The visual impact of black and white images is actually far greater than that of color films. It may be because black and white images contain less information than color movies, and the brain will be at a loss when there is a lot of information. After watching Avatar, I have a hard time remembering a certain shot.
In an ordinary German village, violent incidents suddenly occurred many times, and the murderer behind it has never been traced.
The doctor tripped on his horseback, the female worker was accidentally killed, the baron's child was beaten, and the midwife's child was abused. Who is the murderer?
The film did not directly reveal the mystery, but the reasoning of the music teacher at the end told me that the murderer was the pure white ribbon.
The pastor ties the white ribbon for the children because of their mistakes, and says it's a reminder of their sin and the need for the purity of the white ribbon.
The little white ribbon is a metaphor for the power of patriarchy. Not only priests, but almost all fathers in the movie are violent, barons give orders to their wives, farmers slap their sons in the face, doctors sexually abuse their daughters, and don’t give maids any dignity... Are you familiar with this? This is commonplace in China. The father is high, and the dignity of others is trampled. A soft heart slowly becomes hard as iron.
I think of Kafka, a writer who has been shrouded in the shadow of his father all his life, and the metaphors for his father are everywhere in his works. Kafka was Austrian and the film is about a German village on the eve of World War I. Kafka became famous after World War II in large part because Europeans suddenly discovered that before World War II, Kafka accurately expressed their state and predicament, that is, despair and nothingness under the shadow of patriarchy.
Violence can only lead to greater violence. The heart distorted by the powerful patriarchy is cold-blooded and ruthless. Therefore, the indifferent children will face the killer without expression. The children who grew up twenty years later became the backbone of the Nazis, and they would only take revenge on the world more violently.
China not only has a strong foundation of patriarchy, but also defends this patriarchy with filial piety. So there are not many such sins, but they are hidden deeper.
Some people say that the film is dull, but it is not dull, but the patriarchy has greatly suppressed creativity and vitality, so that daily life lacks vitality.
The interpersonal relationships in the film are superficially warm, and once the truth is revealed, it will be shocking. For example, the truth told by the doctor's maid, the seemingly innocent doctor is so filthy. The dignity of a maid can be trampled to such a degree that she will stay by the doctor's side by holding the doctor's handle.
Art reveals the truth by lying. The white veil of hypocrisy will eventually be torn off by the artist, revealing the shameful truth.
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