The weather in early summer is still cool, unlike July to September, when the heat is unbearable and the sun is high, so by that time, underage children will have summer vacation.
The three children had to go to the grandfather's house in the most rural area of Provence for the first time from Paris. They have never left the bustling big city. Their reaction to the country when they first arrived in the country was very real. They complained and felt uncomfortable. The signal brings the irritability of losing the world, the surprise attack of the bumblebee, the unpalatable food, the awkward family relationship, and all they are left with is boredom, and the question of how the grandparents can endure the bad country life for so many years.
If it is in China, it is very likely that the children in the city will just stay in the house to spend the summer with "air conditioning, WiFi, and watermelon" in the country. village life. But what if it was in the hearty southern countryside of France? And is it the French-style country life that is beautified and exaggerated in the movie? The situation was totally unexpected.
The sun is hot, and the people there are hotter than it. In the hot summer, there are markets, bullfighting activities, happy gatherings and drinking, old friends reuniting after a long journey to play and sing drunk, and hot lust. And restless youth, in addition to the reconciliation plot between grandparents and grandchildren, the summer scenes in the countryside of southern France are also presented one by one, human beings, nature, all revealing a strong summer flavor.
The elimination of the gap between grandfathers and grandchildren whom I haven’t met in 17 years is not very representative in my opinion. My heart is mixed with emotions such as doubt, envy, and cultural difference shock. The grandparents who seem to be bored, who knows that they also had a cool and handsome experience when they were young. In the present, they also have the pride and honor of the moment.
In the process of getting along with them, you can see a little bit of French society completely different from our way of sex education, especially open attitude towards sex, revealing and loving the body, and direct and enthusiastic pursuit of beauty, because the whole society is concerned about this. If it is recognized in the heart, people will not be cautious and secretive, they will not talk about sex, and they will not point out moral condemnation of an underage girl who is blinded by cognition and admits to falling in love and having sex.
Of course, a child is a child after all, and needs the guidance and protection of adults in terms of emotions, but if something unexpected has happened, let it pass in the child's heart. Being held on by family members and society, tortured to death by pressure and accusations, especially for girls, is unimaginable. In the face of sex, how many minors are so suppressed that they can't lift their heads, as if they are not worthy of being human. However, the more the better is the guidance, communication, and frankness of the society and adults on weekdays, not the suppression and rejection afterwards, isn't it? It's not children but adults who don't do enough, isn't it?
The elimination of the estrangement between grandparents and grandchildren in the movie is very Western. Young people pursue trends and individuality, and find that the mediocre elders used to be more fashionable and individual than themselves, and their feelings for grandchildren are also guarded in a particularly cool and warm way. You will be convinced and worship your elders from the bottom of your heart. I don't think this model works well in our reality, but I hope that one day it will be able to go smoothly, and the elders will no longer work silently for their children and grandchildren for most of their lives. They should have a clear face and a personality. There is publicity, and there is a life that is irreplaceable and cannot be sacrificed.
The French countryside in this movie is actually not that rural, that is, it is very remote, isolated and closed. There are grand events, bustling crowds, and foreign tourists. In the Japanese version of "Little Forest", there is still a great contrast between the peaceful and beautiful countryside where there are only a few white-headed old people. It seems to get the impression that the western countryside is hot and the eastern countryside is lonely, not necessarily, because in "Summer in Provence", they live in the countryside, and it takes a long time to drive to those noisy and bustling cities. The lively impression was the city life, not the country life at all. I made a mistake and mistaken it for a pure country story.
On the whole, in terms of the story, I think it is relatively broken. Some things happened, as if to force the plot forward, and quickly compressed a lot of things into the two months of this summer, into the 100-minute movie time, Plain and warm? Passionate Romance? Elegance? Hot and crazy? I don't know why I mix all these together, it always feels weird, it seems that everything is mentioned and brought along, and it seems that I am too hasty to taste it. So, it's a family movie? Social film? Or a landscape film? Romance? Is it an old movie? Teen movies? Or a children's movie? Educational film? Makes myself dizzy, it should be, a drama, right.
Perhaps, the reason why the story develops willfully is because of the natural beauty of Provence and a group of handsome men and women supporting it, mountains and boulders, jungles and fields, lakes and grasslands, sea and sandy beaches, and now, in retrospect, there is such a thing in that vast land. So many different scenery, so magical and desirable. The actors in the film, old, middle-aged, young, male and female, are either very stylish and temperamental, or have a great figure, beautiful and handsome, and are seductive enough to be eye-catching. I like their grandmother's elegant elegance, and I don't think she is at all. An old village woman, speaking, dressing, and bearing, make people forget her aging, what a wonderful thing.
Speaking of which, among the three children, the one who is most suitable for the real rural life here is the little one. After the holiday, what should the elder brothers and sisters do? They will soon reintegrate into the torrent of the bustling city and return to a familiar life. They will not miss everything in the countryside, and the little boy, he is calm enough, he can slow down his pace, and in his inner world, he will feel the land and the people there in a friendly and novel, quiet and happy way , he can blend in, and the countryside is in harmony with him.
After all, everything in the countryside must not be rushed, crops must grow according to the rhythm of the four seasons, and people must follow the pace of crops. Conversation, listening to the sounds they don't make, the little boy is really similar to them.
Summer has come, and there are many fun and interesting things in summer that are exclusive to this season. Summer is warm and forthright, and in Provence in summer, the south of France is as hot as the weather.
Past content:
"The Taste of Green Papaya": Shui Lingling's bitterness and sweetness
"August": A Childish Prose Poem
"The Story of the Boat": Choose one thing, your whole life, it can be said to be brave
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