Some problems in this world are unsolvable.
For example, the meaning of being human, countless people are asking, where do we come from and where are we going.
For example, what are you eating today? This is really a problem.
For example, is the world real or fictional? We keep searching for the paradise in our hearts, or we forget it, or we are still obsessed, but in the end, it is all in vain.
Another example is the class conflict. In fact, the contradiction between the rich and the poor has always existed. This year's popular terms such as "back wave" and "involution" can all be seen.
Last year's "Joker" and "Parasite," which were hotly debated, are also films under the evolution of this theme. Today I recommend an unpopular masterpiece - "Grim Ritual"
This work is from the great French director Chabrol. When Feng Junhao won the Palme d'Or, he thanked two French directors, Chabrol and Clouzot. It can be said that both of them are masters of French suspense films.
Both "Parasite" and "Grim Ritual" staged a massacre of the rich, but the former is a film that gradually develops its climax around the strong setting of class antagonism, while the latter focuses on the in-depth discussion of the inner level of the characters .
However, "Grim Ritual" and "Joker" are more similar. Both have irreconcilable class conflicts. The protagonists have certain anti-social personalities and spiritual predicaments. They remind us that in modern society with increasingly prominent class gaps, contradictions And hatred may be brewing every day, resulting in crazy individual behavior.
"clown"
France, in a town.
Sophie (Sandrina Bernell) gets a new job as a maid in a middle-class family.
The hostess of this family, Le Liv, is gentle and elegant, the host, George, is well-mannered, and the eldest daughter Melinda and the youngest son are also very polite.
The hard-working and capable Sophie arranged the host's house in an orderly manner, and also did a good job of cooking. She passed the trial period smoothly and was highly appreciated.
But soon, Sophie's problems slowly emerged. There were some strange things about her, for example, she insisted on hand-washing without using a dishwasher;
For example, George allowed her to drive their car to town, she always refused because of her poor eyesight and could not drive, but the enthusiastic George sent her to town to get glasses and she still never drove...
It turned out that Sophie was illiterate.
Therefore, when she was faced with incomprehensible words, she burst into tears.
One day, Le Liv left a shopping list for Sophie. She was in a hurry, so she ran to town on foot to find an excuse to ask her friend Jane (played by Huppert) to help...
When George called her to ask her to help get an important document from the study to the driver who came to pick it up, she hung up the phone in desperation and even refused to answer...
George had to go home and pick it up himself, he got angry and questioned Sophie, and she made an excuse and left on her own.
This incident made George very dissatisfied with Sophie, especially her arrogance and rudeness made him intolerable.
In fact, Sophie has always been cautious in front of the George family, which is more painful. She has long concealed her inferiority complex. Only in front of her only friend Jane can she be herself occasionally, so gradually they get closer and closer.
Jane is a single woman, she used to run for modelling in Paris with Le Liv, unfortunately Le Liv was selected and she didn't, plus she hates the rich, so she has always been part of the Le Liv family. The oppression makes Sophie miserable and persuades her to leave.
Because of an accident, Melinda found out that Sophie was illiterate. She kindly told Sophie that she should have told her earlier so that they could help her earlier. This touched Sophie's inner pain. Enraged, he blurted out, "If you tell others, I'll tell your dad that you're pregnant."
Melinda will not understand the psychology of poor people like Sophie who are ashamed to reveal the "secrets of the illiterate", just like Hannah in "The Reader", many times, we don't know what a person can do in order to maintain a secret. out what.
In fact, this kind of estrangement between people caused by differences in birth, educational background, environment, etc. is unspeakable and difficult to heal.
This incident greatly hurt Melinda's heart. In the end, she chose to tell her parents the whole story.
Not surprisingly, Sophie was fired. Although George was very angry, he still maintained his self-cultivation. He politely dismissed Sophie and gave her a few days of buffering. Before leaving, he did not forget to say goodnight to her.
Sophie listened to George's words, but kept her indifferent expression as always, as if it had nothing to do with herself.
Afterwards, she found Jane and told her about it, so they decided to show the Georges a bit of color.
One night, while the Georges were enjoying an elegant opera, they crept into their room, wreaking havoc, and when they came to the kitchen they saw the shotgun, and they played with it, and by, a brutal killing now...
In fact, there is a lot to like about this movie.
For example, Sophie, who told a lie and used countless lies to make up for it, her survival philosophy is habitual lying. There is a scene in the film. Once, she went to the store to buy something and had change, but said that she had no change and deliberately gave it to the shopkeeper. A whole penny...
On a certain level, the psychological pressure of lying for a long time also highlights the misery of Sophie's life under the "exploitation" of the George family.
However, the film maintains a relatively neutral attitude towards the moral judgment between the rich and the poor. In fact, the George family treats Sophie well, but they also care about her according to their own ideas (bourgeois values), for example, can drive a car To be able to read and so on is also affected by vanity.
The kind and somewhat rebellious Melinda reminded Sophie to protect her due interests (reasonable rest time and the right to choose friends, etc.), but she also inadvertently revealed the selfishness and indifference of the bourgeoisie, such as , after helping Jane fix the car, she threw the dirty handkerchief Jane gave her on top of Jane.
As for Sophie and Jane, they are even less likable characters, one with an indifferent face and one with a bit of madness. In fact, they are both weak and "oppressed", but at the same time they both have anti-social personalities: Jane once Accidentally burned her own daughter, and Sophie is also suspected of setting fire to her own father.
But just as Chabrol's portrayal of a woman who died for an abortion in "Women's Affair" does not make moral judgments, nor does it exaggerate the injustices experienced by women, but only explores women's hearts, this film is also a In this way, the perspective is neutral, and it focuses more on digging the inner world of the heroines in depth.
"Women's Affair"
In fact, through some details of the film, we can infer that Sophie and Jane, although some anti-social personalities, are not evil people. They are both marginalized people in society. A lot of malice from life, which aggravated them into what they are now.
In fact, we all know that human nature is complex and cannot be summed up in a simple way. As Nietzsche said in the film: "There are many things in good people that I hate, but of course these things are not evil in them."
Sophie and Jane face the oppression of the upper class represented by the George family, and this oppression not only comes from capital and knowledge, but even expresses or maintains itself.
When external oppression and internal conflict reach an unbearable level, the distorted mentality may trigger destructive behavior at any time. Therefore, the seemingly ordinary life can also hide unknown murderous intentions.
Under Chabrol's control, we can feel a short-lived sense of satisfaction under the revenge of Sophie, but in an instant, reason emerges, and we are deeply saddened by this extreme behavior.
In the film, there is such an unforgettable scene: After Sophie killed the George family, she hatedly shot at the bookshelf.
At this moment, we can feel more deeply that the class antagonism, the appearance and promotion of Jane, are all just catalysts, and Sophie's long-suppressed instinct is the most critical point, so, She shot so neatly, and the venting of her shooting at the book was even more shocking.
In the end, Jane died in a traffic accident after killing people and leaving. Sophie came to the street to witness it all. Her eyes were empty and she disappeared into the darkness, as if her soul had also been swallowed by the endless darkness...
After they murdered, they said, "This is your retribution." Then, whose retribution is all this?
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