On the couch

Jim Jarmusha's film " Broken Flowers " rhymes with the series " Desperate Housewives ": one -story America; middle -aged, but still irresistible women in quantity; Lonely men with fool, but not without grace; secrets, secrets; The unbearable ease of being. Finally, seriality .

For fidelity, for accuracy, we rename the term reality from the previous column to everyday life . After all, the imaginary , which I so persistently contrasted reality, is also not a chimera! The imaginary is a special kind of reality, only festive, isn't it? Oh, I have long complained that the Russian -speaking conceptual apparatus has not been adapted, not even developed. Often you can’t imagine which words are preferable for the reader, what terms he is conducted for, what signifiers mean. There is no generally used description language - there is no country. Difficult.

It is not possible to even agree on everyday symbolism, about colors. And the flowers, by the way, are made in the name, and therefore I want to figure out why this is the old slut Don Johnson considers his duty to give the former lovers of pink rose bouquets? I interviewed a dozen Russians with Russians: what kind of symbolism? And everyone was angry to the One: no symbols, come off.

Then I pulled out from the depths of consciousness the popat hit of the 80s from the depths of consciousness. So, VIA "Funny Guys" of the period of their full decline:

Pink roses - Svetka Sokolova.
Svetka Sokolova, a classmate mine.
Pink roses I give her again
Like (tram-pam) the memory of our previous days ...

Something like this: badly, shameful. But the symbolism is obvious: pink roses actualize ancient feelings, try to hint at the previous love relationships. Already good, figured out.

By the way, I looked at the store with video cassettes today: the long-standing picture of Jarmusha, the " dog-ghost ", is cooling in my favorite cabinet "Comedy". Normally, yes! But after all, “broken flowers” ​​are announced by our distributors as a “comedy”. You should think carefully what it gives us. Not in the sense of rolling money, but in the sense of social psychology: why is the current Russian inhabitant on Jarmush's films more ridiculous? Is he a fool? Or he was appointed, but he actually does not laugh, but moves his brains, tries - contrary to the post -Soviet car of total shutters? The situation, unfortunately, has not been studied. The post -Soviet person is incomprehensible. Hidden.

But the Americans undress in full. Not embarrassed, confess. The advanced American art of our days is worried about the fact that the imaginary completely unbelted, and a weak person is easily manipulated. Bill Murray plays a computer genius who has retired by the name of Don Johnston. But others confuse, ask for: "How, how, Don Johnson?" Murray is a little angry: "Johnston. With the letter 'Tae'!"

They explained to me, “Don Johnson” is not only “Don Juan”, but also the famous American actor of recent years, a hero of popular television series, an idol of loving housewives. Here it is, the character of Murrey symbolizes the process of seducing the housewives who had overturned everyday life - interesting . The notorious' Tae "inevitably falls out, Johnston turns into Johnson and easily seduces bored women from the suburbs.

This Don Juan of the post-industrial era ramped all-all-all. Even now, when he is old, gray -haired, shabby, the first sexypet, Lolita, the daughter of his long -standing mistress, strives to undress and dreams of surrendering to surrender. Of course, unconsciously, without hesitation, because with this irresistible sex symbol it is impossible otherwise! These are the rules of the game and the laws of nature: imagined by definition is stronger than everyday. At times! By the way, the episode with Lolita is really funny. Okay, let the comedy be. There is still reason.

By the way, Don Juan - Who is this? A curious poem about this man was written by Nikolai Gumilev. Fortunately, I remember.

My dream is arrogant and simple:
Grab the oar, put the leg in the stirrup,
And deceive the slow time,
Always wearing new mouth.

Here the essence of the archetype is well captured: Don Juan is a lamp slave, that is, a series , that is, bad -foolish infinity. Don Juan replicates adventures. One adventure should replace another. The gap is impossible, the pause is terrible. After all, the pause immediately actualizes everyday life, and who will voluntarily agree to everyday life immediately after the next interesting ! Exactly with the same archetype, "desperate housewives" work, who become more interesting with each serial block, everything is sophisticated, sweeter !! In short, Jarmush got into the ten, in an apple. Don Juan, of course. Today, in America and Russia, everywhere.

Recently, on TV, they again showed a curious picture " Bad Guy ", with the stunning Dennis of lyry and the dazzling Elizabeth Herley. This film will help a little, because at the plump level it is similar to "broken flowers." Dennis Liri really like women, they hang on him with clusters and surrendered at the first opportunity. His life is an overkill of interesting situations, his task is to “deceive the slow time”, to spur and accelerate. Elizabeth Herli simultaneously performs the functions of a plunger motor, moralist and punisher. At first, she tells a bad, but still irresistible guy that his Puritan Tetushka before his death promised a million dollars to his nephew. But only if he turns back the time, that is, he will go through the country, visit all the women that he once used, and ask every forgiveness.

A curious conflict. Herley suggests replacing one series with another. A journey into the past is mating in its version with a false, well -paid repentance. However, it turns out to the final that it is even worse: once in his youth, Herli herself became a "victim" of the loving Dennis. This proud woman vowed to take revenge and, after many years, she played a very cheap performance, without missing, by the way, to sleep with a bad guy again. Which, by the way, once again confirms the voluntary nature of the female choice. She herself wanted to be seduced and abandoned, she dreamed of danger and accompanying sweetness! This is important: Thus, Don Juan is not so much a scoundrel as a victim appointed by an idol. He is collected, he is ordered, he is cherished, they pray for him. And who, if not he, will provide housewives, and householder's husbands, interest in life? Who else guarantees tension, sorry for euphemism, plot?

Traveling to the past, Dennis Liri finds a girl who, by all signs, is his daughter. A bad guy becomes a respectable dad. If I am not mistaken, in the finale, walking with the girl, he stumbled upon Elizabeth that rejected him. Most likely, sooner or later they will connect, and the stupid seriality, turning Don Juan into a robot to destroy time, will be overcome. One woman, one child - all like people, a normal genre resolution. But Jarmush is not genre, Jarmush is honest.

Gumilyov’s poem ends in a significant way.

And only when in the middle of the orgies
I suddenly come to my senses like a poor lunatic,
Frightened in the silence of their ways,
I remember that, an unnecessary atom
I have no children from a woman
And he never called a man brother.

Here, from this picture painted by the Russian poet, the film of a very independent American director begins. The young girlfriend has just left Don Johnston. It seems forever. The African American neighbor of the Don correctly, but resolutely shoves the aging seducer from his too living wife: you never know what, no matter what happens. An unnecessary atom and a poor sleepwalk, Don lazily wallows in front of the TV. His brilliant series seems to have ended. His time stopped. It’s going to an end.

But at this moment, Don receives an anonymous letter in a pink envelope. One of his former mistresses reports that Don still has a child. That 20 years ago she accidentally conceived and gave birth, and now the matured son goes to visit the Don to get acquainted in order to get a hug. To let a tear and legitimize.

It doesn’t matter who wrote and who invented: the African American neighbor-motor, who barely escaped from the Don, an vengeful girlfriend or still a real old mistress, the mother of a really incident child. Whether the boy was not important. Jarmush deliberately clouds this problem, simply spits on it. It is important that the register of perception of the world switches in this way. Still, carnal love inevitably leads to childbearing. In other words, sooner or later a pause between adventures happens. For hedonist consciousness, a child is a black hole, tissue rupture, a stop machine, a different dimension, another time. Change of fate. Since the whole film can be perceived as a fantasy of a rapidly aging lonely man, we can say that Don Johnston himself sent himself a message about the boy’s old birth and about the imminent appearance of a young man at an extended arm! This is his sudden order, his dream and his hope:

I remember that, an unnecessary atom
I had no children from a woman ...

The semantic center of the picture, its shock piece, its genius culmination - are a few moments when Don, who returned from an unsuccessful trip to the past, notices a young man with a backpack on the street. It is important to understand: these are exactly the same seconds from which the film begins !! After all, the specific time of the Don, the time of adventure , has expired, stopped. A shaking tent with guaranteed high income. Sofa. TV. Dead end. Dumb misanthropic smile. “Frightened by the silence of his ways,” close to madness, Don suddenly jumps up from the couch and rushes into the street, to the first young man with a backpack: maybe son ?? What if the rupture of its specific, his adventure temporary fabric was still ?? Before, he was so afraid of this gap, afraid of everyday life, hurried away from the uninteresting . He can still satisfy the woman, even if this woman is Sharon Stone, he is still able to excite youngsters, attract neighboring wives. But he already realized that for the mortal no series could last forever. The hero felt the approach of the end. Jarmush reports about this new feeling indirectly, subtly. Don Juan finally realizes that there was a bust with adventures. Now, instead of a series, instead of bad infinity, he desired something piece, son.

"Why don't you want to admit that you are my son?!" - Just a lunatic, as if a madman was rushing Don at the first young man who came across. The young man runs away in horror. Here you have the visible difference between the genre film and the author: Dennis Liri is allowed to change her abstract series to a living child, it is allowed to sharply reborn, replay and transcode the entire previous life; Bill Murray - no, not allowed. After a second, he notices in a random car of the next twenty -year -old guy. He with hope looks in the face in the face: maybe this one ?! We immediately recall that throughout his trip, Don was eagerly interested in twenty -year -old boys, curious, dreamed and imagined. Typical clinic. A picture of a lone old man who settled on the couch and went crazy.

Jarmush does not give his hero getting rid of the serial nightmare, serial thinking, does not allow him either his son or his wife. He only mockingly replaces one series (beautiful mistresses) with another (children-fantomas). The aged Don Juan cannot stop and replicates the children with exactly the same indefatigability with which, before, in his best years, he replicated pleasure.

The outstanding, just a great picture, the only hero of which was almost two hours of screen time, was laid on the couch in front of the TV and only at the very end he jumped to his provincial street to at first freely cling to the boy, and then substitute his limp, her confused, luminous face to the rays of the sunset sun.

Not Road Movie, as I am sure, have already been written in our press, and not even a "comedy", although it is not forbidden to laugh. A little Beckett, but rather a horror film, indoor apocalypse. Many, however, are not scary: the author took care of anesthesia. You won’t understand what's what.