absent person

Haylie 2022-10-03 20:03:01

In my mind, it's rare for a movie to not tell a story, or focus on it. Movies don't tell stories, so what? Reasonable. Expounding a truth or a few truths with a movie is the real way to convey the truth. Any art is abstract, the carrier can be a pile of steel bars, a few bricks, bright colors, words, language, music... A house is obviously a pile of concrete steel bars, but we say that it is a house, and this is art.

It doesn't mean that works that specialize in stories are inferior. It's just that we should see things outside the story more and listen to the overtones. Some movies, you are shocked after watching, and this shock is an extension of the story. Life is a story every day, and there are raw materials for stories everywhere, but you can't take them out without processing them. The most basic processing is to choose, what to say or not to say, it has already shown the author's attitude. The same is food, some people make rice, some people make wine, both elegant and popular, all good.

Said so much, because I watched a movie that did not focus on the story, "The Absentee". Of course, the movie still has a story, and it's wonderful. But this brilliance pales in comparison to what the author wants to express.

The absent people told a simple story: a man killed A, but everyone thought he didn't kill A, and he obviously didn't kill B, but he betrayed the death penalty for murdering B. From the beginning to the end, the society's judgment on him is a subjective judgment of the society. If the guilt is not guilty, the protagonist says it is not counted, as if he is an outsider. Yes, outsiders. An outsider like Camus. The stories of the two are similar, the reasoning is similar, and even the indifferent attitude of the protagonist is the same. Therefore, "The Absentee" belongs to the modernist art. If you have to divide factions.

In the same way, the performance of the film also uses the performance of Kafka. Some places are exaggerated, surreal, weird. The whole movie is a bit like Kafka's "The Trial". Even more rare is that the protagonist of the movie is a hairdresser. I have always wondered, what is there to express in such a mundane profession? But it's fun to watch. Because it is too real, it will make people happy. The truth itself is absurd.

Another highlight of the film is that it explains the uncertainty principle. I used to think about this principle often, and imagine that there is an all-powerful eye, which transcends the world and records everything. One day, I stumbled across the image of my life recorded by this eye, and was shocked. This world only appears when I observe it. The mountains, rivers, the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all living beings. When I close my eyes, it turns into nothingness. When I turned around, everything was still there, but when I turned around, there was nothingness behind me. I still remember the scene when I was standing in the bustling and bustling square when I conceived this kind of picture. It was a very strange feeling. It was obviously metaphysics, but it came from science. At that time—probably the fall of the previous year—I wanted to write an article, and I thought of a name, it was called Eyes, but then I lost it and was too lazy.

It reminds me of another movie, "Serious Men", which tells the scientific hypothesis of Schrödinger's cat. Is a cat in a sealed box alive or dead when people are not observing it? This all involves the influence of subjective observation on the objective world.

At that time, I lived in a mixed place. One evening, I took a book of quantum mechanics and told everyone about this amazing cat. Then I threw a series of bizarre questions, and the response was a series of laments. "It's over, it's over, crazy, crazy," everyone said. Then I ignored everyone and continued to deduce the evolution of the world.
I am such a person who is completely immersed in his own world.

Therefore, when I see works of art that fit my spirit, I will be very pleasantly surprised, like meeting a confidant. It's just that these confidants are too far away from me. What does it mean to have friends from afar? This is to have friends from afar.

far away. After going around for a long time, I still have to say that the absentee and the serious man director are the same, all the Coen brothers. I also wish it was directed by someone else, but no. It is rare in the world, and even harder to find in China.

After all this time, I can still recall some lines from the movie. For example, the protagonist said to the shop owner, if you see so much hair, it just keeps growing. Just this sentence reminds me of thinking about teeth, nails, and hair. In the end, the protagonist said: It is said that after a person dies, the hair will continue to grow, and then it will stop growing when it grows. When will it know that the soul it is attached to is long gone?

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Extended Reading

The Man Who Wasn't There quotes

  • Frank: Did you pump it? You can't pump it. That'll just flood it.

    Customer: Ya gotta pump it. Ya can't just hold it down. *That'll* flood it.

    Frank: You crazy? You pumped it?

    Customer: Well, ya can't hold it down.

    Frank: Just turn the key.

    Customer: Not when it's cold.

    Frank: Well, if it's cold, choke it.

    Customer: And pump it.

  • [after telling Crane his wife has been arrested]

    Officer Persky: Crap detail...