process for each person's life are a period of sudden growth, with a stronger word to describe literary, that is "epiphany." This process can be long or short, and it can be joyful or heartache. In such a period of time or even a moment of sudden understanding, after accumulating the snooping, guessing and entanglement along the way, the previous cognition will finally be upgraded to another It is also possible to completely subvert and abandon the long-standing hope in the heart, for others, for myself, for life, and for the world. The foreplay of "Epiphany" can be very long, just like you were immersed in certain obsessions when you were young for more than ten years: watching operas and playing chess in the old courtyard, everyone knows each other and it is the world; the next class loves to wear Girls with ponytails in blue and white dresses are the best looking girls. These are piled up in my heart like pictorial papers, gradually overflowing into unease and doubt. The prelude to "Epiphany" can also be very short, as short as the panic of the first confession. A few vague whispers were burned by the scorching sun on the rooftop and disappeared without a trace; it was also like the end of the period. The crowd crowded in front of the bulletin board of the college entrance examination hurriedly dispersed after a few laughter and scolding. As if the strings of the violin were suddenly broken when the slender fingers were flying, the silence revealed hidden feelings and emotions. However, at the moment of finally getting rid of the doubt and pain, that is, the moment of "awareness", it is often extremely inadvertent but suddenly enlightened, like a relief.
The above thoughts can be said to come from all the words and stories about the stream of consciousness that have been stuck in my head by Joyce. "Epiphany" is almost impossible if it is not used to interpret his mood. Joyce has come a long way in the process of finding himself, focusing on his inner consciousness, and peering into things around him. "Ulysses", "Portrait of a Young Artist", "Dubliners", etc., all ended in his own "epiphany", and this momentary change of mind and spirit is extremely difficult to capture, even in a sentence , One action, one look, Joyce gave the ending meaning of the story. Therefore, Joyce's growth is reflected in a gradual process, but it often only appears late on the eve of the curtain. Wrapped in complicated but delicate costumes, it is a face that is so profound and incomprehensible, which makes people look at it. cannot be forgotten. I connected all of Joyce's growth epiphanies in my head to the movie, stemming from another rewatch of "Scent of a Woman". When I was young, I was simply attracted by this name, with an inexplicable mysterious smell, I just simply appreciated the lines and stories, so simple that I only remembered the Spanish symphony and the clumsy and lovely Donna in Frank's arms. However, after the years have passed, more books have been closed in my life. Countless people and things come and go, or after a long pause or a moment of dissipation, in some rare voice Re-watching this film in the quiet afternoon, I suddenly found that there was a lot of Joyce flavor. Maybe it was because he used to be ignorant of a way of telling stories with fragmented memories, but now it seems that many of the movies that I watched ignorantly when I was young can be associated with Joyce, and I can use the word "epiphany". Misty and real words to savor.
The reason why Joyce growing up films are concatenated and named after "Joyce" and "growing up" is naturally because they always look up at the sky and the world with the eyes of a child. From ignorance to confusion, from distress to awakening, the world that was spied and recognized in the process was projected into the boy's eyes, pushing him like a wave to keep suspicious and searching until he finally grew up. Such a narrative perspective is very tacitly consistent both in Joyce's literature and in all the coming-of-age films that I identify. Charlie in "Smell the Scent and Know a Woman", a young man who relies on scholarship to study, is simply assiduous and even silent, has no interest in the excitement, presumptuousness, and women of the adult world, and his life has never given him the opportunity to try and explore. A teenager is only confined in the fear of how to help his friends cover up the prank that insults the principal. Facing the unknown and difficult future, he has a lot of room for "epiphany". The setting of such a main character is indeed not difficult to find traces in Joyce's pen. Stephen in "Portrait of a Young Artist" is the Charlie in the film, and his dazed understanding of motherhood, family, religion and sex gives him endless room for imagination and development. It is precisely because of the thinness and simplicity of these protagonists that they are almost a blank sheet of paper, so that "Epiphany" has the soil to take root and sprout. This reminds me of a quote by Zhang Shihao in "The Blue Door" that I can't forget for a long time: "Life is so simple that you just want to pee every day without split ends."
Regarding the narrative perspective and the positioning of the protagonist's characters, it is not enough to show all the characteristics of "Joyce-like growth". When teenagers go through the stages of entanglement, peeping, trying, breaking down and exploring, there is always a so-called spiritual guide who plays a vital role, encouraging or spurring, demonstrating or teaching, and ultimately The torch that guides teenagers towards "Epiphany". And these "Joyce-like growth" characters that intensified the inner struggle of teenagers, after I searched my memory, I found that they were surprisingly similar, and names like "Good Will Hunter" and "Dead Poets Society" kept coming up in my mind. flashed in. First of all, let's talk about the blind lieutenant colonel Frank played by Al Pacino. He has a bad temper and never plays his cards according to common sense. This character is very different from the young Charlie who is not deep in the world. And the firm creed of life, about women, about pleasure, about the end of life and death, etc., is always impacting the cognition of young people unknowingly. At first, Frank's plan to commit suicide after wanting a good wine and a beautiful woman's company brought only fear to young Charlie. When he lacked the courage to face such a major decision for the first time in his life, Frank, who was also at a fork in his life, made a choice. Options to show Charlie what he doesn't know about the "adult" world. Charlie watched him dine gracefully at Oak Tree, accost and dance with strange women, joke about the imperfections and absurdities of life, and choose death and silence after tasting everything. I've always believed that the epiphany only happens in an instant, so Charlie's epiphany is difficult to pinpoint at a certain minute or second in the story, perhaps the roar of the engine when he decides to let Frank drive himself. , perhaps in the pain of the impact of taking Frank's pistol. But after the "epiphany", for Charlie, the courage and firmness he gained were the inevitable result of "Joyce-like growth".
As the memories of coming-of-age movies are gradually being lit up, I am once again amazed that such a setting of old and young also has a surprising amount of resources in the resource library that has been included in my definition. resemblance. I think of "Rain Man", "Spring Breeze Turning into Rain", and even "Untouchable". Although the teenagers in these films accidentally exceed the basic definition of teenagers, the core of the process of "epiphany" is still preserved. . Two people whose age, mind, thinking and life experience are far apart will always meet on the platform where the teenager is helpless and lost. , step by step approaching the final inevitable result. It seems that the early morning sun deliberately avoids all eyes and slowly rises behind the clouds. Its light and heat only burst out at the last moment, and the "epidemic" happened at the moment when the young man's heart was lit up.
These similarities I found one afternoon when I was looking back at "Scent of a Woman" made me start to think about the meaning behind these films that I linked together. My thinking has nothing to do with the plot and characters, but about the movie story. An indescribable property. Whether I read the same story over and over again, or read different stories, the fragmented inspirations hidden behind each frame rush out of the picture and get into people's hearts one by one, gradually connecting all the stories, even if the themes of the ages are different. Far away, after a certain period of precipitation, I will always be able to extract them one by one from my memory, and then put them one by one into my "epiphany" in disbelief, and be amazed at this silent message. It seemed like a coincidence that was pre-set by time, and finally reached the agreed moment when the pointers matched. Perhaps, if I hadn't opened the title page of Dubliners to read every growing "epiphany" in the past, I might not have been interested in caring about where Charlie's courage and growth came from, one of old Frank's What does Tango a gun mean to him, and what does it indicate. If I hadn't clicked on "Smell the Fragrance and Know a Woman" because I missed the melody of "One Step Difference" on an idle afternoon, maybe I would never have composed the term "Joyce Growth Movie", and "Epiphany" will not be used to describe those subtle and unspeakable moments that have long been submerged in the depths of memory. Perhaps, until the moment when the pen was written, the symphony of old Frank drifted away, and he went back to the low house in the backyard to open the dusty whisky again, until Charlie returned to Bell and got rid of his cowardice and hesitation in front of the whole school, I I have never been able to understand, perhaps never will, that on countless nights soothed by dim yellow lights, accompanied by Joyce's thoughts, are the pages of books that look like overlapping and ever-changing movie shots. I can't get over the lingering notes that wrap around Al Pacino's tango steps, or the emotion that floats in my eyes when I see Charlie staring across the street at the messy Frank, the cars passing by without mercy The dust raised like a curtain reminded me of the dim lights and yellowed pages related to Joyce, as well as paragraphs and paragraphs of words and stories suitable for reading in this situation.
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