In the summer of 2019, director Bong Joon-ho stood on the podium at the Cannes Film Festival, thanking French director Chabrol's "Grim Ritual", frankly saying that this masterpiece inspired "Parasite". 1995's "Grim Ritual", about a murder that took place in a French country house. Maid Sophie and postman Jeanne, each armed with shotguns, killed the villa owner's family of four on New Year's Eve.
Chabrol is one of the main figures of the French New Wave movement, and "The Fierce Rites" is his representative work. Unlike earlier films, this story is not based on reality, and its dramatic premise gathers many assumptions: a sparsely populated country, a prudent and polite middle-class family, a divorced man with a daughter and a divorced mistress with a son. A family of four, respectful and indifferent, they hire a conscientious but paranoid maid, who is dyslexic and cannot read and write, and uses lies and evasion to cover up her self-esteem. Originally, they were in peace, but the lonely maid met Jeanne, a postman in the town, and became close friends. . In order to keep her secret, Sophie threatened her employer's daughter, and she was eventually fired when it was exposed; Jeanne always mocked the hypocrisy of the donors. On New Year's Eve, when the employer's family was watching the opera on TV, the two of them took the opportunity to play pranks, causing trouble for the master's family, and the trouble grew. Finally, the two mischievous people met the owner of the house. Under the control of their emotions, Sophie, who was playing with her employer's shotgun, pulled the trigger, and then the two followed the momentum of the play and killed the family. In an instant, four lives were killed. The means were cruel, but they were calm. Until the end, the two did not know the crime.
The starting point of the story has a strong sense of fiction, but the climax and the ending fall in realistic logic, and their tricks are not abrupt, even thought-provoking. After all, it is a new wave generation, and they have maintained their most moving creative concept at the beginning - the unpredictable behavior of people in reality.
"Parasite" tries its best to avoid assumptions and replace coincidences with premeditation. The parasitic greed continues to expand. After the chain tricks, the whole family is parasitized in one master's house, and then encounters a "senior" who is even more parasitic. In terms of the relationship between characters, it is separated from the real possibility and completely constructed in the way of fables. Two lower-class families struggle for the right to be parasitized in an upper-class family, forming an unstable structure that will collapse at any time. Your life-and-death situation. Feng Junhao's allegory of class, with the help of family, makes it easy for the audience to resonate in emotional identity, saves the recognition cost derived from many assumptions, and the innate emotional fetters are more precise and precise than "Snowpiercer".
In general, the two stories are servants killing their masters, but they are two completely different ideas. Sophie, the maid of "Grim Ritual", was deprived of her freedom to make friends by the head of the house, Henry, the eldest Miranda revealed the secret of dignity, the priest of the church took back the opportunity to do good, and the right to pick on the rich... This series of series The suppression accumulated killing intent, self-esteem kept being pulled away, and finally when Sophie realized that she "can kill", she pulled the trigger. The heroine's killing intent in "Grim Ritual" was not triggered, but was awakened instantly, and her instinct was in front of her consciousness. Instinctively found that he had a gun in his hand, and took advantage of the situation, just like the villagers in "Seven Samurai" killed the robber. After the opponent fell, he realized that he could kill the robber. Those who he always regarded as evil spirits robber.
The driver of "Parasite" has recognized the fact that he is at the bottom at the beginning of the story. He has long been a stranger to self-esteem, and the murder was motivated by a more specific event. The smell of the poor is rejected by the employer, the warm dwelling that carries the family is flooded, the mental pressure after the murder, and being forced to work overtime as an Indian robber to entertain the rich... All this has not escalated, but just kept adding weight. , after pulling the spring to the end, finally add an external force. The event that ultimately triggers is the death of his daughter and his deprivation of his right to rescue her. The rationality of Feng Junhao's play is to lay out all the events that can accumulate killing intent logically and gradually. The killing intent of the killer is clear and clear, and the audience does not need to think about it.
"Grim Ritual" is a violent resistance after dignity was trampled on, while "Parasite" has long abandoned dignity. In a warm family, fathers have long lost their dignity, and what they want is to live. It must be pointed out here that, due to the different levels of civilization and the ethical attributes of society, it is difficult for "Grim Ritual" to really inspire "Parasite" in terms of its environment - Sophie kills her master, Jeanne provokes donors, and there is no so-called "arrogance" ”, in France in the story, there is an equal employment relationship between Sophie and the employer. Jeanne has always defied authority and frivolously mocked the hypocrisy of the middle class. The mockery of the rich, which was repeatedly emphasized, almost became Jeanne's signature behavior. The movie star Paul Newman, whom Jeanne admires, was once the representative of Hollywood's "rebel" image, such as "Blood Behind the Window". Jeanne's mockery was a show of pride. A mockery of the middle class is barely visible in Parasite. The two families in "Parasite" are resigned to their fate, content with their class status, and even if they may jump out of the bottom, they will inevitably revel in the lazy nature of a moment's ease. "Parasite" always emphasizes that after the class is solidified, "living" becomes a survival habit. This premise has a strong assumption and is full of allegorical features.
Director Bong Joon-ho received the award in France, thanks to the senior French directors, was he really inspired? Or was it just a courtesy out of Eastern etiquette? unknown.
Chabrol did not explicitly endow Sophie and Jeanne with murderous intent. The series of encounters were well arranged, and they did not give exciting incidents on the spot. They shot after a few words when they met, and other family members killed them without even talking. In "The Fierce Ritual", after Sophie shot Henry, the subtext was probably "It can still be done like this, then go on!"
Sophie was simply maintaining her self-esteem, even if she was fired, she didn't want to take revenge on the master, let alone murder. Chabrol did not give Sophie the psychological process of "wanting to kill", but directly made Sophie realize that she could kill with a gun, and the instant cognition broke out the power of destruction, which was outside the Hollywood narrative tradition. The character's mentality is mutated due to the change of the situation, and the emotions burst out in an instant, forming a more realistic drama.
The postman Jeanne was also not given murderous intent. Because of an accident, Jeanne lost her daughter forever, and others made her lose the possibility of defense, and regarded her as a vicious mother who killed her relatives. Unable to tell, she was sent to an unfamiliar town. The postal system helped her stay away from the rumors and exiled her at the same time. Jeanne works as a volunteer in the church, helping to pick out the donated clothes. Whenever this time, she is presumptuous and happy, because she can take this opportunity to criticize those who claim to be generous and ridicule their hypocrisy. A certain sense of equality, she has been stigmatized for a long time to vent. However, this last exit was also blocked by the church. Even so, at most, she was going to accompany Sophie to get the salute and spoof at Henry's villa to vent her anger. When Sophie realized that she could kill people, Jeanne also shot, and in the end, she died directly in a car accident and was killed by the car the priest was riding, which is even more ironic. The only "swag" she took away was the tape recorder, which played her and Sophie's "crimes" records, and was "endorsed" once again, and she never had the opportunity to tell her own story.
Sophie and Jeanne were also burdened with rumors of killing their close relatives. When the two actually murdered, they both realized it later. This is Chabrol's spicy theme first.
Too many stories like to lay the groundwork for "wanting to kill" first, and then lay out a conspiracy. Whether the protagonist's criminal plan can be executed step by step becomes the driving force of the narrative, and the audience becomes an accomplice. Hitchcock's stylized suspense stories, the crime of destiny in film noir, and then to contemporary crime movies, the characters in the story seem to have an instinct to commit a crime, and they all have a sense of crime, and everyone's criminal talent is not low. , the audience is more than happy. For example, in "The Genius Ripley", after identifying with the male protagonist, the audience began to worry about whether he could succeed in killing people, and their consciousness was manipulated unconsciously.
I didn't understand why the status of "Cold Blood" was irreplaceable before? With hindsight, I found that the author led us to discover the criminal impulse of the murderers from the real events of real people. Although they also "wanted to kill" at the beginning, but, unlike the deliberately created drama, they did not change after killing, and returned to the emptiness. In the daily life, it seems that killing is just an episode, stripped of the drama, killing people without thinking is chilling.
In "The Fierce Ritual", Sophie was told what to do and how to do it from the moment she appeared on the stage. From one house to another, she rigidly implemented her own habits. Even "resist", you have to be told what to do. The daughter of the employer's family, Miranda, is the most advocate of democracy and equality in the family, and she has been reminding Sophie that she can't be submissive. The postman Jeanne is even more, she is always complaining about Sophie, reminding her of the time and freedom that has been exploited. It seems that the one who is bullied by the capitalists is herself. The reminders from these people made Sophie gradually resist. She lacked active cognitive ability because of her dyslexia, and was "enlightened" by the people around her. Even so, it is still not enough to deduce the bloody result of Sophie's murder.
Miranda pulled Sophie to play a game because she was bored, a traditional quiz game. The game is an act of equality to eliminate class differences. Miranda has been trying to treat Sophie equally, but this game has a premise - literacy, which makes Sophie lose the qualification of the player. She exposed in the game that she has been painstakingly The truth of the cover-up, the scarred self-esteem is exposed and no longer covered. Miranda saw through Sophie's excuse and instantly determined that Sophie had been hiding her flaws. Her "knowing" was originally a kind of compassion, but here it aggravates the inequality. Because her knowledge stems from her high education, she has learned, seen, and heard, so she can make this judgment. Then, Miranda taught Sophie in the tone of "intellectuals": There are many people like you, who can learn as long as they are in the right way, I can teach you, and Dad can send you to Paris to learn... All these kind concerns , completely denied all the efforts Sophie made: from knowing her flaws to facing it, and then burdened by it, being discriminated against by the people around her, walking hard, hiding herself, and trying to adapt to the society. Miranda is always emphasizing "you can be transformed", never thinking about Sophie's situation, and her attitude of transformation rather than acceptance of the flawed person exposes her condescending stance.
Sophie lost control of her emotions and called Milan a slut in a way of exposing her shortcomings, and threatened the other party to keep secrets. Mind as innocent as a child - I know your disgrace, neither of us. Unexpectedly, Miranda could afford to lose, and she could let the secret of her pregnancy be exposed, and she would not suffer any losses afterwards. But Sophie, poor Sophie, her secret was exposed and she was left with nothing. Sophie's behavior was judged as "blackmail" by her employer Henry (Miranda's father), a charge with a disparity in itself, because the blackmailer was destined to be poorer than the blackmailer, and the charge implied a disparate class position .
How important was it to Sophie to hide that she couldn't read or write? The director gave a reference later. Even in the face of her only friend and support - Jeanne, Sophie did not say anything. Until her death, Jeanne did not know that Sophie was illiterate. Jeanne claimed to be fond of reading, and she took "Wandering in the Darkness" from Sophie's employer without authorization. She has the ability to make Sophie envy. The borrowed book was deliberately emphasized that Jeanne said that her mother's name was the same as that of the author of the book, Selina, which also implied the director's speculative cognition of the crime of the weak.
"Grim Ritual" fills the crime scene in a realistic way. The perpetrator was unaware of his own killing intent, which is Chabrol's wonderful pen. What's more valuable is that although Chabrol is the theme first, he still portrays Sophie and Jeanne as concrete "people" that are infinitely close to the real state, rather than "characters". At the moment when Jeanne and Sophie became friends, they felt equal to each other, and developed a unique understanding and acceptance among women. They all roughly pieced together each other's dark past, from provocation to ridicule, and treated each other as equals. Chabrol's care for the weak, like a spring rain, leaves no trace, admirable and sentimental.
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