In your elementary and middle school years, was there a pen pal who could say nothing? When you first learned English, did you ever fantasize about having a cross-oceanic pen pal who could communicate with each other through letters?
"Mary and Marx" tells the story of such a pair of transoceanic pen pals. The film won the Best Animated Feature Award at the 2009 Ang Sieu International Animation Film Festival in France, the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and the highest award at the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival.
Mary, an 8-year-old Australian girl, was ridiculed by her classmates for having a birthmark on her forehead and she had no friends at school. Her father was keen on making specimens of birds and had no time to take care of her family; her mother was an alcoholic and paid little attention to her children. Mary's birth was an accident for her parents. With no friends of the same age and little love from her family, Mary was lonely. One day, Mary wrote a letter to Marx in New York City, USA.
Marx was 44 years old, suffering from autism and at odds with the personalities around him. One of Marx's three great dreams in life was to have a real friend—he had only a fantasy virtual friend before Mary wrote to him. Marx's pen-pal relationship with Mary lasted from 1976 to 1994 (until Marx's death).
Mary and Marx both loved chocolate, so every time they sent a letter, they would attach a different chocolate to the letter. Two lonely people span two continents and across the 36-year-old age gap to establish a pure and long-lasting friendship.
Today I will start from the storyline of the film, combined with the spatial switching method of the story and the application of color in the film, to interpret the charm of this classic friendship movie for everyone. In the fourth part of the article, I will combine some plots in the movie to share how we should see the director's intentions through the details when we usually watch the movie.
Mary and Marx movie poster
Mary is from Australia and Marx is from the United States, and the film switches spaces through the passage of letters. The first half of the film focuses on the process of writing letters and simplifies the process of reading letters. That is, in the first half, the film unfolds from the perspective of the letter writer.
In the case of Mary, for example, when Mary first wrote to Marx, the film unfolded from Mary's point of view. Mary introduced her birthmark, her situation at school, her parents, neighbors, pets at home, and so on. When Marx replies, the camera focuses on Marx's life, promoting the development of the plot from Marx's point of view.
The film borrows letters as a carrier and unfolds in a self-narrated way, as if chatting with friends and telling stories. However, there is no timely answer in such a chat, but this does not hinder the development of the story.
In the film Mary and Marx, there is very little dialogue. So how does the plot of non-letter writing and letter reading unfold? The director used narration.
Once, Mary asked Marx in a letter about love, and Marx fell into anxiety and was hospitalized for 8 months. During these 8 months, Marx and Mary did not have any correspondence.
During this period, the film uses narration when showing the lives of the two. In the form of a narrator, he explains what the two have experienced and what they are thinking.
Mary was writing to Marx about sad things
The application of color in the film is mainly reflected in two aspects:
One is the switch between black and white and warm brown;
The second is to use red as a jumping color to implement it throughout.
Let's start with the first aspect. When the space switches to Mary, except for her mother's big red lips and Mary's warm hairpin, the other scenes are basically warm brown; while the scenes of Marx's life are basically black and white, and even the goldfish he raises are black and white.
We all know that color affects people's feelings: warm colors give people a warm, energetic feeling; cool colors give people a calm, serious feeling; and too dark colors can give people a depressing feeling.
The reason why the scene of Mary's life is gray-black is because her life, although lonely and depressed, is not desperate; while Marx's life is life without life and hope, so it is black.
In addition, the film uses red as a jumping color throughout.
The red pompom that Mary gave to Marx, marx often wore on his head; Mary's hair card was orange-red; the mood ring mary wore on her hand was red and shiny when Mary was in a good mood.
One notable detail is that in Marx's room, what Mary gave him was all colored—red pompoms, colorful self-portraits. It can be seen that Mary is a light in Marx's gray life. Mary's arrival, to some extent, healed looked at Marx.
This may also explain that Marx, in his last letter to Mary, said to Her: "You are my best friend, you are my only friend." ”
Marx's world is black and white, and Mary's world is warm brown
Confidant friends are our strong heart to face real life, any distress, difficulties can ask them for help, they will help us at any time. But sometimes the relationship between friends is fragile, especially when one party feels understood and betrayed, and the relationship becomes precarious.
Mary's papers on Asperger's syndrome, with Marx as a research case, were widely praised by publishing houses to publish Mary's unique academic insights.
But Marx read Mary's books, and his mood was very complicated, and he himself described: "I cannot express my feelings clearly, and I arrange the emotions I feel in the order of strength and weakness as follows—injury, confusion, betrayal, displeasure, pain, and difficulty breathing." Marx even pulled out the m button on the typewriter and sent it to Mary to indicate that he was going to break off relations with Mary.
In a fortuitous situation, Marx saw his heart clearly and began to forgive Mary, so he returned a long letter to Mary, which is also the last letter that Marx wrote to Mary in the film, which said:
I forgive you, because you are not perfect, you are flawed, I have, all mankind has. When I was younger, I wanted to be anyone but myself. Dr. Bernard Heizhoff said that if I was on an isolated island, then I had to adapt to living alone.
He said I had to accept myself, including my flaws and everything. We cannot choose our own shortcomings, they are a part of us, we can only accept. However, we were able to choose our own friends, and I am glad to have chosen you.
Marx's line "When I was young, I wanted to become anyone but myself." "It resonated with countless audiences. So, rather than forgiving Mary, Marx forgave himself—accepting the fact that he was mentally ill and embracing his shortcomings in some aspects of his life.
Marx was writing to Mary
I remember watching "Young You" in October, many netizens were counting the details of the film, and after watching the details of the netizen inventory, I felt that my movie was in vain. So I re-brushed it again, and when I watched it a second time, I would deliberately pay attention to the details of what netizens said. I have to admit that the details add a lot to the film, and it is even more touching after watching.
I've watched the movie "Mary and Marx" three times before and after, and there are some details that I can't forget.
(1) The behavior habits of the characters often hint at the character or fate
The two protagonists have three things in common: they have no friends, they love chocolate and cheese, and they love to watch the same cartoons
In life, a big reason why we can become close friends with others is that both sides have resonance, which is a kind of happiness of "drinking a thousand glasses of wine for a confidant".
In the film, Mary and Marx can cross the age and distance to become friends without saying anything, inseparable from their common points, they have no friends in real life, they love chocolate and cheese, and they love to watch "Noblite" cartoons.
These commonalities run through the film. First of all, it is precisely because there is a lack of friends in life and life is very lonely, there will be the beginning of the story - writing letters and making friends. Secondly, the two will attach chocolates to the letter every time they send a letter. In the end, both dream of assembling a set of "Noblite" cartoon dolls. After Marx forgave Mary, he sent mary all the "Noblite" cartoon dolls to show that he forgave Mary.
(2) Pay attention to some of the text symbols that appear repeatedly in the movie, reflecting the director's ingenuity
When Mary first wrote to Marx, she was 8 years old and did not use a typewriter; Marx was 44 when she first wrote back to Mary, using a typewriter. The movie poster is printed with "mary & max", where "mary" is handwritten and "max" is the font of the typewriter.
In addition, because Marx pulled out the m button on the typewriter in a moment of rage, the only place where Mary's name appeared in his later letters to Mary was "ary". This is enough to see how finely the director handles the details.
Some similar text symbols were widely used in other films. If you look closely at the next movie, you will definitely be able to find the director's intentions and improve the viewing experience.
"mary" without "m"
(3) Pay attention to some special symbols that often appear in movies, which often have symbolic meaning
Mary had a birthmark on her forehead as a child, and her children had the same birthmark on their foreheads.
Mary was ridiculed by her classmates for her birthmark when she was a child, and Marx taught her a way to deal with her classmates: tell her classmates that the birthmark on her forehead is made of chocolate, and when she dies in heaven, she will take charge of all the chocolates, and those who laugh at her will not be able to eat a piece of chocolate in the future.
I suppose that if Mary's children had grown up to be ridiculed for their birthmarks, Mary would have taught her the methods marx had taught her.
When Mary sent the letter, she attached chocolates to Marx
The storyline of this movie is actually very simple and old-fashioned, but the director is very good at controlling the details. The details reflected in the film are poignant.
The emotions expressed in the film are also rich, revolving around friendship, telling how a close friend heals two lonely souls; but it is not limited to friendship, which also includes tolerance and acceptance of the self.