Douban's 9.3 point "The Pianist at Sea" is undoubtedly a classic in the history of cinema, the film tells the story of the legendary 1900 genius pianist born on the cruise ship Virginia, as one of Tornadore's most famous masterpieces "Time Trilogy", "The Pianist at sea" has won great attention and endless discussion since its inception, some people say that "in 1998, two movies were born because of the giant ship, Titanic and "The Pianist of the Sea" The former has touched countless men and women with its vigorous and lingering love story, while the latter makes people return to the simplicity and purity of the heart in the jungle of desire."
The other work we want to mention today, "The Age of Sails", which is also closely related to ships, tells the story of an old sailing captain abandoned by the times from self-exile to redemption, although it is only twelve minutes, it won the nomination for the 2019 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. There are many similarities between this work and "The Pianist at Sea", and I will analyze and discuss it with you below.
First of all, the protagonists of both works are legends in their respective fields.
In "The Pianist of the Sea", 1900, who was abandoned on the Cruise Ship Virginia at birth, grew up with the boilermakers at the bottom of the cruise ship, and it is conceivable that no one deliberately cultivated his artistic talent, and the 1900 pair of pianos can be said to be a natural talent for music.
From the moment he touched the piano, his posture sitting on the piano was so natural and leisurely, his hands like butterflies would naturally dance and rhythm, and all the music would naturally pour out like a gushing stream, and what was even more amazing was that it was like a good teacher teaching according to his aptitude, and the good worker adapted to local conditions.
The music of 1900 can always be matched and switched with the environment most naturally, so his music is all-encompassing, rich in form, and there is nothing strange, he can play the so-called "Yangchun White Snow" with the band on the ship in the first class with the band on the ship, or in the third class, with the ordinary people at the bottom of society, play the cheerful grounded jazz, he can play the music with infinite strength and passion at an incredible rate when fighting with the founder of jazz. So that the hot strings light a cigarette, and you can suddenly make the keys in your hand glow with such fresh and gentle chords when you see the innocent girl outside the window on the record.
As Max, a friend of the 1900s, said, such records should be copied in thousands, and once 1900 gets off the ship, everything he wants will be there, I think, this is a microcosm of everyone's inner evaluation of 1900, he, 1900 is such a genius.
"The Age of Sails" although relatively short, but only a few words, we can also easily glimpse the whole leopard, the protagonist old captain is the real hero of the sailing era, for others deep and terrifying sea, in his opinion, as familiar as home and ordinary, although it will also encounter sudden dangers, but he can always turn the danger into a disaster, he is familiar with the habits of the sea, such as the direction of the wind and waves, the sea has been drifting for decades, seen too many tides and ebb and flow, he is the best pilot, safely piloted thousands of ships, If the musical talent of the 1900s was given by God, then the heroism of the old captain was bought by decades of birth and death at sea, and he is a well-deserved sailing hero.
Loneliness is the common theme of these two works, which may be two different forms of loneliness, but they both make people feel empathy. In a sense, they do not seem to be alone, in 1900 on the bustling Virginia cruise ship, in addition to the friends who lived and grew up with him on the ship, there are a number of new faces, although his world his life is bounded by ships, but through these various passengers, can extend to infinity, whenever the music sounds, he is the center of the world, his hands and his expression is the focus of the world's attention, perhaps the most important thing on the ship is the grand concert and casual carnival, Everything is so noisy and lively, the same way, the old captain was once the leader of the great navigation era, he also led his crew to chop the waves, and those crew sailors must also be drinking and bragging, familiar with the extreme, at this time he is naturally not lonely.
But in fact, their loneliness is not the seeming unaccompanied loneliness, but actually a deep spiritual loneliness
Some people say: True loneliness does not have to go to the mountains to find, when life is boiling, it is real loneliness. Their loneliness is actually more when what the individual insists on conflicts with the changes of the times, and the huge contradictions generated in the heart cannot be told, resulting in loneliness. So in 1900, perhaps I did not exist for the land, so I chose not to ship for the rest of my life, and the old captain chose to self-exile and declare war on this era with the last stubbornness.
Fate is always not static, such as the waves of the flat earth, and the changes in the two people are inextricably linked to the little girl. 1900 Irrepressibly in love with the girl who walked by the porthole, as pure as a camellia flower after a rain, who had never been with the opposite sex, clumsily and fiercely pursued his love, and even when he wanted to give the little girl the mother piece without success, decided to make the biggest change in his life: disembarked, he was ready for everything, but he was deterred from looking down the gangway connecting the ship and the land, but despite this, he had prepared enough to finally heed the call of the heart.
The old captain saved the little girl who fell into the water by coincidence, the little girl's laughter, the love and desire for life seemed to inject a little spring into his soul like a dead wood, although he was stubborn in his mouth, he could not pull down his face, he could not put down his body, but what he did was actually willing to give up his plan of self-exile in order to save the little girl, and chose to reconnect with the world.
Dickens wrote at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities: "This is the best of times and the worst of times." A grain of dust of the times that falls on a person's head is a mountain. Yes, in the face of the rolling torrent of the times, whether it is personal perseverance or struggle, it seems so pale and weak or even insignificant, but is this meaningless? It is not that what matters is never the result, but the bright background of life displayed in the process.
A simple comparison shows that the backgrounds of the two works are strikingly similar.
The Virginia cruise ship born in 1900 is sailing from Europe to the Americas, in fact, it is from the old world center to the new world center, the old era has an end and a boundary, it is known, the new era is the city, desire, paper drunk gold fans, 1900, is the most clear dividing line between these two eras. In 1900, he was afraid of life without borders. He said, "The city is so big, I can't see the end, I can't see the end of the city, I need to see the end of the world" The old world and the new world are irrepressibly opposed and conflicted, and 1900 always has a firm adherence to the pure heart, even if it is finally crushed to pieces and martyred.
The old captain was a tidal waver of the sailing age, but he was also an outcast of the steam age. In the face of these steel giants, he felt a kind of strangeness and fear that he had never felt before, so he chose self-exile, and he stubbornly held on to his sailboat, as if grasping for his once glorious times. His image can always easily remind people of the old man in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", he is a real fighter.
As the "Melting Pot" says: We fight all the way, not to change the world, but to prevent the world from changing us.
Zhou Guoping said: Time is like a rushing river, wrapping us and constantly moving forward. Under the rolling torrent of the times, every individual seems so insignificant, whether it is 1900 in "The Pianist at Sea" or the old captain in "The Age of Sails", they are all fighters of fate.
Finally, I would like to conclude with the ending song of "The Age of Sails".
"Farewell, my dear father, and my dear mother. I was about to go on a trip to this country, and when I got tired of walking, I sat down and cried. Thinking of my beautiful Salo, tears moistened her eyes. "
"It's an old song, right?"
"I just love old songs"
"Me too"
I think that whether it is the confrontation in the 1900s or the final compromise and reconciliation of the old captain, they have paid the highest respect to that era that has passed.