In this human society where you have to grind your skin for half an hour to post a selfie, who doesn't find a more beautiful mask to wear.
It turns out that having one skill is really important.
Cultivating one's sentiments doesn't count, and it might even save one's life.
Edward is like that.
This buddy 's greatest hobby is painting , but unfortunately he is not welcomed by the bureaucratic family, so he took part in the First World War with a sigh of relief.
In the war, in addition to killing the enemy with guns, even writing and painting, it was a safe and secure four years.
As a result, the war seemed to be over. In order to save his comrades, he was hit by the enemy's stray bullet and blew half of his face off.
Generally speaking, if a person looks a little sloppy, it's okay to endure it, but this Edward is very handsome.
In addition to the pain, Edward also thought about shortsightedness, but at this time, the artistic soul in his bones broke out . Not only did he not die, but he also made himself a beautiful mask.
In this way, only he knows the pain in life behind the mask.
01
mask
what are you wearing it for
The practicality of the mask is obvious - to hide the ugly or hide the identity.
For example, in Hollywood, masks have distinct features and shapes.
Heroes must wear masks when they are heroic.
The villains have to wear masks for their mischief.
These masks hide one identity and incarnate into another identity , with their mission and spiritual significance.
The mask in [Goodbye in the Sky] actually belongs to this category, mainly to cover the scars on Edward's face.
But if you want to cover scars, just wear a mask, but he doesn't, he wants to make every mask delicate and elegant.
Take off the mask, he is the disabled Edward with a missing chin, put on the mask, he can be a painter, a son, an artist, or even a woman.
In addition to being a form of rhetoric and decoration, masks are also a form of release.
In [Eyes Wide Shut], the doctor wears a rented mask and participates in a ritualized cult sacrifice, and sees a group of masked, naked men and women who are indescribable.
Morality, ethics, values... Everything that was accustomed to have been subverted, and wearing a mask instead released the deepest desires , scaring the doctor enough.
Edward's mask is also being released, but it is not released to Kubrick's category, only limited to what Freud said "the mask is a metaphor for the outer self".
Edward used to have strict control over his family. He was not allowed to do this or that . Besides giving money, he was too lazy to hug him , let alone appreciate his artistic talent.
After putting on the mask, no one knew him at last, and he finally had the opportunity to be himself unscrupulously: painting, making art, and even going out to cheat money in the name of selling monuments...
Happier than ever.
02
who said
A mask is not a face
In the film, there are a total of 38 masks prepared for Edward .
In the words of director Albert Dupontaire, one is for "expression" and the other is for "contrast".
When actor Navel Perez Biscayatt played "Edward", he wore a mask almost all the time, and the mask naturally became his "second face", which played the role of expressing emotions.
For example, the crew made a mask for Edward with an adjustable mouth curvature to express his joys and sorrows.
When expressing more complex emotions than "sorrow and happiness", we must rely on some well-known "symbols".
Edward was wearing a "Zorro" mask when he bought the brochure with the "dirty money" .
After harvesting a lot of cash, he simply wore a "money lion" mask.
The audience really can't see Edward's face, but they can really feel his emotions.
This mask works really well.
Not only that, Albert has a requirement for the production of masks, "must be beautiful".
From the point of view of film aesthetics, it is understandable that the mask is beautiful, but Albert's intention is to use the beauty of the mask to set off Edward's inner pain.
Such as the "night owl" mask.
The feathers on this mask are collected from more than ten species of birds , and then processed by post-dyeing, matched with crystals of different colors, and handcrafted in 16 days.
When making this mask, the designer felt that it should add a little morbidity and a little incompleteness , but Albert refused strictly, "I don't want to see any morbidity."
"It's normal to have rotten sugar wrapped in rotten wrappers, and it's profound to have fine wrappers wrapped around rotten sugar."
Therefore, what we see is the almost extreme beauty of the mask, and what we experience is Edward's broken body and mind, and the haze brought about by war and society.
Wonderful.
03
Survive
necessity
Of course, the "masks" that appear in the film are more than that.
When Edward joined the army, "Lieutenant Pradel" was a war madman . After receiving the armistice order, he killed two of his subordinates and put the blame on the German army to induce the two sides to continue the war.
After the war, they made a fortune again : cutting corners on coffins sold to sacrificed soldiers, fabricating corpses and burying them at will.
But the lieutenant also has his own mask - marrying a wealthy lady, entering and leaving the upper class, and sitting on thousands of dollars.
The level of beauty of this mask is probably more than that of Edward's "Night Owl" mask. Of course, the defects under the mask are also the same.
The lieutenant's wife also wears a mask of "loving her husband deeply, being virtuous and considerate".
When the lieutenant was about to collapse, his wife took off her mask and told him, "Your mother has long known about your troubles, but she didn't expose you just because she was pregnant with a child. Now that you have a child, you can get out."
Edward's father, who also always wore the mask of "indifference", was disgusted with Edward, forcing the latter to leave home and join the army, causing tragedy.
After seeing Edward's blue eyes exactly like his own, he took off his mask tremblingly and said, "You have always been my pride."
Even the whole of France uses the mask of "drunken money fans" to cover up the remnants of "corruption, money worship, and numbness".
Edward's mask, inspired by two great artists - Picasso and Duchamp.
The inspiration for other people's masks probably comes from reality.
After all, in this human society where you have to grind your skin for half an hour to post a selfie, who doesn't find a more beautiful mask to wear.
As for the truth behind the mask, what does it matter? If you don't see it, it's over.
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Text: Han Gege
The article comes from WeChat public account: Movie Detoxification
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