Before the filming of the film was finished, Franco, who had controlled the Spanish regime for more than 30 years, died of illness, and the film became an elegy for the funeral of the dictator. At the end of 1975, "Tolerate and Raise Traitors" came out, which immediately caused a stir in Spanish politics. At that time, although Franco's dictatorship had begun to disintegrate, the centipede was dead but not stiff, and Franco's political influence still existed. Since Anna's father is a senior military officer under Franco's regime in the film, his arrogant, extravagant, and indifferent image of his wife and daughter is considered a symbol of corruption and degeneration, which aroused the resentment of some people in the military. They threatened to ban the film, and the incumbent Deputy Prime Minister also publicly put pressure on the Ministry of the Interior. However, the trend of history is hard to reverse. The progressive forces in Spain are no longer afraid of power. The Spanish Film Bureau resolutely resisted pressure from the military and decided to release the film on the grounds that Saura is an internationally renowned director.
This controversy has not only failed to damage this masterpiece, but it has expanded its influence day by day. The original relatively obscure political meanings and the film symbols with deeper meanings in the film have become easier for the audience to accept and understand. Saura failed to anticipate this at the beginning of her creation. For example, Anselmo lying in a wooden coffin in the movie is reminiscent of alluding Franco; Anna's refusal to kiss her dead father symbolizes the break between the younger generation and Francoism.
In some of his films directed by Saura, such as "The Hunt", "Yueyuan", "Anna and the Wolf", etc., all involve social, religious, and military issues. He calmly analyzed the ideology of the property-owning class and hypocritical moral concepts, and touched on the social causes of loneliness, depression, and pain from a deeper level. These contents are also more prominent in "Tolerance and Raise Traitors".
Anna, the protagonist of "Apply and Raise Rape" is an 8-year-old child, but she is not as innocent as an ordinary child. The ruthlessness of her father, the tragic end of her mother, and the excessive harshness of her aunt promote Anna's precocity. She dared to fight against fate, but she was blind. She even carried out the "murder" plan quietly, and these actions were clearly incompatible with her age. Anna's way of thinking is adult, and her worries are also adult. While the audience was shocked by Anna's unreasonable behavior, they must also ask why? This question is undoubtedly the core of the film. In the film, Saura answered people’s questions directly or through metaphors and hints.
Anna’s family is a typical Spanish property-owned family. This family generally believes in Catholicism, the man is respected, and the woman is in a dominated subordinate position. On the surface, the relationship between husband and wife is harmonious, but this is only a hypocritical illusion. This type of family is a Buddha The main pillar of the Lango regime. Although the death of Anselmo in the film indicates that Franco's dictatorship has died out, from the perspective of Anna's life, the mental pressure caused by Francoism will not disappear, and Anna is one of the victims. Anna often had hallucinations and nightmares, and her childhood was unhappy. After growing up, Anna once had a monologue. She said: “I don’t understand how some people would say that childhood is the happiest time in life. In any case, this is definitely not the case for me. Maybe because of this, I neither believe in childhood paradise, I don’t believe in the child’s innocence and the kindness of nature. I remember my childhood as a long period in which time passes slowly, fear of strangeness and night’s fear dominate everything... When I was a little girl , Feel pain and loneliness." This monologue shows that Anna's childhood was spent in pain. In addition, Saura also showed another aspect of Anna in the film. Anna represents the new generation, she is both a victim and a rebel. When Anna saw the tragic death of her mother due to her father's cruelty, she decided to poison her father. She is like a wounded bird, fighting blindly in the most primitive way. Although her resistance had a positive meaning, the way she resisted was inevitably marked by the poison of her predecessors. It can be said that "Tolerance and Raise Traitors" reflects social problems through Anna's family. While criticizing the dictatorship and demonstrating the relationship between people, it also shows Saola's outlook on life, philosophy and political attitude.
In "Palliance and Nourishment", another content that stands out is death. In the film, Anna’s mother died of illness and her father’s sudden death. When Anna and her aunt clashed, she again “poisoned” her milk to kill her aunt. Anna also wants to help her grandma die. She plays a "game of death" with her sisters. In Anna's eyes, death is a way to solve problems. She naturally "murders" her father and aunt. This shows that Anna's behavior shows that her mentality is deformed, and the responsibility for causing her mentality to be deformed lies with the family and society.
The artistic technique of "Appreciate and Raise Traitors" is quite innovative. Shaola disrupts the chronological sequence of narration and adopts the interlaced narrative method of reality, memory, hallucinations, and dreams in the film. In the memory, hallucinations, dreams, and memories are embedded, but there is no obvious dividing line between each other.
The actual time shown in this film is 1995, and the time shown in the time of memory, hallucinations, and dreams is 1975. The film begins with Anna's recollection of her father's death, followed by the hallucination of her mother asking her to go to bed in the kitchen. Then, Anna recalled her mother's tragic death. In fact, Anna's mother died before her father, and her mother's death is a memory in Anna's memories. Saura used time and space to accurately express Anna's thoughts and emotions. The various events in the film are not arranged in chronological order, but alternately appearing in a leap according to Anna's thinking needs. This method of not pursuing partial reality strengthens the overall expressiveness and appeal of the film. After watching the film, the audience will have a feeling of awakening from a big dream.
Another artistic success of "Tolerance and Raise Traitors" is that Saura uses a lot of photos to enhance the expressiveness of the film. The film begins with a set of photos, including photos of Anna when she was a baby, photos of her mother, photos of her father wearing military uniforms, photos of sisters... There are interspersed photos of Anna's mother's life in the middle of the film. These photos run through the film, which not only supplements the content of the film, but also avoids redundant writing. The photos have become an indispensable means of narration in the film.
In the film, Anna's grandmother is an old man who has lost the ability to speak. Shaola uses the photos not only to explain the old man's history, but also to express her inner complex emotions and her nostalgic mood. This flexible approach shows Saola's artistic skill in grasping the overall structure of the film.
In this film, Saura has carried out a meticulous artistic treatment of the background. The background is based on white and dark gray, which highlights Anna's depressed and deformed mentality, and has made an excellent preparation for Anna's series of actions beyond children's psychology. The inner activities of the characters have an organic connection with the environment.
Saura is a serious and serious film director with a persistent pursuit of art. His greatest achievement is: because Franco has implemented a dictatorship in Spain for nearly 40 years, Spanish films have long been in a desperate situation of being separated from reality. Saura dares to challenge power politics and touches on social realities in her films. Under his leadership, some film workers have also made difficult steps to innovate. It is not easy for Saura to do this. In order to pass the extremely harsh censorship of the film by the Franco government, Saura could not bluntly clarify his views in the film, so he used metaphors, symbols, dreams and other methods in the film to express his emotions euphemistically. This can be clearly seen in "Appreciate and Raise Traitors".
Although Saura and Bunuel belong to two generations, their similar growth environment, the same religious education, the influence of traditional culture, and the absorption of the essence of the excellent works of the Middle Ages make them as if they were from the same line. The works of the two are similar. Wonderful.
What should also be noticed is that after Saura's great success, he did not stick to the rules in creation. In recent years, under the new situation, he has been exploring continuously, and he has produced innovative films such as "Carmen" and "Carmela", which once again won a high reputation.
View more about Cría Cuervos reviews
