Text: Overnight flowers
Tennessee Williams, a well-known American playwright of the 20th century, based on his Pulitzer award-winning repertoire, the film "Desire StreetCar" and "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof", is based on the interpretation of popular culture idols such as Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, and has a profound influence in later generations.
After the success of both films, the film Summer Fever, based on another of its classic repertoire, was released in 1959. Elizabeth Taylor and Catherine Hepburn co-starred in two legendary women, and both received nominations for Best Actress at the 32nd Academy Awards.
"The Streetcar of Desire" interprets an irreversible change of civilization through gender, class conflict (the declining manor nobleman Blanche, the nascent worker force Stanley);
"Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" tells the collapse, disintegration and disintegration of the traditional big family in the south, showing the change of value system and behavior concept;
What is reflected behind it is that with the demise of the southern plantation economy and the rise of industrial civilization in the north, material civilization reshapes the values of modern people, and the elegance, romance, loyalty, and kindness of the former south no longer exist, replaced by the unbridled materialism and the indifference, hypocrisy and sadness of the interpersonal relationship that follows; those who are conformist, untimely, at a loss, and nostalgic for the past, under invisible persecution, eventually lead to destruction.
From a certain point of view, under similar themes or story backgrounds, the social ills and human weaknesses touched by "Summer Obsession" are no less than the first two. Subject to hollywood's "Hayes Code" at the time, the film used a lot of metaphors and hints in many places, so at the beginning of the film's release, the focus of attention was on the thriller, suspense and the wonderful performances of the two screen goddesses.
Today, it has jumped out of the limitations of the vision of the times, and seems to be able to better spy the impact of the film under the conservative cultural concepts of Hollywood in the past.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01. From the natural jungle to the world of capital: the cruelty of the "profit-hungry" of the money society</h1>
The film "Summer Ghost" strengthens Tennessee's usual symbolic methods through visual imagery - from the "brutal" Venus flycatcher in the ecological garden, to the sea eagle that eats sea turtles on the beach, to the slaughter of individuals by the brutal tribe on the beach at the end, the scene of cruel killing, mutual cruelty and mutual slaughter between creatures, and mutual dumping, exposing the social interests of money, the psychology of greed and greed that ultimately devours all reason and goodness, and becomes the utilitarian law of survival and desire.
The male protagonist of the film, Dr. Cookwicz, is a doctor from Chicago, and his identity as the spokesman of industrial civilization and modern science is self-evident. At the beginning of the movie, the road breaks the industry dilemma faced by the male protagonist: as a doctor in a nursing home, although he is "benevolent" and has a righteous and kind heart, he has to be subject to the rules of money operation behind the nursing home. The old medical equipment and the rough and rigid management all show that the guise of science and technology and the cloak of civilization still cannot wrap up the greedy heart of collapse and degeneration.
Tennessee's exposure of the chain of interests in the society of money is not limited to this specific period of transition from the pastoral society of the south to the industrial era of the north, but expands the perspective from the law of the jungle of nature to the modern society that advocates science and flaunts rationality- the primitive competitive psychology of natural selection and the predation of the weak. Thus, when the idealized divinity cannot hide the primitive wildness of doing whatever it takes to survive, the true face of human nature is profoundly written.
In the film "Summer Obsession", this cruelty is vividly presented in the indifference and sadness of human affection after the mutual use of people and the lack of love and compassion.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02. Escape and indulgence, resistance and madness: two attitudes against fate</h1>
Madame de Vinapo is a representative of this domestication of the law of money, and her appearance is given a full sense of ceremony. Madame Vinapou appears in a condescending posture, riding an automatic elevator under the eyes of everyone, as if at the top of the survival chain.
At the same time, Mrs. Venapo also possessed the typical characteristics of the "southern woman" in Tennessee's work. The historical background of the plantation economy and black slavery has created the inherent conservatism of cultural traditions; at the same time, it lags behind the closedness and backwardness of northern industrial and commercial culture, resulting in a conformist character.
Thus, the utopia of escaping reality, indulging in the past, and creating illusions became a way for the fallen aristocracy to fight against fate and dissolve itself. Madame de Vinapo always flaunted her son's nobility, elegance, and purity, and her words and deeds were also elegant and restrained under the moral discipline of the standard southern nobility.
Her excessive fascination with her son and almost deformed dependence are the overly distorted and alienated pathological psychology under the domestication of traditional thinking.
In the plantation era, women did not participate in the substantive division of labor, they needed to abide by the aesthetic standards of male aristocrats, gain the recognition and appreciation of male aristocrats, and obtain social status and survival resources, which is the tragic root of their thinking.
Therefore, Mrs. Vinapo needs to protect her son's reputation and cover up the moral stain of the family, not only to prove that her style is flourishing and Shaohua is still there, but also essentially needs to maintain the family's upbringing, to maintain her decent and noble social status and public opinion situation as an aristocrat.
Catherine Hepburn, who plays Mrs. Vinapo, has a more accurate presentation of Mrs. Vinapo than it is of the times. On the one hand, she captures the essence of her character: arrogant, arrogant, conceited and elegant; on the other hand, she embodies the tragic nature of Madame Vinapo in the words and deeds of the characters, and her desire to control her son and her attachment to "reputation" not only makes her extremely morbid, cold, and cruel, behind her vanity, but also the tragedy of her as a martyr and victim of the old ritual religion. Therefore, her demeanor is always flashing sadness and vulnerability in addition to arrogance.
If Madame De Vinapo's indulgence in the sweet fantasies of the past is to escape the decline of Southern civilization with pathos and madness; then the younger generation of Southern women represented by Catherine shows the continuity of tragedy. She witnessed the true cause of death of Sebastian, the son of her aunt, Madame Vinapo, and was sent to a nursing home as a psychopath. In order to protect her son's reputation and family interests, the aunt used money to drive the doctor to do "lobectomy" for him.
Therefore, the spirit of rebellion and resistance in Catherine's personality has become a different kind in her aunt's eyes. The aunt uses money and status to cover up the truth and maintain honor: Catherine, instead of choosing to whitewash the truth for money, tries to expose Sebastian's selfish nature and the fact that his private morality is at stake. Her resistance paid a huge price.
The huge sanatorium is a metaphor for the "mechanical cage" of modern civilized society, like a large machine, domesticating all free thoughts and souls into the law of money, the operation of interests under the operation of no personality, lifeless screws.
Therefore, the hopelessness and helplessness of Catherine's escape is not only the truth under the most superficial operation of money, but also a portrayal of the situation in which individuals are difficult to escape under the domestication of the social machine. At the end of the film, Mrs. Vinapo chooses to continue to indulge in the sweet fantasies of her former son and continue to be corrupted; and Catherine, after releasing the truth, together with the doctor Kevich, defends the ideal pure land of the money age with goodness and justice.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03</h1>
Under the restrictions of the Hollywood "Hayes Code" at that time, some secret feelings could only be implied through words.
If in "Cat on the Hot Tin Roof", the "identity" problem of "gay" son Brick is still due to the traditional concept of thinking, the hostility and prejudice against "sexual minorities", Brick's anxiety, mental trance, and intoxication and exile, which is his self-repressed spiritual dilemma; then in "Summer Obsession", the description of the dead Sebastian and his same-sex feelings is more with the author Tennessee Williams' self-examination, analysis and reflection on his own concept of love.
Sebastian, the mother of Thevenapov, is the elegance and nobility glorified by his wishful thinking. Sebastian does not care about the background of the secular world, wealth and status, but pays attention to elegance and charm, and is obsessed with youth and beauty. As a result, he uses money to satisfy his desires, and in his greedy pursuit of the good, which is almost obsessive, he leads to self-destruction (he attracts attention with the beautiful appearance of his cousin Catherine, and is repulsed in endless profligacy).
This is the author Tennessee himself, who has long been intoxicated by alcohol, his panic of "desire eating the soul", his criticism and introspection of self-guilt: people of the same sex need both the respect of others and their own introspection. Because it is impossible to be constrained by traditional ties such as family, marriage, and blood, in the flood of desire, the loss of emotion, and the endless splurge, it is easy to fall into hopeless nothingness and inner emptiness.
Today, the mainstream "same-sex movies" and "LGBT themes" are still only in the simple exploration of "sexual minorities should be respected", and the confusion caused by Tennessee's material civilization to people's spirits is not only beyond the traditional family and between the sexes, but also broadened to the blind spots of some traditional themes, which is undoubtedly very forward-looking.
What causes escapism, fantasy, and self-destruction? Many times, people like to attribute the dilemma of the self to the limitations of external factors under objective conditions, thereby reducing the sense of guilt of the self and reducing the responsibility of the self, which is undoubtedly with a certain degree of escapism and self-paralysis. In the movie "Summer Obsession", Tennessee's introspection is really admirable.
If it is said that the mutual use and mutual encroachment between people is something that human beings cannot get rid of under the drive of the will to survive, then the spirit of daring to self-analyze, lash out, reflect and criticize is still the responsibility and responsibility that idealists can practice in the cruel reality.