The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1332: Thousand Faces of Love
There is undoubtedly a difference between screenwriters and screenwriters——

Look at Charlie Kaufman, who sketches out an intricate relationship with just a few strokes, but stops at the right point, avoiding wasting more effort on affecting the narrative rhythm. In the narrative space of a dragonfly touching on the water, he interweaves and intertextualizes with the main line and the protagonist, which not only completes his own narrative, but also creates sparks with the main line.

This level of skill already puts him in the top 1% of the pyramid in Hollywood.

From this we can see that Charlie Kaufman has a deep understanding of the core, framework and branches of the entire story, which is also reflected in other branches and supporting characters.

Dr. Howard and his wife.

From beginning to end, Dr. Howard and his wife's scenes together last no more than three minutes, and their dialogue is only five sentences. The audience may not even remember his wife's name, Hollis.

However, with just a few strokes, it is easy to arouse the audience's resonance, because there are so many such marriages in real life:
It exists in name only and is barely maintained by inertia.

Their emotions have long been worn away and disappeared in the trivialities of their marriage life. They may not even have much to say to each other when they meet at home. The bond that maintains their relationship is difficult to describe accurately. Maybe it is love, maybe it is family affection, or maybe they are just partners in living together.

Dr. Howard made a mistake once, and Holly chose to forgive him, but behind this simple word, no one knew what Holly had been through.

When Dr. Howard received a call from Stan in the middle of the night and went to Joel's apartment to work, Hollis hid in the dark shadows behind him. She watched Dr. Howard answer the phone, but she couldn't control her suspicion, worried that Dr. Howard might be going to date Mary again.

The facts proved her fear.

In the eyes of the audience, Hollis cannot forgive her husband a second time; but now when she calms down and thinks about it, it is not so much that she cannot forgive, but rather that Hollis is tired. She is tired of the suspicions, the worries, and the uneasiness. She is tired of herself who has become unrecognizable after working so hard to maintain this marriage.

Jealousy and fear made her ugly.

So Hollis said to Mary: You can have him.

Stan and Mary.

In some ways, Stan is a more passive and introverted type than Joel. He has been waiting for Mary silently.

Normally in the clinic, he tried his best to appear in front of Mary to attract Mary's attention in this way; when he was at Joel's apartment, he noticed the wonderful atmosphere between Mary and Dr. Howard, and he took the initiative to leave. It was not because he didn't like them, but because he liked them too much, so he chose to cheer for Mary's happiness.

His love was pure and simple, and he even kept it in his heart most of the time. He didn't mind Mary liking someone else, nor did he expect Mary to reciprocate his feelings.

From a certain perspective, love is a personal matter from beginning to end. Even in a relationship, love is always centered on oneself. It appears, disappears, becomes strong, or becomes cold. It is always centered on oneself. Although the movie does not further explore the level of unrequited love/secret love like the movie "Love in a Short Film", it has to be said that Charlie Kaufman grasped the essence.

In Charlie Kaufman's opinion, this is perfect love——

A lonely and hopeless perspective.

Patrick and Clementine.

Strictly speaking, this is not "like".

Patrick is too young and immature. He has never experienced love, so in his dictionary, love is vague and he does not have a clear concept:
Conquest is love, possession is love, dependence is love, pity is also love. Patrick calls Clementine "old woman", from which we can see that he is trying to conquer Clementine, take the initiative in love, and prove the strength of men in this way, which is also what he learned from social life; but he is too young and does not know how to conquer, so he clumsily imitates all the actions of Joel in Clementine's diary.

At the same time, here Patrick plays the role of a "clone". He imitates Joel's actions and awakens the memories deep in Clementine's soul. This is the reason why Clementine inexplicably went to Montauk Beach that morning and met Joel for the third time there.

Judging from this projection effect, after her memory was erased, Clementine still briefly "fell in love" with an illusion, an illusion of Joel.

It is so painful and so resolute, but I still step into the same river again.

So, is this fate, or is it a tragedy?

Rob and Kelly.

Finally, this couple of Joel's friends also don't have much screen time in the movie, only slightly more than Hollies, but they project too many of Charlie Kaufman's ideas onto them.

Rob and Kylie appeared twice in total.

The first time was when Joel couldn't understand why Clementine seemed to not recognize him at all. Rob and Kelly had an argument over whether they should show Joel the card that was mistakenly sent by the Oblivion Clinic. Rob's aggressiveness contrasted sharply with Kelly's rage.

The second time was when they went to a beach party in Montauk. Kelly kept trying to prove that she could act independently. She even took the initiative to move the heaviest freezer, but Rob ignored her and ended up failing. Then Kelly tried to help move the remote-controlled plane, but Rob treasured his toys so much that he refused.

It can be seen at this point that Rob's naivety, selfishness, and indifference - to some extent, the same as Dr. Howard, who has neither grown up nor matured; perhaps when they were in love, this was why Kelly liked Rob, that innocence and purity, but after marriage it evolved into something she had to endure.

Kelly has been trying to prove herself, emphasize her voice, and have a place in the family, but Rob has never cared.

If Dr. Howard and Hollis represent one kind of family relationship, Rob and Kelly represent another kind of family relationship. The difference between Kelly and Hollis is that Kelly can never make up her mind to leave Rob, and keeps using all kinds of excuses to excuse Rob and find reasons for herself to maintain her marriage.

Is it sad?
Maybe it is true in the eyes of outsiders, who feel very disappointed with their children; but in real life, only Rob and Kelly know whether it is worth it.

In addition, there is Naomi, who has always lived in Joel's words.

Naomi never shows up, but from what Clementine says, she mistakenly believes Joel and Naomi are married, which they are not.

Joel and Naomi don't seem to have a serious quarrel, but the point is that they don't have any passion, they just muddle through and maintain the relationship in a muddle-

love?

In fact, in real life, it is a luxury. In most stable relationships and marriages, it never exists.

Inadvertently, this also reflects another point of view of Charlie Kaufman.

(End of this chapter)