Language switch and role change

Aaliyah 2022-03-30 09:01:11

Text / caesarphoenix

The special feature of this film is that it unifies the two roles (Miller, the author of "Legal Copy", and the husband of a French woman) into one actor, and the role change is mainly through language switching.

As an art critic Miller only speaks English, and in the passage before the cafe (black coffee and cappuccino) the actor speaks only English. The conversation between the French woman and the coffee shop owner also revealed that she can speak three languages ​​(French, Italian, English), while Miller only speaks English.
But when the French woman introduces him to the coffee shop owner as her husband, the conversation tends to be closer to that between husband and wife, and the actor also speaks French. Although sometimes he speaks English again, such as the identity jump in the part about drinking red wine.

But this distinction is not clear, and the film intentionally blurs the boundaries between characters. As Miller expressed when he saw the painting in the art gallery: why emphasize the real and fake, just appreciate their beauty.
The intention to blur the roles is carried out before the cafe segment, such as when talking about sister Mary in the car, and the conflicting discussion of responsibility-freedom between the two has begun. In the café, Miller talks about the mother and son who inspired the creation, and the French woman and her child are exactly the same relationship (and they also originally lived in Florence).
So instead of having Miller play a facsimile of a French woman’s husband in later dialogue acts, the film directly becomes, and many details of life (such as falling asleep while driving five years ago) are not simulated.

What's remarkable about the film is that the conversation between the two in the car at the beginning is mainly about philosophical thinking about art, which seems unnatural and tense. Later, when the male actor and the female husband were the same, their relationship was confrontational, anxious and full of ambiguity, and finally reached some kind of reconciliation. The whole thing is overdone very naturally, in one go.

In addition to discussing the original and the copy (whether it is necessary to distinguish, and whether this distinction is meaningful), the film also involves freedom, responsibility, family life, the possibility of communication between people, understanding and reconciliation, etc...

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Correction:
On May 9, 2013, I watched this film for the second time at the China Film Archive. After three years, I made a little progress and found some errors in what I originally wrote.
Language is very important in the film, James can speak English, French, French women can speak French, English, Italian, and they walk through small towns in Italy.
At first, the French women accommodated James and only communicated with him in English. After the role change, when the two are on the same channel (mutually understanding), they talk in French, when the sword is drawn, one speaks English and the other speaks French, and of course there are small passages in which the two speak English when the French woman is accommodating.
Speaking the same language shares the same value, which is why French women strive to prove that the serene expression of a woman leaning on a man's shoulder can immortalize a sculpture.
The estrangement and incomprehensibility between men and women are expressed through the intersection of language and bifurcation.
(We often say that a family is a country, and when we can't understand each other, we become foreigners. The film shows this vividly in the way of language.)
As for whether James plays here or directly becomes the husband of a French woman, It is no longer important, he is a legitimate copy, has all his functions, faces all his problems, and may get the same answer. (This also proves his point of view in the book "Legal Copy")

Both actors are gods.

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Extended Reading
  • Joanie 2022-03-27 09:01:23

    Like the short film in "New York I Love You"! This kind of book is really not something that ordinary actors can hold up. Very easily destroyed. Good thing it didn't! Juliet Binoche is just good-looking, and it's not too much of an actress, but it seems that there are better actresses this year.

  • Alexzander 2022-04-02 09:01:14

    TORO VAN DARKO's short comment expressed what I thought, but I was still a little bored.

Certified Copy quotes

  • James Miller: I'm afraid there's nothing very simple about being simple.

  • James Miller: It seems to me that the human race is the only species who have forgotten the whole purpose of life, the whole meaning of existence is to have fun, to have pleasure. And here is someone who's found their own way to do it. We shouldn't judge them for it. If they're happy and enjoying life, we should congratulate them, not criticize them.