip in one car can lead to countless wonderful stories, whether it is "Driving for Miss Daisy", "Untouchable" or "Green Book", which proves the charm of this narrative mode.
At the same time, road movies can also have rich themes of expression, a short journey, can tell the long life of the character, can be a journey to chase love, can be a journey to find ideals, find oneself, or a journey to reveal the cruel truth of the world.
"Graceful Journey", which entered the main competition unit of the Beijing International Film Festival this year, also chose such a road theme. A professional driver who is tired of his driving profession and is facing financial crisis, carrying an elegant 92-year-old woman.
Probably because the old man knew that his life was coming to an end, the ordinary journey became a journey of memories in the conversation between the two.
If one day, you are about to reach the end of your life, who and what people and things do you want to remember the most?
Is it a highlight moment in the workplace? Or is it a small luck in life? For this problem, the director of this film chose the French romance unique to the French - love.
In her grandmother's recollections, she tells the story of herself and the three most important men in her life, the American soldier who only fell in love for a few short days, the husband who brought her a bitter marriage, and the gift that ephemeral love brought her, her son.
In these three stories, almost all of the painful memories brought to her by marriage are painful memories that she does not want to remember, being raped by domestic violence, and being imprisoned after fighting back. Although she loves her son deeply, she gets together with her son less and separates more because of the impermanence of the world, and the relationship between mother and son is shallow.
The 92-year-old man has experienced nearly a century of ups and downs, wars, prisons, rapid development of the world, and countless hardships and sufferings. But surprisingly, she is still beautiful, with only a smile on her face, and the hardships of life seem to have left no trace on her.
The reason, I think, was that the perfect love for a few short days nourished the rest of her life.
The sweet first kiss with his first love at the age of 16 was too beautiful and powerful, so that an old man with completely white hair recalled it, and his face was still flushed with girlish blush. In just a few days, the dewy relationship can make people unforgettable until their twilight years, so that women still have the best expectations for love after experiencing such an unbearable marriage and the pain of losing their children.
Love is also a bright color that ignites middle-aged taxi drivers. In the movie, the driver Charles is full of hearts and tired at first, and a lot of trivial things in reality grind him into an ordinary person with no light in his eyes. He was a little impatient at first with the old man's demands and nagging memories, but he was barely supported by professional politeness.
But when he mentioned his first love, his current wife, his whole person became gentle. Recalling his lover's appearance when he was young, he talked about the past when the two were happy and fell in love because of photography, the fatigue on his face was swept away, and his eyes were full of the tenderness of love.
And this tenderness also touched the old lady who was just a passenger. Two people who met in Pingshui became rare confidants just because of the resonance of the concept of love. Such a wonderful year-end friendship sounds a little outrageous at first, but in the movie, the relationship between the two is natural.
Is the power of love really that powerful? Can it really heal all the wounds and sufferings of life? Frankly speaking, after watching a lot of social news, as a woman in the new era, I don't believe it.
But the very natural acting skills of the two actors, and the just right chemical reaction between the two, make people believe that maybe they really met such a beautiful love, even if it was short, even if there was no particularly good ending, the strong burst of love spark in an instant is still the most memorable happy moment in life, and it is still the sweetness that makes people feel tender when they think of it.
And the soul resonance produced by two people who also believe in love is also particularly beautiful. Together, the Paris street scene interspersed in the story of the two is also romantic and pleasing to the eye.
In the environment of "no marriage and no fertility to ensure safety" on the Internet, and in the collective mood of the whole network to fight the "love brain", such a pure love movie of "if the people are like a rainbow, meet the know" seems a little too classical.
But it is precisely this kind of romantic chicken soup that is a little "conservative" that is particularly warm and healing when the whole people are awake.
After all, movies are about dreaming, and people must be optimistic about life after all.
When urban girls are bent on making money and cement and are beaten to the point of being hurt by the cold reality of society, who doesn't want to cry for the warm love on the screen?