How do I find myself and accept my true self? Lucas DeHoot's "Girls" brought LGBT, transgender and other marginalized groups into the mainstream after being shortlisted for a special focus at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. In fact, LGBT people, transgender people, and people with gender identity disorders have moved from recessive to explicit long before this film was released, but Lucas DeHoot's approach to visual exploration has no effect on Film history, or society, has a more far-reaching significance.
As a debut, Lucas De Hoot is undoubtedly a success. The ballet scenes in the film are just right in terms of connection and emotion, without seeing the sense of greenness, shyness, or dazzling skills that are common in most directorial debuts. And Victor Polster's acting skills also added a lot of color to the film, not only the agility of ballet dancers, but also the contradiction and pain of transgender people. Under the surging undercurrent, it also reflects many delicate psychology feel.
Injecting hormones, taking medicine, surgically removing the penis, piercing the ears, wrapping the genitals with tape... All the scenes that are avoided in other films are presented in "Girls" generously. "Girl" explores the inner struggles of shapeshifters in a slow-paced, de-dramatic routine.
01 The survival dilemma of transgender people
"Girl" tells the story of a transgender person with a gender identity disorder. The protagonist Lara dreams of becoming a ballet dancer, but is "impeded" by her gender and age. With the support of her family, on the one hand, she practiced ballet hard, and on the other hand, on the way to becoming a "woman", she kept talking with herself and others. eyes to fight.
"Girl" does not adopt a traditional single-line narrative, but builds a story line based on Lara's desire to "want to be a ballerina" and "want to be a woman", and the main conflict is built under the two-line narrative: 15 At an old age, I began to study ballet hard, can I become a real ballet dancer? As a man but wanting to become a woman, can I break through the limitations of my body and become a real woman?
In such a process, Lara, as the protagonist, has to overcome many difficulties. Her life seems to be walking on the edge of a cliff. On the cliff is who she wants to be, and below the cliff is the life in the world that most people are living. Although the film adopts many de-dramatic narrative elements, placing most of the scenes under daily life, such as eating, dancing, bathing, outings, families, dinners, and conversations, it is these bland elements that make it more obvious Lara's struggle and pain. All the courage and strength of transgender people is used to face daily life.
On the one hand, Lara started late when she was studying ballet, so she needed to put in more effort than everyone else. Lowering the waist, rotating, mid-jump, accelerating, changing arms and legs in the rotation, jumping toes... Every action, Lara needs to spend a long time to practice, in order to maintain the qualification to dance. Director Lucas DeHoot focused on handheld photography when shooting the ballet. The camera seemed to be constantly approaching Lara, but in fact it was approaching Lara's heart, like a kind of exploration and inquiry. Clearly, Lara's ballet dreams already had a deeper meaning. This is not just a story of pursuing a dream, but a story of pursuing oneself.
Lara's forbearance, longing, questioning, and determination in the process of dancing ballet is the dual expression of body and spirit. In fact, Lara is not the only one who faces such a problem. "Girl" is a story about growth and transformation. And the various difficulties she faced in the process of pursuing herself: the incomprehension, questioning, ridicule of others, and her emotional ups and downs in this process are all experienced by all those who are pursuing themselves.
On the other hand, it seems more difficult for Lara to be a woman than she wants to be a ballet dancer in a worldly sense. She needed to take estrogen, tape her genitals while dancing, and go through difficult surgery to become a woman in a physical sense.
When the camera moves to her in front of the mirror to poke two ear holes for herself, or to tear off the tape of her lower body in front of the mirror, or to avoid the crowd in the shower, all viewers can directly feel Lara's "hardships" . Physical pain and psychological pain come together.
Although the support and tolerance of Lara's parents for Lara shows the great tolerance of European society beyond the "sense of pain" in the film, the reaction of Lara's classmates pierces this beauty and love. Their curiosity often turned into a kind of hurt, poking Lara's heart in the form of words and expressions, making her begin to question herself.
Looking further, the film seems to raise a more noteworthy question: how do people like Lara still insist on their dreams and self-confidence in the jungle law of the real world? In fact, the current survival dilemma of transgender people lies in the restraint of the body itself, and the conflict and contradiction in the heart. The real world has a set of rules that say women should be women and men should be men. Once someone breaks such a rule, they will be seen as an outlier. But a truly inclusive and free society should allow all those who want to be themselves to transcend their innate limitations and become who they really want to be.
02 When the body becomes a shackle, accept yourself first
After the release of "Girls", gender identity disorders and transgender people have caused discussions within the niche. In fact, apart from paying attention, maybe everyone should rethink: as "healthy" individuals in society, how should we treat Lara? And what to do with those who seem to go against the prevailing rules? In the film, Lara's parents made a good demonstration. The love and tolerance they showed to Lara made people see more possibilities.
"I don't want to be a role model, I just want to be a girl," Lara said in the film. The father said: "You are a girl, enjoy your youth until the last moment, it may be fleeting".
The father also said to Lara: "All I see now is a beautiful and flattering girl."
For most people, this may not be surprising, but for Lara or Lara, this is the antidote, the source of courage, and the force that allows them to stand up for themselves. A civilized society should not be measured by the degree of political and economic development, but by its tolerance to social individuals. For transgender people, or other groups seeking self-acceptance, tolerance, love and understanding can break through the innate shackles of the body on human beings, untie the knot of gender culture, and allow people to redefine themselves. How to be a girl? How do I find myself? In addition to objectivity, transgender people need more self-acceptance. Lara gradually accepted herself under the tolerance of her family, and it seems that those like Lara should untie their inner bondage first. Identity anxiety, internal inferiority complex, hidden organs, these external camouflages do not actually make transgender people break free from the eyes of society.
Identity is a long process. However, this is undoubtedly the hurdle that transgender people and those with gender cognitive impairment need to break through.
Image source | Internet
Author | Yeats (public number: Yeats Films)
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