The course of life is dominated by the fact that life is dying. Death is an existential possibility for us from beginning to end, and the overriding challenge of the second half of the course of life is to find meaning in continued existence.
—Virginia Woolf
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > introduction:</h1>
The Enlightenment that began in England, compared with the earlier Renaissance, completely broke the connection between man and religion, as the psychologist Fromm discussed in "Escape from Freedom", the more freedom, the stronger the sense of loneliness, rationalism puts human beings at the center of the world, but also breaks the innate starting bond of human beings, coupled with the two world wars in the early twentieth century, it is even more difficult to fall into irreproductive loneliness, completely feel that society has become an alien force, and modernist thought has surged up. Became a rebellion against the Enlightenment.
Modernism originated in the Nineteenth Century french Impressionism, the representative works of this period such as Camus's "The Outsider", Kafka's "Metamorphosis" are mostly depictions of the absurdity of the world and the alienation of individuals, existential philosophy and absurd philosophy have become the mainstream philosophical thought, and an important branch has formed in modernist literature: stream of consciousness literature.
This word, created by the American functionalist psychologist James, indicates a flow of consciousness that is not bound by objective time and space, is the repositioning of the self by people, reflected in literary works, and adopts a large number of inner monologues and free associations, does not pay attention to storytelling, focuses on character relationships and event performance, completely allows the free flow of thought, plus a large number of metaphors and montage techniques adopted in order to break through the limitations of time and space, when read, the logic is weak and obscure.
Born in England, Virginia Woolf is a representative of stream-of-consciousness literature and a member of the Bloomsbury school that advocates free exploration, and at the same time, as a feminist, her masterpiece "Mrs. Dalloway" creates a Mrs. Dalloway who is struggling to balance and mix between ideal and reality, highlighting the dilemma of individuals seeking a real and free life.
As a British director born in a strong theatrical atmosphere, Stephen Dudley, like Sam Mendes, another Oscar winner from the British world, has a wealth of stage play experience, which is also an important reason why their works have become prominent in many Hollywood industrial films, because of their strong humanistic nostalgia, most of their works have a strong critical and sobering value.
The film "Moments" is a novel of the same name by Stephen Dadley, which was released and received 9 Oscar nominations and won many international awards such as the 60th Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture, which can be seen as a film like Virginia Woolf's tribute, revolving around "Dalloway" in Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway", focusing on the dilemma of ideals and realities faced by women in three different eras and different regions.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, from the narrative structure, montage techniques and imagery, interpreting the reality beyond time and space and the confrontation with the real self</h1>
The movie "All the Time" tells the story of three women in three different eras and different regions, and although the limitations of time and space are broken, they are trapped by the name "Mrs. Dalloway".
In 1923, Virginia Woolf, who was suffering from mental problems, and her husband lived in Bloomsbury, a retreat on the outskirts of London, while she was working on her own novel Mrs. Dalloway, and her husband Leonard was an editor. Due to mental problems, Woolf was confined to the home by the doctor and her husband for different considerations, this environment made her feel a kind of depression all the time, wanted to escape but was eventually found by her husband, all this was faithfully recorded in her novel "Mrs. Dalloway", and finally, in 1942, Woolf was plagued by illness and chose to commit suicide in Shenhe.
In 1951, Laura Brown, pregnant with a second child, living with her husband in the suburbs of Los Angeles, she is reading the novel "Mrs. Dalloway", which also makes a drastic change in her life, on the same day, she is preparing her husband's birthday cake, but learns of her good friend Mrs. Bell's encounter, which also consumes her last bit of patience, she wants to choose suicide, but finally gives up, gives birth to a child, she chooses to flee desperately.
In 2001, Clarissa Vaughn was preparing a party for her carothers-winning poet friend Richard, like Mrs. Dalloway, who was called "Mrs. Dalloway" by Richard because of her namesake. The two had been lovers when they were young, but Richard chose his male friend Louis Waters, and Clarissa had her own female companion, and had IVF and a daughter of her own. After the breakup, Clarissa was responsible for Richard's life, but the childhood encounter made Richard's personality become sensitive, fragile, and pessimistic and world-weary, and it was on this day that he decided not to live for Clarissa's love and chose to commit suicide by falling from the window.
In the "Dictionary of Film Art", the definition of the film set structure is: it is one of the structures of film plays, a structural form in the interlaced structure of time and space, often with two time and space, namely "past time and space" and "present time and space", two independent time and space narratives intertwined in the same film to show, forming the essence of the "scattered gods" that are separated and echo each other. It is not the same as what we call a play within a play, a film within a film.
In "All the Time", director Stephen Dudley Award Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, Clarissa Vaughan, three women of different eras and different regions juxtaposed in the same film, their lives, like Dalloway in "Mrs. Dalloway", compressed in one day, forming a cross-linear narrative style of I have you and you have me, fully realizing the essence of "scattered gods".
Its original intention is to reveal the dilemma of the individual who transcends the physical limitations of time and space, that is, to succumb to the contradiction between traditional real life and the pursuit of the real and pure ideal of freedom, and to let the audience understand the contradiction of women's day extension into a lifetime.
In order to solve the characteristics of the film "I have you, you have me", Stephen Dadley boldly used the editing technique of cross-montage in montage, and the characteristics of editing and collage of montage can better help the development of different characters and stories.
The cross-montage shooting method is repeatedly switched between the three characters, and the two actions that occur at the same time and in different spaces are perfectly adjusted together, forming a continuous event beyond time and space, and also allowing the whole film to have a stronger sense of rhythm and apocalyptic thrilling effect, in fact, the turning point of the three female character events is accompanied by woolf's turning point in the creation of the novel "Mrs. Dalloway".
In addition to this layered structure that transcends time and space, "river water" and "flower" appear repeatedly in the film, of which "river water" appears in the two characters of Woolf and Laura Brown, and the obsession with "flower" runs through all the main characters in the film.
As we all know, imagery is an objective object used to pin the subjective emotions of the creator, which is the perfect combination between the two.
For Woolf, the unrestrained flow of the river is the best symbol of freedom, but also has an unstoppable feature, when Woolf in his pocket with a stone to stand in the middle of the water, the body is covered by the flowing river, let us feel a huge emotional pressure, in fact, Woolf is because of the inability to endure the husband Leonard's unlimited love and desire for pure freedom and choose to commit suicide, she has always been shrouded in this conflict, and the flowing river, may be the best way to liberate, the wanton flow of water, It's like human beings free from bondage and their desire for freedom.
When Laura lay on the bed in the hotel, the feelings that had been suppressed in her heart were completely exploded, and she finally had the right to control her life freely. As the water quickly filled the room and submerged her, the child in her belly awakened another layer of thinking about the status quo, and she decided to choose life after giving birth to the child, so she fled everything to pursue her free and pure life.
At the same time, flowers are everywhere in the film, you can see the distinctive gender characteristics and characteristics of the times, for Woolf, the doctor's medical advice and Leonard's love of the confinement so that she can not even go out to buy flowers, freedom is completely lost, and the clothes, jewelry on the body are all filled with the shape of flowers, becoming a distinct gender feature; for Laura, this gender characteristic is obviously weakened, Laura rarely wears "flower" gestures and clothes, her friend Mrs. Bell, whether it is a necklace or earrings, is the shape of a flower, This shows the complex breakthrough situation faced by feminism, Laura has become a radical breakthrough; for Clarissa, the choice of flowers is more arbitrary, roses, hydrangeas, and a bouquet of various flowers, and she has more free choices after doing IVF.
In addition to the right to choose the flowers that accompany it, when Woolf places the yellow rose around the dead bird and lies on the ground quietly looking into the eyes of the bird, it is a nostalgia for the love that has passed away and a longing for the luck of death, for which the bird has become a symbol of freedom, and for herself, only death can get true freedom.
For Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa, the dimension of seeming freedom is constantly increasing, and the form is constantly changing, but the confrontation between people compromising with life and pursuing their true selves is still irreconcilable, and the unforgettable loneliness still haunts the heart, with an eternal characteristic, as Márquez said: only loneliness is eternal.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughn choose to break the game, which are death, escape and compromise, revealing the development of feminism behind it</h1>
For Virginia Woolf, her husband Leonard loved her very much, gave up london city life for her spiritual problems, lived with her in the suburbs of London, treated her neurotic temper as much as possible, and loved Woolf in the way he thought he loved her, but never knew her.
For Woolf, her husband Leonard love is more like a kind of confinement, it is this irrefutable, inescapable love, let her lose the most precious freedom, she went crazy to escape back to London, but was chased back from the train station by her husband, the maid looked down on her, she has been living the superior life provided by her husband, but she can not choose her own free life, the compromise of life and the desire for freedom, and finally let her choose Shenhe suicide, to obtain true freedom.
Woolf is like Morceau in Camus's "The Outsider", the heart is always full of incomprehensible alienation, in the end, this love bondage and the desire for freedom, let her choose suicide in the conflict, Woolf's resistance is strong and tragic, when the outside world can not meet the desire to pursue the true self, death becomes the only way to obtain freedom, Woolf represents the germ of feminism.
For Laura Brown, the full-time housewife life is the suppression of personal freedom and values, in her eyes, she is only a reward for her husband after returning from the battlefield, is a materialized character, the novel Mrs. Dalloway awakens her desire for her real life, so when she sees her good friend Mrs. Bell because of the pain of not being able to conceive, she realizes that she can no longer live like this, she wants to commit suicide, but is awakened by the child in her belly, and in the end, she decides to abandon everything, To find your own real life.
Along with the development of feminism, Laura took a more egotistical approach relative to Woolf, choosing life relative to Woolf's death. When she learned that her son Richard had died and that her relatives had died earlier than herself, she had never regretted her choice, and the feminism she represented was more of a personal carnival intoxication, leaving all responsibility behind and pursuing absolute freedom, which had a great resemblance to the spiritual core of the "confused generation" in the United States.
By Clarissa Vaughan, feminism reached a higher level, just as postmodernism was a deconstruction of modernism, and Clarissa Vaughn also completed the deconstruction of "Mrs. Dalloway."
Like the "Mrs. Dalloway" in the novel, she seeks vanity satisfaction in the party, but has completely got rid of dependence on men, achieved complete economic independence, and relies on technology, becoming a single mother, she is not fighting and suffering for women's various external rights, but facing the conflict of self, of all the people around her, only Richard can see through herself at a glance, and only with him will she get peace and happiness, so she strives to take care of all of Richard's life.
For Clarissa, she has completely shed the pattern of women's dependence on men in the family and society, and on the surface, in her relationship with Richard, Richard is playing the role of a dependent, but in fact, Clarissa is more dependent on Richard.
From the perspective of the development of feminism, from Woolf to Clarissa, the economy and status of women are constantly increasing, and gradually in an equal position with men, Clarissa has gradually become a strong person in life, but still unable to control her own life, always facing conflict, seemingly facing the paradox of development, in fact, a higher level of evolution.
In fact, for Clarissa, she has completed the development from the theory of human nature to the theory of humanism, compared to Laura, she is responsible for her own actions, can more easily react to external stimuli with emotions, and also get rid of the Woolf-like death instinct, using her own will, determining her own purpose and direction of action.
From Woolf to Clarissa, women's attention can be seen as a person's growth process, both the unconscious choices controlled by instinct in childhood, and the fierce rebellion of adolescence, until adulthood, more mature in instinct and consciousness to balance life and inner conflict, feminism has a broader and more rational connotation.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, under the existentialist philosophy, it seeks the meaning of life in a balance between reality and ideal</h1>
Woolf once said: Man should not be a still life inserted in a vase for people to see, but a rhythm that spreads on the grassland and dances with the wind. Life is not an arrangement, but a pursuit, the meaning of life may never have an answer, but also to feel this life without answers.
Woolf's words cut to the heart of existentialism and absurd philosophy, which not only affirmed the absurdity of the world and the difficult situation faced by people, but also affirmed that people can have a meaningful life through self-effort and self-achievement.
At first glance, in the movie, whether it is Woolf, Laura, or Clarissa, they all lose something in the process of pursuing their purpose in life, Woolf loses her life for freedom, Laura loses her family affection for freedom, and Clarissa struggles desperately between life and ideals.
However, each of them has not regretted the choices they have made, and for them, the result has become no longer important, and the whole process of life is the most important.
In fact, in Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, Mrs. Dalloway does not choose to rebel in a fierce way until the end, it is more like Clarissa in the movie, sometimes troubled by the real self, sometimes caught in the vanity of the party.
It is this dual life of constantly blending reality and ideals that highlights the true meaning of life, which avoids the pursuit of freedom like Woolf and Laura in the way of hurting those around them, and also allows the true self to be revealed in different forms of each era.
Just as Fromm once discussed the relationship between freedom and loneliness, they are always mutually exclusive, and for us, moving forward with the contradiction between reality and ideal may be the true expression of the meaning of life.