Perspective: a low profile looking up
When you put the lens on the eyebrow height of a few-year-old child, you will find that the world has become broader, with more unknowns and possibilities, and with more colors.
It can be said that the photography of Sean Baker this time has temperature, the blue sky, the pink and purple motel, the rich tropical green scenery, the orange red sunset, the colorful fireworks blooming in the black wilderness, and the accidental appearance in the shooting process. Rainbows seem to be so heart-warming. The use of several backlighting and elevation lenses also makes people feel a kind of desolate beauty. Halley took the two girls on the roadside and called for a ride, with a brilliant sunset behind it, like a tribute to the previous orange poster. An elevation shot after Bobby pulled back the switch. The background was dark clouds with silver edges. Natural light hit Bobby's face directly, making the man look more glamorous. I love you too! Bobby replied.
In addition to the use of colors and light, the angle of view of the lens is also very variable, and it has a state where children see the world. The most impressive is the back shots of the two little girls Moonee and Jancey, once watching the rainbow, once watching the water buffalo, as if eavesdropping behind the girls chatting, the two little guys did give an amazing surprise. In the performance, "I took you on a safari." There are many mid-range fixed shots of the child in the film. With a landmark landscape as the background, the child is allowed to walk from the left to the right of the camera, quite a bit The taste of Wes Anderson. Of course, I also need to mention a few minutes of slowly rotating footage, following the children sideways from one section of the hotel’s second-floor corridor to the other, and there is a close-up of Moonee’s face when eating a buffet, accompanied by her. Speaking innocently. These somewhat documentary-style shootings made the movie's attention to these children not superficial, but presented close and calmly, as if we were squatting on the side, watching the summer games of three or four children.
Ground floor: a neglected place
The narrative of the Florida project is special. It connects the fragments of life through editing and promotes the occurrence and development of the plot. Similar narratives can be seen in Lady Bird and The Square this year, but the three are different. In fact, Lady Bird's editing deliberately took care of the development of the plot, consciously leaving a lot of echoes before and after, the shape is scattered but the spirit is not scattered. The Square is like cutting a lot of life sketches together. Each paragraph can be self-contained and has a complete narrative. When put together, it serves the overall timeline. This also makes the final ending difficult, and it is a bit unable to complete the field. feel. In the Florida project, the fragmented fragments were simply cut up. There is no strict context on the timeline. It can be a silhouette at any moment in life. Due to the simplicity of the story, this kind of editing looks real and lovely. It's like listening to a good friend talking about his endless experience.
In these clips, Sean Baker actually euphemistically shows the living conditions of the bottom American people, and more euphemistically examines them from a child's perspective. The young couple who came to the hotel late at night for their honeymoon, because the wrong order fell to this motel. "She is about to cry./She is about to cry." The child's eyes are bright, and she can see the softest part of her heart at a glance. The abandoned house burned, and the onlookers bluntly said: "Let it burn." Of course, there is also Halley, this "terrible" mother, who interprets "the poor and the poor cannot be moved." In any case, the suffering of the people at the bottom is only one aspect in the movie. It is like a heavy rain that suddenly appears. Although we know it often rains, more often we have to look at the brilliant sunshine.
There are also some magical touches, such as the background sound of the helicopter that has been noisy, and the unexpected unknown birds, creating an awkward humorous atmosphere, reminding us that life will show her wonderful moments anywhere, as long as you do well Ready to discover her.
Naive: All-round protection at once
To say what the Florida project really showed, perhaps the most influential is the portrayal of children, the praise of childlike innocence, and the protection of innocence. This is the original intention that we abandoned at the beginning as grown-ups, and later regretted it, and continued to work hard to find it. Perhaps it is also something Sean Baker wants to remind us to remember. It is true that when I watched the movie, I also remembered every summer vacation I spent when I was a child, and those days when I was running around and messing around. Like Moonee, I pointed to the dilapidated house and said that I would have such a house in the future.
In this very social motel, a child can easily be swallowed up by the adult world. However, this movie shows a very opposite situation. The child's innocence is protected, and the adults in it are indispensable. This guard comes from the high-decibel background music during Moonee's bath, the paint bucket that Bobby dropped and the stranger he took away, the big meal Halley took his children to eat, the fireworks he had seen, and so on. These children seem to come from a single mother's family, so Bobby here seems to be a hidden father. It is not just the "fathers" of these children who watch them hide-and-seek and eat ice cream, but they are also the "fathers" of single mothers, and give them as much guidance and help as possible. In fact, Bobby seems to be aware of Halley's improper source of income, so he will propose measures to register visitors. Are these single mothers who are still messed up with their efforts, do they also have the naivety that needs to be guarded?
Probably naive people would like such naive movies very much. In this, the childlike heart is carefully protected. Although it is only separated from the cruel reality by a wall, it has a world of freedom to develop. When the film reached the end, the mother and the child were to be separated, Bobby was unable to do anything, and all the protection was about to be torn apart, but the director reversed the previous narrative state and made the final effort to protect this childlike innocence. Bravely gave the ending of a grand escape. The exciting soundtrack flooded in, and it was imaginary as if the camera shot from the mobile phone was running along with the two little girls, abandoning the reality around them all the way, and fleeing to the eternally childlike fairy tale world. Such an abrupt and surreal ending will naturally be criticized, but thinking about it is so gentle and so magnificent, I always feel that there is still beauty in this world that can protect you.
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