Where are the women who escaped?

Melissa 2022-03-20 09:03:03

(Text / Yang Shiyang)

In the first half of her life, Julieta kept "losing", losing her mother, her father, her husband, and her daughter. Among them, some are because of the death of relatives, some are because of their own initiative to escape, and some are rejected by others to some extent. These "losses" occurred in Julieta's life in the form of paragraphs, some seemingly insignificant, some unforgettable. In the end, these abandonment, escape and avoidance made the role of Julieta gradually detached from the individual itself, and evolved into the endorsement of the overall and universal female role in a certain era. Her loneliness, search and confusion have become a kind of Philosophical exploration and the torture of one's own identity.

It is said that the original title of the film was "Silence", but it was later renamed "Julietta" because it collided with Martin Scorsese's film. In fact, no name is more appropriate than the film's original "Escape". Julieta is based on several stories from Alice Munro's collection of novels, The Escape. Among those female writers who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, Monroe's works always exude a kind of thrillingness in the trivialities of the home, those surface tranquility and inner storm, as well as yearning for the unknown and the desire to escape from shackles, All pervaded in those short stories. And director Pedro Almodovar showed this feature perfectly in the film. Almodovar is particularly good at handling a certain sense of suspense with a little neuroticism. The progressive string music, various symbolic arcades in the picture, and the sea outside the window are all filled with an uneasy atmosphere. In this way, he interprets the dull and heartbreaking partings in life into suspense. At times, it reminds you of how he felt in the famous "The Skin of My Dwelling" before him.

The main line of the story of "Julietta" is actually very literary. Julieta is middle-aged and is about to leave Madrid to start a new life with her boyfriend. She wants to forget everything here and never come back. But meeting one of her daughter's childhood playmates on the street, talking about meeting her daughter abroad not long ago, made Julieta change her mind and decide to stay in Madrid and move back to the house she lived in when she was young. No one but herself knew that Julieta's daughter had not been heard from for many years. In her opinion, it is a great shame for her daughter to cut off the relationship with her for no reason. This is the deepest secret in her life. Julieta looked forward to her daughter's news at the old residence, and began to write letters that had nowhere to send, writing to her daughter everything she had never told her about the past.

The story switches between the present and past experiences, and you see all the turbulent pasts that the now determined Julieta lived through when she was young. In Monroe's original work, the female protagonist has a typical intellectual alienation. She wants to escape from her family and seek an unknown life that is completely different from her previous experience. The alienation in the film is compared to The original, slightly weaker. But the several separations in Julieta's life, put together, still put together an indescribable taste.

Back then, as a young girl, Julieta left her sick and bedridden mother and her father who depended on farming for a living. She went to a distant place, studied literature, made a living by taking classes, and then met a love on the train. It almost became a sample of some kind of romanticism, after her husband angered Julieta over an affair with his childhood playmate. After a quarrel, the man went out to sea in a storm and died at sea; then, when his daughter was an adult, she was never heard from again on the grounds of going to a retreat.

These three partings are quite meaningful: the first time is the "escape" of Girls' Generation, which is an active escape, with some kind of seeking and hope; the parting of her husband and herself after marriage seems to be an accident, but In fact, it was the outbreak of some kind of inner conflict that had been hidden for many years. After the romantic encounter turned into a long-term company, a new shackle was formed. Compared with the escape from the original family when I was young, this time it was replaced by quarrel. The husband became the leaver, and it ended in a tragic way; and the third time, the daughter became the mirror image of her youth - cut off all ties in a more decisive way. Her body fled but her spirit was present. She still had contact with her parents, while her daughter blocked everything and erased all traces. Her escape obviously went further than Julieta was young.

From a certain point of view, the two escapes after decades have become reincarnation and revenge. This story shows people an unbreakable estrangement. The estrangement exists between generations, in the obstacles of life, and in the gaps of the changing times. Generations of women run and escape, and they also face loneliness when they get a new life, which forms a unique image. In the end, the mother and daughter reconnected due to a tragic accident, but can their reunion break the estrangement? Will those fleeing women eventually turn back in the direction they escaped from?

View more about Julieta reviews

Extended Reading
  • Zella 2022-01-29 08:11:51

    Less decisive, more warmth, such Almodovar is not bad.

  • Rasheed 2022-01-29 08:11:51

    Almodovar is really a master at creating atmosphere, and even if it ends, he will be so emotional. The story highly restores 3 novels. The performance is as gentle as water. Although the core is Hu Lietta, it completely explains the relationship between three generations. As an intellectual woman, she escaped from her original family, met a fisherman with a sick wife, and was further escaped by her daughter... The more you live, the more lonely it is, a kind of sadness In the desperate situation of life, the director changed the ending slightly, and a glimmer of hope is more moving. Four stars.