Lindsay Anderson's "if...", which is extremely symbolic and exuding anarchy, was filmed in this passionate 1968 and was released in December at the end of that year.
"If" depicts the picture of ancient British public school education: decadent power relations are everywhere, and they are emphasized in daily rules and rituals. Foucault said that the essence of power is words. And we can think that all the directly visible images that are externalized are just the discourse tools of the film. Therefore, in "if", the descriptions of privilege, obedience, and hierarchical oppression are all directly derived from visible images: the norms of the extension of the body (dress, hairstyle), and the discipline of behavior (rituals, physical activities)-and The purpose of all these external actions seems to be an attempt to instruct the inner moral character. This logic is obviously pedantic. Therefore, when the three protagonists are found to be problematic and out of character, they naturally have to punish their bodies, and the scene of flogging is another demonstration of power.
But obviously, the focus of Lindsay's "if" is to build an unfree status quo and then break it. So the protagonists rushed out of the closed motorcycle shop and galloped on the free country road; Mick and the coffee shop waitress took off the layers of discipline and made love on the floor like a lion and a beast; even in the end, come to 1968 Nian's anarchist restlessness, shouted "no", shooting gunfire at the decadent power class in the past, it was simply fun. But unlike the anarchic carnival in the movie, after the death of the Prague Spring Movement, the Czech Republic fell into the repressive control of Soviet speech; after the May storm subsided in France, the rightist regime consolidated, and people are still peaceful and good, as if the previous movement had not. happened before.
Obviously, the birth of the representative film "if..." of this British film is much closer to France across the strait. So a year later, when a group of leftist intellectuals who participated in the May storm were surprised to find that after the storm subsided, the powerful mechanism behind capitalism was still functioning well without any image—this made people anxious. So they want to launch another movement, in culture, in art, and in the trend of thought to completely resist and subvert the past. Its impact is far-reaching and immeasurable. To some extent, it also made the Cannes Film Festival reopened in 1969 a legacy of 68 The enthusiasm of May finally made Lindsay's 1968 work of rebellious passion win the 69-year Palme d'Or.
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