The world's evaluations of them are somewhat similar, and they all think that Rodin or Hu Lancheng has exhausted their outstanding talents. The love of a woman's life is only a hasty glimpse of a long life to a man.
Of course, I always sneered at this kind of complaint. This is not to defend them. I just think that love is different between men and women, or to be more precise, the term "love" is not found in the discourse system of men. Just like in the Chinese classical system, there is only the "love" of "the benevolent loves others", and there is no "love" of affection.
But for women, women themselves are love.
Camille has shown amazing sculptural talent since childhood. In the movie, his father played the role of her first confidant, and his father was also a man. My father hoped that she could become famous and glorious. Since Rodin was the best sculptor at the time, Camille’s encounter with Rodin was not a cross of fate, but a gift of time. It's just that Camille burst out with too much enthusiasm for sculpture, and her passion forced her to move forward, to sculpture or to love. When watching the movie, Camille's carving knife sounded like a groan. The metaphor of the voice seemed to imply that Camille's love for the sculpture was uncompromising.
Rodin is not romantic and suave, but slutty by his talent. The movie seems to portray Rodin's talents inferior to Camille, which is wrong. In history, Rodin is not only the first master of modern sculpture, but also the master of all sculpture history. From him, it can only be Michelangelo. Rodin is even a modern combination of Michelangelo and the ancient Greek sculptor Phidias. It is precisely because Rodin's talent is indeed far greater than Camille, that Camille transitioned to love Rodin because of his love for sculpture.
Therefore, it is not clear how much Camille loves Rodin, but she must love sculpture deeply. The sorrow of a woman is often that if she deeply loves an abstract thing, academic or artistic, it must be implemented in a specific man. The same is true of Zhang Ailing. Because the object of this kind of love is a specific person, it doesn't have to be about the flesh, as long as it is "this person".
The man is not. He can deeply love some kind of abstract academic or art or war, and even the woman he loves can be abstract. In other words, as far as a man is concerned, as long as he is "a woman" and can make love, he can accept it.
Therefore, the love of men and the love of women are not the same word at all.
This is what Simmel described, that both men and women have "metaphysical loneliness" with each other. And this loneliness is eternal. Therefore, the sorrow of men is that they can never trust their hearts, and have to keep banishing themselves.
In the movie, Camille made a bust of Rodin based on his memories, which is also the best bust of Rodin. Here, although Rodin is not with Camille, she can snuggle with the statue and replace the man's body with a stone. Conversely, if a man claims to miss a woman who is not around and cannot resolve it, he is likely to be a chicken or cheating. Therefore, after Camille finished the statue of Rodin, a sentence in the letter he wrote to Rodin made me very sad:
I slept naked as if by your side, but I didn't see you when I woke up.
Rodin had a deep misunderstanding of a work by Camille. But this cannot be said that Rodin deliberately slandered her. On the contrary, the real situation is that Rodin supports and helps her as much as possible. According to the plot of the movie, it was Rodin's help that Camille's brother Paul was able to enter the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Paul eventually became a famous poet and playwright in the post-Romantic period, and served as the ambassador to Japan, staying in China for 14 years. This is somewhat of Rodin's help.
Camille’s madness was that she could have used her love for Rodin to bring out her inner fire and talent. But Rodin closed the door of love out of guilt for his other woman, and out of fear of his passion for Camille. Unresolved eros (eros, here is not love for wisdom, but love for art) caused Camille to finally go crazy, and be crazy for thirty years. Her last spiritual support is not someone else, but her brother, who is also a man.
But she left the work, which is fortunate. Rodin is not a mediocre person, this is also fortunate. Because there are too many women of this kind in this world, if the man who she sincerely trusts and is willing to dedicate all his talents and affections to him is finally proved by history to be just a mediocre rat, this is the real sorrow.
The relationship between Zhang Ailing and Hu Lancheng can be viewed in the same way. The Hu family is actually a chaotic and seductive, of course it is not as good as Rodin, nor can it be on the stage of history, but at last it is the lover of the whole life, the alien of the literati, and there is something left behind. Moreover, Zhang Ailing is smart, she is the most benevolent, let go as early as possible, and will come over all her life. As for sadness or joy, outsiders are insignificant.
Finally, talk about gossip.
The popular translation of this movie is "Rodin's Lover", and this name just goes against the original intention of the director. Therefore, I will persistently call this movie "Camille Claudel"; the
lead role of Ajani is my favorite actor, she always plays women such as Queen Margot and Alde Hugo. In terms of acting skills, it is better than Sophie Marceau. For example, Sophie's "Fire of Heart" did not show the taste of heart fire at all. Adjani and the director of the film were also lovers at the time. Another ex-husband of Adjani is Daniel Day Lewis;
talking about Rodin, he is a figure who inherited romanticism and inspired modernism. The representative of romanticism, such as Hugo, is shown in the movie. Paul is a follower of Hugo. And Rodin once quoted a poem by Hugo in "Rodin's Art Theory". There is a line that reads "women's muscles, ideal soil, miracles...". This sentence is very interesting. The Chinese will compare women to water, and Hugo and Rodin even recognize women as soil. The difference is worth taking a closer look at. Representatives of modernism such as Baudelaire. Rodin admired Baudelaire very much, and his sculptures can also reflect this portrayal of uncoordinated and painful limbs. This is actually the spirit of the times at that time.
Old articles and new posts: Originally published in the ninth issue of "Watching Movies" in 2009.
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