Death is not the loss of life, but the passage of time. - Yu Hua
The artist is the loneliest person in the world, and that's what The Pianist of the Sea told me. In 1900, he guarded 88 black and white keys, from childhood to death, from sunrise to night, and never got off the ship in his life.
He had also thought about disembarking and going to find the girl who had impressed him, but when he saw the intricate road, he repented: "In those cities that stretch infinitely, there is everything, but there is no end." On the gangway, there are thousands of keys in front of me, never counted, there is no end at all, this keyboard is too big, and on this infinitely large keyboard, you can't play at all. "
In the end, no one would have known that 1900 had died in the blast, except Conn. Many people wonder why 1900 would rather be killed than leave the Virginia.
In the eyes of many people, death is a tragedy in any way. But in fact, this is not the case, 1900 understands the meaning of his own existence, died in his own world, that moment is worth rejoicing, he does not have to face the wireless keys of the city, for him, 88 keys is enough.
As the philosopher Hermann Hesse put it: "For everyone, there is only one real duty: to find the self." Then stick to it in your heart for a lifetime, wholeheartedly, never stopping. "
"The Pianist of the Sea" reminds me of a movie I saw a long time ago, "The Taste of Plum Chicken", which was rated by netizens as "one of the most easy to ignore good movies", adapted from director Marga Shataser's picture book, telling the story of an artist who was broken by his wife's violin, his heart was like ashes, and he spent eight days committing suicide.
For the last eight days of his life, Nasser Ali did nothing, just lay in bed, silently saying goodbye to everyone, and the director used superb shooting techniques to connect his past, present and future.
It's a magical movie with black humor that makes you laugh and the final funeral that brings people to tears. Next, I will analyze the film from three aspects: the image of the male protagonist created by the story, the unique narrative method and the realistic significance of the film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Nasser Ali: Affection is a tragedy, and it is not necessary to die to read sentences</h1>
Genius is divided into two types, one is gifted, the other is a little talented + diligent to make up for the type, obviously, 1900 belongs to the former, when he first touched the piano, the notes under his hands are as smooth as the best silk.
Nasser Ali is not a talented player like 1900, from the world's point of view, Nasser Ali is even a bit stupid, when the teacher let him and his brother stand on the podium, publicly praised his brother as a good student, insulted him as a scum.
When he was a student in Syraz, his teacher had been criticizing him, saying that his piano sound had no soul, but when he met the girl on the street, everything was different.
He secretly followed the girl and went to her father's shop to buy a grandfather clock, but he did not expect that the artist's means of expressing love were also very lame, and he repeatedly broke the grandfather clock and repaired it, so that he could meet Ylang Ylang.
Almost no girl can refuse a dedicated artist, and Ylang Ylang is no exception, they fall in love. But Yilan's father firmly disagreed with his daughter's love with the poor artist, and their future was cut off by Yilan's father himself.
Since then, Nasser Ali's piano has a soul, the departure of Ylang has made his art, and what he has lost has appeared in the notes played, and he plays everywhere, making the listener palpitate and the hearer cry.
The 40-year-old Nasser Ali accepted the marriage arranged by his mother and married Frankie, a math teacher who was dull and bored, and had been deeply in love with Nasser Ali since childhood.
After getting married, Nasser Ali was still immersed in the world of art and his attachment to Ylang Ylang, he never washed and cooked, nor did he care about the children, the whole family was handled by Francis, the two of them were together, either speechless or quarrelsome, and only when Nasser Ali ate the plum chicken, his face would show a smile.
The secret of a long-lasting marriage is not to stay fresh all the time, but to overcome each other's boredom. In the marriage of Nasser Ali and Frankie, only one party pays for a long time, and it is bound to collapse completely one day.
In one fell swoop, Frankie smashed Ali's violin, and in this way, it was not the piano that smashed, but also the marriage between the two, and Ali's soul.
Ali went around buying the piano like crazy, but he could no longer pull out the feeling he had before. In the process, he also met Ylang, but Ylang Ylang had an indifferent expression and only said: "I don't remember, or I have never seen you." He didn't see Ylang's tears around the corner.
"To be forgotten is to be truly dead."
For Ali, the beautiful notes could no longer flow from his fingertips, and in the heart of the only person he had ever loved, he had long since died, his heart was blown into a wasteland, and he chose to commit suicide.
Among the numerous suicide options, he ruled out horror, discrediting, and image-destroying, and in the end he chose the most dignified one—hunger strike, and on the eighth day, the Angel of Death came and took Nathany Ali with him, and at his funeral all the people he loved were present.
Many people can't understand, for a violin, as for suicide, but netizens commented: If you also engage in art, you know how real this film is.
It is most appropriate to summarize Nasser Ali in this sentence:
Affection is a tragedy, and it is not necessary to die to read sentences.
Nasser Ali was an extremely affectionate man who only did one thing in his life, playing the violin, and he loved only one person in his life, and that was Ylang Ylang.
For 1900, the abandonment of the Virginia was equivalent to the destruction of his spiritual paradise, for Nasser Ali, the disappearance of the piano and man meant the collapse of his spiritual paradise, and for an artist, it meant the exhaustion of inspiration, which was equivalent to the annihilation of the soul, so he ran to death without hesitation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 Narrative technique: the use of non-linear narrative, a variety of narrative techniques intertwined, forming a kaleidoscope style</h1>
The most popular thing about this film is not the storyline itself, but the special narrative technique used by the director, "The Taste of Plum Chicken", like "The Pianist of the Sea", also uses non-linear narrative, forming a unique kaleidoscope style.
The opening set of aerial shots, fixed from the overall situation of the city to a certain shop on a certain street, and with a voiceover, pull everyone into an exotic fairy tale:
"There has never been such a thing before. Everything originated in a Persian fairy tale. In 1958, I was passing through Tehran and met a man named Nasha Ali, and I will tell you his story. "
We can't guess with the accuracy that the narrator of the story is Conn, as in The Pianist at Sea, but we can probably guess that it is Yazlal, the "angel of death" in Islamic legend.
The film unfolds the narrative from the perspective of "God", rather than from the perspective of "man", presenting an "all-knowing" zero focus, where the storyteller can know not only the past and present of Nasser Ali, but also the future, above the world, omniscient, omniscient.
The main story is simple: a violinist who spends eight days committing suicide is narrated in a third-person omniscient perspective, but cleverly, the narration rights in the film are transferred twice.
The first time is on the sixth day, when Death and Ali have a direct dialogue, and the main body of the narrative at this time is transferred to Ali, which is a kind of zero focus of "limited knowledge".
The second time was when Ali faced death on the last day, saying goodbye to friends and relatives in bed, the screen constantly flashing, simulating Ali's perspective, conveying ali's art being destroyed, the meaning of love and loneliness deep into the bone marrow.
Through non-linear narrative, the director also divides and reconstructs the time of the narrative, connecting the past, present, and future, so that we can better understand Ali's loneliness and pain.
For the past, the narrative of the film is usually to insert a memory after the characters touch the scene, which is called "flashback".
Ali has never been able to get recognition in the process of growing up, which is also an inducement for his suicide, when he was a child, the teacher used his grades to distinguish between good and bad, and criticized Ali in front of other children, and the director also used superb audio-visual means to show Ali's difficulties.
For the future, there is a passage in the film that depicts the future life of a pair of Ali's sons and daughters, presenting what has not happened in a surreal way, which is called "flashfront".
The story of her daughter is a continuation of Ali, who was married twice, and after the death of her second husband, she was devastated, addicted to gambling, wasted her life on a crazy casino, and died of a heart attack in her thirties. The son's life is like an American comedy, life is mediocre and trivial, but there is no lack of small fun, this ordinary life meets the requirements of Francis, ordinary but happy.
This kind of narrative perspective and narrative time transformation and focus all occur in a very clear story line, every event occurs, every encounter, there are antecedents and consequences, and intertwined into the web of life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 written at the end: The only thing we have to do is to accept the fate-given and hold on to what we love</h1>
I've seen several films depicting artists: in Rodin's Lover, 19-year-old Camille and Rodin meet, fall in love, become obsessed, and Camille is eventually taken away by the carriage of the insane asylum; in Frida, Frida and Rivera, their souls are compatible, but the man keeps cheating and the marriage is not happy.
Artists rely on life to get inspiration, so their marriage is probably difficult to be happy, and Nasser Ali in this film is also an artist, but if he is an ordinary person, he cannot choose to commit suicide after breaking a violin.
The purpose of watching movies is not to learn to live like the protagonist, but how to make our lives better.
Zhang Xiaoxian once said:
People always like to compare with others to see who is better than themselves and who is better than themselves. But in fact, what sets the bottom for your troubles and sorrows is never the misfortune and pain of others, but your own attitude.
Life is full of troubles and sorrows, which is the norm in life. The only thing we need to do is to learn to cherish and be satisfied, to accept what fate has given us, to hold on to what we love, and to live happily.