The "Ferris Wheel" Dilemma

Kiarra 2022-03-20 09:03:04

On Sunday afternoon, I lay on the sofa and brushed the "Ferris Wheel" that had been stored in the mobile hard disk for a long time.

If it wasn't for Woody Allen himself, the grumbling lines would be overly verbose. But I like the retro tone of the film, shrouded in "golden rain," as the lines in the film describe it.

There's one more thing that's heartwarming. I was once amazed in "The Grandmaster", in the paragraph where Gong Er and the elders of the gang were talking about whether to take revenge, the constantly flashing and changing lights intermittently hit the character's face. I later learned that this was not Wong Kar-wai's original work. At least in Blade Runner, Scott has used it. There is an external moving light source, showing relative motion to the space where the subject is located, which will form a lighting effect of on and off, intermittent appearance, and in line with the narrative logic, which not only produces a strong visual impact, but also No doubts will arise. For the character itself, such lighting can present a mood-changing effect, immersing the character in a sudden mood created by the light.

In "Ferris Wheel", Woody Allen used this method to great effect. The main character, Ginny, lives behind a giant Ferris wheel in Coney Island. A hut behind the Ferris wheel, the poetic setting itself is amazing (it is rationalized with lines in the film - this hut was originally used as a "freak show". Think about the film The deformed and stalemate relationship between people, as well as Ginny's yearning for the stage, the "freak show" here is really ironic), not to mention the director used this location very cleverly to brighten it up.

In the film, Ginny's hut, because of the rotation of the Ferris wheel, brings intermittent changes of red light and blue light. In the hut, the anxious, depressed, and manic Ginny's emotions are also highlighted in such a rotating light, which makes people marvel at the director's conception, and is also deeply affected by the emotions brought by the characters. deep infection. The image of the Ferris wheel is thus imprinted into the audience's heart with a prominent visual symbol.

But other than that, the film has no more performances about the "Ferris Wheel". In the process of watching the movie, I had more than one fantasies about Ginny's son eventually burning down the Ferris wheel, freeing his mother from the situation of painting the ground as a prison. However, the film does not have such strong sensationalism. At the end of the film, the confused teenager just lit a bunch of inconspicuous fires on the beach, and did not stab a huge basket out as many people in the film predicted. . At the end of the current film, there is a little bit of "Eight Hundred Down". There is only confusion, only the mess in front of you, and only staying in your own small world like a shell, and there is no clear-cut action or resistance. Therefore, the teenager who did not burn the Ferris wheel is more like a character in this film. He doesn't know how to change his fate, so he can't change his fate.

So, why is the film called "Ferris Wheel"?

Because I was watching the British drama "Melrose" at the same time, a plot in the play gave me some inspiration. In the film, Eleanor, the mother of the protagonist Patrick, had a brief "crazy" day. Eleanor is a woman who has been emotionally abused by her control freak husband for years and has lost her basic belief in life. Although she came from a noble family, she has lost the yearning for a normal person's life because of the invisible "imprisonment" of her family. One day in Patrick's childhood, Eleanor and his girlfriend briefly ran away from home on the pretext of picking up someone at the airport. She drove a red convertible Ferrari, with sunglasses and a silk scarf (it clearly felt that the director was paying homage to "The End of the Wild") and her girlfriend speeding along the highway, and took the opportunity to go to the country playground that she has always longed for . There she rode the Ferris wheel with her female companion, which she had always longed for. But when the Ferris wheel malfunctioned high in the sky and stuck, Eleanor had a huge amount of anxiety. She was afraid that she would be late and be noticed by her husband, how she had deviated from the established life track this day, and spent such an afternoon "presumptuously". The overwhelming anxiety causes her to almost jump off the Ferris wheel, a frenzied move that projects the enormous, creepy power of her absent husband, David. Therefore, Eleanor fell into the "Ferris wheel dilemma" - once the Ferris wheel is running, it cannot be stopped, and the decision made cannot be reversed. Until the end of the lap, the end to the end, and everything returns to the origin, a person can leave the Ferris wheel.

I think that's probably what Woody Allen wanted in his "Ferris Wheel". Whether it's Ginny or Hamdi in the film, Mickey and Caroline in their lives brought them the "Ferris Wheel Dilemma". Just like Eleanor in "Melrose", riding on the Ferris wheel is no longer the person in daily life. No matter whether the Ferris wheel stops or moves, it will bring unbearable hardship to such people. Stop and get stuck in the sky, and all secrets will be revealed. And going on, the end result is just returning to the starting point, back to the mid-life crisis of his own lack of vitality.

So in this way, the teenager who set fire on the beach still has some consolation. He won't change easily or compromise. What he wants is fire. No matter how much pressure others put on him, he will eventually set it on fire.

But adults who are stuck in the "Ferris Wheel Dilemma" don't understand that no one, no external force, or any paradise in this world can save themselves from fire and water. We cannot escape the pain of life by escaping into an amusement park, riding a Ferris wheel, falling in love with someone, and starting a relationship. The Ferris wheel will complete its rotation when the bell rings, sending people who are addicted to dreams back to their original places.

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Extended Reading
  • Jeffry 2022-03-24 09:03:45

    Again, mocking your movie dreams :) The son sets fire to things, and the mother sets fire to heart. The picture of arson addiction is also burning in the lights from beginning to end, burning everyone's pupils through, dreaming and roaring. Why do older Hollywood actresses go to the "crazy woman" extreme, especially can't stand this deliberate state. I want to say, don't play, don't die, don't set yourself on fire.

  • Pedro 2022-03-10 08:01:27

    Staged shots and performances. The story is old-fashioned, completely retro from content to style. Winslet is perfect and Justin is a vase. Coney Island Edition Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina. The same theme is repeated in different forms, be it a cliché or a rethink.

Wonder Wheel quotes

  • [first lines]

    Mickey: [narrating] Coney Island, 1950's. The beach, the boardwalk. Once a luminous jewel, but growing relentlessly seedier as the tides roll in and out. Summers I work here on Bay 7. Comes the fall, I'm a student at New York University going for my Master's in European drama. I'm Mickey Rubin. Poetic by nature. I harbor dreams of being a writer. A writer of truly great plays, so I can one day surprise everyone and turn out a profound masterpiece.

    Mickey: [to the camera] Anyhow. Let me get to the story in which I am a character, so, be warned, as a poet, I use symbols, and as a budding dramatist, I relish melodrama and larger-than-life characters. Enter Carolina...

  • Mickey: [narrating] The kid makes fires. And not such little ones. He played hooky from summer school and even made fires on the beach where it's forbidden. What the hell does the kid see when he just stares into the flames? Is it the eternal power of the universe? The conversion of mass into energy? The Furies at work? Whatever his motive, it is not appreciated.