The Lover is a tale of how prejudice on both parties keeps two lovers apart to the point where a happy ending is impossible. Unfortunately, the girl's status as a prostitute prevents them from having any other kind of connection. She agrees to perform this task primarily as a form of escape, despite the fact that the money won't hurt given the state of the failing rice farm and the drug debts owed by her evil older brother.
Its undeniable appeal can be attributed to the theme moral conundrum it presents. Incidents of young girls searching to explore their sexuality, and sophisticated and wealthy older men offering potentially new adventures for them is a classic moral dilemma that many people identify. The older man being a Chinese foreigner throws in another spanner of racial prejudice that numerous people recognize. Its then confident that the fact that the two lovers endeavoured to get off the shackles of their races and discover their fantasies was quite appealing to the masses and hence became popular.
Mr. Annaud’s film arouses an anxiety that is guarded with tempered excitement. The other emotions have significantly shaped my understanding of the film. For instance, I have come to understand the authority in his treatment of the main materials. Also, though photographed in a steamy way; it possesses a peculiar kind of innocence. Finally, the impact is unexpectedly sad, but in a way, it has nothing to associate with pity.
Zola’s Nana
Following closely in the footsteps of the second half of the nineteenth century’s literary trend was the resurfacing of naturalism. Emile Zola in Nana moulded a perfect classic of naturalism. It depicts an understanding that biological, hereditary and social factors determine life and as thus characters are immersed in a controlled experiment by the writer. Nana’s lack of talent is entirely forgiven as Nana is shown to be charismatic, good natured ad even smiles alongside with her audience. Regardless of her shortcomings; she finally wins the hearts of the male audience just as the writer also manages to influence my estimation about her conduct positively.
Moreover; despite being numerously depicted as precariously living between wealth and poverty, Zola; never shows her to be one who loves money, flinging and spending wildly. Ironically, while wearing expensive dresses, she frequently wonders where her money has gone and often borrows from her maid. While on the one hand Nana is depicted to be a fortune hunter who spends her lovers' fortunes without a second thought; Zola can still portray him as one that is also not without a heart. Such an ambiguity that is solely created by the dual artificial characterization of Nana cushions her from the hatred and abhorrence I harbor towards her immoral behaviors.
Sexual desires are distinct and separate from romantic love. The two, even though related, they are different institutions. Whereas sexual desires are temporary and are informed by quick emotional reflexes, romantic love is deep. It goes beyond surface evaluations of individuals like wealth and status. Romantic love, unlike sexual desires, is true. Moreover, it is unguarded and raw.
Dangerous Liaisons
Dangerous Liaisons, in itself, is comparatively of a small scope, having been filmed, mostly indoors. Mr Freres resists the hindsight temptation, as he also resists the unintelligent movie maker's eagerness to open up the play. Instead, Dangerous Liaisons unfolds in an epic fashion of two lovers who have now devoted themselves to the inherent pursuit of sexual liaisons. However; unlike the norm, there is not necessarily for utility or pleasure but for the power that it confers to the one that is loved. Power is everything.
Cecile's sexual initiation is executed in a cunning yet entertaining manner. Marquise asks Valmont to seduce Cecile's, man. Valvot that is eyed by Cecile has a strange idea. It is the idea that dawn on Cecile. Simply put; it is a pleasure to convince the wife to surrender herself without at one point abandoning her principles.
Mr Frear's film substantially alters my view on sexual initiation and the psychology of love and desire. Succinctly it provides me with a first base of appreciating the different perceptions that each has on emotion quantum such as love. Indeed, the film opens my mind to the conception that regardless of the perceived union of those that get into love; behind the curtains is a myriad of unresolved or conflicting individual principles.
Ancient Perspective on Love, Sex, and Desire
Desire is the most striking element of romantic love. Love, sex, and desire have been presented in the ancient texts to be as old as humankind. Interestingly from the texts, it's crystal clear that even though desire and sex existed, they were rarely encouraged. The ancient texts view these three constructs as primitive and furthermore a threat to the political, religious and social order.
Reluctantly, yet steadily; once it dawned that love, sex and desire were here to stay, the texts made amends. For instance, the most modern of the texts began a campaign of westernization. Basically; this was an increase in the insistence on plain individualism, the desirability of attaining happiness through a metamorphosis of the traditional approaches to love and sex. However, their approach did more to mystify the already muddled up concepts of love, sex, and desire.
The ancient perspective principally diverges from my view of these three elements. First and foremost, desire is universal and is founded on biological principles of sexual selection. On the other hand, Love is culture specific and is significantly based on cultural and historical traditions. Therefore, unlike the ancient commentary on the preceding that characterized love, sex, and desire in their purest form, I posit that traditional behaviours and cultural values impacts on the experiences and expressions of love.
Final Remarks
From the preceding it is evident that as much as ancient texts to a great extent laid the foundations of understanding societal constructs like love, it is high time that modern filmmakers adopt literary realism. Literary realism is the stylistic feature that combines the half-truths of postmodernism while holding to the great doctrines of modernism that correctly places our discourse in the correct tense.
Traditional approaches that often depend on an omniscient narrator and adhere to the unities of place and time creates an illusion of significance and order which is not consistency with the nature of the modern experience. Therefore; the task of contemporary filmmakers is to foster change by doing away with any technique that imposes a particular interpretation on events.
Accordingly, so as to appreciate the preceding; it’s my hope that we will considerably take the time to analytically study Robbe Grillet’s In The Labyrinth (1957) that offers a perfect example of how to strike a balance between fictionalizing and maintaining the realism or at least a residual associative logic in films.
