Wen 丨 Qingxin Junyue
In your mind, have you ever fantasized about what the most beautiful encounter would look like?
Is it like the alleys, the light rain, an oil-paper umbrella like Dai Wangshu, the shyness of Julie and Bryce looking at each other for a moment ("The Heartbeat"), or like Fermina Daza looking up to bring Florentino Alyssa a lifetime of dazzling ("Love in the Time of Cholera")...
These scenes of encounters are beautiful, romantic, and become an eternal moment in a long life. In that brief encounter, a very special phenomenon occurred, turning decay into magic, making the impossible possible, and sublimating the moment into eternity.
Stills from "Love Before dawn breaks"
In the film "Love Before dawn breaks" (one of the "Love in the Trilogy"), such a beautiful encounter is described. Behind the beauty, it is inevitable that there will be a certain heaviness, and perhaps because of this, it makes that short-lived beauty more precious.
A train bound for Paris, the next stop is Vienna, two men and women who do not intersect, meet under the arrangement of fate and fate. Jesse claimed to have gone to Madrid to see friends and was getting off in Vienna and flying back to the United States the next day, while Selena had gone to Budapest to see her grandmother and take the train back to Paris to study.
Because Selena did not want to listen to a German couple arguing in the next seat, she got up and changed seats to go diagonally opposite Jesse, and the two discussed the reasons for the Quarrel between the German couple, and quickly got closer to each other.
At first, the two talked about childhood, ideals, and death from marriage, Jesse said that after his great-grandmother died in childhood, he used to spray water from the sunlight with a water pipe, and saw his great-grandmother smiling at him under the rainbow that appeared, he told his parents about this, but no one wanted to believe it, because his parents did not believe that people after death would appear again, Jesse said:
"Everything in the world is inexplicable, including death."
Specifically mentioned this matter, because when I first watched this film, I felt that this passage seemed to mean something, but from the next plot, I learned that Selena's good feelings for Jesse were also related to this passage, so what was hidden in this passage, after many times of reminiscence, I found that what was hidden was the problem of unknown and belief.
Stills from "Love Before Dawn Breaks"
What many people believe is an established fact, something that does not exist too many unknown possibilities, and more importantly, this belief depends more on the consciousness of the self.
But sometimes, some things that others don't believe in really happen, and some seemingly non-existent ones inadvertently sprout, just like Jesse and Selena, who can believe that two complete strangers will have reluctant emotions through a brief chat on a train.
The bud of love is uncontrolled and can be freely bred, but if you want to develop, you need to promote it by external forces, and whether the parties can believe and be brave at this time is crucial.
Soon, the train arrived in Vienna, and the pleasant chat was interrupted, and both of them expressed pity about it, and Jesse even thought it would be better to meet earlier, but he had to get off the train within a few minutes of his stop.
Normally, this short encounter can only stay in the short chat that has passed, becoming a memory fragment and decoration in the long journey of life, because most of the beauty is like this, a short beginning, an inexplicable end.
However, Jesse's subsequent approach broke this norm, just before the train started, he returned to the carriage again, bravely invited Selena to get off the train in Vienna, he thought that if he did not do so, it might become a regret for a lifetime, he wanted to continue to talk to her, he did not want this good encounter to end abruptly, he also gave a very convincing reason, he said:
"Ten years, twenty years, you're married, it's just that your marriage has long since lost the passion of the past, you start blaming your husband, you start reminiscing about all the men you've known in your life, and you think, if you choose the other one of them, what will happen, and I am one of those men." 」
I have to say that this is actually one of the problems that many people encounter in the long marriage and love later. Sometimes it is always felt that what we get is different from what we want, because in the long memories there always seem to be a lot of unknown possibilities, when dissatisfied with reality, those unknown possibilities will glow with a seductive taste, which makes us uneasy about the status quo in reality, makes us unable to calm down to manage and enjoy the beauty we already have, let us put all our desire for beauty in romantic fantasies, and the source of this fantasy is where we have stopped it many times when love has sprouted, or may sprout.
In this way, Selena, after a brief hesitation, followed Jesse to get off the bus in Vienna.
The two got off the train and experienced an extremely awkward time, the unfamiliarity with each other made the two people do not know where the topic should start, the pleasant chat on the train is not enough to continue the subsequent development, but fortunately, when Jesse asked passers-by about the places to visit, Selena's sentence: "We are on the honeymoon", diluted the awkward atmosphere a lot.
Then, in order to get to know each other better, they played the "Truth or Dare" mini-game, and told each other's attitudes to life, especially their views on marriage, love and sex. It is so strange between people, maybe for some people, even if they are familiar, some topics will not be involved, and for some people, even if they have just met, they will share all their ideas without any worries.
In the conversation, the two returned to the pleasant atmosphere on the train, listening to light music when listening to the record together, the two dodged eyes, and the shy romance spread in their hearts.
In this way, two people in a strange city, walking aimlessly, not knowing where they will go next, just enjoying the sweetness contained in every minute and every second, and being in it without thinking about the future.
Slowly, they came to a cemetery that Selena had visited as a child, and this cemetery was mostly buried with people on the Danube after death, which was a nameless cemetery with nameless people, for which Selena had a special feeling: "The Nameless Man Lost in Time", she said that she had a unique idea when she was a child:
"If your family doesn't know you're dead, you're not really dead, because they're still going to love and hate you."
When I first saw this passage, I thought it was about the understanding of death, but then I found that it was actually about eternal revelation, Selena said that there was a 13-year-old girl buried here, and now ten years later, the little girl is still 13 years old.
At nightfall, on the Ferris wheel suspended in mid-air, the two interpreted the emotions in their hearts with a kiss, which also brought the relationship between the two closer in a short period of time, and then they talked about family, parents, and marriage and love again, Selena asked Jesse:
"Have you ever seen a truly happy couple and a couple?"
Jesse replied affirmatively:
"I've seen it, but I feel like they're cheating on each other."
Selena agreed with this, and after a helpless laugh, said:
"People can live their lives as a hoax, and my grandma and I lived all our lives until I was old enough to tell me that she had been in love with another person she loved all her life."
Selena felt that her grandmother's life was very sad, but at the same time appreciated that her grandmother could have such emotions in her life, jesse added that her grandmother did not fall in love with that person, but it was the right thing to do, because if she really had it, it might only disappoint her grandmother:
"People always have romantic imaginations of everything, even though they're not practical."
For Jesse's point of view, Selena did not refute, from this dialogue can be seen that Selena longs for a beautiful love, but has the same concerns as Jesse, thinking that beauty may only exist in a short period of time, and even feel that this beauty is difficult to exist in marriage and love. Perhaps it is this concept of the two people that makes this encounter that should not exist become beautiful, the two are reluctant to mention the future for this beauty, and may also know that there will be no future, after all, there are too many objective obstacles, even if they are eager for the future, it is difficult to see the future.
Later, the two met a divination grandmother, from Selena's palmistry, saw Selena's current state, mentioned that Selena's future will be wonderful, and said a meaningful sentence before leaving:
"You are both stars, billions of years ago the stars exploded to form everything in this world, everything we know is stardust, you are also stardust." 」
Jesse was very resistant to divination, thinking that this was a deception, to which he mentioned that if Selena had just changed into an old man, the result of divination would not be a wonderful future, but a day-by-day blandness.
Does the appearance of this plot in the film have a special meaning?
Actually, there is. One is divination itself, it may not have a certain factual basis, but in the film divination has another meaning, especially the hypothesis mentioned by Jesse later, the reason why divination for the elderly is meaningless, because the old man's life is about to enter the end, there are not too many unknown changes, and the young people are different, life is long, and the second is the last words of the divination grandmother, to a certain extent, it is a supplement to the previous point, but also to remind the two people, maybe the two people feel that there is no possibility of coming together, but in fact,
Love, from which there is no absolute outcome, only infinite possibilities, is a good revelation for love.
On a special night, two strangers in a strange city gradually show their true selves. At the bar, Jesse confessed to Selena that the original purpose of his trip was not to visit his friends, but to reunite with his girlfriend or more accurately, his ex-girlfriend, he thought that his girlfriend would be happy because of his arrival, but in fact, he only felt his girlfriend's resistance and strangeness, so the original happy trip became a solo breakup trip, after breaking up with his girlfriend, he bought the cheapest ticket from Vienna to the United States, because there was a period of time in between, he sat aimlessly on the train to travel, So I happened to meet Selena.
What is love?
In Jesse's view, love seems to be selfless, in fact, selfish things, and love is very complicated, far from pure sex, but even so, even if he has just been hurt by love, even if there is resistance in his heart, he is still willing to believe in love, whether he admits it or not, otherwise he would not have bravely and abruptly invited Selena to get off the train with him.
Because love is an indispensable part of life for him, as he said:
"Love is a haven for two people who are afraid of being alone."
And love is equally important to Selena, even if she aspires to be a self-reliant and independent woman, she will still crave the sweetness of love, as she said:
"Loving someone and being loved by them is still important to me."
Later, Jesse said:
"Sometimes I want to be a good husband and a good father, but sometimes I think it's silly to do so, as if it's going to ruin my life." It's not because I'm afraid of commitment, I'm afraid I won't take care of people and love people, I know I can do it, but if I can't be honest with myself, even though I've done something well and have a certain strength, I'd rather die because I can't go against my heart. ”
From Jesse's words, it is not difficult to find that he sometimes desires marital love, and sometimes resists marital love, the key is not in the marital love itself, but in who the other party is, and whether the other party can make himself willing to accept and pay.
In fact, this is also the key to the contradiction of many people's marital love, eager to have, and afraid of hurt, or because they do not want to be hurt, they are not willing to approach and pay when they encounter love, so that they think that they will not taste the sweetness of love, and they do not have to bear the hurt of love.
But in fact, it's easy to waste your life, like the story Selena tells next:
Many people may also know the beauty of love, but they think it is difficult to obtain, so they give up the proximity, so they don't want to believe it, but this will only make us more and more distant from love, Selena said:
"If there really is magic in the world, it must be two hearts that know each other and exchange feelings, which may be difficult, but the answer is definitely in the process of continuous attempts." 」
The two thanked this encounter, they felt that the time of this night was created by two people together, so that the other party walked into their dreams, with the conception of emotion, the topic of escape between the two had to face, if they fell in love, how to continue in the future?
Out of the cherishing of this beautiful period, but also out of fear of the future, they decided to enjoy the beauty of this night, after tonight no contact, they fear that the subsequent interaction will weaken the beauty they once had because of distance or other obstacles, although the two seem cynical when they decide, but at that time they were also helpless in each other's hearts, because at that time they felt that this choice was the only result of this relationship.
That night, the souls of the two people blended, that night, the emotions of the two people sublimated, that night, both of them expressed the most sincere and warmest emotions in their hearts to each other, until the dawn broke.
After dawn, just before they parted, the two people did their best to engrave each other's appearance in their minds and reflect them in their memories, even if the sentimentality of separation made them find that they were far from the imagination, Jesse hugged Selena and unconsciously read out a poem by Auden:
"The bells of the city ring at the same time, do not be deceived by time, you cannot conquer time, in the midst of troubles and worries, the days pass in obscurity, time will write rhapsody, today or tomorrow.
Perhaps this poem is exactly the mood of the two people at this time, they are eager to turn the time that is short together into eternity, they hope to overcome time and let time stop,
Selena's train to Paris arrived at the station, and at the moment of separation, the two of them broke the previous night's agreement together, they felt that they should try to try to continue the beauty of that night indefinitely, and in a hurry they turned the thousands of words they wanted to say into an agreement to meet in half a year.
This is love, when you have it, you will find that you want to have more, and it is this expectation that provides unlimited courage for the continuation and development of love.
Qingxin Junyue, original author of headlines, senior mental health instructor, TA said film critic, book reviewer. Warm you, me with words.