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Author: Professor Minghui Peng, Tsinghua University
Link: http://mhperng.blogspot.tw/2011/05/blog-post_18.html
Source: Author Blog
1. Not just a movie about innocence
Many people say: "Where Is My Friend's Home" is about the pure and kind heart of children and the ruthlessness of adults. Everyone was moved by the children's persistence, and also said: This film is describing children's viewpoints and touching stories in children's world.
Such an oversimplified interpretation leaves us unable to understand many important scenes and passages in the film, as well as its deeper and more intriguing connotations.
For example, the old carpenter in movies is often seen as just a spoiler without any significance. However, his time in the film is clearly second only to the little boy Ahmad, shouldn't his weight in the film be equally significant? So, how do we understand his role in the film? The entire second half of the film is at night, and the picture is almost black and white with no color at all. But when the old carpenter sent Ahmad away and returned home, the house was filled with warm light, until he closed the window, shutting out the only light and color in the night. Such a striking paragraph, doesn't it have any important meaning?
Director Abbas Kiarostami said: "I once read a story in which a bird said: 'Whoever wants to soar on the highest part of the sky must forget the grain of the earth.' The person who has something of value must put aside something that entangles himself.” “My films are often a development of minimalism, omitting everything that can be omitted.”[1]
Therefore, we should not ignore any part of the movie "Where Is My Friend's Home", especially the weight of the old carpenter in the film. But how do we understand that old carpenter?
In addition, Abbas said that the motivation for "Where Is My Friend's Home" is: "The important scene is the first to appear: a child runs towards a tree at the end of the path and finally disappears in the mountains. This image had been in my mind for several years before the film. My subconscious was drawn to the hills and the lone tree, and it was exactly this image that I tried to faithfully reconstruct in the film: the hill, the road, the lone tree. are the main elements that make up this film.”[2]
Many people should remember this scene: when the little boy Ahmad ran out of the village for the first time to find his classmates in the neighboring village, he first ran up a hill. The long shot stared still at the little boy in the red vest, white shirt, and blue trousers, struggling to run up the hill, and finally disappearing behind the hill. This long shot, like a close-up, gazes affectionately at a moving story. But what kind of story is this? The lens is full of the meticulous and profound poetry of black and white photography, the poetry of desolation, loneliness and loneliness.
If Ahmad didn't deliver the workbook to his friend in time, he would be expelled from school tomorrow. He didn't even know where his friend lived, but he had a very short time to complete the task. With this solemn and almost solemn determination, Ahmad on the hillside seems to be climbing a difficult mountain alone, in order to reach the unknowable distance and save the fate of a friend. . So this scene is not so much the opening of a fairy tale as it is the opening of a mythical or epic tale. It could have an almost epic or mythical title: The Adventures of Ahmad.
This gray picture is not too heavy, it is memorable, but it definitely does not belong to the world of innocence. What kind of world is it going to reveal to the audience?
Like this scene in Where Is My Friend's Home, Abbas's cinematic shots always feature impressive images of wilderness, lone trees, and "roads" disappearing into the distance. But what kind of images are those? Are you simply talking about the barrenness and desolation of the Iranian land? Or are they talking about the desolation and loneliness that are common at the bottom of the contemporary people?
What is the road in Abbas' films? Why do the characters in his films always walk on such a barren, desolate, lonely and lonely road? Just like the life of contemporary people, because there is no love, it appears lonely, thin, bitter and hard?
Abbas said that what he pursues in his art is "the most fundamental things in my own life. If there is any connection between me and the audience, it is these. My work comes from within me. Something, because of this similarity between us, I can convey to the audience what is inside me." What kind of inner world is that? Does that world have anything to do with Where is My Friend's Home?
2. The desolate, lonely heart awaits a soulful gaze
Abbas has a unique understanding of close-up: "A close-up does not necessarily mean a close-up of the subject, a long shot with a wide vista can also be a close-up."[3]
In "Where Is My Friend's Home", Abbas stared at the little boy struggling to run up the barren hill through a long-lens close-up. Through this long shot, many viewers can feel the dedication and affection of the little boy Ahmad to his friends. However, the attentive person can feel more: this picture also conveys an incessant affection to the audience. The desolate hills on the screen are like a lonely world in the audience's heart, waiting for love and care. When the little boy Ahmad ran up the hill, I seemed to see his affection irrigating the desolate and lonely hills, and at the same time moisturizing the desolation and loneliness in the audience's heart.
Abbas's long-lens gaze, with Abbas's deep affection for the world, wants to irrigate the desolate and lonely world in people's hearts. Abbas' film is not a story plastered flat on the screen, just for entertainment. It wants to jump out of the flat screen, penetrate into the hearts of the audience, and talk to the audience.
In fact, it is not only the little boy Ahmad who is affectionate, but also the old carpenter who accompanied him to find his classmate Nemazadi.
Many film critics regard this old carpenter as a dazed, bored, disruptor, and a disservice to the old confused, but they can't see the deep affection of this carpenter. However, it is difficult for the attentive enough not to be moved by the thoughtful and tender affection of the old man and the little boy.
The old carpenter took Ahmad to another Nemazadi home without knowing it. On the way back, his pace was old and sluggish, which dragged the little boy and the audience into extreme anxiety: Ahmad ignored his mother's strict explanation. And slipped out the door, and already missed the time to buy bread, I don't know how my mother and grandfather will be punished? This episode made many viewers dissatisfied with the old carpenter's heart.
However, the old carpenter did not drag Ahmad because he was dazed and bored: Ahmad was on his way home with a group of dogs, so scared that he did not dare to go alone, so he had to stand in the dark alley and wait. The old carpenter followed slowly. The old man said to him, "That's why I want to go with you." Then, the old carpenter accompanied Ahmad through the group of dogs before saying goodbye to Ahmad at the alley. It turned out that he was worried about Ahmad, so the old carpenter obeyed Ahmad's urging on the way back, forced himself to speed up again and again, and let him go first until he was out of breath.
With this deep affection, Abbas used a still long lens and stared for a long time: when Ahmad stopped to wait for the old carpenter, he watched the old man step by step from the dark shadow of the alley like the audience. This scene is like a passage from Abbas: "When someone we have been waiting for a long time comes from a distance, we will keep watching him, waiting for his arrival. Because he is not an ordinary passerby, he is so to us so important that we keep our eyes on him and do not want the shot to be interrupted.”[4]
The old carpenter not only treats the children he doesn't know with his affection, but also treats his wooden windows, his hometown, and his whole life with the same affection. In the low-hanging night, Abbas gave the old carpenter's wooden windows close-up one after another in the way of backlighting, and even in the dark night without color, he dyed the blurred halo of color, which is warm, meticulous and touching. Abbas also deliberately reserved several shots for the ruthless steel door, so that the audience can feel the boredom and banality of the steel door from the contrast - an object with only practical value and no emotion.
And Ahmad's thoughtfulness and tenderness towards the old carpenter was almost ignored by all film critics. When the old carpenter took Ahmad to another Nemazadi home, he stopped outside the door and waited. But as soon as Ahmad entered the door, he saw from the mule that he was going the wrong way. He hid the workbook he had been holding in his clothes under his clothes so that the old carpenter would think he had given it to a friend and not be embarrassed by his mistake.
On the way home, the night had fallen, and Ahmad knew that it was too late to buy bread, and his heart was burning. However, facing the old man who was struggling beside him, he only dared to urge softly. When he found that the old man was out of breath, he had to hold back his anxiety and told the old man that the speed was "okay".
When narrating this tender and considerate affection between the old and the young, Abbas almost always uses a long still shot of a large paragraph, from their departure to the breakup, with few cuts in the middle. Different from other strangers who have hurried over, the warm light shines from different angles, showing off the deep feelings of the elderly and children in the dark night, quietly and slowly flowing the artistic conception of lyric poetry - the most beautiful in the whole film. A long paragraph that is warm and poetic.
I would love to subtitle the movie Where is My Friend's Home: Soulful Gaze on the Wasteland.
Throughout the film, the camera doesn't take us into anyone's home—except for a very brief visit to Ahmad's. However, after the old carpenter sent Ahmad away, he walked back home alone, slowly took off his shoes, climbed the stairs, packed his saw, closed the window with ceremonial discretion, and closed the rare scene in the film. The warm colors at first sight and the only light in the dark. When the old man closed the window, he also closed his affection for people and returned to his loneliness; when he opened the window for Ahmad like a ritual, it also opened the gentle and gentle relationship between him and Ahmad. Thoughtful affectionate.
The action of the old man opening and closing the window is like an Iranian poem that Abbas loves: "We all live in real life. When we are tired, opening a window is art and poetry. We hope From there find the true voice and cultivate the true life.”[5]
3. It’s not that there is no love, it’s just that there is no ability to perceive
Can the deep affection between the elderly and children only be shared by children and the elderly? Could it be impossible for other adults (like you and me) to have? We've all been children, and we'll all be lonely old people. If children can have it, we have had it; if the old man has it, the deep love has never died in our hearts.
Haven't we embraced that affection, and longed for that affection? When we were young, didn't we look forward to it infatuatedly? Even after "growing up", in our emotion and indignation about the world, isn't it also hiding the despair and longing for this deep feeling? When we watch this movie, aren't we moved by seeing this deep feeling in Ahmad?
In fact, the world has never been desolate, barren, or lacking in love. It's just that we have lost the ability to perceive love.
It's always been there.
Just like Ahmad's mother, no matter how severe she may be on the outside, the love for her son never dies in her heart. Ahmad returned home, and his mother did not scold him, but kept gently persuading him to have dinner. It was late at night, and my mother clearly said that she was going to sleep. When she heard the strong wind outside, she still went out to collect clothes and sheets, instead of sending Ahmad as she did during the day. The mother may not understand her son's mind, nor the habit and ability to ask her son's mind, but she just knows that there is something in her son's mind.
And the gust of wind is like Ahmad's heart, churning because he doesn't know how to face tomorrow.
The next day, Ahmad was the last to arrive at school, later than his classmates who lived farthest away. When the teacher asked him if he came from Bosti, the village of Nemazadi, he answered "yes" first, and then said "no." Obviously, he had arrived in the village of Nemazadi first that morning ( For example, waiting for him on the way to school outside the village), so he was late, not just because he did two homework and went to bed late.
When the teacher flipped through Nemazadi's dull and colorless workbook, a small yellow flower appeared awake, making the audience's eyes light up. The camera pauses briefly on the flower, like a close-up gaze. This flower originated from the deep affection of the old carpenter, handed it to Ahmad, and then to Nemazadi, becoming a mark, a poetic totem.
This film does not see the world from the eyes of children, but from the perspective of director Abbas. He is not talking about the innocence or affection that is unique to children, but the affection that never disappears in you and me, and our longing for that affection.
For example, when we were worried about the fate of Mazadi and Ahmad, that affection was quietly revived under the guidance of Abbas. "Where Is My Friend's Home" uses a straightforward narrative style, with no ups and downs and no conflicting plots. However, it never lost its tension from beginning to end: Ahmad's persistence and earnestness quickly won our approval, and he was worried about Nemazadi's future; Ahmad ran out behind his mother's stern warning , but also made us both moved by his true feelings and worried about his adventures. With the passage of time and the arrival of night, we began to worry about the success or failure of Ahmad; when we followed Ahmad to find a path in the maze of the mountain city, our hearts also closely followed Ahmad's sight, Not sure which way to go.
In a Hollywood adventure or thriller, we also scream with nervousness. However, that kind of tension is a physiological excitement, related only to the nerves, not the mind. When we watched "Where is My Friend's Home", we cared about Ahmad with emotion; when the teacher checked Nemazadi's homework, we also sincerely cared for the two children. Through the experience of watching this film, we briefly regain the ability to care for strangers and worry about their situation and fate.
Hidden behind "Where Is My Friend's Home", Abbas is like a spiritual rehabilitator, guiding us to relearn love.
Many people mistakenly think that they have lost that affection, but that affection never dies. As Zen said, Abbas did not bring us any great affection, he just awakened the affection in our hearts that has long been lost in the most simple way.
In an interview with the mainland, Abbas said: "I want to find what everyone has lost in my works, and try to present them in movies." "My works are all things that come out of my heart, and any It has nothing to do with religion, culture, or society. What I create is what ordinary people have in common.”[6]
When the film was released in 1987, Abbas was still unknown in the international film industry, and few people could imagine that Iranian films could have anything to do with the International Film Awards. However, it has won many awards one after another: the Art Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Best Director and Jury Award at the Iran Film Festival, the Bronze Panther Award, the Jury Award and the Fabisi Special Recommendation Award at the Lucano Film Festival. Because it is rooted in a common emotion in the depths of the human heart, it can move judges with different viewpoints, as well as people who watch movies in different cultural backgrounds.
Abbas, who directed "Where Is My Friend's Home", doesn't seem to be criticizing the ruthlessness and indifference of adults, but to help all those who have grown up, let them see the love that never disappears in their hearts, and the love for love desire.
4. Imprisoned love
Actually, this movie is full of love, pure love, innocent love, affectionate love, love distorted by ideology (the love of the little boy Ahmad and his grandfather), and being too busy to be noticed to love.
This love has never disappeared in our hearts, it is just imprisoned and cannot find a way out.
The teacher appears stern and ruthless because his love is imprisoned by his sense of duty. He repeatedly emphasized to the children that their first responsibility was to do their homework, and he was actually projecting his own sense of responsibility.
Nema Zadi cried so aggrieved, but the teacher couldn't feel it. Responsibility takes us away from the real situation of life, living in abstract concepts, unable to feel the situation in real life.
Grandpa lives in a rigid ideology. He only knows one way of expressing love: beating and making things difficult, so as to sharpen the ability of his children and grandchildren to seek life in the real world. Abstract purpose is a tenacious memory that blinds us and blinds us. We only remember the sense of responsibility imprinted in our childhood, but we no longer have the ability to feel the affection, loneliness, desolation and sadness in the real world.
Dad lives in the stereotypical male role constructed by society, and no longer perceives any relationship with his family other than earning money to support his family. He played with the radio bored after dinner and looked at his son blankly, but he didn't notice any abnormality in his son, maybe he didn't even notice that he didn't eat dinner.
The blacksmith could not hear what Ahmad was saying to him, because he was busy with complicated calculations and transactions. Calculation is a more corrosive thing than ideology. With its strong purpose and exclusivity, it rejects all obstacles and makes our hearts hard and ruthless, but we think we are rational and strong. In the calculations and transactions of capitalism and market logic, people have lost all sense of the real world.
The reason why people "listen without hearing, see without seeing" is due to "absence of mind". When abstract concepts and purposeful thinking completely replace the awareness of the heart, no amount of love will be found. When ideology completely shackles people's hearts, no amount of affection can nourish the desolate soul.
Many viewers and film critics of "Where Is My Friend's Home" have no ability to perceive the changes in their hearts even though their withered hearts are soaked. Because we are so accustomed to using cheap words to say love, or stereotyped actions to show love (buying flowers, diamond rings), we lose our ability to perceive deep and true love. It's like we can't read this soulful movie.
Watching the journey with the old carpenter and Ahmad, many viewers are just impatiently imprisoned by an extremely narrow purposeful thinking: wondering if Ahmad can find his friend's home as soon as possible, and then hurry up Go home, so as not to be punished by mother. Therefore, when the old man told his life story, many people were impatient, so that they could not feel the tenderness and affection between the two.
However, if Ahmad is replaced by an old friend of the old carpenter, who is accompanied by the old carpenter to find a person in the village, then does the conversation of the old carpenter seem very decent, even touching? Conversely, if the old carpenter was accompanied by a stranger who was in no hurry to get home, how would we feel about his conversation? "Speaking in a simple way" is probably the reaction that most people will have.
Why can't we talk deeply? Why can't we bring out the deepest affection in our hearts in the face of another "person"? Is it just because of our rigid ideology of "talking the shallows but not the deepest" that our hearts have become desolate and barren?
It is because of our sophistication of "friendship with shallowness but not deepness" that when Abbas and Ahmad traveled through the desolation and loneliness of the adult world together with deep affection and dedication, they would appear so difficult and lonely, and even the whole world. The picture has a hint of sadness.
5. Listen to the voice of the heart
In theory, film is a comprehensive art that integrates multiple creative media of image, sound (music) and language (narrative, literature and thought); in practice, most directors still prefer to use image and language (narrative) as the The main tool of storytelling, sound (music) is usually a soundtrack that is hidden behind the scenes and is rarely noticed.
However, Abbas attaches great importance to the role of sound in the film: "Sound creates the depth of the picture, the third dimension of the picture. Sound fills the gaps in the picture. A shot is incomplete without the specific sound of the scene. ”[7]
The voice has a lot of wonderful performances in "Where Is My Friend's Home". The film begins with a long shot of a door, where nothing can be seen. But the noise of a large group of children broke the quiet atmosphere of the picture, and it also subtly told us that this was the story of a group of elementary school students. Another impressive passage is when Ahmad was chasing the man behind bars to find his friend's house and lost it on the way. Even the audience could not see from the screen where the man behind bars went. But the mule's bell led Ahmad and the audience through the arch and into the courtyard.
Different film aesthetics produce different ways of telling stories. But for the great director, cinematic aesthetics are not just a show of style or technique, or a pedantic pale argument, but a necessary tool for presenting their inner life and reflection. Sound is not just a formal vocabulary for Abbas's personal style, it guides us to the unseen.
Besides the mule's trail, what is something that cannot be seen with the naked eye but needs to be heard?
Of course, what is inside is not visible to the naked eye. Abbas's so-called "third dimension" is not so much the vertical depth in space, but the dimension that penetrates from the screen to the human heart—the invisible, spiritual dimension.
But what is Abbas talking about in his heart? "I have to say that many people express art without poetry, and I think poetry is very important to express art. I don't know what art is, and art has no framework, but whether art or life Poetry is needed."
Poetry can also be presented in pictures, but it really cannot be seen with the naked eye, it needs to be felt with the "heart". Therefore, poetry can also be understood as an invisible dimension like "voice" - the voice that reverberates at the bottom of the human heart.
However, apart from poetry, what is there to feel with the heart instead of only seeing with the naked eye?
I remembered the scene of Ahmad walking through his friend's village: all the alleys were twisting and winding like a labyrinth, I don't know which alley is a dead end, and there is no alley that can be seen at a glance Where does it lead people; Nema Zadi's home is close by, and it can be anyone's house, but they don't know which one it is; the old people in the village should know Nema Zadi's home, but But no old man was willing to answer Ahmad's question; occasionally someone was willing to answer, but the information provided was indirect, fragmentary, and even misleading. Isn't this process of questioning and searching just like our questioning about life? Since childhood, we have been curious or confused about life, but our questions have never been effectively answered; the meaning of life is in our daily life, but we can't find the direction.
Abbas said that art is the pursuit of "the truth of life". What is the most authentic thing in life, what is the truth of life? "We live in a world full of falsehood and vulgarity. The duty of art should be to find the truth of life, that is, to try to get close to the essential existence of man. Each of my films is a key to this destination. Authenticity It is not available, it can only be approached.”[8] Like Nemazadi’s home, it can only be approached, but not found. This is not to say that all searching was in vain. Ahmad did not find Nemazadi's home, but he met the affectionate old carpenter and gave him a small yellow flower by the clear spring - a poetic imprint of life .
Whether it is deep affection or the truth of life, in the process of finding it, we rely on hearing, but rather use the "heart" to feel it. Poetry originates from the inner voice, and the meaning of life is also an inner voice. What we need is the ability to "listen to the inner voice".
And "Where Is My Friend's Home" is Abbas' lyrical narrative, telling us a story of finding "what everyone has lost". It's a story that's purely at the heart of it, so there's no way to present it with Hollywood's exaggerated mise-en-scene, or with obsessive montages or close-ups. These techniques are actually interfering with our listening to our inner voice.
Only a long shot of a whole paragraph, staring still, can we give the audience enough time and tranquility to feel the deep feelings presented in the picture: "It is better to use a scene of a paragraph, so that the audience can directly see the complete The main subject. Close-up shots eliminate all other elements of reality, and in order for the audience to enter the situation and make judgments, all these elements must be present. The principle of respecting the audience is to use appropriate close-up shots, allowing the audience to choose and move them. things. In a sequence of scenes, the audience can choose close-ups according to their own feelings.”
Through these long shots and metaphors of sound, what Abbas wants to find is the real life (or life), rather than being intoxicated by fiction, fantasy, and even fabricated falsehoods.
Abbas is a "realist of the spiritual world", he cannot rely on sight alone, so he needs sound.
6. Open question and answer
"Where Is My Friend's Home" is indeed very intriguing. The longer you chew, the richer the taste. At first glance, it seems to be telling a child's story, but the image is full of adult poetry and melancholy. At first taste, it seems to be talking about the affectionate relationship between the elderly and children, but it is full of questions and confusions of life.
Poetry originally has multiple images, and the question and answer of life is even more ambiguous and multiple. Diversity is to make poetry and life richer and more lively, not to cause confusion. Rigid singularity does not belong to any culture in the first place, but only to logic and rigid rational thinking.
In the process of asking for directions, Ahmad had a conversation with an old man who was moving stones: "Do you know where Nemazadi's home is?" "I don't know." "Do you know where Nemazadi's home is? ""I don't know.""Do you know where Nemazadi's home is?""I don't know." The exact same conversation was repeated three times. What does it mean? Does it mean that our inquiries about life can never be answered? Or is there another metaphor? The old man's actions are like Prometheus who was punished by Zeus. Is this a shackle and helplessness in real life? Or the persistence that never gave up in the face of an unsolved life?
Abbas does not place his films in a well-defined framework, or in a single context, and many passages allow for multiple interpretations and interpretations. "I choose to leave the film unfinished so that the audience can do it for me. I'm careful to let the audience's imagination run free, refusing to give them an answer that's done. When we show the audience a movie world, they do it according to themselves. experience to create a world of their own. As a film director, I depend on this creation, otherwise the film and the audience will die.”[9] Abbas goes even further: “A director should not think of himself as a salesperson. If If a film is unanimously recognized by the audience, the director is the criminal. All films should be open-ended, ask questions, leave the audience room for imagination, and form their own opinions. If you ignore this freedom, you will return to teaching the audience. The old way has gone up.”[10]
Although Abbas said: "My films have never been influenced by cinema, literature, drama, or anything I have seen or absorbed. All my work is based on my life experience."[11] However, he is not the kind of "prophetic" director, he is just a storyteller.
"Where Is My Friend's Home" is like a poetic fairy tale that gently narrates an adventure in life, and invites the audience to participate in this adventure, to find together what we have in common, but long lost of inner life. Its tone is slow and warm without any philosophical oppression, it allows all possible interpretations, but it is definitely not a simple film.
This is a movie that can be watched again and again, the more you chew, the richer the taste.
[1] Quoted from Liu Lifang, "Interview with Iranian Director Abbas: The Truth Can Only Be Approachable", Beijing Literature and Art Network, http://www.artsbj.com/Html/interview/wyft/ysrw/95698.html
[2] Quoted from Huang Xiaoxie, "Where Is My Friend's Home", Qingyun Academy, http://www.qingyun.com/issue/20010301/home.htm
[3] Quoted from "Iranian Director Abbas Kiarostami", http://220.232.222.73/forum/thread-648949-1-1.html
[4] Quoted from Abbas Kiarostami, "Abbas' Self-reported (Iran)", translated by Shan Wanli, Century Online China Art Network, http://hk.cl2000.com/?/film2/ dyrw/wen6.shtml
[5] Quoted from Liu Li and Liu Qian, "Abbas: "Art is to Quiet Passion and Creativity", http://www.mahoo.com.cn/infodetail.aspx?id=1268
[6] Quoted from "Abbas: In Search of Those Lost Things", Art Herald, http://www.mahoo.com.cn/infodetail.aspx?id=1164
[7] Quoted from Abbas Kiarostami, "Abbas' Self-reported (Iran)", translated by Shan Wanli, Century Online China Art Network, http://hk.cl2000.com/?/film2/ dyrw/wen6.shtml
[8] Quoted from Cui Qiao, "Abbas • Cube", http://www.lifeweek.com.cn/2007-01-19/0002917364.shtml
[9] Quoted from "Iranian Director Abbas Kiarostami", http://220.232.222.73/forum/thread-648949-1-1.html
[10] Quoted from Liu Lifang, "Interview with Iranian Director Abbas: The Truth Can Only Be Approached", Beijing Literature and Art Network, http://www.artsbj.com/Html/interview/wyft/ysrw/95698.html
[11] Quoted from "Abbas: Finding the Lost Things", Art Herald, http://www.mahoo.com.cn/infodetail.aspx?id=1164
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