"Girl" is a very typical European film, with long takes, relatively steady hand-held photography, discontinuous editing within the same scene, visual repetition, fragmented plot collage, and often not "finishing" an episode, necessary Once the information is conveyed to the audience, it will cut from the "cause" to the "effect" of the event... However, in 2019, this grammatical system is quite outdated in the dimension of European films, resulting in The overall audio-visual fall into a rut (of course, it is not to say that there are no brilliant passages at all, such as the dance scene in the middle, the long scene before and after the self-castration at the end).
The narrative logic of "Girl" is also very simple. Ballet practice and family life are interspersed with each other to form an intertextual narrative. From the rhythm of the text, the film can be divided into two parts. The first part is about an hour ago. The plot is very meticulous and leisurely. It can also be considered as paving the way for the next 40 minutes, explaining Lara's special physiological attributes. The many details and inconveniences of life, the choice of perspective in this transition process is already very clear and ingenious. In the performance of a male (female?) child in the process of transgendering, the director is particularly commendable to get rid of the malice from the social environment or living environment, and from Lara's point of view magnifies the original extremely subtle sensitivity and pain from the character's heart, such as in and The girls of the same age are at a loss when they play, the extreme inferiority during dressing and bathing, and the embarrassing situation when facing the same (different?) sex, and other details are accurately portrayed by the actors' meticulous performances. The frequent appearance of mirrors as props plays an important role. The director keeps making Lara's male body appear directly in the form of mirror images, representing Lara's self-viewing and inspection. The mentality of the unsatisfactory, of course, Lara is more painful than ordinary people.
After an hour, the film's paragraphs are longer and are given more eye-catching drama, from attending a classmate's party and being forced to see the genitals (this is one of the few external injuries, but the source of this injury is not Evil human nature is not discrimination, but just a kind of self-inflicted curiosity), to gradually lose communication with my father, from frequent frustrations in dance class, to the pain of being inaccessible to neighbor boys, wave after wave The specific focus of the event brought the various potential conflicts that had been trivial and laid out in the previous hour to a climax. In the end, the failure to participate in the dance performance due to serious injuries was like the straw that broke the camel, leading to Lara's self-destructive behavior, and the motivation was sufficient. Convincing so visually and emotionally powerful.
The play structure, which is loose in the front and tight in the back, slow in the front and hurried in the back, and does not reveal any traces, makes the rhythm of the whole film have a sense of flexibility and relaxation. Of course, the flexibility of this structure sacrifices the integrity and complexity of the text, that is, the plot is limited within the text, and there is no extension of the negative space outside the positive space of the plot. We can only understand that the director shot, the director What is not photographed (deeper textures of characters) is elusive and indistinct.
The hardest thing about the movie for me to fully empathize with is that it barely mentions why Lara wants to be a girl (I totally respect anyone choosing their gender, but it's emotionally damaging as a movie to not say that. Resonance), if there is no internal emotional motivation, then "transgender" is just a hard setting in my opinion, and this film is not aimed at social criticism, but a personal expression dominated by the character's state. In addition, a "vacuum" environment was deliberately created, so that the entire film belonged to Lara alone, with almost no other non-functional roles, and the only father who stood up was also too idealized, so that his personality was lost. And the sloppy ending is also uncomfortable (and the doctor clearly said that as long as you take the medicine patiently, it will develop normally, but in fact it doesn't, why? In the end, Lara has to do it herself).
Although "Girl" has a dominant theme, it still failed to enter the main competition. The main reason is that for film festivals such as Cannes, there are too many films aimed at marginal minority groups (like the previous year's "120 BPM"). "), this European realistic style is too common (already played by the Darney brothers). Moreover, "Girl" is really mediocre and has no achievements at the technical level. "One Concern" was shortlisted and given a performance award, which is probably the most accurate positioning and affirmation of it.
View more about Girl reviews
