It is not so much a film about depression as it is a film about a director suffering from depression expressing his views on the nature of the world through the perspective of the heroine. The director seems to be saying: Anyone with a normal thinking should be depressed about living in this world and rejoicing at the impending destruction of this world. The director has visibly proud feelings about suffering from depression.
The first half of "Melancholia" manages to explain how the heroine transforms from a very happy bride to a depressed patient who can't take care of herself. The heroine's depression comes from a lack of love and a disappointment with the world.
The root of all depression is a lack of family warmth. Almost all families of people with depression have serious problems. And weddings are the best way to introduce a heroine's family, not to mention that weddings are one of the greatest lies ever invented by mankind. From the very beginning of the film, the director used the metaphor of a difficult journey in a super long luxury car to express his distaste for luxury weddings. As the heroine's mood gets worse and worse, her wedding dress also starts to feel heavier and more redundant. Weddings are supposed to be a ceremony of love, but modern weddings are replaced by comparisons, money, feasts, material things and especially diamonds. The heroine's family is broken, the father is a fool, the mother is ruthless, the sister keeps pressuring her to make her appear happier, the brother-in-law is an elitist snob, the husband only thinks about sex, and the boss is urging her at the wedding. She wants ad words. Everyone has the word "happy" hanging on their lips, not only did they not really care and love the heroine, but they were also putting pressure on her to make her appear happy. Excessive pursuit of happiness and excessive respect for other people's feelings are fast trains to depression. The director uses the stark contrast between the overly ritualized wedding and the lack of love to highlight the fact that the heroine's life is being hijacked by her family. In the end, an angry statement from the housekeeper who arranged the wedding revealed the secret: "I don't want to see her, she ruined my wedding."
The heroine's job is to be able to come up with all kinds of lies to lure consumers into addictive purchases of junk. This is actually the nature of advertising, the nature of how the world works. Although the invention of money makes the world operate in an orderly manner, it also makes human beings have no choice but to seek profit, and finally destroy their own humanity and this planet. If you think about it carefully, the emergence of humans is actually the biggest catastrophe that has occurred on this planet, and all animals have been wiped out because of humans. We are actually the biggest pest in the world. So the heroine's depression is not simply a lack of love, her depression is caused by her own essential insight into the world.
But we can see that the heroine is brave. She tried her best to break free, trying to get the freedom she wanted. She insulted her boss and would rather be an intern than meet her husband's needs. But when these shackles were freed, she found herself in despair.
The second half of the film shows the intense conflict between positivity and depression and people's reactions to the end of the world. It's a big win for the filmmakers to bring in Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bower in 24 Hours, to represent all the positive energy in the world. The brother-in-law's omnipotence contrasts sharply with the heroine's inability to take care of herself. When the depression star began to approach the earth, the director used four people to represent the reaction of everyone in the world to the end of the world: the brother-in-law represents all the positive energy people in the world, the heroine represents all the people who hate the world, and the sister represents no opinion But there are those who want to live at all costs, and there are those who are overwhelmed like children.
Here is a statement: I am not against positive energy, I am against positive energy that deceives myself and deceives others. Because although this kind of positive energy looks attractive, it cannot stand the test. Sooner or later, this kind of positive energy will collapse before the truth. Pseudo-positive people will never admit the ugliness, hopelessness and possibility of the end of the world. Their biggest problem is being insincere with themselves, let alone others. So when my brother-in-law knew that Depression Star was about to hit the earth, he could not face this reality, nor his family, nor himself. After the brother-in-law committed suicide, the elder sister completely lost her direction, and would rather mess around than wait for death. But this is when the depressed person starts to get excited for no reason. Because they feel an inexplicable hope for the imminent destruction of the world.
From a screenplay perspective, I really like the director's design of Depression's approach to Earth's orbit. This is a great example of learning how to write a story twist: the depressive star first moves away from Earth, then circles back and hits Earth.
The director claimed that his creative inspiration came from the interesting phenomenon that although depressed patients cannot cope with normal life, they can be more excited in the face of crisis. But in the movie, the heroine doesn't actively solve problems because the world is coming to an end, but simply accepts her destiny more comfortably than anyone else: because what she wants is really going to happen. So in my opinion,
This is an opportunity that the director created for all the depressed patients: because only when the world is about to end can the depressed patients truly win. Because the director is fighting for the depressed patients: we are better than others with depression, we see the world more clearly than others, we are braver than others, we all refuse to deceive ourselves, but why do we This kind of elite cannot win in this world, but is abandoned and looked down upon by society? ! You wait, on the day the world is destroyed, our depression will be victorious!
But such a victory is unavoidable. And this kind of victory is just the thrill of breaking the jar. The world is indeed ugly, and it does take courage to hate it. People who suffer from depression are indeed higher than those who deceive themselves, but as long as the world cannot be destroyed, as long as life can continue, then we can start from ourselves and change myself, changing my lifestyle, struggling to find meaning. If there is no love in our life, we can start from us, create love and spread love; if our life is full of cruelty and ugliness, we can try to change ourselves bit by bit, such as starting from me is not mercenary, such as Eat less or no meat, and let fewer animals suffer the slaughter.
As I write this, I think of my hero Zhang Yimou. His greatness is his way of life: "First adapt to reality, and then surpass reality." Although he knows the cruelty of reality, he not only does not escape, but also does not give up his efforts to create meaning. My favorite documentary is "Zhang Yimou's 2008": Although he knew that the Olympic Games were complicated, although he knew that he had to withstand a lot of pressure, and although he knew that he was likely to be abused by unscrupulous people, he still caught it. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity created an exciting and incomparably great opening ceremony of the Olympic Games amid innumerable difficulties. In a movie like The Great Wall, Zhang Yimou creates a very moving meaning while coordinating various interests in the real world.
So I think filmmakers are the greatest people in the world. They have to deal with real interests without giving up their efforts to make us see the world better and make the world a better place. They are the real triumphs of depression.
View more about Melancholia reviews
