The second time I read it, I wrote down my simple understanding
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Buñuel is a recognized master of surrealism, and the fantastic fantasy atmosphere brought about by his surreal scenes is largely due to his unique approach. Fixing a long shot to produce a neutral and objective perspective, then abruptly panning, zooming and changing it abruptly, constantly changing the angle of view in one shot (the change of angle in "Velitiana" is amazing, At the same time, it expresses the gap between upper and lower classes), changes the subject, and so on. The unconventional camera movement is subtly controlled by Buñuel's superb mise-en-scene ability, and the presentation of the "variations" inside the image is under the control of external stability, which is the same as the various real scenes in the film (usually very baroque). style) and hallucinatory dreams (or the abnormal behavior of the characters) mixed and interacted with the strange and absurd feeling.
The film is made up of many surreal stories, each ending with a new character leading to another story, which seems to be connected to each other. In situations where each piece of content is so independent that it can almost be separated from the other content, the stories are more like connected by a thin line that is slightly erratic, and how the latter goes is not at all affected by the former. In this way, Buñuel is not limited by the traditional narrative structure (the nested dreams in "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" can also reflect the subversion of tradition), and can use his imagination to use his own supernatural skills already perfected in his later years. The realistic approach presents the audience with an absurd and humorous fantasy comedy, constantly jumping their own thoughts in different stories, and from different levels, through the upside down of social conventions and logic, it gives the bourgeoisie a pungent attack and satire.
first story. When Napoleon occupied Spain in 1808, French soldiers executed Spanish soldiers in the city and then went blind in a church. "Down with freedom!" the Spanish crowd chanted. After all, the people do not need the so-called "freedom" brought about by brutal aggression and under repressive rule. In the harsh and harsh institutional control, freedom is just a phantom in the hearts of the people after they have been alienated. At the beginning, the whole film made a mockery of "freedom" under the system with abnormal content.
There is another interesting point: a French soldier kissed one of the gods obscenely, and the other god next to him raised his hand and stunned him as if alive. This may be in response to the asceticism of traditional religions - from this point of view, the group of French soldiers were not free either.
Second story. A bizarre millet sent a letter full of photos to two girls. When he got home, his parents looked at the photo with surprise and denounced him for being filthy, but it was just some scenic spots. When he went to bed at night, the husband also saw scenes of hallucinations: the rooster came, the nun turned off the lights, the postman delivered the letter, the ostrich came... With these, the time on the alarm clock blinked for hours.
The second story implicitly embodies the constraints imposed by social rules on the bourgeois family, which acts absurdly and unreasonably intolerable. The couple's home is full of elegant, well-arranged interiors that envelop them like orderly social rules. The husband couldn't take it anymore and shouted "I hate symmetry". Then make a useless and ridiculous "revolt". To treat ordinary photos of scenic spots like obscene pornographic pictures exaggerates the rigidity of the concept under the constraints of social rules. The surreal fantasy scene that follows may be the projection of reality by the repressed mental activities in the subconscious. And Buñuel blended it with the real scene to produce a wonderful look and feel, creating a very interesting atmosphere.
The third story. The husband sends the postman's letter to the doctor. Buñuel brought the story into the nurse's perspective without explaining much. The nurse came to a country hotel, where various people gathered. The priests finished their prayers playing cards for fun, and a young man had an incest with his aunt. A professor invited everyone to his room and SM with his mistress (or wife?) in full view. The crowd fled in terror.
Whether it is the incest plot or the shaking Professor M, they are the manifestations of "love" and "sex" deformity. The solemn and devout attitude of the priest when he prayed was a huge contrast to his appearance when he played cards later, piercing the hypocritical cloak of religious believers. These absurd and insane plots are staged in the villages that symbolize "freedom". Under this "freedom", people are indulged in indulgent lusts because they are temporarily freed from the shackles of human society, exposing their true sides.
Fourth story. A police instructor hitched a ride with a nurse to the police station to teach. In the class, he described the development and changes of social customs and legal morality in the coexistence of opposites. He told an experience: one day, when he visited a friend's house, a group of people sat around the table and sat on the toilet for a "dine together". Then the teacher came to the "dining room" and ate a lot of food.
The absurdity of this story is that it completely reverses the usual cognitive logic in people's hearts. It is also that the director creates a very rigorous and formal atmosphere, which is in sharp contrast with the absurdity of its content, making the audience laugh. Behaviors with private attributes such as shit and excretion are boldly performed in public, while normal behaviors such as eating and eating can only be done secretly in private. It seems bizarre, but in fact it just exaggerates the way of life of the bourgeois people in a "democratic and free" society. The privacy of almost invisible people can be exposed in the public without restraint, which is an extreme "freedom", but the instinctive impulses can only be released in private, invisible places, which also reflects the so-called "freedom" of people. Nature is bound.
Fifth story. Two traffic policemen were on duty after class. A ticket is issued to a driver, and the story goes to that driver. He was diagnosed with cancer by the doctor and slapped the doctor. When he got home, he was informed that his daughter was missing. Go to the school to confirm, go to the police station to report the case... The interesting thing is that the "missing" girls are always by their side during the whole process, do they turn a blind eye? But when the girl spoke, her parents criticized her for not interrupting, and the police always wrote missing notices according to the girl's appearance...
This story reflects the unreasonable crushing and obliteration of the "existence" of children in a "free" society by authority. The notion of control still lingering in the modern concept of “democratic” family that parents represent, it despises the child’s inherently small and fragile voice, even if it doesn’t exist. The rigid and rigid dogma of the police is a satire of formal bureaucracy. The little girl has a cute and innocent look from beginning to end, and the child's natural resistance to escape seems to have been wiped out.
Sixth story. A poet with a sniper rifle shot and killed pedestrians on the street in the building. After being arrested, he was sentenced to "death penalty" by the court - acquitted. Walking out of the courthouse, a group of women gathered around him demanding autographs. Immediately after the seventh story, the police chief received a call from his dead sister in a bar, and at the request of the call, he came to his sister's grave, but was taken away as a tomb robber. I thought I could escape this disaster as the director, but I didn't expect that the position was suddenly replaced by the new director. The funny thing is that after meeting the new director, the two of them even chatted and complimented each other. The two directors came to a zoo, and the sound of guns, crowds, and bells rang out, and the rioting animals shouted "Down with freedom!" The final scene ended with an ostrich looking around at a loss.
The display of the killing in the sixth story does not arouse our sympathy for the victim and our abhorrence for the poet's slaughter of innocent lives, for the cruelty of the killing is diminished by an unreasonable motive, which is predicated on the inexplicable motive Influenced by factors, coupled with Buñuel's unique presentation style, the audience is always disturbed by the "subjective" eccentricity instead of being integrated into the "objective" image. The poet's wrongdoing is a destructive and rebellious accusation and argument made in an orderly and regular society, but this accusation is actually placed on the violation of the "freedom" of the individual against the "freedom" of others. And the death penalty is acquittal, and it seems that after resisting him, he is indeed "free" - this "freedom" is brought by the solemn and just authoritative trial under the law after he was completely separated from the civilized world. And people who are still in the "civilized" world have a foolish admiration for this "freedom," like the women at the end of the story who scramble to ask the poet for autographs.
The seventh story insinuates the incest between the director and his sister. The naked sister played an elegant and soothing piano music, and the chief came over with a smile. Dirty and indecent "sex" is mixed with a noble and classical atmosphere, making the audience's viewing experience very strange in this short but obscure and taboo love scene. The dead sister called him, perhaps because he was bound by social rules, the subconscious desire for "sex" was projected into reality, calling him to return to "freedom".
The ending takes place in the zoo, and we are trapped in a cage and enjoy the comfortable "freedom" like the animals at the end. The animal riots were suppressed by the army and the police, so the scene of the first story appeared again - "Down with freedom!" In this way, the stories with little connection spanned a century of time and space to form a closed loop, indicating that for the phantom-like freedom in the heart, Go against the eternal cycle of "freedom" under the control of body control. A hundred years later, people who shouted "Down with freedom" have become animals. After all, with the progress of the times, social rules have gradually become "advanced", and people have been restrained and framed by more and more strict rules, making all kinds of confusing, distorted, and counterintuitive behaviors. behavior, and even exposes his "animal" nature - but this "nature" still cannot escape the shackles. People still look around blankly like the ostrich at the end, or ignore the invisible ban outside of nature like the ostrich burying its head in the ground to escape reality.
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If you in front of the screen saw this, then I really admire your patience in listening to my nonsense. Throughout this article, I have devoted myself to discussing the obscure meaning of the "third level" completely away from the apparent content of the film. And the depth of thought that Buñuel gives on the "third level" just doesn't match the "simple" level of how he presents the story itself - rough sets, crappy performances by the actors, and so on. But he also applies rich connotations to the appearance. In the excellent atmosphere creation, he externalizes the fantasy space and sets it abruptly in the reality, breaking the rationality and enticing the audience to identify and dig deep into the meaning with reason. Buñuel never explains his films to the outside world, which also gives his films a huge scope for interpretation. He fuels our passions - passion to explore, passion to discover, passion to feel the true art of cinema.
(The first long review in my life...Oh, it's so sloppy, don't spray if you don't like it...)
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