Except for the first time, the first shot in the movie, that familiar, helpless desperation always comes to my eyes right away, and it continues until the last shot of the movie. Sometimes I can't watch it any longer, and I stop watching halfway through it, and then continue watching it after a long delay. Because I am so familiar with this movie, every line, every scene, every note. Including the explosion at the end. I know how distressing the ending is.
The first time I watched "The Pianist at Sea", I was amazed by the setting of the whole movie, the gorgeousness of the early 1990s, the luxurious hall and crystal lamps, and the jazz music. Everyone in first class was radiant and dancing in gorgeous clothes. The poor man in the third class, sitting in a worn-out chair, waits hopefully for his destination. It seems that everyone is happy from the heart.
Including 1900, the kid who was abandoned in a lemon carton in first class. He grew up on the bottom of the Virginia, with the sound of boilers, the smell of kerosene, and a dad who loved to race horses. After Danny died, the whole ship became his huge playroom. Before he touched the piano, he always sat alone by the window at the bottom of the ship, watching the endless ocean alone. Blue, dark blue, if I keep looking at it like this, I don’t know if I will go crazy. When 1900 played for the first time, the entire ship's passengers were stunned, the quiet boy who played the piano late at night, was a genius. And genius is always alone.
1900 had friends. When 27-year-old 1900 met MAX for the first time, MAX was applying for a trumpeter on the boat. He played this impromptu jazz in high spirits, and 1900 watched with great interest on the boat. On a stormy night, with the MAX suffering from seasickness, 1900 showed up. The camera pulled to his legs in evening gowns, his tall figure and calm eyes, 1900 said, HEY, CONN. They had their best days, improvising in first class, disrupting the dances of the rich, and people pampered them for their talent, and 1900 was famous for it, even though he never existed. A pianist came to challenge, and the song "Flying of the Bumble Bee" shocked four people, and the pianist fled. Those were good times. 1900 also had love. When he didn't know whether to succumb to business, he saw the girl, his eyes fixed on her face, and his hands played the most beautiful love songs. He mustered up the courage to give the record to the girl, also because the girl wanted to get out of the cabin and set foot on the ground to look outside. And when he stood on the stairs with the suitcase, he gave up.
Is it out of fear?
HE WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD. BUT HE WAS NEVER BORN.
1900, who never stepped out of the Virginia, spent his entire life imagining in his giant playroom, imagining New Orleans in the fog, where people were drowning in white mist above their heads. Imagine the outside world, and use musical notes to describe his most magnificent imagination. His talent is his cage, his imagination inspires him, he can't get off the boat, the real world will destroy him.
Every time I watch "The Pianist at Sea", I wonder if there is even a slight possibility to change this ending. Every time I think about it, it hurts because the answer is no.
Genius is always painful because of loneliness, because of infinite imagination. They see a hummingbird, and thus can imagine the whole Serengea, they are sensitive and affectionate, which makes them more susceptible to pain. 1900 lived in the boiler room of the Virginia, where he had his childhood and his dead Danny. He likes to play for the poor in the third-class cabin, giving the poor a rare carnival, and people come and go, and when people arrive at their destination, he is the only one left in the cabin. All along, he was the only one. MAX also left, only he stayed.
When MAX returned to the Virginia with the record that he personally destroyed, squatted in the corner and played the song, 1900 walked out of the shadows leisurely and asked, where did you find this record, MAX. He was still in his dress, like he was playing the piano for MAX on a stormy night for the first time. Calm, elegant and childish.
The city is so big with no end in sight, I stop not because of what I see but because of what I don't see, but because of what I can't see. The continuous city has everything, but there is no end, I need to see the end of the world. On the shore, where to go? Loving a woman, living in a house, buying a piece of land, looking at a scene, and walking a dead end, I have too many choices and I am at a loss. Are you not afraid of mental breakdown after thinking about it for a long time? How was the day like that? I can't abandon this ship, I'd rather abandon my life.
Is it cowardice? No, he once had the courage to step onto the side of the ship, but gave up the opportunity to disembark.
It is because he is too naive and too pure. 1900 is extremely selfish but also extremely naive. He is only willing to live in the world he can control, and only in his imagination. When he was fighting the piano with the pianist, he shed tears because he was moved by the pianist's music, and because he liked it too much, he played the pianist's repertoire repeatedly, but it was considered an insult to the pianist. Playing the show-off "Flight of the Bumblebee" because he was provoked, was that the victory he wanted? Not really. His life was pure and free. He played and played the music he liked for the people he liked, but he was not truly appreciated and understood by people. After the song ended, he was alone, on his own boat. There was no way he could accept a new, land-based world. He had a world of extreme romance that was truly his own, his ship, his Virginia, his piano, his selfish boyishness. He would rather give up his life for this.
No, how can it be said to give up. Because the ship is about to be blown up, the only thing in his life that is connected to this world, the whole of his life, the basis of his imagination, is about to be destroyed. His existence is meaningless. After all, without his name on land, 1900 is just a number. He is a man who never existed.
There is no tragedy. The story was never tragic. It's just a sad story. His ending is unchangeable, even if it is death, there is no regret, because he has no other choice but to destroy with this ship. His death, his abandonment of the world, was inevitable and unchangeable.
Genius is always like this, and imagination brings fatal neuroticism to them. The end of genius is either death or disappearance. Because geniuses are lonely, their talents are often perfect and destructive. They are always extremely simple and have simple beliefs, so they are more sensitive and vulnerable.
TIM.ROTH. 1900's actor. Because I like 1900 too much, I haven't seen other roles played by TIM.ROTH in four or five years, because that face only belongs to 1900. A face with few expressions, but with the most fanatical and imaginative eyes in the world, nervous and melancholy. That's right, he's 1900. The pianist who perished with the Virginia.
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