French director Claire De Ni’s new work "White Material" (White Material, 2009) is probably her most well-known work in recent years. In her previous works, she often focused the lens on immigrants or working-class groups living in France (such as "35 Cups of Rum" and "Absurd Friday Night"), which made her works popular among the middle class and intellectuals. The prevailing French mainstream film aesthetics seems a bit different. Isabel Huppert in "The White Devils" may be the biggest actor that Denis has worked with so far. Her appeal undoubtedly has brought due attention to the film; at the same time, the setting background of the film is back. I arrived at the plot location of Dennis's critically acclaimed debut "Chocolate" (1988), where she grew up: Cameroon. Familiarity with the shooting environment allows Denis not to compromise or lose his original personal style when working with actors at the level of Huppert. This also allows "White Devils" to take into account both commercial and personal characteristics, making it one of Deney's most important works.
The plot of "The White Devils" revolves around Maria, played by Pell, and her efforts to stick to the plantation. The film takes place in a turbulent period in an unknown African country. The French colonial government has just withdrawn from here, and the government in power is erasing all traces of white forces, including the coffee plantation run by Maria. As the official owner of the plantation, Maria’s father-in-law and ex-husband knew that the end of the white man’s country was approaching, and they were ready to abandon the plantation. But Maria didn't care about all of this. She insisted on staying in the plantation and leading the workers to complete the next round of harvest. At the same time, she had to deal with her troubled son. On the other hand, the "boxer" of the democratic leader who evaded the government's wanted is hiding in the countryside. Severely injured, he hid in the plantation, and the local government had learned of his whereabouts and was preparing to end his life in the plantation.
Although the plot of this movie is not complicated, Claire Deney uses confusing non-linear narrative techniques when expressing them. She used the scene of the plantation burning down and the death of the "boxer" as the prologue to the film, which casts a fatalistic tragic color on the whole film; the subsequent plot of the film uses Maria's return home in a car as the central axis. Interspersed in it are her memories of important events in her life in the past 48 hours. Since the timing between events has not been confessed directly, subtle clues such as character costumes have become evidence for the audience to distinguish and reorganize the sequence of events. This kind of structure requires the audience to have a high degree of autonomy. If there is distraction during the viewing process, you may be confused about the plot. But Dennis did not deliberately challenge the audience in narrative to show off his skills. Such a choice is also forced by the situation. In an interview, she mentioned that because the crew’s lighting equipment was detained by the local customs for two weeks, and the filming in Africa was really unexpected, so in many cases, the film’s shooting plan and initial plot need to be changed according to the conditions at the time of shooting. With corresponding adjustments, the structure of the final cut version of the movie has therefore changed significantly from the script manuscript. However, even in the complex narrative structure, we can still capture its inherent continuity, which is reflected in Maria’s character.
Maria is the kind of role that Hupel would like to play: a thin body, a strong heart, and a woman who does not hesitate to pay any price in order to achieve her goal. But the difference between Maria and Huppert’s previous roles is that although this woman is paranoid, she also has a kind of simplicity and perseverance in her temperament. The purpose of all her actions is out of a "sense of belonging" to this land. Such a starting point is understandable. Unfortunately, in a violent environment, a good starting point does not necessarily lead to a good result. Maria is a person in the cracks. On the one hand, as a white man in a certain period, she is caught between the conflicting local government and the rebels. Both sides are not very welcome to her; on the other hand, she is in The family is also sandwiched between an elderly cynic father-in-law and a weak and incompetent son. Although the father-in-law is inactive, he still holds the power of the plantation, and her son's lethargy also makes her at a loss for the future of the plantation. She was in a double gap, struggling to walk every step, at a loss as to what to do. However, she has never chosen to give up like her father-in-law and her ex-husband. Even if she is isolated and helpless, she still does her best to stick to the plantation and work for it non-stop. For her, only land is important, and everything else, whether it is racial estrangement or warlord melee, has nothing to do with her. This passionate perseverance and strength are the reason for her sympathy, and it is also the fuse that led her to the ultimate madness.
Since there are not many lines in the whole film, Denis is very careful when using lens language to express Maria. Perhaps the most common visual motif in the film is the imagery of "sandwich". Dennis often uses corridors, windows or door cracks as the foreground when composing the pictures, and "frames" Maria in to emphasize her difficult situation. The most frequent shot in the film is the close-up shot of Maria by the camera. Although we can’t see Maria’s facial expression in the picture, the slight shaking of the hand-held photography corresponds to Maria’s rapid and firm footsteps, which can almost make it The audience felt her pulse. In this way, under the subtle influence of Denis's lens language, our identity with Maria has gradually been strengthened. In addition, the way of avoiding Maria's face in these shots is not a waste of Pell's acting talent, but it is precisely Dennis's carefully designed lens strategy. This unique visual language leaves a private space for the character, and there is a side that she does not easily reveal to the audience. It is this side that leaves suspense for the progress of the plot and adds complexity and complexity to the character’s character. Trustworthy level.
Dennis's meticulously carved mirror language provides the audience with a different angle of observation, while Huppert's undercurrent performance is the soul of the entire movie. In the film, she is dry-mouthed in order to keep the workers who are about to leave; she walks in the country non-stop, looking for every house where workers may live; her thin and shriveled body looks extremely small under the huge environment. However, when working for the plantation, her slender arms seemed to have infinite power. When her face fills the entire picture, it is the most heart-ache for the audience: the freckles on her face become clearer under the sun, but her brows and mouth corners are always tough, as if they have been frozen like a sculpture. millennium. Her performance was exhausted under firmness, allowing us to clearly see that behind Maria’s strong will supported by self-deception, what lies hidden is the critical state of being always on the verge of disillusionment without knowing it. This The final madness of Maria was unexpected but reasonable, full of fate and tragedy.
The thoughtful images and exquisite performance make "White Devils" as a fable about the relationship between a woman and the environment, and it is also exciting enough for audiences who do not understand the political implications of the film. On the other hand, from a political point of view, the country as the background of the film is unknown, but its chaotic situation exists in most countries in Africa. The film's line-drawing treatment of the political background instead emphasizes the universality of political issues, so that the film's perspective does not just stay on the surface of things.
When creating this film, Dennis did not limit the time and location of the story. The political hints in the film are made by combining the historical events of several countries. The film was shot in Cameroon, but the government's method of cleaning up white power in the film was taken from the situation in Côte d’Ivoire in recent years; as for the most important role in the film, “boxer” except Maria, its prototype is known as “African The Burkina Faso revolutionary of Che Guevara, Thomas Sankara. This Marxist soldier came to power through a coup at the age of 34. He was expelled by the government due to political disagreements and was eventually killed four years later. His influence in Africa has not dissipated. Dennis and the actor Isah de Banker who played the "boxer" both said that the plot of the "boxer" escaped to the countryside in the film is to some extent A kind of memorial to Sankara. Although the role of "Boxer" is small, it echoes Maria in the story of "The White Devils"-both of them are engaged in a fight that is doomed to failure, but the battlefield of "Boxer" is the entire country, and Maria’s battlefield is her plantation.
In the film, the efforts of the "boxer" are finally suppressed by those in power. However, his spiritual sustenance among young people has not died out. The self-organized boy soldiers in the film represent the unfinished business of the "boxer", and the governor who drives the "white devil" crazy in the film, instills in the next generation. But it is still the product of civilization represented by "White Devils" ("Fanta" soda). In such a chaotic political situation, where will society go? Denis asked a question, but was unable to answer. She showed her attitude in the scene at the end of the film. After the anti-government boy soldiers escaped from the plantation, they hid the boxer's hat on her body and painted, leaving only the out-of-focus horizon in the frame. What will happen in the future? Everything is unknown.
Originally published in a certain issue of "Midnight Show" in 2011
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