"My Father and My Lord" was released in 1977 and was directed by brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. The film won the Palme d'Or and Fabisi Awards at Cannes that year, becoming one of the few films in film history to win both awards at the same time. The plot of the film is adapted from the autobiographical novel of the same name by linguist Gavino Ledda. It tells the story of a shepherd boy who was severely disciplined by his father since childhood and accompanied by sheep every day. A story of literary study and ultimately returning to the homeland to rebel against the patriarchy.
The film is clearly heavily influenced by the Neorealism of the 1940s. Most of the shots throughout the film are shot on location, abiding by spatial unity, and dialects are heavily used in dialogue. However, the realism of the film is diluted by the appearance of the original author at the beginning and end, the absurd sex scenes and the composition full of religious metaphors, and produce a restrained surrealism.
Judging from the image quality, it is hard to believe that this film is a work from the 1970s, especially with the award-winning "Taxi Driver" (1976) the previous year, and "Apocalypse Now" (Apocalypse Now), which was also in the 1970s. 1979), in contrast, it is extremely rough. This roughness is reflected not only in the graininess of the image itself, but also in the almost mock-up scenery.
This kind of roughness is so obvious that it is almost impossible to appear if it is not deliberately done by the director. Because of this, the first half of the film often has a strangely absurd atmosphere while maintaining a realistic narrative. Another role of this video style in this film is to express the barbarity of the countryside and the animality of the villagers.
In this film, sex, livestock and oak trees, as very obvious symbols, are inseparable from each other, and the three together constitute this small patriarchal society. Boys make a living by shepherding sheep and raising chickens, but they will vent their desires in the form of violations of sheep and chickens; the oak tree is a symbol of tradition and a symbol of the phallus. In the first half of the film, there is a montage about sex. After three groups of boys and animals are presented, it is followed by two groups of intercourse between two groups of people. This sequence of splicing strengthens the expression of the animality of the villagers. In the subsequent plot, the male protagonist urinates in the direction of his homeland while trying to immigrate to Germany, facing an old oak tree.
Religious metaphors are equally evident in the film and are often bluntly reflected in the composition, as in the scene where the father hugs the protagonist and the family sits in the scene before the protagonist joins the army. Due to my lack of understanding of religion, I don't understand the director's intentions, perhaps these metaphors, as they appear on the surface, are expressions of theocracy, that is, patriarchy.
The best part of the film takes place after the protagonist receives a dictionary from a friend. In the plot, Gavino, who has suffered enough of cultural deficit, deeply realizes the importance of language, so he recites the entries like a treasure, and does not stop even during the flag-raising ceremony. When the entries are recited one after another in the author's voice, the picture changes as the meaning of the entries changes. From flags and countries, to childhood sheep farms, to fatherhood and patriarchy, this montage contains at least three expressions. First, the meanings of words and the transformation of pictures reveal the connection between concepts and feelings. For example, when recalling childhood, the words read out include "chatter", "sore", "savage", etc. When I think of my father, the entry becomes "patriarchy", "discipline" and so on. Second, in the process of montage (also imagined by the protagonist), the patriarchy is dissolved twice before and after. The first time was when the instructor said, "You can forget your parents and brothers, but you can't forget the meaning of the flag." Patriarchal power was replaced by greater and more absolute power, and the second time was when the protagonist read When the concept of "electron", "neutron" and other natural sciences was born, it was eliminated by the hero's conscious use of knowledge. This rather confrontational resolution was later presented in a more intuitive visual representation when the male protagonist returned to his homeland and worked with his father in the rain. The third meaning lies in the unity of expressive desire and expressive power - the reading of the entry is not only a process of improving the expressive ability of the male protagonist, but also the expression itself. This ingenious sense of formality gives this clip an emotional punch.
Finally, to mention the title, the character setting of the film and the presentation of the natural landscape are easily reminiscent of "The Yellow Earth" directed by Chen Kaige. Only, this time we follow the boy who grew up in it.
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