Speaking of Romania and CEIBS, what can you think of? Poverty and backwardness, small country with few people, incomprehensible small languages, unique customs and habits... I am afraid that more of it is unknown and mysterious. At the beginning of the 21st century, Central Europe, like an expired canned sardine, suddenly opened the iron curtain, and a strange smell came out-an alluring smell.
"The Gypsy Trilogy" is the representative work of Romanian director Tony Garev-yes, Garev is a writer and director of Gypsy descent. It's hard to imagine how such a real Gypsy nation can be reflected without this unique blood heritage. The first two of the trilogy are Latcho Drom and Mundo (among which Latcho Drom won the Best Documentary Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival). "Only Love Strangers" (Gadjo Dilo) is the last part of the trilogy, and it is recognized as the best one.
Gypsy? Crystal ball, caravan, witch and astrology? The misunderstanding of this nation is as long as their wandering road. As a Chinese with completely different cultural traditions, our civilization model seems to have always tended to be "deep-rooted" and rarely has "wandering" genes. It may not be so easy to understand the wanderers' minds. So, not to be missed.
When the film begins, the male protagonist Stephane (Stephane) is walking along the road. Ice and snow, hungry, a crack in the shoe. He murmured, "Damn, I hate driving." Don't believe him, he's lying. Wandering is his name. This Parisian traveled long distances to the Romanian countryside, looking for the charming singing on a tape left by his father.
On the road, he saw brightly dressed Gypsy women sitting on the carriage, curiously watching the stranger behind the carriage, singing a nasty folk song. He saw her for the first time-only later learned that this widow who can sing and dance is called Sabina.
As night falls, there is nowhere to stay. At the door of the hotel, he met Izidor, a drunk gypsy old man, and under the influence of a bottle of vodka, he followed the old man to a gypsy village in a wandering carriage.
The arrival of strangers in the Gypsy village naturally caused a sensation, and the villagers offered various weird reasons to drive away the vagrants. Stephanie stayed on under the urge of Estor.
Although the language is unsuccessful, Stephanie learned that Estu’s son had been put in prison, and the old man was very depressed because of this. He entertained Stephanie graciously, treating him as his own son. And Stephanie was also attracted by the unique gypsy culture and began to integrate into the life of the Gypsies...
In the Romanian tavern near the village, Estu proudly introduced his Parisian friend, Stephen to the acquaintances in the tavern. Ni is his distinguished guest, his friend, and the whole of Paris has become the Shangri-La in the old man’s mind: "In France," he said, "There are Gypsies (self-proclaimed "Roma") doctors, engineers, lawyers, they live Big houses, big cars, they speak gypsy, horribly, everyone speaks gypsy. In France, they love gypsies." There
was laughter all around. A Romanian alcoholic asked: "Since the French love you Gypsies so much, why don't you leave our country and live there?"
Old Estu said, "We will."
This interesting paragraph point. Out of the national imprint of the Gypsies: wandering, wandering forever, wandering fatally, toward a utopia that does not exist. Tossing around in various countries and regions, sticking to their own traditional culture, living with the locals but incompatible with them; the locals will always regard them as foreigners. Unlike the Jews, God did not promise them a "land of honey and milk." They did not have the deep hatred of the Jewish nation and the strong desire to build a nation. All they want is to live happily, to exist freely, and even to talk about the places where they pin their best ideals. In today's world map, the Gypsies are still a long-standing tribe of nomads, which is not a miracle.
Gypsies are world-renowned for their ability to sing and dance. Isdo is the best gypsy violinist known far and wide. The rich Romanian drove to the village, wearing vulgar gold chains and gold bars, and invited them to the wedding performance. So Stephanie also followed. At the wedding, Stephanie discovered the other side of Sabina, the "Slacker" who was looked down upon by the villagers. She is an excellent gypsy dancer, dancing to the music of the gypsy violin, fascinating. At the wedding banquet, he knew her name for the first time, and got clues from the singer who was struggling to pursue. The group rushed to the residence of another famous gypsy singer to look for clues.
When they arrived, the famous singer had passed away. So the carnival atmosphere of the wedding instantly transformed: a gypsy funeral began. Gypsy singers played the accordion and sang while crying; the old Isdu sprinkled wine on the cemetery and danced while crying. This is the Gypsy, wine is the best funeral, singing and dancing are the best condolences to the dead.
The following narrative is more scattered than the first half. I don't know if it is done deliberately to create a documentary-style "realism", or whether it is so skillful. However, at this time, the audience should have become accustomed to this "Gypsy narrative". As the details and fragments continue to be superimposed, the gypsy breath will slowly fill your mind-a unique gypsy violin. If it sounds, any words and shots will fade. And it is the most successful and fascinating part of the whole film: showing Gypsies in a Gypsy way.
As initially laid out, Stefani and Sabina approached each other because of their mutual love for music. Together they went to various gypsy villages to collect materials for folk songs. Sabina, who used to dance with her husband in Belgium to earn money, first learned French and acted as Stefani's guide and translator. They sorted out the lyrics and stories, and recorded a cassette of tapes—the pursuit of one voice became the recording of many voices.
Old Estu’s son, who was imprisoned, was released. Sabina rushed out of the tent, who was about to enjoy the fun of fish and water, and ran with the whole village to meet the villagers who had regained their freedom. Freedom is more important than eros.
However, for Gypsies, joy always comes and goes. After being released, the little Isdu went to the Romanian tavern to seek revenge. On impulse, a wine bottle flew out and killed a Romanian. This immediately angered the locals. Aggressive Romanians, armed with clubs, rushed into the small village of the Gypsies, broke glass and set them on fire.
By the time Stefani and Sabina, who met wildly by the river and chased and played naked in the forest, returned to the village, all the villagers had already fled. All houses were destroyed and set on fire. Little Isdu, who had just regained his freedom, was burned alive in the village warehouse. The old Estu and the village band and dancers went to another Romanian to perform before the disaster struck. The two told the bad news to the old Estu who was performing for the guests.
If measured by traditional standards, this film is extremely rough in film rhetoric, especially in the second half. For example, the shots of the hero and heroine running naked in the forest are impressive, but they quickly switch to other shots without any rendering. If it is a typical "European art film", it must be music together, the camera shakes, pulls out the perspective, and does some poetic treatment-gypsy verses don’t need grammar, happiness and sadness are inseparable, they switch quickly, and there is nothing special. A book, nothing more. If you are not demanding, you might as well consider this chaos as a unique aesthetic, as part of the gypsy spirit shown in the film as a whole.
The end of the film is half of the "funeral." Stefani took Sabina and drove out of the destroyed village. Halfway, he stopped the car suddenly, smashed all the tapes he had collected, buried them in the roadside dirt pit, and then imitated the funeral of a gypsy, drinking, dancing, and singing. Sabina looked at him from the car window and smiled. After about 90 minutes of scatter narrative bombing, the ending is very clear: Stephanie has an "epiphany." He truly understood the life of a Gypsy, and he also truly understood what his father was looking for and what he was looking for. To collect folk songs and record tapes is actually treating the Gypsy nation as a spiritual "object"-and his soul has already gained eternal life in the wanderings just like the Gypsy. Don't try to use tape to record life and capture emotions; go on the road with the gypsy woman in the car-what better way of life can be?
As a result, the "burial tape" became a celebration of "forgetting proudly"-the funeral, but it was a new declaration of independence.
Throughout the film, "Only Love Strangers" has all the elements of a "small country movie": simple story, prose structure, documentary shots, all non-professional actors, and multiple editing ignoring the "rules", which is quite " amateur". From the perspective of emotional ups and downs: a wedding, a half-funeral, an atrocity, countless singing and dancing, and laughter... It’s no wonder that the English name of the film is translated as The Crazy Stranger (crazy stranger), I am afraid it is in the minds of mainstream Western audiences. , Gypsy also more or less means such a cultural "crazy stranger".
Garev's film writing is so special that it is actually far-fetched to classify it as a Romanian film. Even if it is put together with the "post-Romanian film" represented by the master Lucien Pintre, it seems out of place. A gypsy is a gypsy, with its own music, its own dance steps, its own life-its own movies. In this sense, the "Gypsy Trilogy" represented by "Only Love Strangers" is a national aesthetic independence on the screen. Even though this beauty is not quite complete, even though the film’s unorganized style detracts from its narrative ability. Especially the epiphany of the hero at the end will inevitably lead the theme of the whole film to the small alley of "personal empiricism", failing to touch the spiritual essence of the Gypsy nation more deeply. But Garev's independent spirit in this film is already commendable. The subject matter is so special (narrow?), but it does not label it, does not flatter the "discourse circle" of international film festivals, and does not have the slightest scent of "folk cultural curiosity". This alone is enough to attract major European film festivals each year. Some "art movies" that have earned their reputation are embarrassed.
"Beauty is true, and true is beautiful" is an old slogan, but not much practiced in movies. "The camera never lied," it's not wrong, but don't forget that Evans has the second half sentence: "but it can be a tool for showing falsehood." "Only Love Strangers" completes the sketch of the Gypsy nation in the most direct way. Its "truth" is enough, and its "beauty" comes from it. Although it describes a completely unfamiliar life state, I believe that no one who has watched this film will reject the beauty that is permeating it. This is the real gypsy life: it is better to dance than to wander-because of suffering, and the joy that blooms in suffering.
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