Thomas A. Edison Laboratory New Jersey
1885 : It has the possibility to provide images in succession, images of freedom, images that can give hope, images that can be shared by thousands of people at the same time. Will be kept there forever, all love and hatred can be through a kind of machine photography, can choose a screen, like a window, and reflect the reality.
Edison: That sounds interesting, William, continue your work and keep me informed.
The camera turns to the cemetery in the rain. Several men are standing in front of the tomb with umbrellas. The background sound of the movie projector is matched with the slide of the piano. It is sad, mournful and mournful. The lady's photo was pulled out of the room, and William sat in the dim corner, looking haggard and sad at the photo on the empty piano.
There is a flashback, the screen changes to color, a close-up of the film projector, a pair of man's hands are loading film film into the film projector, he closes the projector switch, the light flashes, and the subtitles are inserted -
Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You Are Going
This is the introductory part of the documentary-like fantasy film "Dead with Love" by Argentine director Elisio Zubiera.
Just by looking at the title, I already know that it is very romantic and fantastic: "Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going/You die, you have to tell me where you are going." It brings us infinite reverie, past and present life , How will the unforgettable love story be interpreted?
bizarre relationship
Four people, three souls, a robot, and a pot of plants are almost the whole of the film. The middle-aged Lebodo is a cowardly character. He and his father-in-law Dan Mario run the business in Buenos Aires. A near-bankrupt movie theater, barely making ends meet, his wife Susannah has been infertile for 20 years, his only friend Oscar is a disabled man in a wheelchair, a not-so-successful inventor, obsessed with making robots , while himself, holding a potted plant all day, indulges in the invention of the "dream collector", the story unfolds against such a background, it seems hopeless.
Rachel's soul, dressed in the style of the 1880s, appeared, and she told Liberdo that she was his lover in a previous life, a lover in a previous life, and they met for 300 years and fell in love with each other, and Lebodo's past life was exactly William who invented movies in Edison's lab! The story unfolds in such a true and illusory color, the past life and the present life are intertwined, the dream and the reality are brought together, and a love story is deduced. The soul, what's even more amazing is that only Rachel's soul, which can be seen by Lebodo, can also be felt by the robot Callitus invented by Oscar and the potted plant Anita. A layer of mysterious cloak.
Magical Apparel
Magical realism has always been the patent of Spanish America. The beginning of the film looks so absurd. Lebodo walks out of the cinema. His father-in-law tells him that only 10 tickets are sold today. Carrying Anita to attend the funeral of an elder of the Film Distribution and Screening Association. At the entrance of the mourning hall, the plant Anita began to tremble because of fear. Lebodo hurriedly took out an instrument to measure its frequency and recorded it carefully. With the sound of his heartbeat, Lebodo walked to the dead man lying among the flowers, who suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Don't let the dawn come near me!" Then everything was calm. Such a strange beginning lays the groundwork for the subsequent plot settings. The dream of the movie is about to wake up, and human beings need new dreams.
The film is intertwined in this fantasy and reality, traveling through time and space, and the extraordinary imagination shatters the ordinary ordinary, from New Jersey in the 19th century to modern Buenos Aires. From heaven to earth, one dream after another, when Rachel's soul appeared in the dream collector, it didn't feel abrupt at all, and their meeting in the movie theater seemed logical, and the reincarnation of the soul also seemed It's not so incredible, the robot and Rachel's soul walk side by side in the moonlight, so warm and harmonious, the director subtly set up one dream after another, Lebodo's dream, Suzanne's dream, Oscar's dream further the theme of love sublimation.
The perfect combination of sound, light and color In the middle of the
night , Lebodo was designing his dream collector. With the characterization of a series of images, the trembling of the eyes and plants, the vibration of the cup, the jumping of the oscilloscope, the lens slowly moved to the left, just As natural as entering the next room, Lebodo fell asleep, and the scene suddenly switched to the 19th century living room at the beginning of the film. The lady in the photo was playing the piano and singing. Lebodo was standing behind her in the clothes of the last century and silently, singing. In the middle, the camera cuts to the morning, and a ray of sunshine comes in from the window, shining on the shallow smile on Lebodo's face, a tear flows down his cheek, dripping on the leaves of the pot of plants, this is his first The first time I saw the scene of my lover in my previous life, different from other directors, this film has completely subverted the color, and the color and black and white are frequently switched. All the black and white dreams are so delicate and warm. After William's death After being reincarnated, Rachel searched for his lover among the hordes of reincarnated souls. She searched all over heaven, searched all the hospital maternity wards, and she shouted "William, William, where are you" ? When she saw the screen shot of the film in the cinema, she was so relieved to know that William had finally succeeded. This warm scene was deeply touching; on the contrary, the colorful reality footage made people confused and confused, with a hint of light of bitterness and sorrow.
The director's grasp of light and color is astonishing. The most unforgettable thing is that Lebodo sees his lover in his dreams and sees Rachel's soul standing on the aisle of the movie hall through the movie projection window. Soft piano, soft light, warm colors, you can hardly tell whether they meet in heaven or on earth. When they walked out of the cinema side by side to the street in the night, in the moonlight like water, Rachel was curious. Looking at the neon lights on the street and the windows with women's clothing, it looked like a pair of lovers who knew each other, fell in love, and stayed with each other for several lifetimes and never separated, and Rachel passed through the car like a fairy. On the road, light and shadow float, like a dream, giving people a kind of beautiful reverie; at the end of the film, when Rachel decided to be reincarnated again, they hugged and danced, and in the red sunset, there was no sadness, no sorrow, only beautiful Expectations and admonitions - when you die, remember to tell me where you are going.
Music plays an important role in the film. The stroking piano seems to comfort the faint sadness, and the meeting between dreams and dreams. The arias are interspersed, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes graceful, and soul-stirring.
Superb transformation of vision
Another distinctive feature of the film is the ease of visual transitions. When Rachel and Leberdo first came to Oscar's house, it was through the different visual transitions of the two that produced a strong dramatic effect. Leberdo told Oscar, "She "Just sitting in that chair in the room, Oscar looked at his friend in amazement as he fumbled with his hands in the air in his wheelchair, his vision turned back to Liberdo again, and he told Oscar that Rachel said he had invented in a previous life. The film projector is used to bring this dramatic effect to a climax. In later scenes, this visual transition is used repeatedly and a lot by the director without being noticed. If you don’t pay attention, you can hardly notice it. Whether it's on the tram or at the Lebodeau's house, there's almost no trace of visual transitions, and one of the most comical scenes is when the robot breaks the plate left by Susannah's grandmother, and Suzanne is crying and sitting in Rachel. Sitting in the chair, the two bodies overlapped. When Lebodo kissed and comforted his wife, Rachel turned her head away, and the picture looked like she had two heads; while the dinner scene was full of Philosophically speaking, Susannah was preparing dinner, Rachel was singing, she told Leberdo that to learn to love, first of all, start by happily eating the food that Susannah prepared on the table; and the most shocking thing is the two soul and body. Embrace, the first scene is when Rachel asks Lebodo to liberate himself from the three-dimensional vision that restricts him, he snuggles affectionately on his lover's body, and then the camera slowly pulls away, Ray. Chell was gone, and only Lebodo was sitting on a chair and kept cuddling. The second time was when Lebodo met his father's soul. The father and son hugged tightly in the movie screening room, and Rachel stood at the door of the screening room. Looking at the two of them with a smile, as the camera moves closer, only Lebaud is holding his shoulders. However, don't think that the transformation of these two visions is the director's flaw, which is precisely the film's careful arrangement.
dreamer, dying with love
As Rachel said to the robot, you don't have a soul and I don't have a body, if only we could combine! Dressed in the bizarre garb of souls and robots, the film tells the story of life, death, love and dreams. Leberdo said to Dan Mario: "Humans are like walking dead if they don't have dreams." When the dream of "movie" invented by William gradually declined, the new dream of "dream collector" was again Emergence, when Oscar was first confronted with a shot of Rachel on a computer screen, he expressed his ecstasy with a rude gesture: "If it was like this, imagination could make movies without the need for a camera to shoot them...go It's Edison! Go to its movies!"
But the Dream Collector is not the whole of the movie, it's just a tool to reach the love of the soul through which Suzanne finds first love, Oscar finds first love, and his Father-in-law Dan Mario saw hope from the dream collector, and he did not hesitate to hand over the income from selling the movie theater to Lebodo. He said: "We can buy another movie theater after we make money." And Rachel's love It is pure, she chooses to silently stand beside the reincarnated Lebodo until he is in the most difficult time. Her appearance makes Lebodo regain his love. In pain, she encouraged him: "Your job as a projectionist succeeding your father is over, you can give more, and you waste your creativity in order to live in poverty." And her final She left because she knew that life is perfect when the soul and the body are combined. The soul is eager to miss and dream. Unfortunately, human beings often use their minds instead of their souls to remember and love, although love is the only possible way to live.
The final implication of the film is very profound. Rachel was reincarnated and came to Lebbodo to become their daughter. Under the clear sky, the father and daughter were playing on the lawn. Flocks of butterflies flew from the father's palm to the sky, and the bright sun was shining. In them, it is a sublimation of love, which tells us that love has many different forms: not only love of lovers, but also love of father and daughter, love of brothers...
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