Never expect, rarely resist, sometimes cry, always silent.
At the 70th Berlin Film Festival awards ceremony some time ago, female director Eliza Hitman's "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always" won the Silver Bear Award at the Grand Jury Prize.
Skylar, played by 17-year-old beauty Talia Ryder, was even more stunning in Berlin.
The film "never rarely sometimes always" is the highest-rated film in this year's Berlin Film Festival.
It tells the story of a 17-year-old girl in rural Pennsylvania, USA.
Strong personality, rebellious, short-tempered.
In the face of her stepfather's hypocritical praise, she would relentlessly say a sentence -
"Eat shit!"
Offended by others, she didn't say a word—
A glass of water is poured directly on the face.
Even if it is a kind greeting from her cousin, she is also a sentence -
"Get out of the way!"
Such a strange girl has encountered a critical moment in her life.
She was pregnant.
When autumn realizes that she may be pregnant,
She went to a gynecological clinic in a small town in Pennsylvania, where she was home, to get a doctor to test her pregnancy.
When handing her the pregnancy test stick, the doctor said, "If you detect a bar (not pregnant), you may come back in a few weeks, because the results may not be accurate, and you may still be suspicious inside." ”
Finally, when Autumn took out the pregnancy test stick and saw the two bars that were very clear on it, she did not want to accept this reality.
Turning his head and asking the doctor next to him, "Is it possible that there is also an error in the result of 'pregnancy', in fact, there is no pregnancy?" "
Doctors may have seen many such young girls who were unexpectedly pregnant,
Listening to her question, she said very calmly: "There is no possibility, pregnancy is pregnancy, and this result is accurate."
Autumn went home with the results and began to think about what to do.
Before thinking about the specific measures, she took a thick paper clip from the kitchen and broke it out.
After being burned on the fire, he went to the bathroom and poked a hole in his nose in the mirror, which was a rare and intense act of autumn in the film.
More often, she is like a shadow, not being seen or actively making sounds.
The next day, she had a small nose spike on her nose.
Although he hadn't told anyone yet, Ao Qiu was already ready to have an abortion in his heart.
But the thing is,
Different states in the United States have completely different laws on abortion.
Among them, the requirements of her state of Pennsylvania are:
"Minors must be accompanied by a parent to have an abortion"
But she can never tell her parents, what to do?
She first went online to search for ways to "have abortion at home."
She swallowed a bottle of vitamin C, then went to the bathroom, clenched her fists, and kept pounding her already slightly bulging abdomen.
When pounding, the eyes are full of hatred.
Desperate, she had to confide in her cousin Skyley, who worked with her.
Two girls.
A big box.
So I sneaked onto the bus to New York.
Because New York is one of the most permissive areas in the united states for abortion laws.
Finally, in the autumn, with the help of cousin Skylar, the two stole some money from the supermarket where they worked and took a bus to New York.
After several trips, she found an abortion hospital in Manhattan.
For the two underage girls, the biggest problem with this journey is that there is not enough money.
Minus transportation costs, surgery costs, the rest of the money is just enough for them to go back and forth for a day.
But plans are always broken by accident.
First, the temporary transfer takes an extra day;
Then the uterus expansion surgery will take another two days.
Three days and two nights.
They had no money to stay in hotels, so they wandered the streets at night.
Take a break on the subway, spend time in the games hall, and catch up on a common chair.
Dragging heavy suitcases up and down the stairs constantly.
After Autumn and Skylar arrive in New York in the film, the brilliant light signs and rivers of vehicles in the camera are just flashing symbols of the city.
They spend most of their time in pale clinics, empty subways, cheap games halls and deserted waiting rooms.
A large number of night scenes make the New York in the film lose its vigorous vitality,
Or rather, in the face of the bleak fate of the two girls, New York also acted powerless.
On the final road to the hospital, Ao Qiu found that the street was full of anti-abortion marchers.
She and her cousin hurried to the hospital, trying not to look at the signs and pictures that demonized abortion.
The harsh environment of growing up makes them form a kind of vigilance against men,
This vigilance also allows them to naturally stand on the same line of defense and form a community of destiny.
This sense of identity created by this shared fate also allows the film to deal with the interaction between autumn and skylar.
The focus is not on the intimate sisterhood of the two, but more on the tacit understanding and support of the two to overcome the difficulties.
In fact, in the whole movie, Ao Qiu's "boyfriend", or sexual partner, this role is completely absent.
This is the director's deliberate arrangement, because the state and response of the autumn have portrayed the image of a scumbag.
From beginning to end, director Hitman portrays the ubiquitous male attention.
Whether it is a lewd masturbation man on the subway, or a supermarket customer who likes to verbally offend,
Even the seemingly innocuous male college student who tries to hook up with Skylar on the bus, the uninvited fear of them hangs over the entire film.
And this is the most unique point of "Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always".
Director Hittman tells a story, but she's also quietly engaged in a heated debate about women's sovereignty.
Autumn wants to miscarry and control her own life and body.
But the world has never been easy — clinics, money, bus tickets, and the courage and ability to get from one state to another and then face the behemoth of New York City.
It was Autumn's own body, and it was also a decision that only belonged to her that did not allow anyone else to participate.
Therefore, after she knew that she was pregnant, she would pierce her body in a primitive and violent way and put on the nose nails.
It is an act of self-destruction and self-love at the same time, autumn urgently declaring independence, declaring sole control of its own body.
Before the abortion, there is a doctor responsible for communicating with Autumn first: "Before you officially start the abortion operation, there are several questions that need to be answered, and some questions may be very private and make you feel uncomfortable...
You just need to select "Never, Occasionally, Sometimes, Always" in the following options.
I need to make sure you're safe. The first question, did you make the decision to have an abortion because of anyone's threat of oppression? “
"No". This is the only question that Autumn responds to immediately.
The doctor went on to ask, "In the past year, has your sexual partner made it mandatory to have sex with you when he is reluctant?" Never, occasionally, sometimes, always. ”
Autumn, who had been silent and expressionless, heard this question, and her emotions began to stir, and she wanted to open her mouth, but her throat seemed to be choked by something, and her face was flushed, but she could not make a sound.
The doctor asked, "Has your sexual partner ever inflicted violence on you?" Never, occasionally, sometimes, always. ”
The doctor changed the question: "In the past year of sex, has your sexual partner ever forced you not to wear a condom?" Never, occasionally, sometimes, always. ”
"Occasionally". Autumn is difficult to squeeze out the word. Her expression, the fear and panic in her eyes, and finally the uncontrollable tears, said it all.
During the doctor's questioning, Ao Qiu allowed herself to cry for the first time.
This is the film's most successful long shot, and it also points out the true meaning of the film's strange name.
During this three-minute long questioning, Autumn was always alone.
The camera zooms in close to her face, which is written tired but struggling to stay calm,
In this cramped screen space, the unmelted ice and snow on the streets of her hometown and the neon of New York have faded, and autumn has no cousin who provides emotional support along the way, and even no counter-camera to the gentle and firm social worker on the other side.
Yes, it's just autumn sitting there in his signature yellow sweatshirt, tracing back to the inescapable pain under the guidance of the question.
The whole story is presented to the audience almost in white, and it does not trigger any emotional touch.
In the movie, the dialogue and physical contact between Autumn and Skylar are also rare, and the silent companionship replaces warm words and deeds.
For example, when Skylar stole money to prepare for autumn's surgery, Autumn only tacitly accepted.
Throughout the film, Autumn and Skylar don't even have a hug scene, but the connection between them, which is built on the sense of female community, is a more powerful and stable force.
When Skylar sells his hue to raise money for the road, kissing a strange boy at the side of a pillar,
Autumn stood behind the pillar holding Skylar's hand, and the camera silently stayed on the close-up of the two men's hooked fingers,
At this time, silence is better than sound, which has become the most moving moment in the whole film.
For a while, we didn't seem to be able to accept this approach because it was so perverse.
But soon, we know what the director's intentions are.
Only in this way can the viewer (especially the male audience) truly be in the "existence" position of women: the way and state in which they exist in the world.
While empathy was not possible, at least they learned how abortion was for women and how harmful it could be.