In a presidential election, three candidates run on the same stage.
The first: paralyzed body, suffering from a series of serious diseases such as high blood pressure and anemia, lying, cheating in marriage, and alcoholism; second: excessively obese, suffering from depression, two heart attacks, and drinking heavily fall asleep; third place: war hero, respect for women, abstain from alcohol and tobacco, love small animals.
If it were you, who would you choose?
This is a clip from the Danish film "Alcohol Project".
In class, history teacher Martin asked students such a question. As a result, the students voted all for the third candidate.
They missed Roosevelt, Churchill, and finally Hitler.
Martin had a good classroom effect, and the irony was left to the audience to experience.
In 1998, the 29-year-old Thomas Winterberg created the first work of "Dogme95", "Family Banquet", which was shortlisted in the main competition unit of Cannes, causing a sensation.
This time, Thomas Winterberg's new work "Alcohol Project" once again goes against the mainstream discourse, revealing a part of Danish society that is rarely known to other countries. While discussing the relationship between alcohol and people, it also depicts all living beings in Danish society. The film was nominated for the 93rd Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Note: Dogme95: Dogma, Danish, means "dogma". Dogma95 or Dogme95, translated as "Dogma 95". Dogma 95 is a film movement launched in 1995 by Danish directors Lars von Trier, Thomas Winterberg, Kristin Levine, etc. The movement is called the Dogma 95 Community, The goal is to instill in filmmaking a sense of simplicity and freedom for post-production modifications and other inventions that emphasize the purity of film composition and focus on the true story and the actors' performances themselves. To further this goal, von Trier and Winterberg developed ten rules that Dogma films must follow, known as the Oath of Purity.
Article source: Le Bleu Du Miroir (with abridged)
Author: Pierre Nicolas
Translator/Editor: Ling Xiao
Public account: Abandon the book
The Alcohol Project marks the return of Thomas Winterberg and Tobias Lindorgham. The addition of actor Max Mikkelsen also makes this combination even more worth looking forward to.
Winterberg's 2012 film "The Hunt" with Mikkelsen was a huge success, but Winterberg and Lindauhem's previous "Community" didn't have the desired effect, perhaps because an important element was missing .
The Hunt poster
Therefore, the broadcast of "Alcohol Project" also attempts to announce to the world what kind of magic will happen when the three Danes get together again.
"Alcohol Project" cuts into the theme of "alcoholism" from a social perspective, and pays more attention to the social reasons why alcoholism leads to the degeneration of the protagonist. Looking at this issue through a philosophical approach provides a universal meaning to the film.
Alcohol has never become something tied to social conditions, more of a tool that shapes one's daily life, a way of regaining life, giving meaning to one's existence, and ultimately acting "as you want" - taking risks At the risk of burning his own life at both ends.
The four protagonists in the film look to alcohol to achieve spiritual liberation -- almost Icarusian.
A philosophical look at the effects of alcohol on the body and mind also makes us aware of the existential crisis of middle-aged men.
At this stage of doubt, when a man lends himself the opportunity to dream and even imagine his lost youth and enthusiasm, his body is hampered by the tedious daily life.
Work, banal conversations with wives and children, and feeling like a self-repeating machine all suggest that the characters are going through this crisis.
Faced with this existential crisis, all weapons are used to escape the everyday. The anger conveyed by the alcohol causes the characters to burst out, and at the same time trap them.
In order to get out of this state, alcohol becomes a key, a door across the ego, a way to break the routine that will fundamentally damage your life.
Four professors from The Alcohol Project embark on this hopeful drinking journey. As their experiments expanded, alcohol's effects on people became more concrete, hiding a real ticking time bomb. The experiment begins, the first glass of wine is drank, and both the characters and the audience cheer.
At first, we feel a kind of comedy, and as the film progresses, as the protagonist continues to challenge the limit of alcohol his body can handle, the authenticity of the "Alcohol Project" narrative gradually emerges.
The comedic tone at the beginning of the film is just a trap for the audience, and the professors' experiments can't go smoothly. The beginning of the experiment is as effective as the first drink at a party, the audience is in a state of euphoria, as intoxicated as the protagonist, but this is only an illusion.
This euphoria, like a party where alcohol is rampant, is deadly. When that glass of wine at the tipping point was drank, everything fell apart.
All the violence in the world, hidden by a gallon of alcohol, comes to the fore as the characters collapse, and there is no possibility of going backwards. Like a guilt-ridden awakening to the irreparable actions of the previous day, they will have to face tomorrow accordingly.
The film pays special attention to the portrayal of liquids in both performance and sound processing. Whether drinking sparingly or greedily, liquids are so ubiquitous that drips at the corners of the mouth are as common as "seeing" and "hearing."
Viewers are immersed in a timeless sonic world of liquids, bottles and glasses, in which the crackling of ice cubes in a cocktail reverberates across the room like a death knell for the worst.
The pursuit of lost youth, the pursuit of a carefree life, may seem tempting, but it is futile, it only makes the distance between people. The characters feel their own presence through drunkenness and, at the same time, are inevitably estranged from their loved ones.
In this sad celebration, characters find themselves in the rift between being rescued and being eroded by alcohol.
The film is a tragic yet humane observation that reminds us that everyday life is not hell by its very nature, and that transcendental risk-free escapes are often not. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and risked burning your own life.
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