Out of Africa: A Woman's Epic

In robert mckee's Out of Africa, there is an ironic story: a rich girl who lives in the ethics of "I am what I have" married a man she didn't love in order to be a baroness, transported her furniture from Denmark to Africa and built a manor there. Her self-definition is her possessions, and even her workers call her people. Her husband infected her with syphilis, and she didn't want to get a divorce, because her identity was "madam", which was defined by her baron husband. Later, she gradually realized that you are not what you have, but you are yourself. When her lover was killed and the manor was burned, she shrugged her shoulders, gave up her husband, gave up her home, gave up everything, and got herself.

I watched McKee's interpretation in the middle of the night, found the movie, and cried after watching it. These days, while listening to the original sound, I am still very emotional. After reading the book, the author asked, "If I can sing African songs, will Africa sing my songs?" I still choked up. Mackey can clearly say "You are not what you have" in 200 words, and the movie can be finished in two hours, but the grandeur and sadness of life can't be fully described in words.

Out of Africa is adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same name by Danish woman writer Karen Blisheng. Different from the original prose style, the film is epic, which is not only the visual magnificence conveyed by the scenery of the African continent from words to images, but also the love in the original has become the theme of the film, and the distant soundtrack has also increased the audio-visual enjoyment of the film. I think the most fundamental thing is that anyone who shows enthusiasm and gives all his love is an epic.

At the beginning of the film, an elderly Karen sits in front of a typewriter in an old house in yust, Denmark, and writes down her story. She said: "I have written about all other people, not that I don't love them enough, but that they are clearer and easier to write." Obviously, the film thinks that love is more difficult to write, more difficult to write than Africa. The original author took pains to write down this hot land: grassland, rain forest, mountains, sky, sunset, eagle, lion, manor, aborigines ... It is fascinating to read. In the episode where Dennis appeared, the first sentence was "After Despair". It is conceivable that after leaving Africa for many years, the author restrained his understatement and surging feelings when writing this story. I met Dennis in the difficult period of unhappy marriage and running the manor alone. Those happy fragments left a witness for the eternal years in Africa. It is undoubtedly more insightful for Hollywood to adapt a story of "man and nature" into a story of "man and man in nature".

At the beginning of the movie, on the grassland at sunset, a narrator said, "I used to have a farm in Africa." The endless sound reminds me of Duras' narrative in Lover. Memories of the past tense, with the heaviness and vagueness of the years, suddenly hit me: "You are not what you have"-what a mysterious game it is to have and lose, so that "I don't care about eternity, only care about having". San Mao, who lost Jose, returned to Spain for the third time to watch Africa. She wrote: "When the heroine was taken to the sky by the hero to fly, when the theme song slipped through my mind again, when the heroine raised her hand backwards on the plane and was held tightly by the hero, I was shocked again for the third time. The extreme pain of happiness, through the film, overflows every pore of the whole body and is nailed to the screen. I dare not look at the people around me. "

Out of Africa is not just a love story about "once owned". The reason why it is classic lies in the mixed feelings about life. When Karen counted what she owned, Dennis said to Karen, "We are not masters, we are just passers-by"; Karen asked Dennis what was the difference between taking tourists hunting. Dennis replied, "It makes no difference to animals." Unlike Karen's passion for building a home, Dennis wandered around looking for his own home. After his plane crashed, Karen realized, "He doesn't belong to us, and he doesn't belong to me." Dennis prefers animals to people. "Animals are always wholeheartedly, and only humans will feel tired." It's easy to think of the photographer of National Geographic in Meryl Streep's other film The Bridges of Madison County. People who go deep into nature don't want to come and go freely, but people in the sea occupy and bind each other. The film discusses love, marriage and freedom, from "I won't love you more because of a piece of paper" to "I don't always know where I'm going (then I'll go with you)". On the African grassland, animals have never been tamed, nor will those who love freedom, but love will tame them. Of course, this is very touching for us off the screen, but the love of loneliness and freedom is often a dilemma: "Besides, there are raptors everywhere" and "When the gods want to punish you, they meet your requirements".

Besides love, you can still watch many movies. Some people think that Out of Africa is a "post-colonial history, a new history of women": a vain and arrogant white woman grows up to be an independent and brave new woman in this magical colony of Africa. I don't want to see it that way. I just feel that there is a wide and far-reaching love between people and between people and nature. This love will educate you, give you strength and help you create your epic.

Karen Blixen, a woman writer, loved that land deeply, but she never set foot in Africa again in her life. "Going out of Africa" is actually "not going out of Africa": the land you love and the people you love are buried, and you will never forget it. Recalling McKee's "You are not what you have" makes people feel sorry: what you have will only be memories in the end. Writing is singing in memory, and pain, sadness, happiness and grandeur will all be set to music. Singing an African song will take you back to that sweet years: "I won't let you die unless you bless me."

Writing is a blessing.