A psychological interpretation of the Phantom Seamstress
Honestly, I'm really not impressed with this Oscar-winning film, this is a British drama made by an American director, set in London in the 1950s, which was the golden age of couture women's clothing, known as the last elegant era in the history of clothing, the male protagonist Mr. Woodcock was a master of couture womenswear of that period. And my knowledge of Western culture is limited to American cowboys, British gentlemen, Spanish bullfights. Due to such limitations, for this film, which is not much faster than the traffic jam, it was a bit sleepy at the beginning.
However, I went to see the film with a task, so I had to beat the spirit and concentrate on the long, monotonous march of the film, flattening his work state, life state, and setting off his mental state from these aspects. At the beginning of the film, there are many characters, and the adhesion between him and the customer is similar to that between the couple, and the coldness of the strange road between him and his sister. There was also a lover who resembled his subordinates, so much so that it took me a lot of effort to make the relationship clear. I define him as an extremely self-disciplined, narcissistic workaholic.
The film is called The Phantom Seamstress, and I don't see where the Phantom is when it's halfway through the film. Even the charm of the stereotypical seamstress I do not see where it is, I have to say that the superb literary skills of Chinese translators push a film of such literature and art to us with a mysterious opening. As soon as we see the title, we think about it. If it hadn't been for the Oscar-winning aura, I think it would have been difficult for me to have a sustained interest in watching movies.
Until the heroine Alma was poisoned for the first time, the film stepped into a deeper interpretation. The inner world of the male protagonist is like the apartment where he lives, neat and rigid, luxurious with decay, as if anything but work has been unable to arouse his interest, when he meets the female protagonist, let us feel that the city of ice and snow is slowly dissolving because the film has stopped so far, with a happy ending, with the happiness of a prince and princess. In fact, no, the director will continue to extend its usual flat direct narrative, the prince returned to the castle, continued to live the past life, the crack opened by the country girl, soon disappeared without a trace, he did not change for her, the contradiction arose, the male protagonist brought the female protagonist into his castle because of love, or the castle we saw, but he did not care about the rules displayed in front of the eyes of the world.
So where is his castle? The paranoid madness of the heroine allows us to see the tip of the iceberg, the unhappiness of the surprise dinner, the male protagonist strengthens the defense system of the castle, and announces to the heroine that I am the king of my territory, I am not satisfied with it, and I can go without attachment. It makes us think that his original love was an illusion. And the heroine's reaction is actually more surprising and incomprehensible, where has her longing for a free, independent and special nature gone, and it seems too pale to explain with a sentence I love you. I think the male protagonist arouses the female protagonist's strong desire to conquer, in fact, she is more paranoid than the male protagonist. In this way, we can understand the poisoning behind her, and her poisoning is so victorious, and she is at ease and has no guilt.
The first time she was poisoned, when he was seriously ill, the phantom appeared by the door of the room, it was a young woman wearing a white wedding dress and a pearl veil, and the man missed her very much and confided in her. Phantom is silent, motionless, just looking at the male protagonist, the film confesses that this is his mother, however, the image of the mother in the eyes of the child can never be the appearance of wearing a wedding dress, so one of the most important scenes in the film, why does the phantom appear in this form, what does the director want to metaphorically? Or what kind of psychological cue is this?
After the heroine began to poison, the film entered a pattern that ordinary people could not understand, the poisoner in the process of taking care of the poisoned, each other actually established a more intimate relationship than before, the male protagonist in the first morning after leaving the bed, kissed the sleeping heroine's toes, and proposed to her, after the two married life is still harmonious, we think their happy life has finally begun. But not yet, the husband and wife have not really changed for anyone, neither person wants to know what the other really wants in their hearts, they only care about what they want, and the dissatisfaction and contradictions are constantly intensifying.
The second poisoning occurred after the male protagonist complained to his sister, and the female protagonist stood behind and heard what she least wanted to hear, and the male protagonist wanted to expel her in order to protect his own kingdom. The female protagonist silently turned away, picked up the bowl of poisonous mushrooms, grinded more mushrooms than the last time, put it in the pizza made for the male protagonist, the two people ate under the lamp, the female protagonist did not shy away, just like the poisonous mushrooms in the pizza are just an ordinary condiment, and the male protagonist has been aware of it, and finally ate the poisonous pizza under the gaze of the female protagonist with affection, and was willing to eat it. When the male protagonist sat weakly on the toilet, holding the gap between the basin vomiting, the two of them kissed passionately, and the two enjoyed the process very much, although the male protagonist looked extremely weak, as if he would die anytime and anywhere.
The male protagonist will only have a real need for emotions when he is at his weakest, which has nothing to do with all the rules he has established, he is a simple need, and the female protagonist also feels that only at such a moment can she truly love the male protagonist, and the weak male protagonist gives her a great sense of accomplishment and control.
After the second poisoning, they finally really lived a happy and happy life, and the film expressed this with beautiful lenses, but I still find the emotional connection between the two strange and strange. In this way, it is not difficult to infer that there will be a third and fourth poisoning, and perhaps this will continue until the end of the male protagonist's life.