Making a movie can not only win awards, but also possibly die

Warm reminder: This film is too twists and turns, just like life, it should not be spoiled. Those who have not watched it are recommended to read this article after watching it.

After filming [Foxtrot], director Samuel Maoz won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

However, making a movie can not only win awards, but also possibly die.

Someone sent him an email: You'd better not go out, if you have the guts to go out, I will throw acid on your face and see if you are blind and can't make a movie.

Someone even threatened: I heard that your daughter is very beautiful, be careful, she will not be beautiful soon.

Even the Israeli Minister of Culture named and criticized: "This film is providing weapons to our enemies."

Mother, isn't it just filming? How can the whole country, from the public to the officials, be disturbed?

It boils down to the old saying: Confessions are hard to hear.

In [Foxtrot], the image of the Israeli military and even the country is really unbearable for those who oppose the film. They refuse to see clearly that the real villain is war and fate.

A film, three acts, each scene, both absurd and cruel.

①

Death turns out to be just a process

This almost icy sluggishness, and his father's almost sluggish pain, cruelly contrasted under the blue-gray lens.

War is death.

At the beginning of the movie, several soldiers knocked on the door, and the family's mother fell to the ground when she saw the military uniform, convulsing.

Just like in [Seventh Seal], when you see the pale face under the black hood, you know that death has come. Just die, and haggle over the price, you can only make yourself look like a circus clown hiding in a tree.

The mother also understood that this was the messenger who sent the news of her son's death.

It's absurd that the soldiers handled this situation with ease, and even looked very cold and impersonal.

One held the woman's back, the other took out the syringe stylized, slipped a needle, carried her, and carried her into the bedroom.

She turned her head and told her husband, your son is dead, everything is arranged, you need to drink more water, I set an alarm for you, drink once an hour.

Go fuck yourself and drink water.

Even if the heart and lungs are all torn apart, the spokesperson of fate still seems to be under control.

This almost icy sluggishness, and his father's almost numb pain, cruelly contrasted under the blue-gray lens.

Among all the pictures, this scene is silent, but the most emotional:

The pain in the picture is clearly so full, but it is condescending, unable to express the heart directly and pour it out.

He was the only one, such as a tight fist in the chest, a mouthful of blood congestion, the pain was unpleasant, and he couldn't spit out the knot in his heart.

At this time, comforting or crying is like the self-righteousness of bystanders, but the reaction of the military is undoubtedly the worst.

They still routinely go through the process and do funerals, but they refuse to let the father take a look at his son's body.

And here comes the climax of the first act.

But even with such an absurd and terrifying mistake, the military's expression was still heart-broken.

Life for them is just the process. If the wrong stamp is stamped, the scraps can be put into a shredder and re-printed with the correct one.

The camera is always facing these military representatives, watching them start to perform and make jokes.

At this moment, the father's mood was not understood by the people who carried the water, and the director understood because they had similar experiences. The source of the movie is also this encounter.

His daughter loves to go to school and always asks for money.

If things go on like this, he feels that this wrong view of consumption cannot be promoted, and he must go to catch the school bus.

But that day, as soon as his daughter went out on the front foot, he saw the news on the back foot: the school bus was hit by a bomb.

In that hour, he was the father who lost his daughter.

But the daughter came back—she was late again, missed the school bus, and teased death.

②

The battlefield turned out to be just a playground

But the hotter the thirst for life, the more barren the barren battlefield shows. Young soldiers must use all their strength to squeeze out a little bit of vitality.

War is also like a clown.

The son was just stationed at a desolate barricade, seemingly far, far away from the real war.

But the danger, even with a gauze on, is still scary.

But the barren land can't stop the passions and desires of the young body. Although the fountain of joy was about to dry up, they could still draw the last drop of water.

Even the second scene is mostly warm yellow.

Without a partner with big breasts and buttocks, they can also dance with a gun.

The bamboo pole is a little shrivelled, but it is a real thing, you can touch it and kiss it.

If it doesn't work, at least there are beauties printed on the body, which can be borrowed for crazy dreams.

Or childish, buckle down and put a toy on the vehicle.

So boring, so funny.

The hotter the thirst for life is, the more barren the barren battlefield shows. Young soldiers must use all their strength to squeeze out a little bit of vitality.

And consume it without blowing dust.

Just think of the beer as a grenade, and they instinctively shoot at passing vehicles.

As if there was a destiny, without any emotion, he lowered his head and caught a glimpse of this scene.

Tire prints are gone, so is life.

Although the Minister of Culture, who criticized the film, did not watch the film, she heard about the scene, which aroused her anger.

She believes that this is pouring dirty water on Israel, framing them for killing civilians, and covering up the truth and giving people a pretext.

But Maoz, who has been on the battlefield, has long ignored these facade projects.

In 1982, at the age of 20, Maoz committed his first murder.

It was the fifth Middle East war, and he spent 45 days on the battlefield in Lebanon.

There, he realized a truth: normal people can't kill people, but war can turn normal people into madmen.

He realized that when you are on the battlefield, all the fighting has nothing to do with morals, it has nothing to do with the country, it has nothing to do with the people, you fight because you want to survive, and other senses are completely lost.

"When there are snipers behind half of the balconies and civilians behind the other half, we simply don't have a choice."

The war itself is wrong, and he doesn't want to discuss which specific actions are right and which are wrong in a wrong whole.

So, after a series of icy and powerless top-down shots, he gave his son a close-up.

Only the joys and sorrows of individuals are worthy of being looked at and recorded.

All fear, guilt, guilt, he can only release on the drawing paper.

③

Destiny, it turns out that it only depends on God's mood

But on the battlefield, what kind of death is meaningful? Maybe it's better for a leisurely camel.

War is also a vicious child.

Just when you thought, because of the father's insistence, the undead son was finally coming back early.

But at the beginning of the third act, my father could only look at the picture album he left to mourn.

The pain of two generations due to the war is dissolved in this half-truth and half-empty tear.

The pain of losing a child has made it impossible for the father and mother to live together.

They ate cakes and chatted like ordinary couples, but they always bumped into old scars without knowing which corner they were in.

But it is impossible to have the same romantic joy as the rotation rate of the camera. They can only be the parents of the same child, hugging and swaying slowly.

The last scene at the end is the cause of his son's death.

to avoid camels.

What a ridiculous and pointless way to die.

But on the battlefield, what kind of death is meaningful? Maybe it's better for a leisurely camel.

Maybe it's better to be a camel in the next life.

It is the most lively and most in line with the laws of heaven and earth on this battlefield.

In this law, war is never counted.

Maoz was already soft-hearted. You know, his [Lebanon], not even a donkey can die well.

Maoz made a total of these two feature films. But each of them has received the highest praise and the most stern criticism.

At the Venice Film Festival in 2009, after the screening of [Lebanon], the audience got a standing ovation for 20 minutes, and finally won the Golden Lion Award.

But Maoz said: "I only have my country on my mind, and I'd rather change a mother's mind than impress a hundred elite journalists."

But not all compatriots in Israel buy it, especially the older generation.

They have been in refugee camps, always chanting "fight for the country". Such a film that reflects the tragic experience of the soldiers of the country, for them, although it restores the war, it is "too weak".

European audiences also viewed the film politically, believing that it focused on soldiers, and who should the victims cry?

Fate has reincarnated. Six years later, at the Venice Film Festival, at the same venue, Maoz once again received praise and criticism, but his tone turned around. He no longer said that he was whitewashing the soldiers, but that he was smearing Israel.

From [Lebanon] to [Foxtrot], Maoz is still Maoz, and there is only one position, that is, he is resolutely opposed to war.

The name "Foxtrot" was chosen because no matter how you dance, this dance will eventually return to its origin.

The fatalism in the plot turned a corner, but still sent his son to death, and it was the most absurd way to die.

The fatalism in the film's structure, the three-act twist turns the fate of the two generations into one, but it just changes the posture and accepts the news of death at the beginning of the film.

The fatalism in reality, Maoz danced tricky dance steps, changed the method and angle of filming, but still stood at the origin of anti-war.

But on the battlefield, the soldiers changed a few times, the guns and guns evolved for several generations, and the disputes still returned to the origin of no solution.

Movies can't change the country, the country itself can.

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Text: Jiang not stop

The article comes from WeChat public account: Movie Detoxification