Saturday, December 22, 2007

Harold and Maude(1971)

I started wrting stories about movies so I like to another story about a movie that I have been thinking of recently. Harold and Maude, another movie that I don't know its Chinese title. I don't know why I like movies made in 70's pretty much.

開始寫關於電影的故事,那就順便寫另一部我最近在回想的電影:「Harold and Maude」,又是一部比我老,然後我又不知道中文片名的電影。不知為何,我其實很喜歡70年代的電影。

The subject of my thesis is about age and emotional memeory, which means I wouldn't be able to graduate from school in two years because elder subjects are difficult to find. I have started reading relevent research references. One theory I have read is Socioemotional Selectivity Theory which proposes some processess to explain the difference of emotion regulation between young people and elder people. I am not satisfied with its explanation, but I am not going to discuss it in this article; it would come up soon. I thought over some problems generated from the theory few days ago when I was riding home from Fu Jen university. Harold and Maude suddenly jumped into my thought.

我論文的主題大致已經確定要進行關於老化與情緒記憶的研究。(這也注定我應該是兩年畢不了業,因為老人受試非常難找。)我開始在閱讀相關的研究文獻,其中有一個理論:「Socioemotional Selectivity Theory」,試著要解釋年輕人與老人在emotion regulation不同的機制為何。我非常的不滿意這個理論的解釋。細節先不多談,以後還有機會。有次從輔大回家時,騎著我的摩托車,思考著這個理論的問題,「Harold and Maude」這部電影突然跳進思緒中。

Harold and Maude is a love story of an eighty-year-old lady and an eighteen-year-old young man. Maude, an eccentric eighty-year-old lady, explores every possibility of life and enriches her own life, and she freely put the period in her life story. Harold, an eighteen-year-old young man in boredom, has rich and sufficient family environment, but he lacks passion for his own life. This couple's relationship is difficult for viewers to understand.Their relationship, their thoughts and their doings are challenges for the audience's value system. The plot is predictable, Harold has change because of their relationships. Harold's value and attitude toward his life changed, but whether the audience change varies because of individual's difference.
「Harold and Maude」一個八十歲老人和十八歲年輕人之間的愛情故事。Maude,八十多歲的怪喀老婆婆,嘗試經驗人生的各種可能性,豐富自己的生命,最後很簡單灑脫的為自己劃下句點。Harold,覺得人生百無聊賴的年輕小伙子,即使擁有不虞匱乏的物質環境,但是卻對生命沒有熱情。這樣的組合,其實很霹靂,難以讓人接受。他們的關係,他們的所作所為,其實不斷的在挑戰觀影者的價值觀。當然,可以預期的是,在與Maude交往後,Harold的人生觀與態度有所轉變。觀影者是否有所改變,那就是修行在個人了。
The movie presents serious issues of life and death in pleasant way. I remember one scene of interaction and conversation between Harold and his psychiatrist was very funny. It seems that it's a tradition of western movies to mock upon the meanings of psychological therapies. I should find some time to make a list of the top 10 funniest scenes of mocking on psychological therapies.

這整部電影用輕鬆愉快的方式來討論「生」與「死」的問題。我還記得其中有一段Harold跟心理醫師的互動和對話,非常好笑。西片似乎有種傳統,很多電影都有場景在嘲諷心理治療的意義。我應該找個時間票選嘲諷心理治療的十大最佳場景。

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