However, although this film is 450 minutes long and is known for its long shots, it is different from the boring films I have seen before. From beginning to end, the story is very fascinating, and suspense always catches you. Each long shot is full of meaning and tension, revealing a lot of information to the audience. Even if it is an empty shot, because it is sandwiched between two scenes and added with music that is very suitable for the scene, it immediately arouses the mood of the audience and has expectations for the following plot.
The dull farm is full of desperate emotions. The
film is divided into twelve parts. Each part has a title: news that they are coming; come back to life; have a clue; spider work; unbound; spider work 2 (devil’s nipples, Satan’s Tango); Irimiyas speech; prospects; heaven? nightmare? Future expectations; work and troubles; closed circles. In fact, these topics are the topics of each part, which can also provide the audience with a lot of clues to help us better understand the plot. The film focuses the camera on a farm, a collective farm in Hungary, and a dilapidated farm in decay; the camera is aimed at the villagers in the farm, these villagers seem to have lost their passion for life, and everyone seems to be caught in It's the same in the conspiracy, decadent and down-to-earth. The atmosphere in the whole village is extremely dull and lacks vitality. The air smelled of conspiracy and despair. Only Qiu Yu kept underground, as if waiting for the sky to change. This is the last year of collective farms. This is an era in which various contradictions have been intertwined. This is an era in which the old system is waiting to be destroyed and the new system is brewing.
At the beginning of the film, it was a ten-minute long lens. The lens was first fixed at the entrance of the village and shot a group of cows in front of the entrance of the village. These cows first stayed quietly, eating grass, and then chasing each other and mating. Behind is the dilapidated farm house. Behind this long shot, there is another long shot that took place in the village. This is the two villagers who are affair, and they look out the window from time to time. The director made a meaningful comparison between the two shots. The cows and the villagers, both residents of this farm, are doing the same thing, and they are equally restless.
There are not many people in the farm, but there seems to be a clear or dark connection between each other. The people who enter and exit this farm can be divided into three groups: one is the villagers who are caught in it, they live in this farm, but they are dissatisfied, and they are calculating with each other and looking forward to a better life; the other is the intruder. , That is, two liars who have just been released from prison, plus Sang Yi who was in the farm to inform them, their arrival disturbed the seemingly peaceful farm and brought the story to a climax; the third is bystanders, It was the doctor and the little girl Istek, who were also people on the farm. They observed everything and saw everything, but they did not get involved in the life of the farm.
They just like to live in their own shadow
Let me talk about the first wave, the main body of the film: the Krenners, the principal, the Smeads, the Ftaki, and the Harriss. They actually represent the villagers of the Hungarian collective farms. The collective farms for so many years have consumed their enthusiasm for life and made their lives extremely dull, and they can hardly hold any hope for the future. For them, as they said, "We are like twigs in the rain, unable to protect ourselves." Of course, it’s the liar Elimias who knows them more deeply: "They? They are slaves, and they have been slaves all their lives. They don’t know anything except eat potatoes. Suspiciously guessing about each other, burping in silence, because they Think that they have been deceived. Slaves have no masters, but they can’t be without pride, self-esteem, and courage. They don’t have any in their bones. They just like to live in their own shadows, they follow the shadows like a flock. Without aura and fantasy, They can’t live. But don’t drive them crazy or they will be powerfully destructive. They just need a warm room with steaming red peppers. If they can sleep with the hostess next door, they will thank God. Now.” This is the overall evaluation of the liar Irimias on the villagers. In fact, isn’t this also a portrayal of all the folks in that era?
This group of villagers is the main body of the movie and the place where the movie focuses on performance. Naturally, the observation and evaluation of them are not only Iremias, but also doctors and officials. When the police revised the confessions of the two swindlers, they gave each resident a more vivid explanation. Mrs. Smead is "a man who does not hesitate to betray his flesh"; Mrs. Krenner always "spreads rumors carelessly"; "Smead's obedience to authority makes him particularly cooperative"; Like a shriveled cucumber with a lower brain function than Smid", "he used narcissism and fantasies to make up for his cowardice"; Krenner, "a stupid guy with binocular dementia", "is just a fat beast." ; "The only dangerous person" is the disabled Futuji, he is smarter than the others, "dangerous, but able to use". Judging from the performance of the movie, I have to say that these evaluations are quite accurate.
The one who makes the farm turbulent
The second group is the two crooks Irimias and Pechina, plus at most the boy Sang Yi from the village. The two swindlers should have been inextricably linked with these villagers before. They have not yet arrived, but they have caused a lot of noise in the farm. It seems that everyone is waiting for their arrival. Iremias and Pechinav were the first to make a splash. From going to the police station to talk with police officers, to rushing to the farm side by side, and then to their amazing speech in the bar, they were very brilliant and caught the audience’s attention. It was fascinated at once. And Sang Yi reached an exchange with the two crooks before they went to prison. He was responsible for spreading rumors in the farm, claiming that Irimiyas and Pechina were dead, and let these villagers relax their vigilance. His reason for serving Iremias and Pechina is simple, because they promised him to have Mrs. Smead and Mrs. Krenner with big breasts with cherry-like nipples. And when they entered the farm, he went to greet them and introduced them to the current situation in the farm. In fact, he also explained the background to the audience. His knowledge of the villagers is very interesting. In a sense, he, like his sister Istek, is also an observer. To the two liars, he was just a little liar, but in front of his sister Istek, he was another old liar. He defrauded his sister's pocket money, which indirectly led to his sister's death.
Of the two scammers, Pechinar has fewer plays, leaving people not impressed. His name made the police officer think he was a Gypsy, but he said it was Romanian. On the other hand, Ilimias was very successful in portraying, calm and heady, but his eyes were always murderous. Very good at speaking, very agitating, able to draw a big and round pie, and make everyone believe that this big pie is in front, only he can help them get this big pie, and willingly give his savings to he. He was a poet, so his language is like poetry. He also composed poems from time to time in the film and asked Pechina to record it for him. After the death of Istek, he released a long speech with gorgeous, passionate and provocative speech. Not only does he have strong language skills, but he also has meticulous thinking and can arrange future plans in advance. He is also very insightful, and he knows the psychological conditions of these villagers well. He also has a deep understanding of the decayed collective farm system in Hungary, and knows that this system will not last forever. Therefore, he also understands what methods and words to use that can best attract these institutionalized but dissatisfied farmers and let them follow him obediently.
The
third episode of the episode , which is not bound into a book, is Observer Doctor and Istek. They are separated from the villagers. The doctor is a very interesting person. He rarely interacts with people on the farm, except for some associations with Mrs. Krenner, he just sits in his own home and always drinks alcohol. However, he has a deep understanding of every move in the farm. What he does every day is to sit in front of the window, watch the situation outside, and make detailed records. Others thought they had done secret things, but he saw them in his eyes and recorded them. Sang Yi had a few words to report to Ilimias, describing him vividly: "The doctor always sits at home alone, sitting in his armchair, turning on the light day and night. Sometimes he sleeps in a chair. Come on. His house is very stinky and smokes very good cigarettes. Drinking all day, Mrs. Krenner, is the wine he found." He only walked out of his house when he was out of alcohol and took it. The hip flask goes to the bar to sell wine. On the night of heavy rain and the night of carnival, he went out and witnessed it, and had the final intersection with the dying Istek. At the end of the film, he returned to his house again, drinking wine, and continuing to write his observation diary. Finally, he sealed the window tightly with wooden boards, completing his life cycle.
And Eastek is the most shocking scene in the movie. She is the youngest child on the farm and Sang Yi's younger sister. In Sang Yi's words, "My sister is a fool. She monitors everyone. Mom beats her, but everyone says she is a fool for life." However, the views of the villagers and her brother are not accurate. This is a very lonely child, she is not stupid, on the contrary, she is very thoughtful, and she knows everything in the farm. It's just that in the farm environment, Istek is ignored by everyone. Her mother always beats her and is cheated by her brother. Her character has been distorted. In the farm, she is the weakest, everyone bullied her, and she had to vent her anger by abusing her cat. In the end, she was disappointed in the world. She forcibly fed rat poison to the cat, then took the stiff cat and walked a long way, and finally lay down quietly on the abandoned church grass, and swallowed the mouse by herself. After taking the medicine, he also followed the cat away. Her death was indeed shocking, and her calmness was even more frightening. In such an environment, life is not worth cherishing for them. What is the value of life for this dull and hopeless life? "The angel saw it, the angel knew, her heart was calm, the trees, the road, the rain, the night, everything was quiet. She thought that everything that happened was a good thing, so everything became simple in the end. She knew Her angel has set off for her.”
However, Istek’s story is not the backbone of the movie story. She herself is just an episode in the long history of this tragic farm. Her death will not affect other people's lives, just as she did not affect other people's lives when she was alive. Therefore, the title describing this part of Istek has only three words: "Unbound." In any case, she does not belong to this story, but
an episode that has not been bound into a book.
Life under the cobweb and humble hope
Compared with the tragic Istek, the fate of other villagers is not much better, as Irimias said to them: "You are lazy in corruption, and you are far away from the meaningful things in life. You can't plan. No matter what the result, your dreams are still blind and still fragmented. The miracle you are looking forward to has never appeared." They have lived in this lifeless and hopeless collective farm for decades, and there is no joy in life. Under such a system, their lives are as shown in the movie. Although there are turbulent undercurrents under the river, they can't turn over any waves. Although they occasionally flirt with each other, drink and even party all night, when the wine is full and people are running out, then the spiders of life will still come out to work on them, and their lives will be tightly sealed. Cobweb. Decades of life within the system have also caused them to lose their confidence and judgment, as well as their courage and passion. They will only live steadfastly, and they have never thought of changing their lives through a certain way. They knew that a farm like this would be finished, but no one dared to abandon it rashly or even resist it, just sighing under this decadent system. If you live too long under a dull system, everything about you will be assimilated by it, and in the end you will become the burial object of this decadent system.
This is a poor group of people. Their bravest action was to sell the cows in the farm in partnership, and then some of them divided some money and prepared to escape from the farm quietly. But where can I go? Collective farms across the country are the same. Their wish is also very humble. They just want to go to a farm in the south, to a warmer place, to find a job that can support them, and to be a guard has become a dream of the most capable Vujita among them. To be able to pour a pot of hot water and bubble feet at night has also become their hope. At this time, the appearance of Eremias and Pechina, especially the clever tongue of Eremias, easily ignited their hope. In fact, what Irimias promised to them was just a new model farm that was different from the current one, very close to the city, able to find a job, and be able to support themselves. For this reason, they donated all their money to Iremiyas and Pechina, and smashed the furniture that could not be taken, brought their luggage, braved the heavy rain, and followed them both without hesitation. However, what awaits them is still the same rotten place as their farm, and the job that Eremias introduced to them is nothing more than being a butcher, going to a dry cleaner, cleaning a church, or cooking.
The closed circle and the devil's tango are
probably just a set, the product of the cooperation between the police officer and Erimias, even Erimias himself is just a pawn. In fact, in such a system, who can jump out of the hands of the government? The official family is the power that decides everything. They created this system and adopted various measures to maintain it. All people's lives are arranged by them in advance, and they don't like things that go beyond their plans. That kind of decay, that kind of dullness and kind of despair, is precisely the atmosphere they created. In such an atmosphere, people will become weak, lose self-esteem, and have no courage, and they can become slaves and accept their eternal rule. This is a closed circle, everything will return to the original point. As described in the movie, after the doctor spent thirteen days in the hospital, he still observed no changes in the lives of these people. They returned to the village, "Everything is normal, and none of them dared to leave. They must be lying on their own bed and snoring, or staring at the ceiling. They have no clues, but they are so idle and passive that they are in the forgiveness they fear most." Finally, the church bell rang, and Futaki was still awakened by the sound like the beginning of the film. The rain is still falling, falling on the dry land. However, the bell is actually the death knell, the death knell of the collective farm, the death knell of the sinful and corrupt system.
The whole film is also a closed circle, where it starts and ends there, everything is in a loop. From the structure point of view, the film has a sophisticated structure, connected end to end, just like the title, with the dance steps of Satan's tango. The whole film is divided into twelve parts. Before and after, the plot progresses in one part, and there must be a backtracking in the latter part. Through other people's perspectives, the plot is reinterpreted to let us know more. The situation, know what is hidden behind the scenes. The closed structure of the entire film is also like a tango dance step, circle after circle, everything seems to be moving, but in fact it always goes around in place, without any change, just like the system shown in the film. Repeatedly, it is also the place of film tango. The plot is repeating, the words are repeating, even the dancing music is repeating monotonously. Isn’t it the same with dance steps? In the movie, Cramon talked endlessly about his experience of seeing Eremias and Pechina. He made up a lot of plots, and the repeated repetition made people upset; the sound of wind and rain were also repeated, endlessly. Endless, it seems that it never ends; and the characters in the play are also walking non-stop, with the same posture and the same expression, it seems that this road is hard to have an end... In fact, through this repetition, the director is very good An emotion was conveyed to the audience.
There are many uses of long shots in movies. They either fix the camera position and show everything in front of the camera; or they track the characters and include everything they do in the shots. Many of the shots in the film are ten minutes long, but they don't make you feel unbearable. On the contrary, you feel that the shots are very expressive. The shots themselves are talking, which also makes the picture full of tension. In the film, Ilimias and Pechina walked twice before and after. They walked in the same place, and wherever they passed, the wind was straight and the fallen leaves fluttered. Both locations were shot with a long lens following their backs. With the sound of the howling wind, we could feel the atmosphere of the mountains and the rain. The music in the film is also very good. With beautiful music, monotonous music, natural wind and rain, and even silence, it makes you feel a kind of power and the kind of fit that fits the picture just right. There are empty shots in the film, which last for several minutes, but with the music of Canon tunes, the emotions of the film are mobilized very well. It makes us like the characters in the play, full of expectations on the one hand, but anxiety on the other. . Generally speaking, the tone of the music in the movie has a strong sense of anxiety, allowing the audience to wait for the development of the plot amidst the anxiety, without losing interest due to the slow rhythm.
At the same time, the language of the film is also very particular. The dialogue, narration, and monologue are all poetic and philosophical, allowing the audience to have space for reflection and thinking while paying attention to the plot. "Order and freedom are connected by passion. We must believe in the two, and we are tortured by both. To abuse freedom is to waste it and throw it away as trash. People do not like freedom and fear freedom. The strange thing is that freedom does not There is nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, order is often scary." This is what the police officer said to Irimias and Pechina in the film, which actually points out the truth in the film. "One morning at the end of October, it was the first unbearable autumn rain. Before it landed on the earth, it landed on the hot cracked ground, in the west of the farm. That smelly swamp flooded the road and couldn’t Passable. Until the first frost, the entire town was isolated from the world. Fortaki was awakened by a ring of bells, and the nearest church was eight kilometers away to the southwest, in the ancient Horkmeisters. A lonely little church. But there is no bell there. During the war, the church has collapsed. "With the same language as the poem, the film ends in the same language as the poem. That abandoned church is also where Istek committed suicide.
"The film is seven hours long but every minute is thunderous and fascinating. I hope I will watch it again every year in my lifetime." Susan Sontag commented on this film, but it was a pity that she could no longer watch it again. Although her evaluation is a bit too high, the words Thunder Wanjun describe it very well. The richness of the film itself is also worth repeating. Maybe you will find new things every time.
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