——Comment on the audio-visual language and scene scheduling of "A Farewell"
The film "A Farewell" is undoubtedly heavy. Its heaviness does not come from a sudden and violent blow to you, but it is like wrapping you in an airtight plastic bag. This sense of suffocation and oppression comes from all directions. of.
The oppressive atmosphere of the film comes from the institutions of power given to all social classes. At the beginning of the film, the director used a hand-held lens to shoot from a small angle in a medium shot, showing the sense of oppression from the authorities on the petty citizens. The shaking hand-held camera not only shows the inner unease of the two at this time, but also gives the audience an experience that cannot be deprived of. The mid-range scenes give the actors sufficient space for performances. The high-density lines and the uneasy little actions of the husband and wife also bring a suppressed sense of urgency and an uneasy atmosphere. Taking the audience's point of view as an "always invisible power organ" implies that this unknown oppressive atmosphere is invisible but ubiquitous. And give the audience a different viewing experience as a pressure releaser. At the end of this scene, the husband painted, and the wife stepped forward to sign and stared at the camera, breaking the fourth wall between the actors and the audience, creating a different sense of oppression on the audience than the previous one, and covering the audience from beginning to end in this oppressive atmosphere. When the law enforcement officers asked Nader to find someone to pay 400,000 yuan to protect him, or he could only be imprisoned, the hand-held camera showed Nader's unease and confusion in a calm and objective way. Nader's dense lines stand in stark contrast to the cold, unsympathetic words of the enforcer. The reaction footage was sent to the maid Ryze from time to time, and it seemed to convey to us calmly that as ordinary citizens, whether they are high-level people or low-level people, they can't get rid of the government's cold rules and regulations, they are like people who can never climb out of the swamp In the same way, we can never escape the oppression from the authorities.
The social environment also imparts an oppressive atmosphere. In the scene at the beginning of the film, when the wife said that she did not want her daughter to grow up in such an environment, and the law enforcement officer asked what kind of environment it was in a cold tone, the wife lowered her head and hid her eyes, suggesting that Iran's sensitive social environment and the social situation in which the masses are dissatisfied but never dare to resist. And the sense of oppression brought about by people's ideas in the social environment also comes from men and women, the poor and the rich. In several scenes on the stairs, the woman and the poor are always on the lower floor, while the man and the rich are always standing on the upper floor and looking down at them. Westminster, who is wrapped in black cloth, is always in the shadow of the next floor when he asks the question of moving, and when Westminster's point of view is used as the subjective lens, he shoots upward to represent "male". the subject. It seems to imply that in the current Iranian society, even women with advanced Western education cannot get rid of the oppressive feeling shrouded in shadow. And when the male protagonist couldn't push Ryze down the stairs in order to demonstrate that he couldn't push Ryze down the stairs, the Ryze family was different from Nader's positive performance and proof, they always stood cautiously at the entrance of the stairs.
This oppressive atmosphere is also on the different problems faced by different classes and different families. The wife's request for a divorce and the father's dementia were always on Nader's mind. And the director is also very clever to "shroud Nader's house in glass". The daughter watched Simin pack her luggage through the glass, and the little girl watched Nader shave her father through the glass. People boldly peeped at each other through the glass in Nader's house. There was always a piece of glass between them, a piece of glass that no one dared to break in this oppressive home. The details here are also very ingenious. When several quarrels at Nader's house are strung together, you will find that the daughter and the girl will always hide behind the door, holding the eaves and relying on it. These groups of reaction shots to the quarrel show the unease and oppression brought by the children's confusion about the matter and the quarrel with their parents. Let Rhett's home permeate a tense and suffocating atmosphere. At the end, when Ryze told her sister that she could not betray the Lord and say something against her heart, her husband opened the door to invite her sister out, and then closed the door. The confined space, the shaky handheld camera, and the uneasy hand vividly portray the panic of the Ryze family to pay their creditors back because they might not be able to get the money. And when this unknown becomes a reality, the camera begins to shake violently, and heavy breathing is always shrouded in this closed space, like being strangled by someone's neck and about to suffocate, and then a heavy greedy gasp at the moment of release . Then, beating her husband frantically because the plan failed will bring the oppressive atmosphere that has always hovered above Ryze's house to the extreme.
Restraining objective camera language and sackcloth-like real images, the film calmly expresses the social status quo in Iran and the oppression shrouded in all aspects of society. And wrap this oppressive atmosphere in the hearts of the audience.
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