For the sake of a pair of children, a couple has lived a 30-year marriage like a zombie. There is no love between them, only resentment towards each other. "Marriage Ties", directed by the famous Italian director Daniele Lucchetti and adapted from Domenico Stano's novel "Shoelaces", has its exclusive premiere today.
"Marriage Connection" is the opening film of the 2020 Venice Film Festival. It received three nominations at the 2021 Italian David Awards and has been screened many times in China. "Shoelace" is a short story with about 70,000 words, but it tells the tragedy of a marriage that lasted for 30 years from three perspectives. Its in-depth interpretation of marriage made many Chinese viewers say they "feel the same".
A cowardly husband, a vain wife, and two children who grew up in quarrels and ridicules. Thirty years later, what kind of bitter consequences will this "tightly bound" family bear? "Marriage Connection" tells the ugliest and bloody truth after a marriage comes to an end.
Cheating set off the fuse of marriage, and the hidden sting caused pain to the whole family for the rest of their lives.
In the 1980s, Naples, Italy, followed a very traditional marriage system. Once two people get married, it is forever, and they must not divorce at will.
Wanda and Aldo are a couple who have been married for many years. Life has worn away their initial passion, and their daily lives are as dull as water. One night, her husband Aldo confessed to his wife that he had had a relationship with another woman.
Wanda asked about the identity of the other party, and Aldo accused Wanda of making a fuss. When his wife kicked him out of the house, he only stayed downstairs for a few minutes before rushing to his lover's residence.
In the following days, Wanda staged a drama of convincing her husband to go home and tearing up the mistress with her hands. However, all this was in vain. When it was the husband's turn to take care of the children, he left them at a friend's house. He also gave up custody of his two children.
One afternoon, Wanda had had enough of her husband's sanctimonious appearance. She smashed the radio and committed suicide by jumping off the building. This woman completely saw how heartless and hypocritical the man she once loved deeply was.
Wanda, who said goodbye to Aldo, raised two children alone. During a visit, Aldo found that Wanda was in good spirits after the divorce. A past incident about shoelaces reminded the two children that blood is thicker than water, and the long-lost father's love returned to its place.
Aldo was nostalgic for the warmth of his family, and his lover finally became impatient with waiting, so Aldo chose to return to his family. But when he got old, he regretted it very much. He cherished the photo of his lover and silently vented his anger.
This "cheating" seemed to be just an insignificant episode in the marriage, but it changed everyone in the family. Thirty years later, as the home was stolen and the cat disappeared, the volcano finally ushered in the eruption.
"Marriage Connection" is reminiscent of Zhang Ailing's "Red Roses and White Roses": "Perhaps every man has had two women like this, at least two. If you marry a white rose, the white will be on your clothes. A grain of rice sticky rice, but the red thing is a cinnabar mole on the heart."
The husband Aldo, who has two things to do, married early in order to get rid of the control of his family. After killing his passion, he did not hesitate to choose to cheat, hoping to alleviate his guilt by confessing and gain two lovers.
Wanda became moody, sensitive and suspicious during the long period of pain. She beat her lover in front of her daughter, accusing her daughter's new gift of being given by her lover. When she remarried, she chose "revenge" and took her husband back to make him atone for his sins throughout his life.
The losers are not only the couple, but also their children. When the children grow up, the shadow from their original family makes one of them remain unmarried and the other live a life of debauchery.
The "shoelace" in the movie is proof of the recovery of the parent-child relationship, and is also the source of pain that binds a family of four for life. As the book says: "For our parents, what binds them together is a bond that can torture each other for a lifetime."
News reports once pointed out such a phenomenon: after the college entrance examination, the divorce rate often reaches two to three times that before the college entrance examination.In real life, many parents choose to tolerate it because they are afraid of affecting their children. "Marriage Connection" directly addresses this elephant in the room and brings to the audience the most terrifying consequences of "it would be better to demolish ten temples than ruin one marriage".
With a star-studded behind-the-scenes cast, the well-known Italian writer
After its publication, "Shoelace" was translated into 33 languages and sold around the world, and was selected as the "New York Times" annual book of note. Domenico Stano is a master at depicting the decadence of old age. Because he witnessed the misfortune of his parents' marriage as a child, he is extremely good at describing the intricate marital relationships. In 2001, he won the Strega Prize, Italy's highest literary award, for his novel "Gemito Street".
Whenever we mention Domenico Stano, we inevitably talk about another writer Elena Ferrante, the original author of "My Brilliant Girlfriend". The two writers are highly similar in terms of cities and themes of their works. Ferrante was once mistaken as another pen name of Stano, which was denied by the author himself.
In Italy, Domenico Stano is a well-known author. In recent years, his works have been introduced to China, and the first published work is "Shoelaces", which shows his importance. Lucchetti read this work five or six years ago. He described his shock: "It was like stabbing my heart more than 20 times."
When adapting, Lucetti focused on retaining the plot structure of the original work. He adapted the original work to a certain extent, disrupted the timeline, and compressed 30 years of grievances and resentments into a nearly 100-minute movie, bringing about an explosion of emotional intensity under depression.
"Italian Tony Leung" Luigi Lo Cascio plays the passive husband Aldo in the movie. Well-known actress Alba Rohrwacher stars as the angry wife Wanda. Gold medal actor Silvio Orlando also joined the film to play Aldo's old age. Their superb acting skills added luster to the film, and Rohrwacher and Orlando were each nominated for a David Award.
Domenico Stano said in an interview: ""Shoelaces" is not a book about a marital crisis. It is about a false reconciliation and its consequences...The narrator talks about complete independence There is no real communication and comparison between the characters and there will never be real communication and comparison between the characters. Everyone is closing themselves off and being cautious."
The couple Wanda and Aldo entered marriage blindly. When they started a family, no one knew what kind of partner each other wanted. After their lives were broken, they chose to stick together stubbornly. It was their choices, not entirely the marriage itself, that led to the bitter consequences today.
Today, when "divorceism" and "non-marriageism" are prevalent, "Marriage Connection" provides us with a negative model. When love disappears, this era allows us to separate decently instead of torturing each other. As a book review of "Shoelaces" pointed out: Love is always much more important than completeness and longevity.
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Huanxi Premiere is a streaming media playback platform owned by Huanxi Media. As an innovative film and television content investment, production and streaming media playback platform company, Huanxi Media has always adhered to the two-wheel-driven development strategy of "content + channels".
Huanxi Media is working steadily on the main strategy of "Content is King" and is committed to developing high-quality and diversified film and television works through working with outstanding directors and professional creative teams. Huanxi Media's first production of "Man Jiang Hong" has a cumulative box office of 4.5 billion yuan, becoming The 2023 Spring Festival box office champion, ranking sixth on the box office list in Chinese film history; produced by Huanxi Media, produced and starred by Huang Bo, written and directed by Su Liang, starring Shan Yuhao, Yan Ni, Zhang Junning, Zhang Zixian, Wan Qian, Wang Xun The movie "School Dad", a special appearance and friendly appearance by Wu Lei, was released nationwide on August 18. It received rave reviews and received the highest rating of the year on Zhihu with a recommendation rate of 94% from Zhihu friends. The box office has now reached nearly 500 million.
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