Written on March 6, 2016, I came across it in my mailbox today. thinking at the time.
The Ultimate Thinking of Human Nature in "Hanzhiqujing" and "Savage Tales"
Augers Bale
"I'm glad to hear you're doing well";
"When you die, when you die, I will occupy all your property."
The dove that has been sitting on the branch thinking about existence
The pigeons just lie comfortably in the chair, away from the pains of life, old age, sickness and death, debt crisis, and courtship.
Swedish director Roy Anderson can trigger people's thinking and reflection on human nature. The seven-year feature-length Turtle Speed has naturally created a good quality of the film. "Quiet" is the last part of Anderson's "Life Trilogy" (2000 "Singing from the Second Floor"; 2007 "You Are Alive"). There is no doubt that he won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. But as a film that is not very familiar to Chinese audiences, what amazing excavation of human nature has it carried out?
First of all, we need to understand that "The Quiet Bird" tells the story of two salesmen, Jonathan and Sam, who are tired and tortured by life, and sell their funny products all the way. Naturally, through the sales journey of Jonathan and Sam, we borrowed their eyes to get a glimpse of life.
absurd?
"I'm glad to hear you're doing well," a cleaning lady said on her phone outside a flamenco class.
In the kitchen, the man stared out the window in a daze, and the wife said on the phone, "I'm glad to hear you're doing well."
Behind his desk, a company boss pointed a pistol at his head and said on the phone, "I'm glad to hear you're doing well."
These seemingly totally out of place lines were elusive for a while. Grief, burnout, suicide. Why do these seemingly unrelated lines co-quote "I'm glad to hear you're doing well"? Isn't this empty cliché a ruthless mockery of people all over the world living their lives? Don't most people fall into this "word from the bottom of my heart" full of affirmation and admiration? But what we see in the movie is this: we wage wars, we abuse animals, we use each other to the fullest. We thought we'd been doing well, but we're not at our worst yet. This is a picture full of laughter and shock.
Bored?
In a movie full of suicide, despair, and cynicism, "Han Zhi Que Jing" is the most inspiring touch of life. The careful audience will find that: the whole film consists of 37 fixed camera shots, each of which is exactly 3 minutes. Each shot is almost a caricature of its own story. Many film critics have classified it as a strange film, strange and absurd, cold and alienated, but they do not know the humorous and poetic side of the whole film. The husband who had a heart attack trying to open a bottle of red wine, the old woman who believed she could take her handbag to heaven when she died, and the passenger who fainted at the table just after paying for the meal. The director uses this humorous method to tell us: life always has an end, and its end will always come unexpectedly. It is both fragile and fleeting and absurdly helpless.
Image style?
I believe that friends who have watched "Amelie" and "The Theory of Everything" will definitely remember the warm tones in the movies. Gentle tones paired with soft love will naturally captivate us. And Anderson's work lacks color, dull characters. It seems to have greatly compromised our movie viewing experience. In addition, all the characters are painted with white base makeup, and their expressions are as pale as ghost sleepwalking, which also makes the passionate game on the beach look weak. However, from the composition point of view, there is no boring picture in the whole film. Whether it's twin sisters blowing bubbles on the balcony or plump mother whispering into the stroller. We have clearly felt the rich poetry in ordinary life. This is life, this is life. Although we are often decadent and naughty, we also cherish the rare happy time. I think this is where the positive energy the film gives us.
In the jungle mentality, everyone is an animal
Start with the absurd, end with the absurd. The reality of life is far more absurd than this.
In the eyes of many Chinese fans, this film from Spain is a more exciting "Apocalypse", with both officials forcing the people to rebel and exposing the shortcomings of the system; Everyone has a flash of criminal thoughts, and this film shows the part that we didn't dare to do, and stabs our weakness.
After watching the movie, it is full of anger and revenge.
The San Francisco newspaper gave the film a full score: this film doesn't even have traces of mechanization, on the contrary, you will be surprised by such a rich imagination. It contains 6 vivid stories and a group of lifelike characters all in one movie. And this movie, with its strong sense of substitution and undeniable authenticity, became the most shocking movie of 2014.
Latin American movies
I believe everyone is familiar with movies from Latin American countries such as "Love Is a Bitch", "City of God" and "Beautiful Mistakes", and their dark, gloomy, rough and sharp style is naturally the essence. "Mysterious Eyes" has won awards at major film festivals around the world. Argentina, Mexico, and Chile have a half-century-long history of development. Its strong national characteristics are recognized and amazed by the world. Perhaps these have also been influenced by magic realism.
This time, our "Savage Tales" can be said to be a black comedy of madness and satire, and it is quite pungent and fierce. A friend once complained to me that Spanish-language films are too serious, but their abhorrence of the system and the exposure of the dark side of human nature are more than enough. Countless coincidences and misses in life, the only tenderness and kindness in human nature, will be exhausted in this parallel time and space of society.
full tension
The first story about a plane crash is gripping. In a short period of nine minutes, the cause and the end of the climax were revealed. A man made every effort to gather all the people who had offended him on one plane through various channels, and then perished together. How shocking and unbelievable it sounds. And the camera freezes the moment the plane hits the old couple. Before we could scream, we jumped to the second story. Think about it: Do you have any thoughts about someone who has offended you? If you were a passenger on that plane, when you learned that everyone on the plane had offended the captain, would you repent to God in your mind, even for a second? Of course, if we all slaughtered our "enemies" like the protagonists, there would be no human existence in the world. We can only say that this kind of thing does not happen often, but who can say that it will not happen?
And the most exciting place in the whole film is the road duel. And this part I think is the most authentic, the most shocking part. Just because a middle finger was raised, both of them died in Huangquan. The most ridiculous thing is that the scuffle between the two people in the car was actually regarded by the police as a "sacrifice of love". Ridiculous, ridiculous. However, many of us have heard of murders caused by a middle finger, a glance, or even a cigarette butt. Even we do it quite often in real life, but to a lesser extent, but of the exact same nature. Who can guarantee that you won't be such a road warrior at the right time and place? Don't feel that reason will always be your escort because it will always go away when dealing with relationships. Furthermore, anger is like a man in a shirt driving a BMW, slamming his opponent into a deep valley. During the viewing process, we must have imagined many times that one of the parties escaped smoothly, and the director seemed to be competing with us. After several rounds, we understood that our imagination was futile. Because he just wants to show us the tragedy. This is indeed a tragedy, a tragedy of human nature.
choose
In the face of the enemy who killed his father, the young waiter hesitated several times, and finally the old woman who saw through the world came to understand a problem in person. Whatever the purpose of the old woman, she is always guilty before the law. And the most shocking thing is his sentence: Prison is much better than outside. Such a blatant satire of reality. Both heartbreaking and sympathetic. And the bride in the last story, because of the groom's infidelity, vented unscrupulously on the rooftop and with the waiter. Making a scene at the wedding, pushing her husband's ex-girlfriend into the glass, shouting all kinds of vicious words. The groom's response was silence and vomiting. Maybe he did betray the bride before, but such a reaction is also jaw-dropping. And the last two people's intercourse in public really blinded my eyes. Marriage is a romantic farce.
How to understand human nature
The two films give different answers. Nothingness, darkness, light, kindness, cowardice, emptiness... The list is meaningful and meaningless. Human nature is complex and changeable and difficult to fathom. Of course, we have to show our bright energy as much as possible and suppress our dark potential.
I hope we keep our life vows: do what you love and do more; if you don't like it, change it; if you don't like your job, quit; if you don't have enough time, don't stand in front of your phone; Stop looking for the love in your life; for it's there when you do what you love; don't keep thinking about why life is so simple; let go of the shackles of thinking, open your arms and open your heart to embrace the new people and things; we're so different, we're attracted to each other by being different; there's only one chance sometimes don't let it slip through your fingers; get out more and see the outside world; getting lost can help you find your true self; all emotions have their charm; eat is to savor every bite; please share each other's passion with the next person you meet; share inspiring dreams with them; life is about meeting someone and changing them together; so To meet them, to change it. Life is short, don't forget to dream and share passion.
View more about A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence reviews
