Following "My Neighbor Totoro", "Spirited Away" and "Sea Pianist", the 4K restoration version of "Life Is Beautiful" was also released in China.
In February 2001, "A Beautiful Life" was released in China, but on a small scale.
This time it was released on a large scale, and it was a 4K repair version.
When I was in elementary school, the school showed this movie, and I thought it was just a comedy.
When I grew up, I realized that, like other great comedies, the core of this movie is actually a tragedy.
The first half and the second half seem to be two different movies. How joyful in the front, how tragic in the back.
I believe everyone remembers the clip of Guido chasing Dora.
Dora said that to find the right key can open her heart.
So Guido shouted "Mary, the key" to the sky, and the key fell from the sky.
Then Guido shouted to the sky: Mary, send someone to tell when to eat the cake.
So the doctor walked over and said: 7 seconds.
Dora followed Guido's example and asked Mary to send someone a dry hat to him, and it was "fulfilled" as expected.
And in the theater, Guido kept staring at Dora.
The person next to him was puzzled, so Guido said wittily: I can only hear my left ear.
These bridges all show that Guido is very smart.
He was able to chase Dora not only because he was smart, but more importantly, he regarded Dora as his princess.
Not only did he say so, but he did so.
He wrote "Good morning, princess" on the cake, took Dora away on horseback, laid the carpet for Dora, talked to her on the radio in the concentration camp, and sang to her... These behaviors were very romantic.
The most touching thing is that Guido went to look for Dora, but was discovered and shot.
What was even more cruel was that the war ended the next day.
Many people are asking: If Guido does not go to Dora, will they be able to reunite the whole family the next day? Is Guido's death meaningless?
Normal people’s thinking is to ensure their own safety. Normal people will not risk being shot to find their wife like Guido, nor will they spend a lot of time weaving a white lie for their son, nor will they be like Dora. The Jews also took the initiative to be imprisoned in a concentration camp...
It is precisely because normal people do not do this kind of thing, the behavior of Guido and Dora is even more touching, because they did things that people did not have the courage to do.
Dora is willing to be with his family by entering the concentration camp, and Guido is willing to risk his life to say "Good morning, princess" on the radio, and also sing to her, which shows their sincere feelings.
Despite the dangerous situation, Guido did not give up his love for his wife and son. This kind of love gave his wife and son hope to live, and became his own weakness, which eventually led to his execution.
If Guido only cared about himself, he would surely survive to the end if he was so smart.
But he didn't want to live alone.
He doesn't regret what he did. If he was given another chance, he would make the same choice because he regarded the lives of his wife and son more importantly than himself.
Many people are puzzled. Why should so many comedy elements be added to a movie about wars and concentration camps? Why spend a lot of space on Guido and Dora’s love?
In fact, this is the brilliance of the movie.
There are too many movies about war from beginning to end, so the director (and Guido's actor) chose a more innovative shooting method, which was later used by many movies for reference, such as the recent popular "Young Boys" Jojo's Fantastic World.
When filming "A Beautiful Life", the director did not directly use bloody and horrible shots to reflect the tragedy of the concentration camp, but compared the happy life of the first half of the Guido family.
The happier their previous lives are, the more they can highlight how painful life in the concentration camp is.
The more humorous and interesting the tone of the film, the more it can highlight the sadness of the ending.
If there is no peace, how do you know how cruel war is?
As I said at the beginning, it seems like two different movies before and after. There is a sharp contrast between the front and the back, which reflects the cruelty of war, racial discrimination, and the greatness of paternal love.
Joshua has never seen her grandmother, and can guess that it is his grandmother.
Later Guido told Joshua to hide in the cabinet, but Joshua said Schwartz was inside.
In fact, Guido didn't even know the boy who hid here before. Swartz was a name he made up casually. He had forgotten it himself, and Joshua still remembered it.
This shows that Joshua is very smart, and it also shows that Guido's "lie" is very successful, and his son believes him very much.
Joshua’s wisdom is even higher than that of his father. Such a smart child will not be so easily deceived, so Guido has made a lot of efforts to convince him that everything is a game.
Every time he was taken away, he walked in a funny and exaggerated posture, making Joshua feel that he was just playing a game.
Everyone was exhausted from work. He went to bed and rested as soon as he came back. He had to pretend that he was really playing games and had a great time.
Joshua didn't believe him and said that he wanted to go home. Guido didn't want him to go, but used wisdom to let him stay.
The key that fell from the sky opened her heart, but it could not break the shackles of slavery;
Riding a horse to escape the fetters of marriage, but unable to escape the fetters of fascism.
Reality is cruel, so he replied with tenderness to reality.
The war was fierce, so he used his father's love to win the war.
Make a piece of cake and he melts her heart;
Laying a carpet, she walked into his life.
A broadcast, a piece of music, let the wife see hope again.
A white lie, a game between father and son, gives children an unshadowed childhood.
I'm just an ordinary person, but you let me be a princess.
I just wanted a toy tank, but you let me sit on a real tank.
He is unknown, but he is omnipotent.
Even if he is in hell, he can turn it into heaven.
Give your family a beautiful life at the cost of life.
Regarding "A Beautiful Life", the first reaction of many viewers is that the paternal love in the film is very touching.
Indeed, paternal love is one of the very important elements in the film, but it is not the main theme of the film.
If this movie was just to express the greatness of fatherly love, it would not have achieved such a high status in film history.
Fatherly love can only be regarded as the second major theme of the film. The real theme of the film is actually anti-war and anti-discrimination.
Guido's application to open a bookstore has been unsuccessful, because Mussolini's racial discrimination policy has prevented the Jews from doing everything smoothly.
In addition, the school principal told the students that they are the most noble race in the world.
There are shops prohibiting Jews from entering the street.
Of course, the most cruel thing was the Nazi slaughter of Jews, even women and children.
Remember the girl with the cat sitting next to Guido and Joshua when they were taken away?
When the cat reappeared, its owner was no longer there.
The director did not use the shots of the girl to be killed to sell the misfortune, but used some details to imply that she was killed.
There are many more details of this kind of careful thinking.
In the concentration camp, the doctor told Guido that his veterinary friend had tested him a riddle: fat, fat, ugly, ugly, too timid, you asked me who I was, and I answered: quack.
The doctor said he didn't know whether the answer was a duck or a platypus, and said that the platypus's call was not "quack".
The doctor has something in his words. He uses ducks and platypuses to call differently to express that Italians and Germans have different languages.
In the restaurant, Joshua accidentally said "thank you" in Italian, which aroused the suspicion of the Germans.
Joshua could not guarantee that he would not speak, which made the doctor find that helping them escape is much more difficult than he thought.
It was true that he had decided to help the Guido family escape, but in the end he gave up.
Guido is a very smart person. He understood what he wanted to express from the doctor's riddle, so he left sadly.
In fact, the doctor also has his difficulties. If he fails to help the Guido family escape, he will not end well.
It's not that the doctor didn't want to help. In the final analysis, the Nazis were too cruel. Not only did they not let the Jews be spared, but even those who helped the Jews died miserably.
In fact, all the riddles in the film are not casually searched, they are all related to the plot.
The first riddle the doctor asked Guido: The more you get, the more you can't see it. What is it?
Guido replied: Darkness.
If the world is too dark, people will lose their way and lose sight of the road ahead.
So Guido turned into a candle, emitting a faint light in the darkness, guiding his wife and son forward, but he burned out.
Guido then asked the doctor Snow White to cut the cake, which was to pave the way for Guido's "routine" Dora.
Before returning to Germany, the doctor asked Guido: As soon as I mentioned me, I disappeared. Who am I?
Guido replied: silence.
It was this riddle that allowed Guido to be recognized by the doctor when he was examined in the concentration camp.
This riddle is very clever, because its question "I disappear as soon as you mention me" echoes the situation in the concentration camp-if you are found, you will be shot.
The answer to "silence" is Guido's instructions to Joshua, telling him to hide in the cabinet and keep silent until no one comes out.
In addition to the cats and doctors mentioned above, there is another segment that is also impressive.
In the gas room, the German female officer fell and Guido's uncle greeted her with concern: Are there any injuries?
This detail is not very eye-catching, and many people have overlooked it. In fact, it is very meaningful.
The female officer just came out of the gas chamber. She had done this many times. She knew what would happen to the people inside, so when she walked, she lost her body and fell.
But the Jews were kept in the dark, not knowing that they were going to the gas chamber, thinking that it was really just a bath.
Guido's uncle used to be a waiter in the restaurant, so he expressed his concern to the female officer who had a fall out of professional habits.
This was also reflected in Guido. Joshua said that he did not want to take a bath, and Guido also ordered him to go. Obviously he also thought that taking a bath really meant taking a bath.
Everyone who entered the gas chamber was dead, and people like Joshua who did not enter the gas chamber did not know what was inside, so few people knew that the bathroom was actually the secret of the gas chamber.
The German military officers were so frightened by the horror in the gas chamber that they could not walk smoothly. The Jews did not know what they were greeted, which created a sharp contrast.
The Nazis were about to poison them with poison gas. They were still preparing to take a bath, not knowing that death was approaching.
If you don't let you leave, don't tell you the truth, keep you in the dark, don't tell you that you are dying.
Because the audience is in the perspective of God, knowing that the bathroom is a gas chamber, and seeing Guido, Guido's uncle and others ignorant of this, it feels even more heartache.
Because you know they are going to die, but you are just a spectator and you can't do anything.
The director did not simply and brutally use bloody and terrifying shots to show the horror of the war, did not shoot close-ups in the gas chamber, did not shoot the tragic situation of the victims (only a flash of corpses everywhere), even Guido was shot to death. There is only sound and no picture.
Doing so will not weaken the power of the film, but can better reflect the director's respect for life.
This idea of shooting is actually a bit similar to shooting horror movies. Ordinary horror movies are scary from the visual level, and advanced horror movies are scary from the psychological level.
"A Beautiful Life" reflects the suffering experienced by victims through plots, details, and metaphors. It can make you feel more empathetic than scaring you with terrifying and thrilling lenses.
The director can shoot the hideous image of the Jews being corroded by poison gas, or the Jews being tortured by the Nazis, but he did not do so, but chose to protect our hearts like Guido protected Joshua.
So the real purpose of the director is not only to extol the love of the father, but more importantly, to let people experience the cruelty of war and the terrible aspects of genocide through Guido's sacrifice and the experience of the whole family.
Guido used a beautiful lie to make his son in hell think that he was in heaven. This story is very moving.
But after watching this movie, we will hope for world peace, no war and discrimination, fathers do not need to deceive their children with white lies, because they are already in heaven.
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