When it comes to road movies, many fans can come one by one.
When it comes to films about the love of the elderly, classic examples that can be given abound.
The road movies with the love of the elderly as the background are relatively few, and the film "Love Before the Memory Fades" can be described as a representative work.
The film Love Before Memory Fades, also known as The Seeker, is based on Michael Sadhurian's novel The Leisure Seeker, directed by Paul Welch and starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, released in 2017.
The film tells the story of a sick old couple who willfully make a walk-and-go trip in the few days of their lives.
They drive an old motorhome called "Seeker" to Hemingway's house, and along the way they fight the pain together, reminiscing about decades of time together, showing a different kind of warmth and romance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Trust and tacit understanding are the cornerstones of mutual support</h1>
John, a former literature teacher and a big fan of Hemingway, suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Illness eroded his memory, and he often had confusion in his memory, suddenly forgetting the names of his wife and children, or suddenly confused about where he was.
But as long as Hemingway is mentioned, he can still recite his works casually, and the analysis is the Tao, like a number of family treasures.
John's wife, Ella, is seriously ill and running out of time, but she still maintains the passion of life and looks refreshed.
Ella's illness requires hospitalization, John is also sent to a nursing home, and the old couple, who do not want to be separated, decide to "run away from home" for a trip.
Hiding from their children, they set off in an old motorhome called the "Seeker" to Hemingway's house.
Along the way, physical pain inevitably brought them some trouble, but the tacit understanding of a lifetime together made them support each other, and every accident was spent without danger.
John, whose memory is often short-circuited, will remember to remind Ella to take medicine, and Ella will patiently explain the current situation over and over again when John's sudden confusion arrives.
The two are not without friction, John will make unreasonable trouble when his memory is confused, and Ella will occasionally be unable to bear the endless explanation of emotional loss of control.
It is not terrible to have contradictions, what is terrible is to refuse to communicate, and John and Ella will always communicate and apologize at the first time after calming down, reconcile with each other, and return to a glue-like state.
Originally, The Alzheimer's John could not drive, and Ella, who was seriously ill, was not suitable for long-distance travel, but their mutual trust, tolerance and tacit understanding made the trip miraculously smooth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 Love is the best medicine for pain</h1>
The biggest clash between John and Ella during the trip is that of John, who has a confused memory, inadvertently reveals the fact that he once cheated on his neighbor Lillian when Ella was pregnant decades ago.
Suddenly shocked to learn the truth, Ella threw John into the nursing home in a fit of anger and whisked away.
However, after calming down for a while, Ella picked up John from the nursing home and continued the trip.
Ella recalled, "I didn't know anything at the time, but I felt your heart come back to me. ”
"I don't know anything, but I forgive you."
"I have to forgive you again, forty-eight years later."
No matter how much the husband and wife love each other, no one can calm down when they learn that their husband is cheating.
If this outbreak had occurred forty-eight years ago, it might have been a war of family breakdown.
However, when the truth is discovered after forty-eight years, this originally completely intolerable infidelity seems to have become a small episode compared to the life that is about to come to an end.
Knowing that the feelings of mutual love are indestructible, Ella can quickly calm down her anger, and after the emotions have been vented calmly, calmly and gently talk to John and reconcile.
It is often said that time can heal all wounds, but the wounds that can be healed by time often need love as a glue to heal better.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 The end of a life is a ritual</h1>
After John and Ella arrived at Hemingway's House, Ella finally fainted unable to hold on.
At this time, John is sick again, indulging in the activities of the attractions, completely forgetting the existence of Ella.
It wasn't until John found Ella's dropped bag that he remembered her and rushed to the hospital to pick her up.
Back in the motorhome, Ella knows she is at the end of her life, and after her last warm-up with John, she begins to prepare for a life-ending ceremony.
After she put John to sleep, she sorted out the faces of the two of them, put glasses on John, put makeup on herself, left letters to her children, and then burned charcoal to go to Huangquan with John in her sleep.
Suicide, especially when the husband took him with him in his sleep, is not in line with the requirements of traditional concepts, and this plot is inevitable if it is controversial.
However, a closer look at the plot of the play will find that this move is actually the ending that the two hope for.
John once said to Ella, "When I'm at my limit, promise me you'll put that short pistol in my hand and pull the trigger with my thumb." ”
"Explain it to me so I can understand, and then kiss me, kiss me twice."
John was tired of the deteriorating quality of life, and Ella and John expected to end their lives with a solemn ritual than to a scruffy life.
Unwilling to be separated at birth and wanted to be together after death, this is the tacit heart of Ella and John, the way they love each other.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 The most romantic thing</h1>
There is a lyric that goes like this: "The most romantic thing I can think of is to grow old with you, collect bits and pieces of laughter along the way, and leave it until later to sit in a rocking chair and talk slowly." 」 ”
During the trip, in addition to the daily excursions, John and Ella's favorite thing to do was to put up the curtain and slide projector in the dead of night, and sit side by side to watch the photos played on the curtain.
Dozens of old photos from past years are played back and forth, and they can't get tired of watching.
John often couldn't remember the people and things in the photos, and Ella took the trouble to tell them over and over again, one carefully, one listening carefully, and the warm and harmonious atmosphere often attracted passers-by to stop and listen.
John and Ella look back on the path of life when they came, and the passers-by who stop to listen to the happiness they yearn for in the future.
This is the wealth of their lives, the treasure that time and illness cannot take away, and the memory may be blurred or even disappeared, but the feeling and ability of love have always been there.
The most romantic thing in life is this, even if life comes to an end, remembering the past years, it is still possible to smile softly, which is a rare happiness.
Being able to get this sincere feeling in my life is undoubtedly the greatest luck in life.
*Image source network