"I prefer to write women's stories. I think women can provide me with comedy material, while men can only let me write tragedies, and it is easier to write tragedies."
- Almodovar
Because I recently started learning Spanish, I was looking for Spanish-language movies on the Internet, and I never expected to meet Almodovar, a treasure-level director.
Much of Almodóvar's work is highly controversial, as "sexual assault", "violence", "lust" and "religion" are often the labels of his films. He is particularly good at making films about women, and is known as the " Master of Female Films ". In his films, female characters are usually "all-rounder", like Superman, while male characters are cowardly, lustful and ignorant.
This may be related to life experience.
He grew up in a poor town, where men are superior to women as a living creed, as long as men are born men, women are responsible for everything. Therefore, he admires women's ability and omnipotence, observes women, and sympathizes with women. At the same time, his family is very traditional. He was sexually assaulted by a priest in a later experience, thus subverting his understanding of religion.
The film was shot in 2006 , at which time Almodovar's skills were quite mature, and his personal characteristics were very distinct. The 57-year-old turned his attention to his hometown, a small town. It tells a series of rare events in this small town, related to sexual assault and religion, as well as the local people's concept of death.
Before I knew about Almodovar, when I watched "Return" , I was full of admiration for the magnificent and rich pictures. He is good at using high-saturation color matching, various patterns, and does not feel abrupt and complicated at all. The colors, patterns, or carvings and decorations of each scene reveal the simplicity of the countryside. This simplicity is a far cry from Japanese minimalism, it's a design aesthetic in the midst of chaos.
When it comes to religion, the people in the local town in the film firmly believe that human death is not really death. The human soul will return. If a person has any wishes that are not fulfilled during his lifetime, he will "appear" in the eyes of future generations. On the one hand, it illustrates the local people's views on death, and on the other hand, it also lays a good foundation for the rationalization of the film's story.
Therefore, it is mentioned in the film that the "good thing about superstition" is that although people see a person who is not dead, they still believe that this is the manifestation of their soul. In this way, the person who wants to disappear in this world will no longer have to worry about being discovered occasionally.
The film is largely dominated by female characters, who, despite having a male protagonist, are soon given a box lunch for their misdeeds. The absence of male roles does not make the family structure unbalanced, but because there are no males, women are more independent and free. In the movie, the heroine's husband is a lazy existence, and the heroine is strong by nature, not only doing work, but also taking care of the family.
In traditional societies, men are often defined as aggressive, active, and non-emotional. Women, on the other hand, are labelled emotional, weak, and passive. For this concept, it still dominates in traditional society and even in feudal areas of modern society.
And the concept of "androgyny" proposed by psychologist Sandra Behm . He believes that human beings are not only masculine and feminine, but also have androgyny. After investigation and research, it was found that the number of absolute masculine and absolute femininity and neutrality is basically the same .
Androgyny here does not mean discrimination. Presumably referring to strong, independent women and more attentive men. In other words, bravery, decisiveness, and strength are not only synonymous with men, but delicate and emotionally rich are not unique attributes of women.
And Sandra Behm believes that people who have both personalities at the same time will have a healthier relationship , and the orderly development of this healthy relationship is a kind of self-actualization and whole-person state (whole-person).
I'm thankful that the movie doesn't show a lot of grief over the death of a man, it's a relief from the screen.
I especially liked the scene when the daughter was frank with her mother after being sexually assaulted by her "father". The mother took her in her arms and immediately began to work on the matter. The reality is often hopeless. In addition to traditional ideas, women themselves are hurting women.
So from a realistic point of view, the story of the movie is actually quite absurd. But just because it is a movie, it can have an idealized ending arbitrarily. In reality, the tragedy of "sexual assault" and "violence" has never stopped.
At the end of the film, the return of family love, the gear of time continues to turn, and the "soul" will not cry .
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