On the eve of the millennium in 1999, which seemed to be peaceful, the world fell into a doomsday atmosphere, and people were turbulent and ready to move. When the Oscar-winning "American Beauty" (American Beauty) poured out the misery of middle-class men, Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" (Eyes Wide Shut), the ghost of Tom Cruise The men who roamed high-class parties like they were, or had nowhere to vent in "Fight Club", threw their fists at the eroding capitalism. Beau Travail, which presents the absurdity of masculine culture with the monologue of the sergeant chief of the African Foreign Legion, shows a completely different masculine appearance from the films of the same period.
In 2019, after a lapse of 20 years, "Forbidden Love in the Army", which ranked fourth in the BBC's list of the top 100 female directors' films, is already a masterpiece in film history. Based on her childhood experiences of living with her father all over Africa, Claire Deney deeply depicts the protagonist's desires and shadows in different places, ambiguous with superiors, and jealous of young subordinates, just like queer affection, but it also directly points to the colonial thinking. Under the shroud of legacy and masculine culture, even though men are imprisoned in military uniforms, their desires are rolling and flowing in their bodies like sweat.
Worshiping the cancer left behind by colonial thinking - building masculine authority in the barracks
An elite force/Let our flag fly/Honor and courage on it/French flag/It's the glory
- "Forbidden Love in the Army"
"Forbidden Love in the Army" opens with singing a military song, accompanied by a picture of military mural graffiti, and then captures the shadow of the soldier printed on the ground by the sun, and then moves the camera to the soldier with his hands raised, symbolizing the theme of the whole film - —Darkness and danger under the masculinity worship of the military. The film is accompanied by the narration of Master Chief Kalou, who has been "forced to retire", depicting that although he strictly disciplines the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti, after the arrival of the charismatic recruit Sandin, the orderly structure of the camp is destroyed, and he himself is caught in desire. entangled with power.
In the 19th century, he occupied Djibouti in East Africa and established a colonial government. In 1977, although Djibouti broke away from colonial rule, it still has close ties with France. Because the country's waters are located at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, France still sends troops here. Drilling and training underneath, preparing for the battle for an enemy who doesn't know where they are, seems to be fighting for victory for a colonial empire that has long since existed and to maintain the glory.
In the film, Kalou is under the command of the commander Forresty, whose role is from the French director Jean-Luc Godard's "Le petit soldat", which implicitly refers to the Algerian war in which France blocked the independence of the colony. , and was banned by the authorities for this reason, and it was not officially released until 1963. Foresti in "Little Soldier" was originally a war deserter, but because of his political stance, he was hired by the government to assassinate the Arab underground leftist leader. Played), deeply poisoned by war, taking drugs all day, saying that he is already a "military without ideals and ambitions".
Forresty rebelled from a young age until he became a superior officer. He inherited the legacy of the previous generation of colonial empires and continued to exert his authority in the colonies. Kalu, who was enshrined in military discipline, also suppressed his subordinates in order to please Frey. Sti, even confided: "I am your watchdog, guarding your flock."
In an era of peace when the artillery fire had vanished, the desire for conquest of human beings had to be internalized in the system. Kalu made the foreign corps sweat like rain in the military camp that emphasized "masculinity" and ordered them to follow his absurd orders. Kalu even told his subordinates Sternly reprimanded: "You are no longer African, you are just a soldier." Both identity and nationality were erased. Kalu still serves the once "masculine" but now decayed colonial ideology, and also uses the means of control to establish his "masculine" authority in the barracks.
The Struggle of Queer Feelings - Violence and Desire
I think neither sex nor desire is gentle, and desire is violence.
- Claire Deney
When the new recruit Sandan entered the camp, Kalu called "the arrogant skinny guy". He was lean and handsome, young but sharp-eyed. He won the love of his comrades because of his enthusiasm, and won the commander Freys for his heroic rescue. Giving appreciation is like a new colonist stepping into the territory, challenging Kalu's authority and affecting his position in the minds of the officers. To this end, Kalu wanted to chase after power because of his power, and deliberately wanted to get rid of Sangdan. He said in a voiceover monologue: "You are ordered by me, I will destroy you, and I will carefully design you."
The relationship between Kalu, Sandan, and Forresty is as much a struggle as a court drama, as well as a queer love triangle. Claire Deney's adaptation of Herman Melville's posthumous book Billy the Sailor. Budd (Billy Budd, Sailor), which strongly alludes to Kalu's jealousy and rejection of Sandan, which stems from her repressed same-sex tendencies, which can only be expressed in distorted behavior in the military camp that emphasizes masculine culture, as in "Sailor". Billy. In Bud", Inspector Crajat always loves to "seek trouble" for the handsome sailor Billy, and he may have to vent because his heart is "a hard fruit that cannot be broken with a woman's fan".
Films often feature close-ups to capture the parts of the soldier's body. The skin is dazzling and fragrant under the sun, like Kalu's coveted wink. In the film, the choreographer Bernardo Montet designed the exercises for the soldiers, whether it was squatting with low legs and slowly stroking themselves, Kalou and Sandan facing each other high on the shore, or two naked and brave Practice fighting, but it is like a gesture of fragile hugging each other, more like Claire Deney's full of "pheromones" for the audience.
Claire Deney's camera, motion design, plus the use of "Sailor Billy. The soundtrack to the opera version of Budd steers the film away from the traditional male or female gaze, conveying the rigor of military discipline and chanting the overtones of the flow of male desire. In her past works, the two are often associated with each other. For example, in "Trouble Every Day", men and women infected with African diseases are so horny that they want to "eat and wipe them clean." ”, or “High Life” (High Life) depicting a future world with low fertility, the female doctor played by Juliet Binoche is both indulging in sex and forcing the semen of male prisoners to reproduce.
Film critic Hannah McGill also wrote that Kalu's "attachment" to Sandan in "Forbidden Love in the Army" parodies the symptoms of love when it happens: "Like the protagonists of film noir, they tend to think that love and cruelty The anger makes no difference.” Whether Kalu is the closed and mechanical military camp life, which projects his desire for colonial conquest on the recruit Sandan, or the charm of the young body that triggers Kalu’s desire or anxiety, The reason why he designed Sundan to leave the military camp was that they were all males who grew up in a masculine culture. How their emotions were suppressed, they finally had to resort to violence to show their desires.
The imprisoned mind under the closed system - the real freedom lies elsewhere
Nothing exists now, the mountains and deserts only exist in my memory.
- "Forbidden Love in the Army"
"Forbidden Love in the Army" captures the beautiful blue sea of Djibouti, East Africa, and the vast desert rocky shores. The army maintains daily drills without purpose, punching and slamming the body that has no place to place it, explaining that it is in a closed system environment , Why is the soul imprisoned and hard to be free. With the epidemic engulfing the world, people are all facing the loneliness of being surrounded by the physical and mental environment. Therefore, it is even more meaningful to revisit this masterpiece of film history at the end of the last century on the big screen of the Taipei Film Festival.
Kalu, who is in the military camp, strictly abides by discipline and regulations, his uniform has never been wrinkled, and his force has never been slackened. He also lives a life like other foreign corps when he is in a different place, and seeks solace from local women in nightclubs every day. The closed nature of the army and a foreign land has created a "man" that meets the expectations of society, but Kalu's desire has nowhere to vent, and his soul is gradually exhausted in this windy day.
It was not until Kalou was punished by the army for "disposal" of Sandin that he returned to France and broke away from the inherent environment and system that he could see the absurdity of military life: "Recalling my past now, I regret that I was a heartless man. The cramped people, the wild camels or the shepherds who suddenly showed up, and the brightly dressed African women, what did I see in them?"
Claire Deney continued his discussion of the dangers of colonial thinking in White Material, and Bastards presents the plight of men in a masculine culture. The character of "Forbidden Love in the Army" is trapped in both, just like the compass that Kalu handed to Sandan in the film, he turns around and loses his unknown direction. Sang Dan, who resisted defeat against Kalu, fainted after leaving the military camp in Buḥayrah ʿAsal, the "second highest salinity in the world". Although he was rescued by a local woman, he still whispered "lose, lose." "Yes", Kalu's legacy of colonial mentality inherited from Commander Forresti seems to have also been passed on to Sandan through various actions, which also means that the masculine culture will continue to be replicated in terror.
However, after returning to France, Kalou, at the end, was disciplined like a soldier, lying flat on a wrinkle-free bed, holding a pistol half-naked, and the tattoo on his body said: "Allegiance is justified, and there is no regret in death." The clip immediately switches to being on the dance floor. Denis Lavant, the star in black clothes, twists his waist and dances to the song "The Rhythm of the Night". Barracks machine-like drills. This passage was also voted No. 1 in the "Best Film Ending in Film History" by Vulture, a website of New York Magazine.
Danila Feng's superb dance is reminiscent of his famous 1980s work "Mauvais Sang". Not only are people suffering from strange diseases because of "no love in their hearts", but the world is as chaotic as it is today, and his character is also eager to break through restrictions. In the film, there is a scene where he runs freely with David Bowie's "Modren Love". The lyrics of the song say: "Even if there is no trace of life / Keep the power of charm / I lie in the rain / But never wave goodbye" is the best comment on the ending of "Forbidden Love in the Military": although I don't know its Life or death, or this fragment is a memory, a dream or the future, but the cut is like an invisible shot of Kalu, who was bound by masculine culture, and made him wave to the other side who is truly free.
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