"My Brilliant Friend" is a recent phenomenal masterpiece of HBO. It premiered in the first two episodes of Venice Film Festival, and won a standing ovation from the audience for 1 minutes. It was also rated as "Top Ten TV Series of the Year" by Vanity Fair and Time Magazine.
james franco, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton have all become its loyal fans, and they are addicted to powder for a while.
My Genius Girlfriend was written by the Italian writer Elena ferrante, and it is called "Napoli Tetralogy" together with The Story of a New Name, Left and Left, and The Missing Child.
This novel has a huge story frame and time span, and depicts the touching story of two female friends, Elena and Anabel, for more than half a century with exquisite brushwork. Among them are the interweaving of love and hate, the cohesion and alienation of friendship, the collision and conflict of classes, and the careful thinking and discussion on the tortuous life.
Granta, a famous British literary publication, describes it as follows: "If you haven't read the Napoli Tetralogy, it's like not reading Madame Bovary in 1856." Everyone can find his own shadow from this set of novels.
My Genius Girlfriend, as the first part of the four-part series, tells the story of Elena and Anabel when they were young, set in the southern Italian city of Naples in the 195s. The original works are well handled in the drama series, and the simplified plot will not confuse the audience who haven't read the novel at all. The original party also said that the plot direction and role setting are in line with the expected requirements.
At the beginning of the story, Anabel, an old man, ran away strangely, which leads to Elena's dusty memories for more than half a century. According to Anabel's son's description on the phone, the mother took all her belongings and the photo album was destroyed. Obviously, this was a planned "disappearance". Elena was puzzled and angry at Anabel's behavior. As revenge, she decided to write out the unknown past between her and Anabel in detail so that everyone who knew them could see it.
The half-life friendship between the two men, who loved each other and killed each other, was explained to us through Elena's words, and the story began.
Elena's father was a court porter, her mother was a woman at the foot of a slope, and Anabel was a shoemaker's daughter. Their childhood families were extremely poor. In a run-down block like Naples, there are noisy voices and chaotic actions everywhere. The residents' thoughts are pedantic and old-fashioned, and the class differences are obvious. Every child grows up in the shadow of patriarchal thoughts.
They have completely different personalities-Elena is obedient and obedient, but she is full of inner feelings but unable to express them; Anabel is talented and wild, and his mind is full of all kinds of bold ideas. Just like the positive and negative poles of a magnet, their completely different personalities have become their characteristics of attracting each other, and in this way, they have become friends. They read a book, fought back against bad boys who threw stones at them, and faced a poor childhood. Secretly, they also compete silently in their studies, for fear that the other party will catch up with them. But every time, Anabel, who is always too clever, is one step ahead, which makes the stronger Elena feel lost.
Faced with the teasing of fate, they are too young to fight back and have to bear it silently. The economic troubles brought by further education have made most families in Naples give up the knowledge education for their children, and poverty has made children taste the pain of life in advance. Little Lila, who couldn't go to school, was ruthlessly thrown out of the window after contradicting her father. In contrast, Elena is lucky. Her parents reluctantly agreed to continue studying under the teacher's persuasion, provided that they must be the first.
Elena is burdened with her parents' hopes and her good friend Anabel's unfulfilled thoughts, and she is diligent in her studies. Anabel, who had no choice, had to work in his father's shoe store to support his family, but secretly he was using all his leisure time to study by himself, not wanting to lag behind.
Fate's journey diverged, and their life trajectories ended there. Different roads lead to the same goal.
Although Elena in the ivory tower has excellent grades, she is always under pressure and competition, and her life is not satisfactory. Anabel in the shoe store never stopped teaching herself after work-she not only learned the Latin and Greek in Elena's school curriculum, but also wrote many excellent novels, during which she designed fashionable leather shoes with her brother. Even in this environment, Anabel, who is gifted, never fell behind Elena, and even surpassed her for a time. This made Elena feel frustrated, but also produced some comfort.
There is an undercurrent of friendship between them. They are unyielding, imitating each other's shadows, snuggling up to each other but unable to suppress their jealousy-who reads more books, who writes well, who will master a foreign language first, who will be pursued by boys, and even who will see the sea first ... These small and unknown things are hidden in their keen girls' hearts, maintaining the delicate feelings between them.
In the prime of life, Anabel's unique personality made the boys in the neighborhood love him, and even attracted the attention of marcello solala, a dude. He proposed to Lila's parents, and his snobbish father agreed to this marriage on his own initiative, which aroused Anabel's strong anger and resistance. In order to get rid of marcello's stalking and his father's threats and inducements, Anabel finally accepted the proposal of Stefano Karachi, a rich boy, and solala and Karachi had an issue as early as their parents' time. This marriage made the relationship between the two families worse.
Elena faced academic pressure and emotional troubles at school, while Anabel, her age, entered the marriage hall early. The fate of the two people once again rushed to different distances, and the scales of life tilted under the weight of the secular.
The combination of Stefano and Anabel has attracted the ears of neighborhood residents. In their view, this is not a perfect fairy tale of Cinderella and the prince, but a shameless attachment and collusion. Full of jealousy and malice, they scoffed at this marriage with unbalanced status, but fantasized about how good it would be for this to happen to them.
On the eve of the wedding, Elena freshened up for Anabel, during which she begged Elena not to terminate her studies no matter what happened in the future, and she would provide her tuition. Anabel said to Elena from the bottom of her heart, "You are my talented girlfriend. You must be the smartest one among them. You are smarter than other boys and girls."
This story is a summary of their long-term friendship, and it is also Anabel's expectation and encouragement for Elena. Anabel's life is a foregone conclusion, while Elena's future is full of infinite possibilities. "Learning" is Anabel's long-cherished wish, so Elena, who was lucky enough to study, became a ray of hope in her gloomy life. If even the last and only light went out, Anabel's life would be gloomy.
At the end of the film, marcello, blacklisted by Anabel, still comes to the wedding scene. He wears shoes designed by Anabel that should be worn on the feet of the groom Stefano, and proudly shows off to Lila. Obviously, Stefano's business interests with marcello made him break his firm promise to Anabel.
Anabel, the bride, has become the victim of family interests, and she is a bargaining chip in the patriarchal society. I thought that I would be martyred in this chaotic era, but I didn't want to be a lamb to be slaughtered by others. Anabel is looking for Elena at the wedding. The two of them meet in autumn water and shed tears, and the whole play is over.
Among the numerous films and TV works about women, My Genius Girlfriend is undoubtedly an epic drama. With her logical and rigorous narrative structure and meticulous emotional description, she presents us with a history of women's growth that does not bow and scrape to fate in feudal society. Following the adaptation of the original book also brings a super-high degree of completion and a figurative viewing experience. It is an excellent drama that can make the audience feel unfinished and even give birth to the idea of reading the original book.