The first time I watched "The Dream of the Covered Bridge", I began to despise the cheating man and woman halfway through, and saw that at the end I forgave Francesca who did not elope with her lover, but I always hated the photographer Robert, thinking that he was destroying someone else's family.
But when I re-brushed recently, I began to realize that Francesca's derailment was not accidental, not because she met Robert, she cheated on her, but just happened to meet Robert, satisfying her derailment.
"The Family on the Hot Pot" says: "An affair is a way out of a marriage conspired by a husband and wife." So Francesca's infidelity was not only her responsibility, but also the responsibility of her husband Richard.
This is not to justify Francesca's infidelity, but to be well documented, and I will analyze it carefully according to the film.
Francesca and her husband Richard
"Family on a Hot Pot" says: "When we first get married, the average person tends to fantasize that the other half is the ideal model — parents, psychotherapists, partners, friends and partners, etc., a person who can meet all our desires and needs for marriage." ”
From Francesca's description, we learn that she came from a small town in Italy, while her husband, Richard, came from a small town in Iowa, USA. When they met and fell in love, she did not hesitate to follow Richard to his hometown.
Some netizens said that Francesca and Robert are true love, and their husband Richard is not true love. But I think that she and Richard are also true love, at least when they first met and met, they were truly in love, but this true love was slowly worn away by the bland married life.
From the fact that Francesca crossed the ocean and Richard returned to the small Town of America, we can infer that she was not a housewife who lived in peace, she had her own ambitions, her own dreams, and even wildness that she herself was unaware of.
It is also this undetected wildness that makes her fall in love when she meets the romantic wandering Robert, and the love is inseparable.
Because she didn't want to live in a familiar place, she was willing to follow Richard to that strange American town.
However, after going to his hometown of Iowa with Richard, settling down, getting married and having children, the strange place that was once strange slowly became familiar. Once one becomes familiar with a place, one no longer has any passion or curiosity about it.
So when Francesca and Robert talk about Iowa, although they describe a lot of advantages, they end up with a very sad sigh: "But this is not what I imagined as a teenager."
When she met Robert, her son was 17 and her daughter was 16, and according to the age of the children, she had lived in the land for at least 20 years, and her marriage to Richard lasted at least 20 years. But when Robert asked her how long she had been married, she pondered for a long time without saying the exact number, but only "for a long time."
Couples who have been together for 20 years have long been acquainted, and the sweet madness of the early days of marriage has long disappeared.
Francesca and Richard pretended to care for each other, but in fact they were numb inside, they suppressed their inner anger and grievances, in order to maintain the stability of the marriage, they refused to save the opportunity of marriage, preferring such a painful and tangled life.
Their life in the small town is monotonous and tedious, even with a certain degree of disappointment. But they also care about face and children, so they suppress each other's panic.
This panic is more pronounced for Francesca, who has left her hometown and married far away, and she obviously suppresses a lot of things in her heart: the need for emotions, the desire for freedom, the intense anger, the sexual desire, the painful loneliness, the multiple disappointments.
Francesca, who left her familiar hometown to marry, originally wanted to seek an unusual and more exciting life, but in the daily life, the once novel and exciting marriage has become a pool of stagnant water, without waves.
So Francesca's infidelity is inevitable, because she wants to look for what is missing or lost in marriage, such as romance, freedom, adventure. And all of this, Robert, a photographer who travels the world, can satisfy.
And Francesca is a very romantic woman in her bones, she loves to cook and listen to songs, she likes bright flowers, beautiful skirts.
But her husband, Richard, described it as "clean, upright, hardworking, considerate, gentle, and a good father." ”
She said that Richard was a good father, but did not say that he was a good husband, which shows that she is slightly dissatisfied with Richard and this marriage.
So when the free and romantic Robert appeared, Francesca, who had been lonely for a long time, fell in love with him instantly.
When an intimate relationship reaches a certain stage, it enters the period of death. Francesca and Richard's marriage was at the time of death. Two people in the period of death will hide their true selves, live in the character, and do what should be done. Just like Francesca will hide the freedom-loving romantic self, keeping to herself and being a qualified housewife.
But it is this sense of unreality that hides each other that will cause the two sides to distance themselves and no longer be intimate.
And it is easy for both partners who are no longer intimate to go to the outside world to find stimuli because they can't stand the dull death period, eager to relive the sweet madness of the beginning of love again, so the affair appears.
Francesca and Robert
When Francesca said, "I think I belong to the kind of person who is afraid of change," Robert immediately saw through her restless heart and retorted, "I don't think so." You go from Italy to Iowa is a big change. ”
But in marriage, Francesca hid these qualities until she met Robert, who had the same qualities, and slowly released them.
When she first met Robert, she showed great enthusiasm, and even willing to lead robert when the directions were not clear. Of course, this is not to say that she is frivolous, but that the place where she lives is too quiet, and the people who come and go are familiar, so when you meet an outsider, you will show great curiosity.
This curiosity also manifested itself in her first conversation with Robert in the car, where she kept asking about him but was reluctant to say much about Iowa.
When Robert gave her the little wildflower, she was surprised and delighted. So she showed a playful side, teased Robert, and this side was hardly seen in her marriage, even she herself said, she never teased others like this.
When Robert expressed her understanding that she "liked novelty but chose to settle in Iowa", she was completely moved and invited him to dinner.
The two men cooked and ate together, and Francesca's long-dormant heart slowly came to life.
Francesca seems to be a quiet and stable woman in the few clips of "The Dream of the Covered Bridge" with her family, but when she and Robert are together, they often laugh without manners.
As she listened to Robert describe her adventures taking pictures around the world, her eyes flashed, completely girlish. She presses robert's adventures urgently, as if to retrieve her lost self from the adventures of others.
Francesca used to be adventurous and romantic, but years of married life allowed her to hide her true self, and it wasn't until she met Robert that her hidden self began to be plucked out little by little.
During nearly a night of chatting, she discovered that Robert and she shared the same hobby, that they liked the same poet and that they liked to listen to the same singer's songs. Many similarities make them closer and closer, but reason restricts them from taking a step beyond the thunder pool.
But when love sprouts in the heart, reason is completely unstoppable.
In fact, Francesca's affair represents the freedom and romance she has longed for. Her nearly 20-year marriage to Richard rekindled the feeling of being imprisoned as a teenager, and she created this symbolic escape—falling in love with Robert.
The encounter with Robert awakened her long-sealed heart, and the love with Robert temporarily allowed her to temporarily escape from this bland and tedious marriage dilemma.
Her accusations against Robert just show the loosening of her heart, and her desire for freedom and romance is awakened again, so she asks Robert to dinner again, and this time even reason cannot stop the strong love between the two.
In order to prepare for the evening date with Robert, Francesca bought a new dress, put on earrings, and even put down her coiled hair. A series of behaviors are indicative of her eagerness to escape from a dull marriage and life.
So that night, she and Robert finally broke the boundaries of friends and truly fell in love.
In a letter to her children, she said: "He can read everyone, no matter how I feel, no matter what I want, he tries to do it." In that moment, the me I knew disappeared without a trace, and I was like becoming another woman, but this me was more like myself. ”
The romantic and free Robert awakens Francesca's sleeping soul and allows her to break through the shackles of a dull marriage and rejuvenate her.
She was more like herself when she was with Robert, and more like a qualified wife and mom in that marriage.
So, it's not so much that Francesca loves Robert as it is the reborn self.
And she herself realized that when Robert left, all the novelty and unknown would be gone. So she was afraid, accusing Robert of making a scene and playing with feelings, but in fact, it was just to hide her panic.
It seems that she would like to elope with Robert and find a new life, but subconsciously, she will not elope at all, and she knows that they will only repeat the same mistakes together.
No matter how deeply they love each other, the relationship between two people cannot always maintain a sweet high temperature, and as they get along for a long time, the temperature of two people will definitely drop until it cools down.
All the hot love will cool down, and Francesca knows this, so she won't choose to elope with Robert.
Of course, she also considered Richard and the children, and she didn't want to hurt them and let them endure the harm of gossip.
Someone asked, did Richard know about her infidelity? I think I know.
After parting in the rain, Robert drove away, Francesca cried in the car so much that she couldn't help herself, richard looked at her two or three times and finally couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you?" ”
Crying until she nearly collapsed, Francesca could barely speak, when Richard silently turned on the radio in the car, which was playing the weather forecast. ”
This detail is very interesting, let Francesca break the illusion, return to reality is the farm, their common home, and this shows that Richard and Francesca's marriage has long been lifeless, they are just playing the right role of marriage.
There must be "chai rice oil and salt" in marriage, but if there are only these worldly things, then marriage is not far from boring. This is the case with Richard and Francesca, who are keen to play the right parents in marriage, forgetting that they were also lovers.
However, on his deathbed, Richard said to Francesca: "I know you have your own dreams, I'm sorry I didn't make it happen, I love you." ”
It shows that after Francesca cheated on them, they actually walked out of the marriage death period, so they can go through life hand in hand.
Strictly speaking, Robert's arrival not only satisfied Francesca's desire to break the marriage dilemma, but also brought new hope to richard and Francesca's dull marriage to a certain extent.
Therefore, Francesca's derailment was not accidental, nor did she meet Robert to want to cheat. It's just that Robert just fulfilled her wish to break through the predicament and be reborn, even without Robert, perhaps Francesca would find another way out and break the predicament of marriage.