Film "One By One"
Yang Dechang said: "The invention of film has extended our lives by three times because we have at least twice as different life experiences in it. ”
I like this sentence a lot and have always used it as an introduction to the official account.
I've always believed that every film has a meaning to its existence, and that existence is reasonable.
Behind the birth of each film must be the hard work of a whole team of countless days and nights, and it must also have its own unique ideological connotations, and I am trying to get involved in various types of films and strive to understand one or two.
In the two-hour dream-making time, the film helps us recreate history, imagine the future, gaze at various things happening around the world, whether real or fictional, and between light and shadow are the emotions and thoughts that the director wants to express through the lens.
And this time, I experienced a two-hour special trip, when you are suddenly paralyzed at the peak of your career, only your left eye can move, how will you re-examine your life?
01
1943 Count of Monte Cristo
In chapter 58 of Dumas's famous novel The Count of Monte Cristo, it is recorded that the father of the villain prosecutor Villefort, Nova dière, is paralyzed and unable to move like a zombie, leaving only the perceptions of sight and hearing to keep him in touch with the outside world.
"In his poor shell, which seemed to be worthy only to go to the grave, only these two organs added a little life to him, like two lonely fires that remained in the ashes of a furnace."
Movie "Season Change"
This terrible disease is different from vegetative people, and medical schools call it locked-in syndrome.
The former is a special human state similar to the living state of plants, in addition to retaining some instinctive neural reflexes and the ability to metabolize matter and energy, cognitive ability has been completely lost, without any active activity.
The latter is mainly seen in the vascular lesions of the brainstem, mostly for the bilateral occlusion of the basal artery pontine branch, resulting in bilateral infarction at the base of the pontine, the patient's cerebral hemisphere and brainstem are covered by the reticular activation system without damage, so the consciousness remains awake, the understanding of language is barrier-free, because of its oculomotor nerve and the scooter nerve function retention, so it can establish contact with the surrounding environment with the upper and lower indications of the eyeball.
Technical terms can not be understood, in short, the patient's consciousness is completely normal, but the whole body is paralyzed, unable to move, and can only rely on eye movement to maintain contact with the outside world.
Because of the relationship between the above novels, it is also called "Monte Cristo Syndrome".
02
The diving bell is an unpowered diving device in which the diver's helmet is connected to the outside world through a conduit to provide oxygen to the diver and extend the diver's time underwater. Early submersibles were wooden vessels with closed tops and openings at the bottom, similar in appearance to bells, hence the name Diving Bell.
Jean Dominique Bobby was a journalist who worked as an editor at ELLE, a well-known fashion magazine in Paris, in 1991, and his career was in full swing, but this seemingly happy and bright life collapsed in an unexpected moment.
On December 8, 1995, Bobby suffered a stroke and woke up 20 days later, but he could no longer move freely, could not speak, could not even breathe on his own, and only his left eye could move, yes, he suffered from atresia syndrome.
Since then, the left eye has become his only tool to communicate with the world, and with the help of a language therapist, Bobby has learned to communicate with the alphabet.
The therapist sorts the letters by frequency of use, reading them through from beginning to end, and Bobby determines the use of letters by blinking, going back and forth until they form a sentence.
In addition to his left eye, Bobby had two other things that were not paralyzed: imagination and memory.
Perhaps flesh and blood will be sealed under the shell, but imagination and memory can get rid of the shackles of the shell and run freely between heaven and earth.
In his imagination, Bobby could stroll on the beaches of Martinique, visit beloved women, and bow down to Ramses II, king of kings.
It was under such difficult conditions that Bobby accomplished something miraculous, traveling in imaginary worlds, navigating the ocean of memory, and writing a book in the blink of an eye, Diving Bells and Butterflies.
Recording his thoughts and thoughts after the paralysis of the stroke, the content did not fall into the mood of sadness and sorrow because of his illness, but expressed his optimism and open-mindedness through various humorous languages.
The immovable shell binds him like a diving bell, while the mind can fly freely like a butterfly, and life is reborn in imagination and memory.
The book sold 150,000 copies in its first week.
03
I had the privilege of reading this book in high school, but I could only construct a World of Bobby through my own imagination between the lines, unable to touch and actually perceive through vision.
The emergence of film can express literary works concretely.
In 2007, director Julian Schnabel made this experience figuratively into the film of the same name, "Diving Bell and Butterfly", through books and descriptions of Bobby's relatives and friends.
This is also the meaning of the movie. Show the audience every detail of other people's lives and experience a life different from your own in two hours.
The film spends about half of its time showing bobby's vision of the world.
Viewers can appreciate the immovable world through Bobby's left eye from Bobby's point of view, listening to his inner monologue, even if the outside world is completely unaware. He can also observe his situation through the perspective of the outside world, in places that Bobby's eyes cannot reach.
Compared with the positives in the novel, through the movie, we can see Bobby's existence as an individual "person" after paralysis.
He would be frustrated, and after learning to communicate, his first words to the therapist were "I want to die", just like everyone's first thoughts of great setbacks and misfortunes.
He would feel powerless, and his wife would come to visit him with his children, and his son would help him wipe the saliva from the corners of his mouth, but he would not be able to hold his son tightly with open arms.
Like most men, he also had young and beautiful female doctors come in, looking at the face first and the chest the second.
The film also illustrates the image of the "diving bell", a symbol of bondage, through different angles.
Pierre Rose, a friend who came to see Bobby, was hijacked on a plane and held hostage for four years and four months in a cellar in Beirut, the dark and small cellar where his diving bell was located.
Bobby's 92-year-old father is unable to take care of himself and cannot even go down to the fourth floor to move freely. After learning that Bobby was paralyzed, in a phone call to Bobby, he said that he had written a will, after all, one was trapped in the apartment, one was trapped in the body, and whether there was a chance to meet next time was unknown.
The apartment and the body are their respective diving bells.
04
However, everything has two sides, and the film can visualize the literary work, which means that certain things will be presented in the director's understanding, thereby reducing the audience's imagination space.
After all, literature is abstract, a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets, and the biographical film is only the director as one of the Hamlets to explain the life of the character, the perspective will inevitably have some limitations and personality.
In the film, Bobby once had a dream in which he broke free of the shackles of the diving bell and saw a group of medical staff gathered around an operating table, and he looked closely, and his wife and children were all around the operating table, and on the operating table was a grave.
Perhaps when he truly got rid of the shackles of the diving bell, what awaited him was death.
I prefer the ending of the original book to the end of the film in Bobby's imagination and the subtitles of his life record, which is a passage.
"Is there a key in the universe that can unlock my diving bell?" Is there a subway train with no end? Which strong currency can buy back my freedom? Should go somewhere else. I went and went and looked for it. ”
Bobby spent two years writing "Diving Bell and Butterfly" with his eyes, which was officially released on March 7, 1997, and two days after its release, Bobby died of pneumonia.
The butterfly finally flew out of the diving bell.