The movie "The Remains of the Day" .. When life freezes, there is no rest

On a path that leads to a majestic palace full of people where an auction is held to sell the remainder of it, the housekeeper who has worked there for years emerges from a letter addressed to Butler "Steph Stephens", overlooking Anthony Hopkins as he opens a window, lonely wandering surrounded by the spectra of the departed that As soon as she's the housekeeper, Miss Kenton / Emma Thompson watches it from the kitchen window next, her image decays and disappears. 

Mr. Stephens begins breakfast for his new employer, Mr. Lewis / Christopher Reeve, then asks him to go on a tour to find additional helpers from the butlers. Lewis enthusiastically agrees, and Stephen's journey begins to meet Miss Kenton, who in her speech expresses a desire to return to work with him. As Stephen moved away from his palace, where he spent a moment in life, he came closer to understanding his life and penetrated himself until the real personal motives behind his tour were exposed, to revolve Stephens as a cinematic tape in Flashback showcasing the past and memories collide.

This is how director James Ivory opens his Oscar-winning movie inspired by the novel "Today's Remnants" by the Japanese writer "Kazuo Ishiguro", and the movie is mostly based in Darlington Castle, which was once a royal residence, as James Ivory's interest in architecture was printed on the spirit of his films. Taken by the palaces of India in his early works, to the major English country mansions that made it the location for filming in the film "Remains of the Day". Ivory's passion for the place arises from his desire to create an integrated, realistic architecture [1]. 

From the very first moment we know that the film is centered on the life of the English butler who exterminated his youth and his old age in the service of the Lord (the old owner of the palace), building fragile convictions to identify with his reality. Ivory portrays how strict labor and order sometimes form a safe barrier between us and facing the realities of life and our feelings, as it tells about lost opportunities and fear that controls a person and stands between him and between love, independence and freedom, and about feelings of pride, unity, emptiness and looking remorse for one's story that he lived from afar.

Opening with a self-monologue

The novel is based on self-monologue, Stephens' inner voice and ideas flowing out on paper. We come to the fact that he cannot say or think of anything he really feels, as he always embraces the professional view he has adopted throughout his life. The movie quotes from the novel largely literally, but it is the representation of Anthony Hopkins that brought Stevens to life.

From the start Stephen's character was presented as a dedicated butler and indulged in work to his voluntary ears. Then we realize that nothing more than work is important in his life. That question worries him about what dignity is, and asserts that it is something that one can strive to gain through his work by being able to maintain his professionalism regardless of circumstances. His belief clashes with other heterogeneous concepts that disturb his fragile world in the end [2]. Stephens' memory first returns to a defining moment before World War II, the first time that he saw Miss Kenton, and from the point of view she begins the story. He remembers her spontaneous arrival at the palace, and a meeting with her before the Lord asked the man and her elderly father to employ her in the crew of servants, who was answered. 

Between two worlds

Stephens moves between two different worlds, during which we notice his personality change every time to be compatible with both. In the "upstairs" world in which Lord and Mr. Faraday serve after him and all their guests, he must maintain a strict and attentive nature at all times. Then Stevens sees himself in full, stripped of his desires, feelings and identity, in order to carry out his work with the utmost professionalism. 

In contrast, in the "basement" world, Stevens is not subordinate, but rather takes control and deals with his employees from the position of responsibility. These two worlds conflict because they require different notions of identity. On the lower floor, he is trapped in the emotions provoked by the events, while he is forced to hide behind the masks on the upper floor. The question is whether Stephens can reconcile these two worlds, which he ultimately could not achieve [3].

To trade love for work

Because Stephens appears constantly engaged in action, Miss Kenton's attempts to break into his world are met with repulsion. The first attempt comes when she takes a few roses to gift her to, puts her in his room, commenting that this would give her elegance, and suggests that you persevere in beautifying his room with her, but Stephens meets his offer with polite refusal because he considers that his room is his workplace and does not want any distractions, Director afterwards to talk to work. From that scene, taking just a few minutes, we take a projection of the room onto Stephens' interior that Kenton is trying to access.

The Lord informs him in 1923 that a milestone event was about to happen, a conference he organized to persuade a group of international politicians to loosen harsh economic sanctions on post-war Germany, motivated by a conviction governed by passion, which stated that he wanted to make the world a better place, citing Stevens’s responsibility to preserve Dinner, drinks and other amenities are in a smooth condition. Stephens considers himself to be part of a great entity, and focuses his attention on the event [4]. 

His father's health on that day deteriorated and deteriorated, but that does not discourage Stephens from performing his duties. While Kenton urges Stephens to pass by his father, who asks to see him, he goes for minutes, and although Stephens and his father are aware of the possibility that this will be the last conversation between them, their words lack intimacy. They talk a little about the conference's setup, and his father tells him about an issue he has always tried to hide, which is that he loved his mother once, and he stopped loving her after he learned that she had betrayed him. Stephens receives the truth with silent sadness and stands in the ocean of darkness, reaching his hand to his father, pleading for him to tighten it and pull him out of his dark darkness that follows him like shadows. Perhaps in dropping a delusion. But his father fails him, with his immobility, and urges him to return to work. 

Stephens returns to his business, and shortly afterwards, Kenton brings to him the news of his father's departure. Stephens only comments with the word "understood." She inquires from him if he would accompany her to close the eyes of his father who died and bid him farewell, and he would answer her that he is busy now, to follow after that he is not cold with emotion, but his father would have wanted to continue working, and go out resuming tonight with a stray mind and teary eyes.

Ivory arranges the events of his film with a linear narration, during which he shows Stephens' constant restraint of his feelings, along with his constant crushing in front of his master. Thus, Stephens does not remain a person with an independent entity, but rather a book of the Lord, his actions and feelings are entrusted to his master and ready to meet him. The Lord's celebration of two newly appointed German Jewish maids made them admire Stephens. The volatility of the Lord's convictions and his determination to sacrifice them to their religion without mentioning the reason; leads him to assign Stephens to the assignment, who complies with a believer in the decisions of his master without diligence to understand their purposes. Surprised by the Lord's question about them more than a year later, his question is attached to a signal that their expulsion was a mistake, as Stephens tells Kenton that he was not satisfied with their dismissal at the time. 

Director James Ivory described his hero in a television interview: "Just like a priest who puts his life on an altar, serves his Lord unconditionally, and in this case, his Lord will be the Lord." In Stephens life there are no remnants of the day, his time and thought are directed to the service of his English aristocrat, in right and wrong [5]. Years pass, and Lord Stephens reveals his dying hour that he made many mistakes. Gras had been manipulated by the Germans as a stone in chess, to then ventilate something inside the same Stephens he had long struggled to construct, and the Lord after his death was accused of treason.

Life as a bridge of delusions

"Remains of the Day" meets Film "About Schmidt" by Alexander Pine, which shows the character of Schmidt / Jack Nicholson who has spent many years serving the company he sincerely works, finally reaching retirement age and celebrated by his colleagues at a small party held for his farewell. The next day he goes to salute his replacement, who finds all his files lying in the trash can. Schmidt thinks that for the past several years he has been unaware of life, which is similar to what our hero here suffers in today's remnants. Both heroes squandered his life in the midst of doing the work, without looking at what each of them could achieve for themselves during that. The absolute loyalty to work and selflessness was a characteristic that overwhelmed their personalities over time.

Ivory emphasizes that idea, in addition to a basic theme, which are convictions that are built on a flimsy foundation, intentionally degrading the symbols that both Lord and Stephens lived, which are no longer absolute, but rather destructive sources of deception that transformed Stevens into a tragic paradox that made him deny Present from the Lord's service, after that was his only source of pride [6]. It is evident that the meaning of being an employer being immoral means that Stephens is also immoral. Accepting the sins of the Lord for whom he lived his life ignorant of him now makes him in the eyes of everyone in complicity, after believing throughout his life that he had no choice in any matter, as he explained in the end: "The Lord was not a bad man [...] In the end he chose A certain path in life, which has proven to be misleading, and it can admit it at least. As for me, I cannot even pretend it. You see, I only trusted it. ”[7]

Here, in his version, Ishiguro raises hidden Ivorian questions about our true relationship to power and what dignity is. As Ishiguro expressed in one of his meetings, Stephens' personality, his bet, his life, and the identity of another person, his moral and political position represent the majority of us [8]. And it leads us to think about Stephens' moral responsibility, he and everyone who has ever shared his stance with us. The philosopher Straussen argues that a person is only morally involved if he is completely free. Hobbes and Hume respond that reality sometimes imposes on us daily restrictions on our behavior (for example, the physical barriers that make it impossible for us to act as we wish). We conclude that a person does not bear moral responsibility if his involvement is based on coercion, pressure, or compulsion, but the person’s choice to ignore voluntarily makes him half guilty, according to Hume. 

Likewise, self-deception is a belief that was picked up by Nietzsche in the past and fought in it:

With all that one permits to appear (feelings and emotions), a question arises: What is the significance of concealment and disguise behind masks? What are we hiding in our fold? And to what extent may man deceive himself?

(Friedrich Nietzsche, Dawn)

Since human beings are not perfect, making countless mistakes and failing in many endeavors give rise to a desire to think that everyone is right in his own way, and that the path a person takes must be a noble path, which is sometimes referred to in psychology by conviction Procedure. But self-deception takes another form called external concealment, in which we deny aspects or events of the outside world that pose a threat to our self-image [9], and this is what led Stephens to faith in the concept of dignity depicted.

All of this leads us to create what might be called a "noble lie", the fictional story that one tells to oneself to maintain a positive self-image in the face of its many flaws. For example, Stephens becomes closer to an individual who walks over a deep gap topped by a weakly constructed bridge. As Liu Tolstoy expressed in his novel "Anna Karenina": "The bridge is an illusion, one may walk on it for many years, but the possibility of achieving it and facing the life gap still exists, and it expands to be revealed after years of self-deception" [9].

It also happens that the character of Stephens meets with the hero of the novel "Death of Ivan Ilyich", one of Leo Tolstoy's masterpieces. The main character in this work is a Russian judge who achieved great success in ascending to the top of Russian society. However, while enjoying the fruits of his fatigue, he suffers from a terminal illness and deeply contemplates the meaning of life, pursued by an urgent feeling that his life has been lost.

"It feels like I was descending as I imagined I was climbing. When I was looking up in the eyes of public opinion, life was wasting me. Now after all, there is nothing left but death."

(Leo Tolstoy, the death of Ivan Ilyich)

About unfinished love

The love story in Ivory is not the same as other Hollywood movies, as the hero always appears at a distance from others, maintaining a safety circle in which he surrounded himself separating those around him, adhering to the cost and the official. The distances he maintains and overcomes his scenes in the film involve fear of love and drifting in feelings that may strip him of his hardness and may injure him, as well as his conviction that he remains a great butler, so he keeps covering his psychological fragility with a solid mask.

Like Stephens, Ivory does not pay much attention to the love story, as it only crystallizes in three scenes. The bond of undeclared love appears in a scene with dim lighting, when Kenton cuts to Stephens his room in his room one night, and finds him reading a book, asking him what to read, evading the answer and hiding the book with a quick movement that makes her suspect that he is browsing a porn book, insisting on knowledge, to retreat Stevens assuring her that she is exceeding his own time, Kenton ventures to approach him and crush the distances, so Stevens confines himself to the corner of the room, turning his back against the wall, approaching the camera with Dino Kenton and grabs her book, only to discover that it is only an old love story. Stephens is ashamed of her justifying that he only reads it to develop his culture, and at the height of the scene all the distances between them have melted and Stevens' awareness of his feelings is contradictory, uttering all expectations, defeating his affection, please do not bother him in moments of his own. The camera retracts an expression of disappointment, simulating Kenton's act, after which Stephens visualizes a panic, taking up a defense against his feelings trapped in a lonely corner.

Stevens does not back down, even when Kenton despises and comes out with another, Stephens stands watching her from the window with silence. When she tells him about the marriage proposal she is contemplating and her possible departure, he wishes her happiness, and asks for a return to work, she asks: "After all these years of working together, do you not want to tell me something else?", Then he reiterates his warm congratulations and goes away, to repeat angry words Receives her with his sad calm and goes to work. Later Kenton apologizes to him but collides with his dry and hurtful response by not having time to talk about trifles, then goes to the basement seeking a bottle of wine and the bottle is broken from him, in a projection on the heart of Kenton whose tears were occupied by the staff in the next scene after Stephens went to her explaining to her a mechanism of refraction The bottle sticker the small charge of the new maid before he is gone. 

Evening .. remains of the day

In the end, after Stephens' memories are completely cut off and he reaches his destination to meet Kenton after twenty years and more, they talk and tell him that her marriage was motivated by his anger, but after years of lack of happiness she fell in love with her husband, and they end up sitting at a station waiting for the bus, commenting on a celebration People lighting the lights of the station every day that evening is the favorite part of the day for everyone, wondering about his time in the day, to look at the camera at length, and in his eyes we see that he was aware that his life was a series of missed opportunities, admitting for the first time in his decision to break his heart.

He recommends that she spend a good time with her husband, and after the bus arrives and Kenton rides, she gets away with her hand and does not hold themselves, so they start crying in the middle of the rains and turning away. Stephens cries with sorrow and the scene is quickly interrupted to return to the palace. Tomorrow has passed and the years have passed. He and Mr. Lewis try to catch a bird that ran into the palace, to take Stephens to the bird and release it after the window, to end the movie with a movement opposite to its start.

In conclusion, James Ivory's film "Remnants of the Day" realistically captures the feeling of remorse for wandering heroes among disappointments, in a touching tale of emotional repression adopted by a man of pride [9] who traded his feelings with his conviction and professional aspiration, tracing the emotional disturbances that were shadows and corners in secret Witness it, in a sad story like life.