"Two Flowers of Life": The Dual Perfection of Secular Survival and Ideal Belief

Author: Zhou Zhongmou, Associate Professor of the College of Arts and Master Supervisor of Lanzhou University

Polish director Kieslowski's films are often characterized by strong poetry and esoteric philosophy, and "Two Flowers" aka "Veronica's Double Life" is one of his representative works. The film does not have a strong story, more like a poem, a musical, with a poetic and musical mood, expressing a beautiful mood and profound philosophy.

The film tells the story of two girls with the same age, appearance and name, who feel each other but have different destinies. They were all named Veronica, one living in Poland and the other in France, and living with their respective fathers. They all have musical talents, Polish Veronica likes to sing high notes, knowing that there is a family history of heart disease, still choose to sing aloud, and finally in the performance, because the heart can not withstand too high voice, fell to the ground sudden death.

At the same time, Veronica of France suddenly decided to give up studying high notes, which deeply deplored her teacher. Subsequently, she met the writer and puppeteer Alexander Fabi, and some strange things began to appear in her life. She received all sorts of inexplicable emails containing shoelaces, empty cigar boxes, audio tapes, etc. It turned out that Fabby wanted to verify whether she had telepathy before he frequently contacted her. In a hotel, the two confide in each other, and Fabi finds Veronica in Poland in a photo. This photograph was taken by chance during a trip to Poland by Veronica, France. Seeing the photo, Veronica of France lost her voice and cried bitterly, it turned out that there was really another self in the world, but the two passed each other, and it would be indefinite.

The film is not a popular drama about the twin sisters' tragedies and joys, and the two Veronica have never met at all except for the only intersection, nor are they related by blood. Not only do they have extremely similar appearances, but they also have telepathy. For example, Veronica of Poland felt that she was not alive alone, and that there was another self elsewhere; Veronica of France always felt that she was living in two places at the same time, and when Veronica of Poland died, Veronica of France felt that someone had disappeared from her life. They wiped their eye bags with their rings exactly the same, and they all saw an elderly and frail old woman. With so many similarities, such magical telepathy, how can one not cherish this unique fate?

From the perspective of realistic logic, the film is indeed full of coincidences, and the story level is also puzzling. The film is more like a fable, but the meaning is too obscure, full of mystery and mystery, everyone can make different interpretations according to their own life experience and emotional experience, and all the explanations seem to be difficult to explain the film thoroughly.

Some people see the two Veronicas as the opposition between spirit and flesh, the first Veronica represents the soul and the second Veronica represents the body. Veronica of the soul sings "Song to Heaven" and dies, symbolizing the destruction of the soul, while veronica of the flesh continues to live in the world. There is some truth to this statement, but it doesn't seem to be relevant enough. In the author's view, the two Veronicas are two sides of the same person, symbolizing the self-division of modern people. Linked to the entire human history of the twentieth century, the high degree of industrial development, the disasters brought to mankind by World War I and World War II, and the intensification of social contradictions in capitalist society (such as the parade on Krakow Square in the film) have made modern people full of anxiety, alienation, and self-seem to be divided. This division is not only the separation of the soul from the body, the separation of reason from the sensibility, the separation of desire from reality, but also the separation of ideal beliefs from worldly existence. In other words, this separation is also a projection of the director's own inner experience, the life experience from Poland to France, making him feel that there is both a Polish self and a French self.

If the two Veronicas are seen as representatives of the pursuit of ideal beliefs and the choice of secular survival, the film seems to imply to the audience that the pursuit of ideals may not lead to success, but sacrifice and death. The destruction of the flesh as a sacrifice to ideals is quite a tragic meaning of martyrdom, but also a rejection of earthly life such as love. And like Veronica in France, she found the love she and her loved ones in the world, immersed in male and female love, and looked happy, but at the cost of giving up her musical dreams. At some point, she would cry because she had lost touch with her former ideal and faith. Why can't you have both? Why can't we pursue ideal beliefs and take care of worldly survival? Does this sense of division also exist in each of us? When one day we find ourselves crawling and playing in the world for too long, contaminated with too much pyrotechnic gas and copper odor, suddenly look back, and find that the once spirited, ambitious teenager has disappeared without a trace, will it be full of emotions and infinite sorrow?

In the film, Polish Veronica died in the Chinese year for the ideal, and Veronica in France gave up music for life. The comparison before and after seems to contain a certain meaning of bridging the split and compensating for the lack. The story told by Alexander Faby in the film also confirms this: in 1966, two Veronicas were born in different places at the same time, their hair was the same color and the same appearance, and when they were young, one of them reached for the stove and was burned, and the other reached for the stove more than ten days later, but retracted in time, and she did not know that the stove would burn people. If the ideal is compared to a furnace, Pol. Veronica, with her death, allows The French Veronica to abandon the ideal through telepathy and have the opportunity to choose a stable and ordinary life. Perhaps, like Alexander Fabi, who performed the puppet show, created two Veronicas at the same time, even if one of them stumbled and broke on the stage of life, there could be another to replace.

Cangyang Gyatso Shiyun: "The world is safe and complete, and it is not as good as coming." "Rulai" represents faith and ideals, and "Qing" represents red dust and worldly life. Cangyang Gyatso issued a sigh of "The Law of Tranquility and Dual Perfection" in the regret that it was difficult to balance the two. The two Veronica images created in the movie "Two Flowers" are not a poetic and romanticized "double-whole method"? If there are really two identical selves in the world, one can pursue the ideal without any worries and regardless of the body, and the other can join hands with a red face and spend a lifetime in the quiet of the years. Both can also be telepathic, always aware of the other's own situation. Not only looking down on the earthly world in the pursuit of ideals, but also looking up to ideals in the survival of the world. What a desirable experience!

After watching "Two Flowers of Life", people can't help but raise their expectations for beauty: in this world, we are not alone, in a distant place or another parallel time and space, there will be another self. In reality, what we can't do, what we can't get, all the sadness and dissatisfaction, can be compensated in the other self. In the starry night, as long as we fold our hands and close our eyes and meditate, we can feel the breath and heartbeat of another of ourselves. (Zhou Zhongmou)

Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel