Christian Mongi, a representative figure of the Romanian New Wave of cinema, is also a practitioner of realism. The author's film has the most vivid interpretation in him. If "Beyond the Mountains" (2012) is an exceptional "rule of law", then "Three Weeks in April" (2007), which won the Palme d'Or, is a vivid illustration of the imprisonment of humanity in the Ceausescu era. In my opinion, this "Graduation Exam" (2016) is also the aftermath of the post-Ceausescu era.
Some people may say that the Ceausescu era has disappeared for nearly 30 years, why is the influence and effect so great. In my opinion, although Romania has entered a capitalist era or a democratic society, deep-rooted social diseases still exist in various forms like psoriasis. Human relationships and social networks are the actual manifestation of this stubborn disease. In fact, the same is true in Russia. People are still accustomed to going through the back door to promote relations, or they cannot get things done without taking bribes.
This is the price that all socialist countries experience or have to pay when they move towards a democratic society. Just like Aldi Romeo, the male protagonist in "The Graduation Exam", in order for her daughter to go to the UK to study psychology, she must have both sides, and she must be precise in her graduation exam. Lisa was also raped and her arm was bruised. This double blow, both physically and mentally, cast a dark cloud over the family.
As the chief doctor, Romeo has a high reputation and reputation in a small town like Cruz, and his life is also good. They went abroad to study when they were young, full of hope for the country after the drastic changes, and decided to return to China in 1991. At least in Romeo's view, the only daughter can't repeat the mistakes of her parents and must go to England. At least he believes that there is a fairer society, and you don't need to spend so much trouble in doing things. You can do it yourself.
Under this circumstance, in order for his daughter to successfully get a scholarship to study in the UK, Romeo bravely used his brains in his graduation exam. But the wife and daughter don't buy it. They prefer to go with the flow and live the same life everywhere, completely following the trend. This makes Romeo, who is consciously knowledgeable, unbearable and relieved. The real predicament and the family's disagreement became something that the father had to face. Of course, there are two situations in the face, one is to face it directly, the other is to face it indirectly, or to escape.
The value of the film lies in its cold and penetrating style, the concentration of the flow of life, and the fact that he is good at interpreting the subtle forms around him in a quieter way. The intricate human relationship, under its steady lens, slowly expands, peeling off the appearance of personnel, which is shocking and makes the soundtrack redundant. In other words, there are bel canto arias that Romeo likes, which can play a role in setting off the scene, which is his way of relaxing. But in reality, he has to deal with all kinds of people, and he has to socialize whether he wants to or not.
The film cuts into the theme at the beginning. The glass window of Romeo's house was smashed inexplicably. After that, the wiper of his car was destroyed by someone, and then the glass of the car was also smashed by someone. He was at a loss as to who could he be a doctor. There was an invisible hand around him, or a strange mysterious force, affecting him from time to time. The truth is, from the beginning to the end, he didn't know who did it, and this is the entrance of the movie to create an atmosphere. This shows the chaos of society.
Worst of all, I sent my daughter to the school for exams that day. In order to meet her lover Sandra, she didn't deliver to the school gate, so her daughter got off the car early. When she passed a construction site, her daughter was sexually assaulted. Sandra, a 35-year-old single mother, was originally his female patient, an elementary school teacher, and has been on good terms with Romeo over the past year. Her 6-year-old son has a natural language barrier, and Sandra has a headache. She hopes that Romeo can help him go to a good school and ask a good doctor to correct him, but Romeo doesn't care about her at all.
To add to the headache, Sandra told him that she might be pregnant. This made Sandra complain a lot. Your daughter's affairs will always come first. He had to say that after my daughter goes to the UK, she will be relieved, and we can be together. Be patient. I said just now that Romeo needs to face, but in fact he has many things to face, none of which will let him worry.
The bad thing is that the daughter Eliza also had a boyfriend Marius, and it took up a lot of her time to fall in love. Moreover, this young man has no legitimate occupation and has no pursuit. His strength is sports. In his father's opinion, He's just a rough man, and it can be said that he is not a family member, and he doesn't match his daughter at all. But his daughter is a muscle, and in order for her to successfully complete the exam, he had to endure it.
The problem is that when the daughter is sexually assaulted, she must continue to take the exam the next day, otherwise all her efforts from childhood to adulthood will be in vain, which is unacceptable to her father. The daughter completed the bandaging treatment in the hospital and rushed to the police station to make a record. The police chief, Ivanov, is an old classmate of Romeo, and of course he is devoted to Eliza's sexual assault. Fortunately, she was not substantially raped, because the man didn't get hard, didn't go in, and didn't have semen, but her hymen was long gone.
This made Romeo's heart skip a beat. He went home and cut oranges as usual (this is a way to keep himself quiet, it's very subtle here), and asked the old sick wife Magda why she didn't tell him, because We said before that we must tell each other about our daughters. The wife said she was talking about friends, and we can't all know. Forget it, she now has a chewing gum boyfriend Marius. Right now, the daughter's exam is the most important thing, so let's save the rest.
But the police chief Ivanov has a request. His friend, Bligh, who is the chief of customs, has liver cancer and needs a liver transplant. I hope he will arrange it first, and he will help your daughter. This favor Romeo had to do was considered a quid pro quo, because Ivanov promised to do everything in his power to catch the killer who sexually assaulted his daughter. When looking back at the video, he found Marius' figure. That is to say, Marius at least witnessed the criminal who sexually assaulted Eliza, but did not rescue and call the police immediately, which made Romeo unacceptable. How could his daughter feel at ease when he talked about such a bastard.
But after finding Marius for questioning, the other party has his own set of rhetoric, and the daughter even complains that the father has trouble finding her boyfriend. The embattled father, although he cried alone in the dark, but in reality, he had to push himself, the more frustrated he became. As the attending doctor, he arranged a comprehensive examination for Bligh and promised to arrange for him to be transplanted as soon as possible as soon as he had a suitable living body. Bligh greeted the chairman of the examination committee and asked him to arrange Eliza's examination. He must give her 10 points so that she can successfully apply for a scholarship to study in the UK. This is a cyclical human relationship, dense and harmonious.
Of course, the chairperson of the exam did not dare to neglect, and told Romeo that as long as she made a mark at the bottom of the exam paper, we could take care of her. When Romeo dragged his tired body to tell his daughter, she didn't care. What makes the daughter hate is that when the grandmother fell unconscious, she actually found her father at Sandra's house. Romeo didn't know how his daughter knew about his relationship with Sandra. After returning in a hurry and resuscitating the old lady, the daughter questioned her father and asked him to communicate with her mother tonight, otherwise she would not take the exam tomorrow.
Although Romeo got angry and said, do you think your exams are for me, think about it, how much I have paid for you since you were a child, how many small stoves I have burned for you, isn't it just for you to study in the UK. My daughter said I didn't want to go to England, I just wanted to stay in Cruz with Marius. My father's heart was bleeding, he paused for a while, and said sadly how stupid your idea was. In ten years, you will regret it, and no one can help you by then. The subtext is undoubtedly saying, I will retire after ten years, you are also exhausted by that guy, who can help you, the daylily is cold.
If this film were put in China under a different name, it would be too similar. The same thing, the same path, different views, and the same forehead. It's just that there is such a rare father who worries about his daughter everywhere. Although he is a bit unscrupulous for his daughter, he has to admit that he does love his daughter in his own way, and he can't say that his opinion is wrong. As the director said, often some bad things are not necessarily done by bad people, but may be operated by good people. This is the most helpless part of Romeo as a father.
The father knew the importance, but in the face of his daughter's stubbornness, he still compromised and said that I will send you to school tomorrow. My daughter said no, Marius would take me on a motorcycle. In desperation, he returned home, so he had to tell his wife that his daughter knew about Sandra. It turned out that his wife had already known that this was their tacit understanding. But when the daughter found out, this tacit understanding ceased to exist. She hoped that he would move out from now on. He sadly said that we are not a family. The wife shook her head and said no, and I will be with my daughter in the future. Then how do you live, do you depend on your salary in the library? It's none of your business.
At this time, Romeo actually only had one request, that is, to ask his wife to call his daughter, so that her daughter can complete the exam on the last day, and she must go to school tomorrow. Every day during this time was a torment for Romeo. One thing is one thing. Unexpectedly, the prosecutor was waiting in his office early in the morning, saying that Bligh, the chief of customs, had committed corruption during his tenure, and now he was under investigation. He needed to question Bligh who was sick and asked Romeo if this was possible. His duty as a doctor, of course, said no, Bligh couldn't complete the inquiry, his health wouldn't allow it, he was too sick.
Prosecutors say we know you are a person of integrity and a good reputation, but people are not without flaws. This angered Romeo, he said that if you want to search me now, I can do it, I have not received a red envelope, not even Bligh's. The two prosecutors looked at each other and smiled. We monitor all senior officials' phone calls and conversations. We know exactly what he promised to help your daughter. In China, this means that those who know the times are Junjie.
But Romeo is ignorant, he just upholds the conscience of a doctor, and still insists that it is not good, Bligh's condition cannot participate in your questioning. From this, we can see two sides of people, at least in Romeo, on the one hand, he does not hesitate to go through the back door to clear the relationship for his daughter, and on the other hand, for patients, he tries his best to maintain the professional ethics that a doctor should have. But the situation changed abruptly, and even the chairman of the examination committee changed his tune, claiming that he should not come to the door again, so as not to be implicated. Of course, he understood this, and he felt that someone was following him. An accident of Bligh makes people feel that the world is cold.
But when the police chief Ivanov caught the suspect and asked Eliza to identify him, he wanted to take his father's misconduct from her, which made Romeo gasp in surprise. This is a world that he cannot understand as a doctor, and he is destined to be unable to swim in this muddy water. Everyone is doing everything to protect themselves and to shirk their responsibilities, just to seize the opportunity. Congruence can only be a passive choice in a helpless and embarrassing situation. "Those who obey me prosper, those who oppose me perish" are not only applicable to dictatorships, but also apply to an underdeveloped democratic system.
Eliza did not identify the culprit. Everything is still in the fog. There is a section in the film that Romeo seems to see the perpetrator on the bus, and when he comes down to look for it in the dark, there is no one, but when the door is opened, it is Sandra's house. This is a magical illusion in reality. But at this moment, Romeo is most concerned about whether his daughter has taken the exam, because he has found her boyfriend, Marius said, I didn't send her to school in the morning. Fortunately, my daughter told him that I cried at the end of the test, and the teacher gave her plenty of time to finish the test.
This means everything to Romeo. The daughter also invited him to attend her graduation ceremony tomorrow. And Sandra needs him to look after her son Matt. He wandered around with the child, quietly watching the child play games. This is his rare leisure time in days. This gap is like a dream in reality, which is too mysterious. When he came to the scene of his daughter's graduation ceremony, he was quite relieved to see that her daughter was in a good mood. The daughter asked her father to take a photo of their classmates. The father said please smile, and another photo, you should smile more happily.
The daughter smiled, never had such a bright smile. As for whether she can go to the UK to study, everything can only be left to nature. Romeo must no longer be obsessed with his daughter's life, he can't understand or accompany her fully, whether it is good or bad is up to her, she controls her fate, and what's the use of her parents' broken hearts. Not to mention Romeo himself, there is still a lot of things waiting for him to deal with. A lost life, a mysterious destiny, no matter how Romeo sees it, he can't analyze them all.
Change and change, just like a country, as said in the film, you can never guess what will happen next. Apart from going with the flow, what else can you do? At least in Romania, the poison of rights has not undergone a reborn transformation. Is this society sick, or people sick, how to avoid going into two extremes, and how to get out of the dead end of this vicious circle, it seems that there is no ready-made answer, we can only follow step by step, only the flow of time and flow is the best Clean it up.
2017, 4, 5
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