How to live if you feel special? Film "The Road of Change"
How to live when the feeling that you have to do something important and significant in this life does not leave, but you absolutely do not understand what exactly? For years you have been looking for an answer, but you cannot find it You try to live like everyone else - and it doesn't work.
The action of the film "Revolutionary Road" directed by Sam Mendes takes us to America in the 50s. We see a beautiful married couple and a seemingly happy family. But the mesmerizing soundtrack leaves no hope for a good ending … This film asks a question about happiness and gives an answer - ruthless and hopeless: a white house on a hill, family, children, wealth, friends - all this will not make you happy if you are not like others.
Fake happiness
There is nothing special in us, there has never been and never will be.
Frank and April Wheeler, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, are considered special. The people around them watch with curiosity the "young Wheelers of Revolutionary Road". Many are jealous. Only very soon it becomes obvious that the "nice little house" is just a decoration, and there is emptiness behind the beautiful facade. Because the main actress of this play called "Family Life" is tired of playing an uninteresting role. She is still continuing the once started game, but already realizes that her life is not real …
Awesome acting is impressive and makes you deeply empathize with the characters. Nevertheless, viewers perceive the plot of the film and the actions of the main characters in different ways, because we all see the world through ourselves … Whoever has never felt the heartbreaking despair of the lack of love does not understand Frank's actions - he seems too eccentric. Those who have never felt the absence of meaning in life, that very "hopeless emptiness", cannot understand the reasons for April's strange actions, calling them "grief from the mind." In the comments of viewers to the film, you can find the opinion that she is just a bitch: her husband is trying for her, but she is unhappy.
Who are "special people"?
What really happens to the characters in the film? It is possible to reveal this accurately and unmistakably only by understanding the peculiarities of their psyche. Such knowledge is provided by the training "System-vector psychology" by Yuri Burlan.
April and Frank are polymorphs, possessing several mental vectors. A more complex structure of the psyche and its larger volume give a person great desires. Potentially, such people are able to solve the most difficult problems of life and even become the head of the evolution of mankind; and of course, they can create a very deep and happy relationship in a couple. But only if they are aware of themselves and their desires, they truly understand the partner with all his characteristics. Today it is already possible, there would be a desire.
But the heroes of the film, who lived seventy years ago, did not have such an opportunity yet … We can say that April and Frank were ahead of their time. How to live when the feeling that you have to do something important and significant in this life does not leave, but you absolutely do not understand what exactly? For years you have been looking for an answer, but you cannot find it You try to live like everyone else - and it doesn't work.
Visual love
“Maybe you’ll just tell me how you feel, April?”
- I do not feel anything…
Frank is the owner of the visual vector, for whom love is the meaning of life. Frank constantly repeats: "I only know what I feel." The need to love and be loved manifests itself in a continuous prayer to April: “Love me! Love me! Love me!" But his love for her is selfish, demanding. He constantly arranges a showdown about relationships.
Frank admires the beauty and intelligence of his wife. How different she is from others can be seen against the background of other women in their circle - Millie (Shep's wife, Frank's friend) and the silly secretary with whom Frank has an affair.
Frank struggles to match April, tries to be a good husband, and is eager to regain the happiness that was at the beginning of their relationship, but has dried up over the years. But nothing happens, because he does not understand her, does not realize that April's desires are not the same as those of the others, and lie outside the realm of the material.
What would make another woman more happy is not enough for her. “It's easier for Frank,” April shares with a friend. “He knows what he wants. He is married with two children. It's enough for him."
Not receiving warmth, affection, support from his beloved wife, he feels disappointed: so much effort and hours of work was invested in this house, in the well-being of the family - and all in vain? To feel like a man, Frank goes for treason, and then confesses this to his wife. Hoping to arouse at least some feelings in April, even jealousy, he achieves the opposite effect. April confesses to him that she no longer feels anything.
Tired of fruitless attempts to understand what is happening with April, why she is obsessed with this "obsessive cursed fantasy", Frank finally invites her to seek help from a psychiatrist. She still remains a mystery to him …
Muse or housewife?
I saw a completely different future. I can't forget him. I can't leave. I can't stay …
April, beautiful, sensual, intelligent, extraordinary, is able to become an inspiration muse for her man. Once upon a time, Frank was fascinated by these very qualities of her. She, in turn, believed that he was extraordinary. However, it soon becomes clear that their marriage is not equal: April has a large amount of mental and enormous power of desire, because, in addition to the visual, she also has a sound vector.
Frank settles down over time, he begins to arrange a well-established life. One day he confesses that everything he once said and what she believed in was "just chatter" to impress … He tries to convince his beautiful wife that the desire to sell the house and leave for Paris forever is not very realistic, played and that's enough.
But April stubbornly refuses to give up her dream. A woman ahead of her time, she can no longer be just a wife and mother, she wants more, although she herself does not yet know exactly what exactly. Only one thing is absolutely clear: she has no place in an apron in the kitchen … In her search for meaning, April visually believed that changing the place was the right decision and would give her an opportunity to start all over again. But over time, she became obsessed with this idea in a sound way …
Frank's promotion and April's pregnancy are an excuse to put an end to this issue and continue to live as before. But April is unhappy. She honestly admits to her husband that this everyday life and the role of a housewife does not seem real to her, she feels trapped. The first pregnancy deprived her of the chance to become an actress, the second was only an attempt to “prove to themselves that the first child was not a mistake,” and the third deprived her of the hope of leaving and changing her life …
Frank is terrified that she questions not only their love and family, but even their children. He does not need such a muse, he needs a "normal woman".
The view of that time on sexuality is also shown very accurately. A woman is already ready for more, ready to receive pleasure from sex, but everything happens so quickly that female sexuality simply has no chance to turn around …
Attempts to understand each other
Frank repeatedly tries to talk to April, but she stubbornly avoids talking about feelings. After all, it is not the lack of feelings that worries her at all, but the lack of meaning. Frank is no longer able to live in obscurity and shows persistence - as a result, the proceedings develop into scandals that further heat up the relationship.
He has no idea what suffering sound April is experiencing at these moments. Throughout the film she begs him: “Let's just keep quiet”, “Let's not talk about it now”, “Give me a minute of silence”, “You keep talking, talking, talking! How can you be silenced? … But he does not heed her requests, not understanding their importance, considering them simply feminine whims or a desire to avoid answering.
Unaware of her true desires and the reasons for the strange behavior, Frank does not think of anything better how to start agreeing with her. Considering the idea of leaving for Paris a utopia, a "stupid child's idea", he nevertheless agrees to this adventure - and April, fired up by this idea, suddenly comes to life.
April is passionate about preparing for the move and is happy as a child. They are happy again. She repeats as a spell that Frank is an amazing person, he has yet to find his talent. He again hears such coveted words: "I love you!"
But the closer the date of the move, the more obvious it becomes that he is not going to fulfill his promise. To justify himself, he "arranges" April's pregnancy, which becomes a "good reason" to cancel the move. And along with the promotion, another truth suddenly opens up: it turns out that his uninteresting work, in which all kinds of creativity is absent, is not at all hated, but quite suits him. I even like it, only before he did not admit it to April.
Sound craziness
If being crazy is looking for the meaning of life, then I don't care even if we're both nuts. And you?
What exactly is happening with April, can only be understood by the same sound engineer. Therefore, it is the "guest from the psychiatric hospital" John Givings who ruthlessly, but extremely honestly, voices what is happening to our heroes. A doctorate in mathematics, he ended up in a mental hospital and lost his ability to think abstractly due to electroshock treatment: "They wanted to relieve me of my emotional problems, but they got rid of mathematics …"
John understands April by the equality of properties, she feels it: “It seems to me that he is the only person who understands what we are talking about. Are we as crazy as John?"
For John, the Wheelers were also the last hope: looking for meaning, he himself ended up in a psychiatric hospital - so, maybe they can do it? Upon learning that the trip to Paris is canceled, he exclaims in disappointment: "I'm the most upset bastard of all!"
Meeting with John becomes fatal for Frank and April - he "looks at the root" and describes the situation as it is. You cannot deceive him and shut him up. John shouts the cruel truth in their faces, leaving no way to retreat, for which they were already ready - just leave everything as it is and live on as everyone else lives. He does not leave them the opportunity to continue "playing at a nice little house", finally depriving this illusion. The crazy sound engineer is often very persuasive and inductive, pushing for decisive action.
Left alone, April and Frank look at each other with new eyes, and we hear their sentence to each other:
“You are an empty, worthless shell of a woman!
You are just the boy who made me laugh once at a party.
From the moment the truth is revealed, April seems to be dying. She simultaneously loses hope to change her life and the ability to live as before. She finally understands that there is no way out of the trap into which she fell.
However, is this story so unusual? Well, who of us, at least once in our life, has not made a cruel compromise with ourselves, abandoning a dream? The filmmakers did not compromise. The tragic end reveals a sound abyss of meaninglessness to us. April will be gone the next day.
Exit
"You can be happy here too …" - Frank persuades his beloved. You can, if you know exactly what you need to be happy. If changes start inside, not outside.
So wonderful - young, beautiful, smart, dreaming, thinking, it seemed, they simply cannot but be happy. But they did not know the recipe for their "special" happiness, and as a result, the "hopeless emptiness" did its destructive work …
When a person is given more than others, the demand from him is also greater. All your special properties and talents are given to you for a reason, they require implementation. Not only for yourself and your loved ones - for all people. Otherwise, you will suffer. Therefore, the search for the meaning of life is not a whim and "grief from the mind", it is a necessity, an opportunity for a sound engineer to survive.
The world has changed, today there are more opportunities to find your love and realize your talents. And women in different spheres of life are rapidly catching up with men, realizing themselves in society.
But sound substitutes - mathematics, music, philosophy, programming, technology - no longer fill modern people, just as mathematics once failed to fill and protect from the madness of sound John Wiggins. Only understanding oneself and other people, disclosing the single psyche of humanity is a guarantee of a happy fate. If this is not done, we will again and again see around the unfortunate people, each rushing about in their "hopeless emptiness."
Yuri Burlan's "System-Vector Psychology" is a navigator on the way to meaning and happiness. One has only to connect. Thousands of results.
