"Women of the Twentieth Century": Indescribable Women

Kylee 2022-01-07 15:53:32

(Written by Zhi Ning on April 6, 2017)
In addition to the director's identity, Mike Mills' important identity is a famous New York artist. Most artists are good at starting from their own experiences and surrounding feelings, looking for sparks of inspiration to complete their creations. This can be seen in Mills’s previous work, the film "Beginner", which explores the mental changes in the relationship between father and son due to the qualitative change in lifestyle. This time, "20th Century Women" is also Mills’ life Experience-based creation, and his ability to illuminate characters seems to be improving, and he has a more personal style.
It can be said that this is a film with a loose rhythm but gradually becoming a taste. It is both light and deep. The three 20th century women in the film have their own prototypes. They are Mills' mother, sister and friend. Probably because it can be picked from reality and memories, the interaction between the three women and the male protagonist in the film is particularly true and interesting. It is both daily and very, with a little bit of sadness. Like the century that is gone forever.
The film is very literary and artistic, as if it has imaged fragments of certain eras in the last century, and it is also very meaningful. Some people interpret its theme as the growth of a boy. They want to put the cart before the horse. Although the film is cut from the perspective of a boy, it also has a mother. The intention is to use the assistance of two other female friends to raise the story of a boy during adolescence, but the inner essence is the interaction and intersection between the boy and three 20th-century women, and to reproduce the three births. Women’s life experiences, attitudes and choices in the 1920s, 1950s, and 1960s.
Andersen said: “It’s not enough to just be alive. You also need sunlight, freedom, and the fragrance of flowers.” The fragrance of sunlight, freedom, and flowers is just like the pursuit of these three women. They are tough inside, trying and enduring life. In an era full of variables, trying to find a way of life that suits you, this kind of physical and mental exploration and self-examination is quite fascinating, and men have become bystanders and assistants here. Of course, boys need to grow up freely. They draw nourishment here.
An accident with 15-year-old son Jamie made Dorothea, a late-bearing single mother who had only given birth at 40, became more aware of the limitations of her time and the scope of her ability. Her entrustment seemed solemn, and she chose The candidates are also very interesting-the literary and artistic temperament female guest Abby and Jamie's favorite girl Julie. Dickens said: "Women are great observers." The mother made this decision, in fact, it is justified. She needs two young people who are more in line with the times to guide Jamie in all aspects of mental development and emotional life.
The 24-year-old Abby can influence Jamie in music appreciation and reading, especially when Jamie is exposed to large books about the interpretation of women, it makes Jamie more cognitive than other half-children of the same age. A lot of relief; 17-year-old Julie has a mother who is a psychologist, and she is drawn into various inexplicable psychological counseling and communication circles. This girl has a mature and sorrow beyond her actual age, and she has a rich body. Experience, but only want to seek spiritual communication with Jamie who likes her. Every time she talks with Jamie, it seems that her emotional experience plays a subtle role.
The lives of the three women are all imprinted by the times, and they have also experienced the haze of life, although it is not like what Roman Roland said: "The hurricane of society runs, and overthrows the wall with the pace of attack... awakens the spirits in people's hearts ", but they also awakened certain parts of their hearts, groping and trying to confirm that they were operating with that era in a way that was normal and commensurate with their own age and perception, watching them go through life. It's inevitable that the more refined the taste, the richer the taste.
The three women in the film are vividly portrayed by Annette Bening, who plays her mother Dorothea. Her acting skills are still good, her performance is appropriate and eye-catching, and her mother is in the collision with her son, emotions, friends, and the times. The state of mind and feelings produced should be handled appropriately. Greta Gerweig plays a young literary and artistic young woman who wants to change after experiencing misfortune, but the direction of change is not as expected. Recently, Elle Fanning, who can be called a model worker, plays the role of a girl in that era who had some thoughts but was confused, and seemed to be able to control everything but always passively endure it.
The lens of the film is very charming, as if it contains rich imagination and keen sense. However, such a film that requires careful taste has been criticized by many people as having little actual progress. This is probably because of the film Evaluations caused by different needs. In fact, although the plot of the film has no ups and downs, it has many nuanced and detailed fragments, which are enough to make the audience see how the life of the character is affected by the people closest to him.
In the eyes of other people, the most important thing in a film is to shape the characters. In this regard, the film has done it. It focuses on the construction of characters. Even if the characters are not representative, they are three-dimensional and full. The film presents the communication between the characters quite interesting. These three 20th-century women, ordinary and ordinary, in their own time, are doing the search and attempt to release the soul, which is worthy of the audience's expectations. When Jamie in the film had a child of his own, he thought it was difficult to describe the child's deceased grandmother to the child. It was difficult for him to describe a woman in the 20th century. He couldn't help feeling sighed when he saw this.
(Magazine manuscript)

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Extended Reading
  • Christa 2022-04-22 07:01:42

    Time, life, youth, friendship, family... relatively loose, but very flavorful

  • Oma 2022-03-24 09:02:49

    It is up to the female audience to comment on the personal experience of women's survival experience. Benin, as always, is shining brightly, burning children, the negative effect of marrying Hollywood's No. 1 Ximen Qing is that we will not vote for you if we approve the vote.

20th Century Women quotes

  • [William and Abbie come to pay Dorothea's bail]

    Dorothea: These people have no sense of humor.

  • Dorothea: Julie is... pretty complicated woman. It's a lot to take on. And I'm impressed in a way.

    Jamie: Whatever.