"Mary and Marx" tells the story between the little girl Mary and her pen pal Marx. Born in Australia, Mary had a birthmark on her head and was ridiculed by her classmates from an early age. Mary's mother was an alcoholic, Mary's father liked to make specimens from dead birds, and her parents rarely cared about Mary. Without the love of her family or the company of her friends, Mary's life was lonely.
By chance, Mary wrote to Marx, who lived in New York, USA. Marx was 44 years old, suffering from severe autism and obesity, and his pathological psychology and body forced Marx to see a doctor every week. Marx also did not have any friends, and life was very lonely. From 1976 onwards, Mary and Marx exchanged letters until Marx's death in 1994. The two accompanied and supported each other, and this nearly 20-year-long friendship not only healed each other, but also healed themselves.
Today, I will start with the artistic characteristics of Mary and Marx, expressing Adam Eliot's dedication to stop-motion animation and scene metaphors to express his understanding of friendship and life. Although the 92-minute film story is bland, it is rich and profound, showing adam Elliott's continued depth and intentions.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, uses high-cost stop-motion animation to reflect the sense of reality, using a gloomy and melancholy lens language that breaks the convention, and behind each picture is a hint of the fate of the characters</h1>
Director Adam Elliot's short film "Naked Harvey Breaks The Life" won the 76th Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and the self-described trilogy "Uncle", "Cousin" and "Brother" won more than 50 awards at more than 300 film festivals "Mary and Marx" is Adam Elliott's first animated feature film, this clay animation took 5 years to produce, through a set of data we can see Adam Elliott's intentions:
The entire animation is made of about 132,480 independent images, using 6 Canon digital cameras to shoot still images, the whole film has a total of 133 scenes, 212 clay characters, 475 miniature props, and the animators have made a total of 1026 different mouths and 394 pupils. 2 costume designers and 147 tailors designed and produced all the costumes in the film.
Compared with shooting with CG, it is undoubtedly more expensive to use stop-motion animation. But Adam Elliott says that clumps of plasticine will make the audience more realistic when watching. Although CG technology can make the expressions of the characters in the animation richer and more colorful, the production cost of the entire animation will be lower. But Elliot insisted on using stop-motion animation to make the audience feel real.
There are two narrative time and space in the film, Australia and the United States, Mary lives in Australia, the picture is gray and yellow; Marx lives in the United States, the director uses a lot of black and white, and the camera is gloomy and melancholy. The director reflects the inner emotions of the characters and the final fate through the color of the picture.
In life, Mary had no friends of the same age and no parental love in her childhood; in adulthood, although she succeeded in her studies, her marriage failed. Life seems to be a mess, and all the directors have a lot of gray and yellow shots to show the gloom in Mary's heart. But Mary was still young, life was not hopeless, and in marx's company, Mary's spiritual life was also comforted.
On the other hand, Marx, 44 years old, has been living alone, although the film does not explain Marx's work, but from his daily life can be seen that life is not good. So when the picture switches to the space where Marx lives, the director uses black and white tones. Mary's presence added a touch of color to Marx's life and soothed Marx, and when Marx wrote his last letter to Mary, he said: "You are my best friend, you are my only friend." So, what Mary gave to Marx is colored in the picture, such as the red pompom that Mary gave him.
The director uses gloomy and melancholy colors and lens language to metaphorically describe the lonely lives of the two protagonists, through the subtle differences in the colors of the two spaces, hinting at the different fates of the two protagonists, and using limited color metaphors to bring changes to the protagonist's life and psychology.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, letters are metaphors for the consolation of the soul, chocolate and condensed milk are metaphors for the sweetness of life, and the double reassurance of the mind and body reduces the degree of mental suffering</h1>
The most important scenes in the film take place in the homes of Mary and Marx, and are based on the clues of the two writing letters and reading letters. Letters are the original intention of this film, and they are also things that convey feelings and connect emotions. The film chooses to use the figurative object of the letter as a metaphor for abstract friendship and spiritual comfort. Elliot also had a transnational pen pal in his life, who was as autistic and large as Marx, and Elliott was in contact with this pen pal for 20 years.
Eliot's creation of Mary and Marx was inspired by himself and his pen pals. Elliott said that life gave him the inspiration to create, and he had already sent the script to his pen pals to read it early before the filming of "Mary and Marx". Elliot was shy as a child, and although he had 3 younger siblings in the family, he always shut himself in the room alone. Although Elliot and his pen pals have never met, their friendship of more than 20 years must have given each other a lot of psychological comfort.
In the movie, Mary is ridiculed by her classmates for the birthmark on her forehead, who also throws her bread in the trash. Mary was distressed by this, and she wrote these things in her letter and told Marx. In his reply, Marx gave Mary an idea. He asked Mary to tell her classmates that the birthmark was made of chocolate, and that when she died, she would go to heaven and be in charge of all the chocolate, and those who laughed at her would not get a single piece of chocolate.
Sure enough, after Mary followed Marx's methods against her classmates, no one dared to laugh at the birthmark on Mary's forehead anymore. Similarly, Marx would confide in his letters the unpleasantness he had encountered in his life, and Mary would make her own suggestions to help Marx overcome the problems in life. In the film, the letter is not just a piece of paper, it contains the inner troubles of the two protagonists, suggestions and explanations for friends. Friendship is the theme of the film throughout, and the letter is the medium through which the two maintain their friendship and is a cure for life.
Eating desserts promotes the secretion of dopamine and adrenaline in the brain, which promotes a sense of pleasure. Over time, people will say that eating sweets can make the mood better, and some people joke that the heart is bitter, and the mouth can only be happy by eating something sweet. In the film, Elliot uses chocolate and condensed milk as a metaphor for sweetness in life.
Both Mary and Marx loved chocolate and condensed milk. Every time they send a letter, they will attach a variety of different types of chocolate to the letter, sharing their happiness with each other, hoping that the letters and chocolates they send will bring some happiness to each other. During the bitter time of Mary's life, she had been eating condensed milk in search of sweetness in life.
Through the interaction between Mary and Marx, the film allows the audience to see the healing process of friendship in life. Whether it is Mary or Marx, they seem to be the losers in life, lonely and out of place. But does escaping socialization solve the loneliness of their souls? Obviously not. The film's attitude towards this is still obvious, and it also finds a solution for the two protagonists.
For Mary, there was a man who could understand her loneliness and specialness, someone who could think of a solution for the mocked birthmark on her forehead; for Marx, at last there was someone who did not regard him as an outlier, did not ask him to change. Marx had three ideals in his life, one of which was to be able to have a friend. Mary's appearance fulfilled one of Marx's ideals, and she became his best and only friend.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, accept your own imperfections, and reconcile with yourself in the process of forgiving others</h1>
Some people say that the protagonist of Adam Elliott's film has his own shadow, and it is true. The film condenses the truth of Eliot's heart that she has been working on for years. Mary and Marx was inspired by Elliot and her pen pals, neither Mary nor Marx, who were perfect people, physically or psychologically flawed, and so was Elliot.
Elliott admits:
"I have some physical problems myself, and my hands often tremble unconsciously. Sometimes, the shaking of my hands can have a little effect on my work. In many cases, we should take a more positive attitude to face physiological flaws and limitations. ”
With Marx's explanation and help, Mary no longer cared about the birthmark on her forehead; Marx, accompanied by Mary and treated by doctors, was more receptive to himself than before.
Elliott said:
"I firmly believe that all people are flawed and flawed – it's just that in everyday life, we hide these things. My idea is to show these flaws and applaud people for imperfections, impurities. ”
A person who can freely applaud for imperfect, impure things must be a person who is in harmony with himself and with his life. In the film, Eliot faithfully shows the imperfections of Mary's parents, Mary, Marx, and others, some people suffer physical torture, and some people suffer psychological pain. While the director shows these imperfections, he also allows us to see the real life.
Although Mary and Marx were soulmates, in the process of getting along with the two, there were also conflicts and lost contact for a time. Mary's graduation thesis analyzed Marx as a case, Marx was very angry when he knew it, and he wrote a letter to Mary expressing his inner feelings: "I cannot express my feelings clearly, and I arrange the emotions I feel in the order of strength and weakness as follows— injury, confusion, betrayal, displeasure, pain, and breathing difficulties. ”
After this, the two did not exchange letters for a long time. By chance, Marx was relieved, he forgave Mary, and he wrote a long letter to Mary, which was also marx's last letter to Mary:
I forgive you, because you are not perfect, you are flawed, I have, all mankind has. I wanted to be anything anymore as a kid, except myself. Dr. Bernard Heizhoff said that if I was on an isolated island, then I had to adapt to living alone.
He said I had to accept myself, including my flaws and everything. We cannot choose our own shortcomings, they are a part of us, we can only accept. However, we were able to choose our own friends, and I am glad to have chosen you.
The content of Marx's letter is highly similar to the words spoken by the director, and the characters in the film embody Eliot's ideas. Adam Eliot presents the profound content of the artwork with condensed film narrative and lens language, without excessive dramatic conflict, but condensed with complex philosophical thinking. The use of color in every place, the rhythm of dialogue and narration, the profound lines, and the metaphorical scenes let the audience enter the hearts of Mary and Marx and feel the beauty that friendship brings to life.
At the same time, Eliot also borrowed this plot of Marx's forgiveness of Mary, allowing the audience to think about the relationship between people and friends and with themselves, so that the audience has a new understanding of the self and achieve reconciliation with the self. In this sense, Elliot presents not a simple story, but a feast of redemption and self-healing.