If you can’t love reality, let it drown in fantasy

Arden 2022-01-14 08:02:11

If the 2009 Canadian young director Dolan’s film debut "I Killed My Mom" ​​is about the impossible love between mother and child, then Dolan's "Fantasy Love", which is the first time a year later, is about The impossible love between a good friend and a man.

The friendship between Marie and Francis is not equal. Regardless of whether Nicolas appears by their side or not, one day they will also encounter a crisis of friendship. In the process of competing for Nicolas' love, we can see their unequal status in friendship.

Marie

Marie is smart and capable, gentle and demure, with a strong heart beneath her appearance, she is the dominant one in friendship, and she is passionately eager to get what she likes. In order to get Nicolas's favor, she will mobilize all her energy to please him, dress up carefully, comb the hairstyle of Nicolas idol Hepburn, and go to the appointment in full dress, but at the same time, she did not blindly please Nicolas. After watching a performance with Nicolas, she did not Criticize bad performances mercilessly.

At the same time, she was good at using her female identity to show her weak side, and forced him to compromise with her years of deep friendship with Francis, so that Francis lied that she could not spare time to watch the show with them, and gave Marie and her a chance. Nicolas gets along alone.

There is a scene in the movie. Marie’s boyfriend said that her eyes are very beautiful. She said lightly that her eyes are brown, which is very ordinary, but I heard that people with brown eyes have very high IQs. This detail shows that she is very competitive. Strong, would not easily give up what she wanted. Although she could not have the upper hand in the tug-of-war with Francis for Nicolas' love, she would never compromise. It also paved the way for a crack in their friendship and a crisis in the future.

However, no one is always strong, and no one can compromise, and Marie is no exception. Later, changing her strength and arrogance, she took the initiative to write a confession to Nicolas, spoke incoherently, and asked Nicolas carefully. However, in this love triangle game, Nicolas dominated from the beginning. For Nicolas, she was just a pawn. When the game situation slowly got out of control and became no longer interesting, she was ruthlessly rejected by the dominant Nicolas. It is also inevitable, after all, she is not the only one of Nicolas.

He once said: "I like to smoke, smoking is like...in forgetting. When the mood falls to the bottom, cigarettes are the only consolation. Light it, smoke it, shut up. It can drive away the troubles." If you say, After being rejected by Nicolas, she took out her cigarette in pain, and wanted to forget Nicolas by smoking. For a long time, she was immersed in sorrow. Then she took the initiative to call Francis out to chat and we could see that she was facing reality. Choose to forget Nicolas and save the friendship with Francis. Even though she sees Nicolas as a soul mate, life has to go on. This is the strong and assertive Marie.

Francis

and Marie are different in strength. Francis is a bit shy, sensitive, and neurotic, and is in a passive position in his friendship with Marie. He is kind, fragile and easy to compromise, so it can be said that he belongs to Marie.

Different from Marie’s ardent pursuit of Nicolas early on, although he obviously had a good impression of Nicolas at the beginning, he didn’t take the initiative to pursue it. He just saw Marie dressing up to attend their three ordinary meetings, and later on. Slowly fell in love with Nicolas in his seemingly teasing and goodwill, and then began to join the competition for Nicolas.

After joining this competition, Francis's efforts to this end also reflect his character. Marie is very busy and does not procrastinate, so her love and pursuit of Nicolas is also very direct and obvious. She wears vintage clothes and combs Hepburn's hair; while Francis is careful, he went to buy Hepburn posters for Nicolas, and came back to meet him. When he was Nicolas, he was shy and nervously giving him posters and then stayed in place to bite his nails, lest the posters he sent were not what he wanted.

His restraint is also reflected in the fact that he puts Nicolas' clothes on his head and masturbates while feeling the smell of Nicolas. Francis in this scene is extremely pitiful, pitiful in the final fall of a unrequited lover. When meeting with companions is no longer enough to fill the place he left for Nicolas in his heart, it seems reasonable to feel physical pleasure by masturbating with Nicolas's smell.

The only similarity between him and Marie may be that they both confessed to Nicolas incoherently, cautiously, and almost humble. Francis drove around the fireplace and finally said to Nicolas, "I love you, I really want to kiss you." Here is a reference to the American director Gus Van Sant's 1991 film "My Personal Ada In "Lotus", Michael said that he liked Scott's scene by the campfire. (PS: Personally, I feel that Dolan looks a bit like Michael, the American actor River Phoenix). In the

end, Francis was rejected just like Michael in "My Private Idaho". However, after Michael was rejected, at least he and Scott were still good friends. After being rejected, Francis could no longer get along with Nicolas as before, and later became alienated to the form of a stranger.

Friendship and love

The friendship between Marie and Francis was strong from the beginning, and gradually cracked due to the competition for Nicolas, and then broke, and finally reconciled because the two did not get Nicolas. The film shows that they reconciled by slow-motion shooting from the back of them, Marie holding her umbrella and Francis together in the rain, without words, but expressing extremely rich connotations. This is also the best way for them to reconcile, because with Marie's strength, she will not take the initiative to apologize, and if Francis apologizes first, then all his previous efforts to strive for equality with Marie in friendship will be in vain.

Their reconciliation is not so much because of years of deep feelings, but because they are all losers in this love triangle game. Failure makes them find a sense of identity and let them know that they are not the only loser, so Marie The concession made by her makes sense, otherwise, with her stubbornness, she would not easily admit her weakness. If one of them got Nicolas, their friendship might really end completely.

In fact, the friendship between Marie and Francis has never been equal. It is not so much that they fall in love with Nicolas, it is better to say that they are just competing with each other to gain the dominant position in the friendship. The appearance of Nicolas only made Francis realize that he is in a subordinate position in the friendship, so he joined the competition to pursue equality. However, just like the Polish proverb: "There are equal people, and there are more equal people." Equality is always relative. The pursuit of equality is innate to human beings. Whether in friendship or love, there are always people willing to surrender and be led. Francis surrendered to Marie, Marie and Francis surrendered to Nicolas.

Nicolas

not only has an unequal friendship between Marie and Francis, but also their love triangle with Nicolas. They are at a disadvantage, Nicolas is above, mysterious, unable to guess.

The role of Nicolas is quite scheming. He could always grab Marie and Francis' hearts easily and manipulate them. Sometimes teasing Michael, putting Marie aside; sometimes showing good to Marie, being intimate like a couple, ignoring Francis. He always asks them out at the right time. When he realizes that one of them feels left out, he reverses his attitude and gets close to him; when he feels too close, he is a little distant and keeps a certain distance; when he feels that they are all three The atmosphere is very stiff, and he proposes to play hide-and-seek together and go out together. When he saw Marie and Francis fight for them, he felt that the game could no longer continue, and he was forced to make a choice among them, he felt boring, so he was so calm and almost cruelly rejected both of them. Abandon them and leave.

Whether he was talking and laughing at the first stage, being free and easy with friends, or getting along with Marie and Francis later, it all reflects his personality charm, not to mention his exquisite face like an ancient Greek statue, golden curly hair, slender figure and With strong artistic accomplishment, he is almost perfect. Therefore, Marie and Francis' side-views, for Nicolas, are just one of the most common types of attention he has received for a long time because of his beauty. Their attention and gaze determined their subordinate status from the very beginning.

The famous Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto once said: "In things made by humans, I hope to see imperfections, failures, chaos, and distortions. Perfection is the presentation of order and harmony, and is the result of coercive force. Free humans will not Expect something like this". The ending of the film fits this point of view: Nicolas is not perfect. Although there are still a lot of people around Nicolas, his face is obviously haggard, and his golden curly hair is also trapped in his hat, and he doesn't look like before. When he greeted Marie and Nicolas, they were completely ignored and despised by them. He lowered his head and returned to his friend in frustration. Finally, he was also worldly, he would be rejected by others, and perfection did not exist. It is worth mentioning that the clothes Marie and Nicolas are wearing at this time are orange, which is the color of the gifts they carefully selected for him at the previous Nicolas party, as if they combined their previous love and dedication to him with their dignity. Once withdrawn, reason defeated emotions, and they finally gained the upper hand in this love triangle game.

A scene of Nicolas's mother was inserted in the film. She said that when Nicolas was a child, she was surrounded by many people in the backstage of her work, and many people kissed him because he was very handsome. I think the formation of Nicolas's character has a great relationship with this. He has become accustomed to being paid attention to. He is still as willful as a child, but no one will always be willing to be his toy.

The

name of the fantasy and reality film is "Fantasy Love". In the film, neither Marie nor Francis has had any relationship with Nicolas. The fantasy is reflected in their lustful intercourse with Nicolas at the party. The light flashes dazzlingly, the music is noisy, and the flickering and blurry happy scene is quite classical, which fits the ancient Greek appearance of Nicolas.

Marie once said to Nicolas that Francis is a romantic, fantasizing about people and things. Francis is indeed so, but Marie, who seems to be mature and intelligent, is not, just like the words of Muse that appeared at the beginning of the film, "Love transcends reason." It is the only truth.” I am afraid that not many people in the world can completely get rid of emotional fatigue. This is one of the weaknesses of mankind, and Marie is naturally no exception.

If you can't love reality, let it drown in fantasy. Later, they would dominate their love for Nicolas in fantasy, face the reality, forget Nicolas, get back together, go to the party together, as before, to get rid of the illusion brought about by fantasy and get rid of this emotional bondage. It’s just that where life will go so smoothly, you can stand the test, figure it out, face it bravely, and God throws you another problem. Finally, Marie and Francis saw a handsome young man at a party at the same time, friendship and love, the competition between fantasy and reality is about to begin again...

life is like this...

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Extended Reading
  • Major 2022-03-14 14:12:26

    Do you need more reasons to like Xavier Dolan? Under the aura of success of the previous work, he has not been trapped by this but has become more ego. The photography, soundtrack and even the actor costume designed by him all exude his personal charm, which makes people willing to indulge.

  • Lucas 2022-03-28 09:01:08

    I don't think there's anything great about this director. His acting skills are really bad. As for the filming techniques, he copied them from the east and west. The faults are still those in the previous movie. Seeing how narcissistic he is, he probably won't be able to change them in the future.. .PS: The heroine is so ugly, when she appeared, I thought she was going to kill his mother again...

Heartbeats quotes

  • Marie: I love to smoke. Smoking a cigarette is like... forgetting. When I hit rock bottom, it's all I have. Light up, smoke up, shut the fuck up. It hides the shit. The smoke... hides... the shit. There's menthol and vanilla. Some people like 'em. Menthol cigarette. Vanilla cigarette. Chocolate cigarette. Cigarette cigarette. Cigarettes clearly keep me from going crazy. Keeps me alive. It keeps me alive until I die.

  • Francis: I love you. I really want to kiss you. I don't know why I'm telling you this.