This is Netflix's best rated original work this year, and since it aired at the end of April, Rotten Tomatoes has always maintained a freshness rating of 100% - [Hidden Love].
[Hidden Love] Douban 9.1, IMDb 8.1
In this era, the expression and practice of love has become more frivolous and casual, and when you catch a glimpse of xiu'en love's refined group photo, you can't help but call out "fairy love".
I always feel that the word "fairy love" is used almost to the next time.
If there really is "fairy love", then I believe it should be what this documentary looks like.
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[Hidden Love] is another LGBT-themed original documentary on Netflix launched by renowned producer Ryan Murphy after 2019's "Book Circus".
[Book Circus]
Originally planned for the world premiere at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it chose to go directly to the network.
It's a love story that 'has been "brewing" for 70 years.
One of the main characters, Terry Donahu, was once a catcher in the All-American Women's Professional Baseball League, and her legendary experience was adapted into the movie [Pink League].
[Pink Alliance]
But the movie [The Pink League] only captures Terri's side as an athlete and ignores her daily life. There is also an unusual B-side to Terri's life: she is gay.
Terri and her lover Patty Hanschell fell in love in the late 1940s.
Patti (left) & Terry (right)
Subsequently, they lived together for 65 and a half years without hiding from their families. It wasn't until 2009, more than half a century later, that Terri told the truth.
After the relationship became public, Terry's nephew Chris Boland became intrigued by their decades of getting along: "I've never made a love story between two women, and in that moment, I knew I could try it." ”
Thanks to The close relationship between Boland and Terry, between 2013 and 2018, Boland recorded the most undefended side of the two old men, exposing every minute and second to the camera.
"After announcing their coming out, they were like happy little girls who let go of the secret gate and told me a lot of stories about the past."
They have loved each other deeply for decades, never abandoned, but it is difficult to see the light; they live together as "friends" and "sisters" to the outside world, but they dare not admit to being "lovers"; they wander in time, preserving themselves in the system, and at the same time walking on thin ice in the prejudice of society.
At the beginning of the movie, the doctor calls to ask about Terri. Patty answers the phone and lies to the doctor that she is Terry's cousin.
The elderly Terry was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and her right hand was shaking violently.
For them, they are old enough to sell their houses and move to care centers.
Sensing that she was not in good health, Terri decided to confess to her family at this time that she had kept a secret for most of her life. She chose to be the first to tell Diana that the two people were the closest, like mother and daughter.
Diana (right) is director Boland's mother and Terry is her aunt
Before telling the truth, Terri is very nervous because she doesn't want to lose Diana's love.
"We are gay."
Terri's body was shaking after she said that, and she was crying. Diana went up and hugged her, "I don't care. ”
Then Terri authorized Diana to tell her relatives at home about it. From that moment on, Terri felt relieved, too.
As the plot unfolds, through the narration of the two protagonists, time travels through the past, and with the display of old photos, a complete love story belonging to Terry and Patty is also slowly pieced together.
At the age of 19, Terry was scouted and joined the Piolia Red Wing of the All-American Women's Professional Baseball League.
According to the requirements of professional leagues, female athletes are required to dress like ladies while playing like men. They wore skirts 15 centimeters above the knees, swinging sticks, slippery and scarred.
"In those days, it wasn't a good thing to be different." Terri became the one who went out of the ordinary because she met Patty.
The story of Patti is relatively little introduced, but it is interesting that she was engaged to a boy when she was 18 years old, but the boy later died; during World War II, she interacted with a pilot, and he was also killed; and later with the farmer's son, she also died because of improper operation of machinery.
Evil door.
Even Patty thought to herself: Maybe I shouldn't be involved with men.
Then she met Terri, fell in love at first sight, and her life changed.
It was 1947, Patty was 18 and Terry was 22.
Looking back at the first time together, some of the details are both warm and romantic.
They went to the skating rink, and at the next intersection, Patti secretly handed Terri a note and slid in two different directions to avoid being discovered.
Terri said it was the most beautiful note Patty had ever written:
"I love to read books and have read a lot of stories, but I've never seen stories of women falling in love. Most importantly, I want the relationship to be a two-way street. ”
The two then moved to Chicago and lived together as lovers, but always called each other "cousins" or "good friends."
Because in the era in which they lived, the existence of homosexuals faced great difficulties and obstacles.
In the late 1940s and mid-1960s, two-thirds of Americans viewed homosexuals with a disgusting, uneasy, or fearful attitude.
And a bar that is suspected of being gay will face raids.
Women who do not wear at least three pieces of clothing that women should wear, or whose jeans are not zippered, are suspected of pretending to be men and are considered gay and arrested.
Once they were identified as gay, everyone's name was published in the newspaper, causing them to lose their jobs and even commit suicide.
Under high pressure, all homosexuals were forced to go underground.
For Terry and Patty, they are Canadian immigrants who, while having a green card, are not allowed to go wrong.
The situation is bad, but they also have their own coping strategies.
The two worked together for 26 years at an interior design firm in Chicago.
When they go to work, they will strictly abide by the norms and dress themselves like an urban beauty, skirt, lipstick, high heels, fully armed. It is also a means of self-preservation.
Even if it is a matter of commonplace such as exchanging letters, it will be more attentive and specially torn off the part with the name written on it.
One of the most memorable things was their kissing in the midst of a sandstorm. Because everyone on the street was walking with their heads down, no one would notice them.
They never made it public to the family members around them, even if it was only a slight temptation, which was enough to deter them.
Terri's brother Tom, Diana's father, once said something very rude: Terri needs to be by a black man to get her back on track. ”
However, Terri's father is more reasonable and likes Patty. He said, "I'd rather you be with Patty like this than marry someone who will spoil you." ”
Even so, Terry didn't tell him until his father died.
For the outside public opinion and controversy, they will not choose to fight, but quietly enjoy their time, waiting for the day when everyone will accept them.
Who knows, that's 70 years.
In 2009, Terri told her family she was gay; in 2015, same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States, and on Terri's 90th birthday, she and Patty had a wedding.
At the wedding scene, witnessed by all the relatives and friends, every oath is like a tribute and recognition for their years. Because of the content of the oath, they have done it all.
In the past, they were once old, but now they are flourishing.
This wedding is a victory that is too late, and it is a story that love can conquer time. When Terri and Patty exchange rings, they finally don't have to hide from the outside world anymore.
The theme song of the film is Doris Day's "Secret Love", and the meaning represented by this wedding is all written in the lyrics:
Finally, the door of my heart opened
My secret love will no longer be a secret.
Beyond romantic love stories and LGBT themes, there is another, more sentimental and serious part of [Hidden Love], which is about aging and death.
Terri and Patty show us how to face aging gracefully and decently and learn to accept ourselves.
From time to time, the film is interspersed with various small details, showing the young mentality of Terri and Patty, and also reflecting the cuteness of the two.
For example, they happen to see children riding balance bikes on the street, thinking that they will try it themselves;
Terri will put some signed small cards in her bag, and if someone who knows about the NFL recognizes her, she will send a small card, and this unexpected surprise will make them feel good all day;
There's also the toy electric dog in the room, and the good morning kiss that Patty asks Terri for. Looking at them, you'll forget that these are two old men in their 90s.
But no matter how young the mentality is, we must also face the real problems. Their physical condition no longer allows them to live alone and must move into a care centre.
It was a care center that had never accepted homosexuals, but everyone welcomed Terry and Patty's arrival. The tensions over homosexuals in the 1950s and 1960s were over.
This made them feel warmer than ever, and they also dispelled their previous concerns and found a sense of home again.
Diana described Terry, "Whether you're playing baseball or gay, you can say you've been breaking the rules all your life." ”
Terri replied, "That's why I'm happy." ”
Happy because of being different, even when she gets older, this sentence is a portrayal of Terri's life.
Because she knows what kind of life she wants to live, age is really just a number for her.
During the move, patti read aloud one of the letters, "I'll Always Remember Tonight":
"Maybe it's just a walk under the moon. But it means a lot to me because we walk side by side. Maybe it's just another night of the week... I should remember this night in firm remembrance, another night that belongs to us. ”
The story of Terry and Patty, which is intimately linked to the lives of gay people on the fringes of America for more than 70 years, is sometimes tear-jerking and sometimes thrilling.
But it is not a Chicago LGBT history science class after all, and finally returns to the most essential problem of human beings: even secret love is love, and it can stand the test of time, embracing a certain elegant and peaceful mentality, and growing old with love, in fact, it is not difficult to accept.
In 2017, Terri and Patty returned to their native Canada to spend two years at a care center in Alberta.
On March 14, 2019, Terri passed away at the age of 93, leaving behind her partner Patti, who had been with her for 72 years.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Patti, 92, still lives in Canada, and although she is the only one, she is not idle, and she still likes to go to the casino to play bingo and to go to the cinema to watch movies.
[Hidden Love] Another producer and screenwriter, Alisa M. After finishing the documentary, L. Fogel was questioned by Terry and Patty, "What is there to shoot about the daily life of two old people?" ”
Fogel argues: "They are in the middle of it and may not understand why their experience is so special. But it is this everyday life, and the pure love for each other, that reminds us that ordinary people and love make heroes. ”
Terry and Patty's experience reminds me of Kitajima's "Proclamation": "In the era of no heroes, I only wanted to be one person. ”
This is also the biggest touch that [secret love] brings to me, in a world that was once twisted and distorted, two people who love each other, regardless of gender, regardless of age, they just need to be together, live a normal life, and time will naturally shape them into heroes.
Even if they have no intention of becoming heroes.
Because love is the greatest.