Does the director of Shelly (2016) have a grudge against nature?It feels like it, otherwise it wouldn’t have allowed the freakish Cherrie to come out of nowhere, harm Elena, and screw her own father, Kaspar. The film is interesting because the couple Kaspar, who is far from the hustle and bustle of the city, picks up Elena, a bright maid from Bucharest. Coming to this quiet lake in the mountains, Elena is caught off guard by the fact that cell phones can not be used, because there is no electricity, only a landline phone to contact the outside world, at night can only light oil lamps, the beautiful name of a simple life, fashionable, environmentally friendly, ecological.
But accustomed to the city life, quickly back to the Neolithic, really can adapt, or a big question mark. At least electricity, cell phones, TVs, computers, the most basic forms of modern life, are all available, not to mention the most basic living facilities such as running water and natural gas. In a word, without electricity, there is no condition and form of all modern life, and overnight, Elena had to integrate into the couple’s primitive state of life.
The adaptation was a long process. She also thinks about her 5-year-old son Niku, who is in foster care far away from his parents in Bucharest. Mistress Louise has an envious look on her face when she mentions that she has a cute little boy. They were rowing a boat on the lake. Louise said self-deprecatingly, I am old enough to be more than a man, I was also pregnant back then, at 24 months, my body couldn’t take it, it was a baby girl, but unfortunately it still died, resulting in a hysterectomy, and the world was empty for me.
Perhaps this topic is too heavy, she turned to Elena, you come so far away, for what ah. Elena said of course it was for money, I wanted to buy an apartment in Bucharest to make my future less stressful. Louis shook his head and laughed and said, “How many years do you have to save? I froze my eggs before doing birth control, so if you are willing to be my surrogate, I don’t think you will have to worry about the money to buy an apartment.
This of course made Elena a little abrupt. A few days later, Elena figured it out and said to Luis, I can be a surrogate, but I’m not just in it for the money. Yes, she was sympathetic to Luis, and the human heart is always especially soft when mixed with compassion. Elena had the surrogacy operation at the hospital without any problems and everything seemed to be secure. The couple, of course, rejoiced, and Luis said, “Let’s name this baby Shelly.
But since this inoculation, Elena’s night, will be nightmares and all sorts of unexplained noise messed up, even into the owner’s chicken coop, the chicken will peck the back of her hand. To the woods wandering, as if to see the teeth of the evil beast, the skin became susceptible to burning, Louis gave her a bath shower was also burning pain. Everything is not normal, these are Elena’s words. But when she went to the hospital for a follow-up examination, the female doctor said it was normal and that it was a baby girl.
Louis asked the master meditator Leo to exorcise the “demon” for Elena, so that after she sank meditation, saw the evil dog in the brain, must exorcise it. Interestingly, later asked Leo, who was thought to be omnipotent Leo, but was dissipated by each other’s “magic” without a trace. Leo is also a member of the lake to avoid the world life. After so much tossing and turning, it did not get better. Elena said she really did not want her. She was always drenched in sweat and told Luis she wanted to go home.
The couple discussed it and Caspar said to let her go home. Luis, who was eager to have a baby, said no. Once she went back, it was hard to tell who would have the baby. So, we have to let Elena continue to suffer from the pain of the unknown. Even in the middle of the night she was so tortured by the “freak” that she tried to run away, but was chased back by her mistress in her car. She had no choice but to hurt herself. Rushed to the hospital, the baby girl was saved, but poor Elena because of hemorrhaging died forever.
The baby girl named Shelly, the couple smiled and was full of joy, especially Louis. But from then on, like a magic spell, everything that happened to Elena before, slowly transferred to Casper, he heard an inexplicable mixture of noise, and from Shelly, the child stared at the pupils of the white and black eyes, like the back of the crazy Elena, what to do.
Casper was outside chopping wood and was so distracted that he chopped his own foot, and nothing was going to go smoothly, repeating Elena’s path. Caspar said to Luis that this was not going to work. Louis knew what he meant and held Cherrie tightly, saying that it would pass slowly.
How could it pass. This Shelly and Elena was born with the same problem, can not take a bath, see the water and cry in pain. Tormented by nightmares, noise and hallucinations exhausted Casper stole Shelly in the middle of the night, was found by his wife, she loved her daughter, even killed Casper, so far, because of this Shelly baby girl, made three people are crazy, and lost two lives. As for the back in the end how, I think only by the audience to make the imagination.
The actress who plays Louise is Ellen Dorrit Petersen, the actress who starred in “Blind”, and she is always unobtrusive, relaxed and just right.
Undoubtedly, this is a film about the sharp confrontation between modern city life and rural idyllic life, or how a person accustomed to the city life, and then adapt to the secluded country life. As seen in the film, the scenery is beautiful, no one in the field, only the quiet lake and the mountains, even the chickens can not stand the loneliness and become crazy. Therefore, I opened by saying that this is a film that deals with how to adapt to the environment.
Obviously, the director’s bias, the choice of modern civilization, that is, modern urban life enjoys everything, more suitable for people to live a normal life, once deviated into the original life, may not be a benign and calm rational choice. Since the film gives us the answer, Elena can not adapt, even the mouth claims that the simple life of the Casper couple also can not adapt. This reminds me of the Mexican film “The Willows”, the same thing, to escape the city life of the couple with a pair of children to the quiet mountain village, the results are also scarred.
As I said in that review, in modern life, the real peach blossom garden does not exist. The original intention to escape from the world, or will bring a greater sense of confusion in life, such examples are often seen. Out of the world into the world, just a change of mind, and the role of the outside world can not play a micron. Now even monks are hanging cell phones around their necks, listening to rock and roll, earning extra money, let alone mere mortals.
Each era, there will be the vital signs of each era, will be marked with the deep brand and symbols of each era, if forced to avoid the world and do not ask the window, the results are like the Tsinghua University professor who was cheated of more than ten million, usually do not watch television, do not watch the legal program, the results of a fraudulent phone call cheated the light cheat a good happy. Do not pay attention to current events, numb to reality, but will be exhausted by reality, this is a real-life paradox, or the result of not being able to keep up with the rhythm of reality, really a bit of irony, everyone is more or less experienced.
Of course, “Shelly” a piece of extreme magic, just a sensory stimulation, not real, but it is worth thinking about, the real world in the end choose what kind of life closer to people’s hearts, I think it also depends on personal nature and nurture, not to say that no one is not adapted to the countryside away from the city life, not to mention that the countryside life is not as deliberately cut off water and electricity in the film, so extreme too It is rare to see such extreme primitiveness. But living in the city can also keep a quiet heart, which is not contradictory, the key is the conversion of mind. The ancients still have the saying “the great hidden in the city”.
General rural life, I think a considerable part of the people can still adapt, just to say that the length of life, as sedentary long lying long walking are not healthy life, only to follow the laws of life itself, free to control the cycle, urban and rural back and forth, I’m afraid this is more relevant to the modern state of mind, but also more conducive to the physical and mental health of modern people, just look around, the country’s great rivers and mountains have a few real sense to let people This is a question worth thinking about, which is perhaps more meaningful than the movie itself.
