"When painters create, they never think about how to interpret their work. Inspiration comes from the combined effect of inner emotions and external circumstances. I don't like to be labeled a female painter, I am a painter."
The sentence at the beginning of the film "Helena: Life on canvas" instantly attracted my attention and also spoke of the theme of the film.
After watching it, I determined that it was a beautiful Finnish biopic, and its soundtrack and photography were pleasing to the eye, and the gentle and soothing rhythm copied the ordinary and moving beautiful life of the painter Helena.
In 1915, in a small town in Finland, Helena (Laura Brin) had a difficult life with her old mother, who was not appreciated but still insisted on painting, and fortunately, there was painting and talking to an old friend for comfort. Her life was as mundane as many, as if she were waiting for something called hope or wonder.
One day, two men came to visit, one was an art dealer and the other was her admirer, Einar. With their help, she finally held another exhibition after many years, earning money and honors.
Gradually, she and he got closer and closer, becoming people who trusted each other in life and gave each other expectations, and they spent a wonderful time together, talking, painting, eating, intimate and ambiguous. She painted him a naked back bathed in the light of the sea, and he looked forward to writing a book for her... However, the two people who have a good feeling for each other have not expressed their intentions, and the feelings between them for a long time, too gentlemanly friendship, are too restrained, making people a little worried, and sure enough, everything has changed, after a trip.
In fact, she wanted to fund a trip to a small island in Norway where she had been, and he wanted to stay and paint with her, but she insisted: "I hope, I ask you to experience what I have already experienced." You need to experience it alone. I can't wait to hear what you think of Skye."
In the end, what awaits her is not the return of him to share a similar life experience with her, but the news that he has fallen in love with a young girl and is engaged to her.
He once said to her, "We only write one letter, so that every letter is unique." As a result, he became her unique regret.
For her, he is the most beloved and perfect "apple" she has ever met, and it is also the nourishment of her creation, giving her the brilliant colors of life.
To him, she may be just an idol he worships, someone he wants to be but doesn't become, someone he wants to have but misses, but she also teaches him what "beauty" is.
Most of the film focuses on the difficult relationship between them, and also intersperses Helena's relationship with her mother and her friend Wester, after the loss of love, Helena is difficult to get out, Wester took care of her during her illness, read to her, she said to her, "People who hold books can escape every day to the rest of the great spirit." But books broke her heart and lost her magic. It turns out that we can persuade others to cheer up after feeling frustrated and be as hard and clear as steel. But when you really face it, it is difficult to get out.
As for Helena's relationship with her mother, who has always been patriarchal and mentally controlled, she uses a figurative metaphor: "For decades, we yelled at each other as if we were from different islands. However, she is only my precious annoyance, or the ultimate obstacle to my success."
The film gently and restrained tells such an ordinary story about love, losing love, and re-understanding love, there are regrets of love, pain of family affection, and sincere friendship and feminism. There are some problems in the film that are too heavy on the presentation of love, and the exploration of Helena's spiritual world is slightly insufficient, but we can still feel the fluctuations of her inner world.
Helena concludes with this monologue: "When I painted Einal, I kept looking at his naked back, why didn't he understand how to read my feelings?" Or maybe he misunderstood. In other words, now I'm curious again, curious, I understand now. Dreams and time hold hands, step by step, away from us, until we disappear on the horizon, we just forget, forget the goal we want to pursue in this life, and finally all that is left is white paper, so we find joy."
It can be said that Helena, who believes that "all artists are sad, even happy artists", has achieved a balance between pain and art. Pain inspired her to create, she put her inner emotions and emotions into the painting, including the love of Einar's calm restraint and passionate passion, the perception of pain and loneliness, the vitality of life and the intense and enthusiastic desire, etc., so that her paintings are so energetic, which also echoes her confession to Enal: "They say that I am not true, the rhythm of painting is violent and intense." They're right, that's me."
Let us recall Helena's words at the beginning of the film: "When painters create, they never think about how to interpret their works." Inspiration comes from the combination of inner emotions and external circumstances." We better understand that these pains in life, whether they are lacking or lacking, are all the way to ourselves, and artistic creation or all activities are to express and find ourselves.
I don't know if you will be like this, always appreciate helena who is loyal to her heart and lives in her own world, and the sentence she says to Enal in the film, "Your attention moves me", I am touched, and I especially like the mood she described in a letter to him: "There was a moment when this belonged to me, you belonged to me, and you were very sad at that time, but I felt that it was my greatest happiness." My love is materialistic love, it is not the highest level of love, it fades away. Loneliness envelops me and surrounds me, and this is for you, Etel, and I want to be grateful for all you have done for me."
I think there is nothing more personal than emotion, probably a lot of emotions have nothing to do with how others judge, everyone will have their own feelings. Therefore, rather than having art in pain and sadness, I would rather end with the phrase "Love yourself is the beginning of a lifetime of romance", I think even regret has the happiness that belongs to Helena alone, and sadness does not delay us from finding our way to ourselves.