nos When there is a love like rising of the sun, so, AFFA is c us
to horizon with his rays and kisses everything it touches. Similarly, the superb soundtrack the Lebanese Gabriel Yare d ac companion and Review This film the wonderful photography. The tenderness of feeling arising between the two protagonists, is underscored by the delicacy with which begins the musical score, a background that comes quietly accompanied by the notes of a call to Merav iglioso lla remote China, but close and palpable as the two hands that you seek, then meet and are interwoven tightly, presaging something deep and strongly denied, in the face of evidence that neither of the two main characters want em etter alc a sound, because he is afraid to ruin the atmosphere reigning in quell'aurora overtones of passion and feelings.
I saw this movie on TV for the first time in 1992, shortly after its release , but I've never enjoyed a full, half, and having seen almost always constantly disturbed by the talk of the neighbor of I mentioned in Children of a Lesser God. Then, in late August 2006, the gift made me LA 7, tv sempre molto attenta al cine ma cinese, su cui è spesso possibile assistere a qualche film eccezional e come questo o Vivere! o Addio, mia concubina (che commenterò).
Ero ancora in ferie, presso la mia famglia d'origine, e non c'è bisogno di aggiungere che, anche in questa seconda occasione, sono s tata interrotta e disturbata nella visione, più vo lte. Tanto più che, essendoci scene piuttosto scabrose, non potevo avere la tranquillità di seguirlo. Infatti, LA 7 è stata molto accorta a mandarlo in onda verso mezzanotte. Pochi mesi dopo, però, mi sono rifatta , comperando il dvd, perché non ce la facevo a restare senza.
Ma torniamo a noi.
Avevo già d a tempo comperato (nel 2002) il libro di Margherite Duras e, pur proponendomi di leggerlo quanto prima, ho sempre anteposto altre letture a questo.
Premetto che il libro da me in possesso è L'amante della Cina del Nord e non L'amante, da c ui il film è effettivamente tratto. Seguendo però i dialog hi del film non ho trovato molta differenza col rifacimento della Duras, tanto più che il libro è accompagnato da chiare raccomandazioni riguardanti un altro eventuale film.
In effetti, il p rimo libro uscì nel 1984 e nel 1990 il regista French director Jean Jacques Annaud thought of making and a movie with Tony Leung Ka Fai, in the role of the lover of China, and with then-rookie Jane March in the role of the young Marguerite Duras. Only the writer strongly contested this production that he had not done justice to the real love story. It seems that, according to Duras, Ann aud I had emphasized the explosive eroticism of the couple, leaving quietly feelings, especially of the girl. Indeed, which one is willing to admit we went to the heart is only half himself, the Chinese, never her. Even though in the film there are scenes where ragazzina fa sottintendere, con un silenzioso pianto, il sentimento per l'amante, più grande il doppio dei suoi anni, per l'impossibilità di un eventuale sviluppo della loro storia, poichè lui è promesso, da anni, ad una ragazza che presto dovr à sposare per dovere verso la propria famiglia ricca e potente.
Nel FILM la giovane Marguerite risulta maggiormente amareggiata dal fatto che si rende conto ch e, pur essendo impossibile un futuro con quell'uomo che la fa impazzire, non può più neanche essere presa in considerazione da lui e dalla comunità perché ha consumato c iò che doveva serbare for an eventual marriage. In fact, both the French and the Chinese on this subject, have always been the concord : a na don who had lost their virginity before marriage, was banned and move away, branded as a no-good, an outcast. But
start again, just to follow a thread that will allow us to put together and understand fragments of film and book.
The PLOT
this is for both.
French Indochina in 1929 a fifteen-middle class family, fell into disgrace
, meets on the ferry that goes from D-Sa c in Saigon, where he attended high school, a young and rich Chinese nullafa percent of about 27 years (in book, 32 in the film). He has just returned from Paris where he had been following the economic sciences for his father's wishes, because he is the heir to an immense fortune, being the first and only son of his first wife. In order not to squander the wealth, the rich Chinese used to leave everything in the hands of the eldest son, preferably the first and honorable wife. And it is precisely the case . Education and travel in the West served to the mparare administer wisely, in the near future, the large family fortune.
The young Chinese know that the girl on the ferry that day is beautiful and charming, refined and elegant as a true French. Western dress, traveling with so much of a big limousine with driver, he too impeccably decked Western. He has already noticed the girl à overlooking the Mekong, the only white in the middle of many natives.
wearing a silk dress indigenous - Duras wrote the book in a white-yellowish, in his head is a man's hat in felt-brimmed flat bordered by a black ribbon. The shoes scuffed dance floor in some lame black with rhinestones, will accompany the years and will be even more reason to scorn, initially, by the Chinese, when asked without shame: - Go to school with these shoes? - While accompanying with his bubble to Leon Morris retired Lyautey, where d sleep when you hold in Saigon.
It 's the daughter of the headmistress of the school of Sa Dec, a poor there Moldova, fall into misery and deception without mercy, after the death of her husband, state owned by officials of the French colony as a result of some bad investments.
The children are three. There is Pierre, the eldest, an opium addict, thief and lazy . He steals his mother, steals the servants while continuing to play games of chance and paid in opium Fumerie, where sometimes commette altri furti. E' prepotente e violento. La sua vittima preferita è il fratello minore, Paul, il secondogenito, su cui inveisce con ogni genere di violenza.
Paul subisce passivamente perché è profondamente debole e vulnerabile e, molto spesso, nasconde, con la musica del suo pianoforte, le urla e il terrore che regnano in casa quando Pierre si scatena.
L'ultima figlia è la giovane Marguerite, che vuole scrivere per ammazzare, metaforicamente, quel fratello violento e salvare l'altro. Per dare un futuro dignitoso a quella disastrata famiglia, soprattutto alla sua infelice madre, la quale, ciononostante, preferisce sempre il figlio più grande agli altri due.
L'incontro di Marguerite con quel cinese della Manciuria, alto, bello e con la pelle scura dei cinesi del Nord, sarà fatale per entrambi. Quando lui le offrirà una sigaretta, sul traghetto, la ragazzina lo scruterà insistentemente e senza ritegno, guardandolo in maniera insolente, fino a che non gli chiederà lui chi è.
Il Cinese, chiarita la sua identità e dove vive, le offrirà un passaggio nella sua macchina, una volta sbarcati, fino al pensionato. E tra una do manda e l'altra, una risata e l'altra, si arriva al commento irriverente delle scarpine di raso così malridotte, di cui prima. Lei sta al gioco e lo invita scherzare di più su quel particolare. Ma non sa che è da quel momento che le si imprimerà nella mente ogni particolare, ogni suono, ogni odore della città cinese, ogni particolare di quella macchina e di lui, ch e non dimen ticherà mai più.
E' a questo punto che smettono di ridere e guardano altrove imb arazzati. Hanno smesso di ridere, di muoversi, di parlare e fingono di guardare fuori verso la "monotonia esterna", consapevoli che qualcosa, simile al silenzio calato in quell'auto, sta piombando su di loro.
Nel LIBRO è la ragazzina (qui chiamata la bambina, dalla Dur as) ad iniziare il contatto fisico con l'uomo.
HAND
Marguerite will never know if he slept or not, when she takes the m anus and watches it closely as an object ever seen the hand of a Chinese man. The ring has a large gold ring with a diamond. That hand is beautiful, thin-skinned and amber. Then, suddenly, does not look or touch it anymore. Let her go without knowing whether he sleeps or not. Bring that hand to hold it in your sleep with him. Then he falls asleep. Upon waking to resume dialogue just to get better acquainted. After a while, lulled by the rocking of the car in motion, is tempted to let go once again to sleep, but fails because he is so close, so this
... At some point, the Chinese asked to close their eyes and with the same hand, which she covered the first p oco, caresses her face, lips, eyes, and then say something China, which is impossible to translate, by the way his body. He does not understand, he explains, is the first time he ever feel those feelings. The man or continue along the path to her body, as taken from own will, then suddenly withdraws scared.
The route with the car still interspersed with a few questions about both her age, for example, that he is sure of, increased by lying. Then nuovo il silenzio. Quel silenzio che già parlava d'amore. “Un amore accecante. Sempre in divenire. Mai dimenticato”, (p. 40).
Poi l'arrivo al pensionato. Si lasciano senza voltarsi, senza guardarsi. Senza conoscersi più.
Nel FILM la ragazzina, sia pur con reticenza, saluta e r
ingrazia il C inese, il quale, invece, resta senza parole a guardarla sopraffatto dalle emozioni e strozzato da quella esplosiva novità che non ha mai provato.
Qualche mattina dopo, si a nel libro che nel film, alle 7,3 0, dirigendosi al liceo, lei lo rivede.
He's there in his black limousine, with its impeccable driver. And 'the the beginning of the story, then write the Duras.
Across the road, the girl walks slowly toward him. It will look a bit ', then she, resting her hand on the window, let impr it a kiss with your eyes closed, as was seen done in movies.
The Chinese looked ato and lowers his eyes, consumed by an irrational desire for little more than a creature bambi na, q uindi she runs away to school. E 'late.
quit school, BOOK , he is back there waiting, hidden in his Leon bubble, protected by white curtains.
The girl goes to the machine with the sandals in hand and the driver, already down, opens the door to pick him up and sit next to his master.
Sitting side by side, despite the embarrassment, shaking and confess their mutual desire.
arrive in Cholon, Saigon's little farther. Through the Chinese city "with the roar of the old tram without advancing ... stop playing ... they hang clusters of children Cholon" ( p. 53). Then, suddenly, the crowd is gone. As if by magic is scomparsa. C'è solo la quiete. Il rumore, pur rimanendo invariato, si allontana.
La macchina ha imboccato una via di capanne a schiera, tipiche dell'Indocina. Ci sono delle fontanelle, dei portici ed è in quel villaggio, sotto un portico, che lui la condurrà davanti ad una porta che aprirà sulla modesta oscurità di una stanza spoglia e con pochi mobili: un letto, una poltrona e un tavolo. E' quella la garçonniere o camera dello scapolo, destinata, nelle famiglie ricche cinesi, ai giovani rampolli per portarci le loro amanti. E' un'usanza ormai consolidata da tempo fra quelli del suo ceto, spiega il Cinese. E' in quella stanza che avverrà l'iniziazione sessuale e sentimentale it should do the Marguerite.
But he has second thoughts and wants to take her away. It 's too small, he says, can not do this to her. So she will take the initiative to kick off the story that will be the inspiration of other great novels of the future writer.
The rest, I the L
IBRO in question, if not exactly faithful to the film, it goes over quite similar. The elements that unite the two works are the poverty of the girl to and his family, the violence of Pierre, the elder brother and contempt for the natives by whites, and for all that is China, including the rich girl's amantte.
However, what differs from the film, in this book, is the constant presence of love, which always tries to peep. He openly admits from the outset. The the no. A feeling which, however, surrender and accept openly , only later. In
FILM not the girl you let go the feeling. Think it's just the unbridled desire to dominate the story. Only at the end, when it is already far away, admit to herself that he loved and in love with this fascinating Chinese. In
BOOK Marguerite is instead literally forced by circumstances to leave for France, a project that the mother had in me nte, but that does not make up his mind never to realize. It will be the father of the Chinese to force the girl and her family to leave, because he knows that his son is madly in love with her and no longer wants to marry the girl promised to him ten years earlier. He just wants to go, take her away and breaking all the programs and the most ancient traditions. But he can not do it, because his father disinherited him and leaves him a chance. And he would end without his money.
After all, admit the Duras, he never had the courage to violate his father's wishes. This is why the girl left without resistance, though crushed by sorrow and with a broken heart, looking from a distance, leaning against the ship's rail, sea, like that day on the ferry that took her to Saigon, where he had known. But now the same limousine, which had been the scene of their love and witness, was not there to travel with her, but down on land, hidden behind a thousand things. Even if he was there for her with him. And he was nothing more than a form abandoned in a corner. Married. With another.
Many years later the Chinese will rec ò in Paris with his wife and children, and phoned his great love of youth solo per sentire la sua voce. Aveva tremato per la paura e per l'emozione ed era stato quello a far riconoscere alla non più giovane Margherite l'identità del suo interlocutore, perché in quei casi veniva fuori l'accento cinese del Nord e lei, quell'accento, lo ricordava fin troppo bene.
Secondo lui, aveva continuato a dirle il Cinese al telefono, la loro storia era rimasta come un tempo. Non avrebbe potuto mai smettere di amarla e l'avrebbe amata fino alla morte.
CONSIDERAZIONI PERSONALI SU LIBRO E FILM
Grandi differenze, a dire la verità, nei particolari non ne ho trovate. Il FILM è abbastanza faithful to this remake of The Lover, the original novel, ch Annaud and inspired and that I have not yet had the opportunity to read. So I do not know what the director has changed in the script than the original writing of Duras.
In FILM things most successful, in my opinion, are the perfect reconstruction of Indochina in 1930, with the photograph beautifully melancholy, and the unsurpassable leitmotif of the superb soundtrack by Gabriel Yared.
As for the cast of actors, I'd give the Oscar to Tony Leug Ka Fai, the male protagonist, who, besides being a wonderful man - and during the movie you can widely admired - (I know, I'm biased), it fell perfectly into her character, soft and sensual, a sacrificial victim, desperately in love with a girl cruel, seemingly heartless, the use and exploitation, selling and taking advantage of his feelings and its wealth. Are remarkable close-ups on the face of the actor moving, so ready to assume an expression of anger before and after a moment of desperation another one with lots of tears. No coincidence that Tony Leung Ka Fai won two awards in his country to other interpretations. Even
Frederique Meninger, the actress who plays the mother of Duras, is very good in his tragicomic role of underdog. What
instead left me somewhat perplexed is the drab female lead, the then seventeen year old English Jane March. Unconvincing and rather chilly compared to the sensual character that was supposed to play, still prey to the sensuous pleasure. The March seems to have been placed there almost by accident. A nothing, or at least recently, has served the many nudes, sighs and groans of pleasure during lovemaking issued under the script. In short, it seemed to me the revelation that they wanted to argue, as instead it was the obvious talents of Jodie Foster in his debut.
director JJ Annaud there is much to say, but his reference to the many articulate and eclectic biography information available online. Him just know that here is the brilliant director of the tri famous film of remarkable success, as Black and White in color, which earned him an Oscar in 1976, The Name of the Rose (1986), Seven Years in Tibet (1998).
some curiosity '
This film, Annaud's film career has been defined as "a challenge, because the director is speaking as the bodies of the protagonists can no dialogue" (source: the network). In fact, he himself, in an interview, he explained: "The film is the story of a conflict between reason and feeling, and the idea is the rejection of the body, the mind has difficulty accepting the material and the instinct of desire. " No coincidence that the 7, as I mentioned earlier, wisely sent air this movie at midnight, there being rather passionate scene. And - here I opened a short period - I do not understand just how to define "for all", as it appears on the DVD, a movie like that, which should rather be available to persons age 16-14 years.
But back to us.
The FILM The first lover to be distributed in theaters was already famous for its explicit sex scenes in the film. Indeed, it seems that this brought some mange the director. In fact, during processing, the female protagonist, Jane March, was clearly minor, having been born in 1973.
In addition, it appears that the sex scenes in the movie were not just fiction. And knowing the proverbial and obsessive perfectionism of the director Annaud, it's no wonder that it had happened.
Marguerite Duras
- BIOGRAPHICAL
Born in Saigo n, Vietnam, in 1914, his real surname was Bonnaud.
In 1932, he left Vietnam, he moved to Paris where he subsequently worked in the editorial.
In 1943 he was an 'activist of the French Resistance. After the war, iscrittasi the Communist Party, from which, considered a dissident was expelled in 1950.
literary debuted in 1942 with the novel's impudence. The success, however, smiled with the A dam on the Pacific (1950), which also opened the golden doors of the cinema, first as a screenwriter (remember Hiroshima, mon amour, Alain Resnais, 1959) and then as director (India Song, 1974).
Its main activity, however, remained predominantly as a writer. Among his large output (34 novels between 1943 and 1993) are to remember: The little garden, Moderato Cantabile, The afternoon of Mr. Andesmas blue eyes, hair blacks, as well as her lover.
Marguerite Duras died in Paris in 1996.
WHY 'HE WROTE THE LOVER And the lover of northern China.
The original work, the lover, was written in 1984, earned the Duras book that the famous and distinguished French literary award the Prix Goncourt, which told a part of his youth spent in Vietnam. Subsequently, in May 1990, the author learned about the death of the man, the protagonist of his book, a year before, six years after rewriting the story of their love. Only in the second draft that the story is deepened and extended because, after all, this experience is the root of all the literary works of Duras.
At the news of the death of her former lover, she wrote: "I never imagined that the Chinese would die for ... un anno ho ritrovato l'età dell'attraversamento del Mekong, sul traghetto di Vinh Long…Sono tornata a scrivere romanzi”, (pp. 9-10).
| | |