The 81-year-old Woody Allen launched his 46th feature film "Coffee Commune" this year, costing nearly US$30 million, the most in his career as a director. Jesse Eisenberg, who has always been called the successor of Woody Allen, plays the actor Bobby, a Jewish young man who went to Hollywood to change his life, but escaped back to New York alone because of the failure of love.
Yesterday, the news of Julie and Pete's divorce suddenly came out, and passers-by were shocked. Love is the most expensive consumable in Hollywood.
In "Coffee Commune", Bobby met a couple, Steve and Rad, who became friends and helped each other. On New Year's Eve, Bobby said that you are the happiest couple I have ever met. What's the secret?
Woody Allen never sells cheap chicken soup. The characters in his lens replied: We have common hobbies, we like the same movies, we all like children, other people's children. A happy love or marriage is probably like this: you yourself are a good person, and you have found someone similar to yourself.
It is difficult to love someone who is not related by blood, and it is easy to love yourself. The most perfect lover may be the "other self." Who does Bobby love?
He broke into Hollywood, where he was drunk, and called prostitutes to get rid of his loneliness. As a result, he took off his pants, but he used the money to drive people away.
The usual Woody-style irony and humor, of course, is also restricted by the "happiness rule".
The girl who went to the wrong door and arrived late is simply a "female Bobby": Jewish, new to Hollywood, dressed in flamboyant clothes, and have no career to turn to prostitutes, or pick up guests for the first time. Bobby: Jew, new to Hollywood, dressed in rotten clothes, no career, planning to hire prostitutes while worrying, this is the first operation. Generally, such female characters appear in movies. As they have not yet fallen into the dust, they will be rescued 100% by the male protagonist, and even hope to be promoted to the female protagonist to start a lingering love. Unfortunately, there is also a loser standing opposite the mirror. The young Bobby still has a bit of fighting spirit and will never recognize the "low-profile version of himself". When he sent the girl out the door, a corridor appeared in the camera. He crossed this path to success. Under the arrangement of his uncle, he met the secretary, Vannie, and fell in love at first sight.
Vannie is not greedy for wealth, but has her own ambition, which is also Bobby's state of mind.
He left his parents' jewelry repair shop and came to Hollywood to take control of his life.
The two young people became "selves fighting side by side" in a foreign country. Although one was out of love and the other out of friendship, they were incomparably compatible.
But when faced with a choice, Varney chose Phil without hesitation.
Because the middle-aged man still maintains vitality and fighting spirit, Bobby asks Vannie to go back to New York with him and live in the village of the poet and painter.
This request is partly because Bobby himself hates Hollywood Vanity Fair, and the other part is because he feels that Vannie is the same. But Bobby didn't realize that at this time, he was the "low version of himself" for Vannie, and Vannie became the embarrassed prostitute who took off his pants but drove people away.
So Bobby broke up in love and returned to New York alone. In the "Tropical Rainforest", Bobby met his later wife, Veronica.
They are very similar, they have all been betrayed, and it is their love and the people they trust who abandon them.
Veronica is enthusiastic and happy. When listening to jazz with Bobby, she talked about smoking marijuana with her musician boyfriend. She was a totally innocent girl.
And Veronica has similar pronunciation with Vannie's name.
She is the current me (abandoned), she is the original me (naive, happy), she is the other me (Veronica = Vannie), she is the "poor self". When we first met, Bobby, with his head full of hairspray, turned Veronica onto the bed.
A year and a half later, Bobby and Vannie reunited in the "Tropical Rainforest", and Vannie talked about Hollywood stars and cheap fun things like the name of a dish.
Coincidentally, Bobby has also become an old fritters who have to play and talk and laugh. Bobby accused Vannie: “If you don’t feel sad when you talk about those cheap lives, it’s ridiculous.” Of course, Vannie felt sad. The man she married and the class she was in forced her to become a star who only talks about stars. Lady of money, house, yacht. When she didn't have these lives, she thought she chose the "high-end version of herself", but after all the dust settled, she knew that it was her "most hated self".
Bobby was equally sad when he accused Vannie. He put on the cream, tie, and shoes, and entered the nightclub to entertain the political celebrities, movie superstars, and business elites, always smiling, always just right. At first he couldn't bear even his parents' quarrels, but now he can hear and witness the endless secrets and chats and laughs in the club every night.
Bobby has also become "the most hated self." Once again, their same state of mind and situation made each other a "sympathetic selves", as if a soul was divided into two halves and injected into different bodies. And Bobby's wife Veronica is no longer keen on socializing and drinking parties, she has turned from an innocent and happy girl to a gentle and sensitive mother. Uncle Phil is still chasing fame and fortune in a staggered way, without the slightest sense of disgust. At the end of the movie, the New Year's bell rang, and Bobby and Vannie were separated from the entire American continent, and their faces faintly overlapped, as if they could not be recognized by their souls.
(This article was first published on the Barcelona Film APP/The Barcelona Film WeChat public account MovieBase, please seek permission from Barcelona Film for reprinting.)
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