“Philadelphia” Jonathan Demme depicts human freedom and liberation in the land of freedom

Demi's theme of human freedom and liberation

Director Jonathan Demme is famous for his 1991 Oscar-winning film, "Silence The Silence of the Lambs ," but he had been working on "Philadelphia" even before that film, and the film's motif was his interactions with a friend who had AIDS. Ron Nyswaner, a gay screenwriter who worked with Demme on "Swing Shift" (1984, released on video), had an 18-year-old nephew who had AIDS. The director and screenwriter used their own experiences as a basis for creating the film.

The tones of "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia" are completely different, making it difficult to find any common ground between them, but if we trace the history of Demme's early work, we can see that the two films actually have some things in common.

Roger Corman's directorial debut, "Women's Prison Riot" (1974), depicted the liberation of women who were treated unfairly in a women's prison. They stood up and united to work for their liberation.

In the comedy " Something Wild " (1986), one of the masterpieces of the 1980s, a man who Married to the Mob " (1988), the heroine, who had been living her life surrounded by the goods stolen by her gangster husband, gets a real life for the first time after her husband's death and is freed from the ties of the past.

Considering this vein, it is possible to interpret "Silence The Silence of the Lambs" as a story about the heroine, Clarice, who is tormented by past trauma, facing her own darkness and being liberated.

"The Silence The Silence of the Lambs" preview

Another of her later masterpieces, Rachel Getting Married (2008), tells the story of a heroine who is traumatized by the death of a family member from the past, and who attempts to confront and rebuild her bitter past by attending her sister's wedding.

Also, although it is not a drama, the Talking Heads concert film " Stop Making Sense " (1984) has a symbolic title. Its appeal to "stop making sense!", in other words, its approach to depicting what lies beyond common sense, is entrusted with the theme of "freedom and liberation" that Demme likes.

In this sense, the scene in "Philadelphia," in which the protagonist, who has only a short time left to live, stands up for his own dignity, is a fitting scene for a Demme film. The protagonist, who has been treated unfairly, moves forward to liberate his soul, while the gay-hating lawyer is liberated from his own prejudice against gays after meeting him.

In Philadelphia, the "land of the free," the director has once again created a work on the theme of "freedom and liberation."

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