Directed by Kenel Mudluzzo, written by Kata Webber and produced by Martin Scorsese, Fragments of a Woman is a heartfelt, fiery, and extraordinary story.
It tells the story of a boston-based couple, Martha and Sean, who were supposed to be parents, but their lives were radically changed due to unimaginable tragedies that occurred during childbirth at home. So Martha embarked on a year-long journey, confronting her husband, her domineering mother, and the midwifery nurse who was being attacked by the public, she had to learn to deal with her anger and grief, and she had to confront the midwife in court.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > couple who are in love with each other, dedicated midwives, but began to twist because of the death of the baby. </h1>
There were two people laughing and talking in the room, suddenly the wife Martha suddenly began to contract, Sheehan called the previous midwife Barbara, but Barbara said that she was helping others give birth, and would come soon, Sheehan comforted Martha and told her jokes, Martha's state was better, but this time the amniotic fluid broke, and Martha's pain was gradually increasing.
At this time, another midwife, Woodward, came to help Martha give birth, although at this time Martha's fetal position and opening finger including the baby's heartbeat were normal, Martha was almost unbearable pain, so Woodward suggested that Martha take a bath first, and Martha, who was hugging Sheehan, temporarily overcame the pain and prepared to give birth, Woodward could not hear the heartbeat of the fetus at this time, and asked Sheehan to call the hospital, under the efforts of several people, the child was born and cried when everyone was relieved. Suddenly, the child's body turned purple, but when the ambulance arrived, it was too late.
But they blame the tragedy of all this on Martha, a pregnant woman whose childbirth did not go well.
Martha, who wants to let the child decide when she will come into the world", stayed at home to wait for a natural birth, accompanied by a 45-year-old experienced female midwife who was also an advocate of home delivery, but the negligence caused tragedy. Losing children is a pressure on a family or a man, and how can a couple face the loss of a beloved woman to get out of the shadows.
This is a film of how to face loss, how to face all the sudden loss of all the family wants to do justice, how to turn over the chapter of life, the mother has the mother's reason, the husband has the husband's reason (he first slept with his own criminal lawyer). The beginning of the film to describe a woman from labor to childbirth to accident is to pave the way for her to come out of the haze later, and she suddenly feels something after rinsing out the photos of her daughter at the moment when she came to earth
Martha looked at the sprouted seeds, regained the confidence of life, and under the branched apple tree, a girl climbed up the branches of the tree and picked a red apple to eat, which also indicated that This Martha began to face life again and was full of hope for life again.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > rivers thaw, trees grow, and wounds will eventually heal</h1>
This is a film that really cares about the trauma of women and fertility. Long childbirth mirror is indispensable: through the lens movement and scheduling instead of editing, immersive, home delivery as a constantly changing situation, unpredictable event, let the viewer and Martha beat their hearts together. The subsequent title and time jump/break further subsume the event into the character's prehistory, and the long-term mirror and realistic performance on the scene construct a traumatic memory in the viewer's mind to the greatest extent.
The process of photo development, like a miracle, not only allows the deceased to be resurrected and permanently resides, but also forces Martha to face the moment before trauma, and in the end, her understanding and gratitude to the midwife is based on the warm empathy of women, pure and extensive love and release, rather than the self-righteous rational concerns of the people around her before, the cold and narrow calculation and never let go, both exquisite long mirrors (gatherings and quarrels at home), and close detail close-ups, endless walking highlights the sense of process, mirror glass emphasizes estrangement and bondage.
At the end of the film, the contradictions between people and the absent-minded discord will immediately overflow the screen.
And as the date appears again and again, the two ends of the bridge in the picture are getting closer and closer, until finally, the bridge is closed. This seems to imply that the wounds in the heroine's heart have also healed. But her husband's mention in the film that the Tacoma Bridge, the third largest in the United States, collapsed in the 1940s gave me another feeling, that is, the Tacoma Bridge once completely collapsed, and now it has been rebuilt, it looks very strong, and not many people remember that it collapsed.
Before the tragedy, she was like the darling of the whole world, but after the tragedy, everyone was thinking about themselves, but it was clear that she was the biggest victim. Men can't be relied on, mothers can't be relied on, public opinion and courts are also unreliable, and finally only they can redeem themselves, and forgiveness of others is not forgiveness for themselves?
After watching the whole movie, I felt that Martha was like the Tacoma Bridge, and at the end of the film she looked no different from anyone, but no one would know or care, her heart had collapsed, broken, and the fragments were buried forever in the deepest part of her heart, buried under the wound that had healed.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > more tolerant under sadness</h1>
What is surprising is that the second half of the film does not have too much of the bitter vendetta and needle point mai mang that I imagined, but in a calm and unbelievable way to tell the story of how the heroine picked up the fragments of her life again, the slow rhythm processing is like the tug-of-war between us and the miserable tug-of-war that is knocked down in life, real and touching.
Vanessa Kirby's interpretation is also not as dominant as expected, but with her face that is not too hard but very infectious, it perfectly portrays a woman who gradually learns to reconcile with the world after encountering a thunderbolt on a sunny day. Whether it is the cowardly husband, the strong mother, or the gossipy stranger, she is just a passerby, and when she drops everything and chooses the path she believes, she has already propped up a future for herself, just like Boston that has survived the winter and ushered in the spring, like the lush apple tree after the sprouting and sowing, ordinary but great.
After losing her daughter, she fell in love with the taste of apples because it was the only memory of her brief time with her daughter. What do men do after a woman is torn to shreds? He was still taking, crying for everything he longed for, turning to another woman after no success, crying about the demise of his ideal life, a sadness that was an almost narcissistic male gaze. What is decency and dignity? It is we who live brightly under the eyes of others, but it is difficult to hide our pain.