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García Márquez once said that a happy old age is a decent contract with loneliness. The old lady in the movie "The Dying Spring" ends up euthanized in Switzerland as a potion with an orange juice sweetness.
The author's view of "euthanasia" is not listed for the time being, because there are more and more fortunate and bitter lives in "The Spring of Death", and if it is limited to the controversial topic of "euthanasia", it is a pity that the director's good intentions are good. This is a very ambitious literary and artistic film, intending to show all the extremely bitter, extremely sad, and helpless things in life in front of the audience one by one, without emotion or angle, but if you really understand the movie, you can find the meaning of the bliss and happiness of life. So, I divide this movie into three themes: mother and child, love, and life.
【About Mother and Child】
The film tells the conflict between a son who has just returned from prison and has achieved nothing, and his mother, who lives alone and has a tumor in old age. When telling the story between them, the director used the prop of "dog", in addition to depicting the strangeness and isolation of the mother-child relationship, the communication between them seems to have never been through the normal way, talking with a third person or arguing in person, in short, the relationship between the mother and son is like a spirit in the ice cellar, it is better not to see, it is better not to say, it is better not to ask.
The film reflects the irreconcilable contradiction between them in the expression of the language of the camera. If the mother and son eat together, it must be a long silence, embarrassment, and more notably, whether the two are together or alone, the mother in the shot is always on the right, while the son is always on the left, and the rest of the shot is more of food, books or other miscellaneous objects. Such a large area of blank space, but the characters placed in a corner of the camera show a sense of Antonioni's indifference.
Compared with the theme of love and life, the relationship between mother and child in the film is the most complete and delicate. There is a scene in the movie that is still haunting, when the son receives a call from a friend, the mother who is in a cold war state immediately turns off the deafening TV sound, stops the knife and fork to hide the anger, and closely listens to the phone between her son and the other end of the phone until the phone is interrupted, and she recovers the Cold War mood she just had. Unfortunate families have their own misfortunes, and the love of parents for their children is not only shown in every great joy and sorrow, but penetrates into the details of life, and the true love of parents is no different from the air.
Writing this, it is reminiscent of Dolan's movie "I Killed My Mother", and I remember that there is such a dialogue in the movie.
The mother and son portrayed in the movie are like lovers who love deeply.
Spring is suspended but lush, and the mother who is on the verge of death is still a son who loves herself and has achieved nothing, and when she dies, spring is suspended.
【About Love】
Before I start talking about love in movies, I want to start with Kafka's love letter to Milena: a couple linked in this way, taken to the gallows. I think that's the original origin of love, and the final ending. The film mainly describes the love of the son who has just returned from prison, this is not a film that mainly tells about love, there is no romantic encounter, there is no sweet love words, but there should be a succession in love, "The Spring of Death" is shown one by one, the first acquaintance, love, departure. Just like the established formula, it begins as if it is destined, and then ends with helplessness,
You say, where is love hidden? Those who insist on viewing the performance of the protagonist's love life in the movie as the director's emotional concern for people on the margins of society rise to the humanistic topic, which is too much to overestimate the two words "love". Start with enthusiasm, say goodbye to the blandness, and if you take the identity lie of the male protagonist and replace it with other life tribulations, I think you will still get the final heroine's evaluation of the love between them: stupid.
The director is more inclined to be cold about love, and rushes to the protagonist's home in the "euthanasia" group, and the director expresses his concept of love through lines:
Love will make people change their identity, men will become fathers and women will become mothers, so love is not just because of love itself. It is a kind of life entanglement, but the difference is that Kafka interprets it as a gallows, and the director defines it as a sacred path of marriage.
【About Life】
In the French film "Ador" in the same year, life is weak, slowly losing vitality and dignity, and it is unbearable to look at. But in "The Dying Spring", the director interprets the same proposition as a movie.
I often hear friends around me say: If only I could live like a movie. Then sigh and move on with your own messy life, while the director tells the audience that you're a movie in itself. The tribulations, happiness, and even every morning you experience are your own, unique. Therefore, we really don't have to feel resentful and sad for the unsatisfactory in life, and the reason why you are for you is a beautiful existence in itself.
My life has not been happy, but I am the only being in my life.
No matter where we are or when we are, life is an incomparably precious existence.
Therefore, the old lady of "The Dying Spring" finally chose to die safely, and after taking the special potion, she died safely under the eyes of her son. This is her life, not about history or her husband and son.
It is not the work of the spirit of Ah Q, but a sense of relief and detachment. In this way, we can live more openly.
Under one's own choice, apart from nostalgia for life, there is no longer a fear of death. This is the film's interpretation of euthanasia.
"Dying Spring" was nominated for the 38th César Awards
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