It was actually a Romanian director who made the most real China!
Text / Yu Ming
In the new century Eastern European films, the most eye-catching is the "New Wave of Romanian Films". A group of young Romanian directors took a different approach and established the status of neorealism with their own film language. At the same time, they participated in the three major international film festivals. The results of the war are also talked about.
Mongy: New Wave go-getter, Cannes darling
From 2005 to the present, the Romanian New Wave of Cinema has attracted much attention in Cannes, which is known as the benchmark of film art.
No Doctor is Reliable (2005), Christy Puyo, Un Certain Regard Best Picture Award, Cannes Film Festival;
"12:80 East Bucharest" (2006), Cornelius Poramboyu, Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival;
"When the World Collapses" (2006), Catalin Miturescu, Best Actress Award for Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival;
"Two Days in Three Weeks in April" (2007), Christian Mongy, Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival;
"California Dreams" (2007), Christian Nemescu, Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" Best Picture Award;
"Police, Adjectives" (2009), Cornelius Poramboyu, Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival;
The Whistle (2010), Florin Sherban, Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival;
Beyond the Mountain (2012), Christian Mongy, Best Screenplay and Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival;
Child's Pose (2013), Karin Peter Netzer, Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival;
"Applause" (2015), Radu Jude, Best Director Award at the Berlin Film Festival;
"Treasure" (2015), Cornelius Bolamboyu, "A Kind of Genius" award in the "Un Certain Regard" section of the Cannes Film Festival.
"Graduation Exam" (2016), Christian Mongy, Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival;
Romania, as a country that produces only a dozen films a year , it is rare for films to receive frequent acclaim. Among these directors, Christian Mongi is the most famous.
He majored in British and American literature, and has studied directing for many years. He has been shortlisted in Cannes for three times, and has won the Palme d'Or, the Screenwriter Award, and the Director Award, which are the most favorite awards for behind-the-scenes creators. A darling of Cannes.
No wonder the famous Romanian film critic Alex Leo Sherban once said: "Puyu sowed the seeds, Bolamboyu watered it, and Mungi plucked the fruit."
Story: Eastern European Context · Chinese Dilemma
In 2016, Mengji appeared in Cannes with the fifth feature film "Graduation Exam", which lived up to expectations and received rave reviews. Not only did he get a high score of 3.0 in the field magazine, but he also won the best director in one fell swoop, becoming the least upset and most controversial in this session of Cannes. of an award.
"Graduation Exam" presents a fragile but ordinary family structure in the current society: the relationship between husband and wife is cold, the husband secretly cheats, the old mother's health is worrying, and the daughter is rebellious in her youth. The glass windows are gradually collapsing—
Her daughter was sexually assaulted on the eve of her graduation exam, and her exam results will determine whether she can successfully enter a world-renowned school. The father wholeheartedly looked forward to his daughter going abroad, so he took the risk and bribed the officials to buy off the marking teacher, but he didn't know that the situation gradually got out of control and became unstoppable...
There is a rather interesting phenomenon of "can't go abroad" in Romanian films. Whether it is during the socialist period or the present after the revolution, it is difficult for the protagonists to seek identity in the turbulent society, and they choose to flee westward. This kind of confusion And anxiety is particularly strong in "Graduate Exam".
In the film, the protagonist Ardia insists on sending her daughter abroad, and has a dialogue with her elderly mother:
Aldia: "It's very difficult to do anything here (so I have to send my daughter away)."
Mother: "Do you think it's any different from here? She should stay and change the status quo."
Aldia: "We stayed, but what changed in the end?"
The father, who returned to the country after the bloody coup in 1991, is no longer enthusiastic about the motherland, so when his daughter was sexually assaulted and injured and affected the state of the examination, he took the risk of going through the back door to cheat, trying to send her by abnormal means. into the "normal world" represented by British civilization.
The stalwart father, who has always been loyal to integrity, instigated his innocent daughter to cheat in exams. This kind of abandonment of personal principles is a tragedy in the field of ethics and morals . But it also reflects the people's disappointment with the social environment. They would rather have a degenerate personality and let their daughter cheat and go abroad than let her stay in this stale land.
This Romanian film touches on the pain points of too many Chinese people: one exam is for life, parents conceal the fact that their relationship is broken before the college entrance examination, go abroad to study at all costs, go through the back door for exams, insert red envelopes to cut the queue when seeing a doctor, cheat in marriage, chaos in public security, indifference between people...
The exam radiated to the family, school, hospital, public security law and various fields, mercilessly tearing the fig leaf of social rules. Although the story is in the Romanian context, the seamless substitution makes every detail related.
Style: Minimalism · Realism
"Graduation Exam" inherits the unique technical techniques of the Romanian new wave of film: hand-held follow-up shooting, long shots, real scenes, natural light, no music, simple scheduling, and centralized narrative.
This set of "minimalist realism" aesthetics is an extreme test of the director's ability to capture characters and environments——
Under the natural light, the day scene is bleak and the night scene is dim, but it effectively creates a social atmosphere and the atmosphere of the times;
There is no music, but the thunder is heard where there is no sound;
The scheduling is simple, but it presents a powerful explosive force through a large number of small scenes, approximations, and follow-up shots.
What's even more rare is that Mengji has absolute control in his films. Thanks to the rhythm and suspense, the audience's psychology is always mobilized by the plot.
From "April Three Weeks and Two Days", which tells about the abortion crisis in the dictatorship era, to "Beyond the Mountain", which shows the contradiction between religion and secular life, to this "Graduation Exam", which shows the cross-section of society with one study, the audience followed The characters unconsciously get into a predicament, and it is difficult to break free.
Mengji always grasps the local details that the audience sees in this story. The clip of the father tracking the suspect in "Graduation Exam" is strikingly similar to the scene of "April Three Weeks Two Days" discarding the stillborn.
In the nearly three-minute long shot, it is obvious that the protagonist is stalking others, but unconventionally adopts the method of following the protagonist to increase the sense of unease, and does not even reveal the person being followed. As far as the eye can see, the light is dim, the houses are scattered, the shadows of the trees are swirling, there is no soundtrack, only the sound of rapid gasping, messy footsteps, restless dog barking, and the approaching tracking lens, full of immersive feeling, startled at first glance , the audience psychology is firmly controlled in the hands of the director.
An exam storm shattered a middle-class family, exposed an anxious middle-aged man, and brought to light many social cruxes.
Although it pretended to be calm in the end, after the undercurrent passed, there were still dangers.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Note: This article first published the public account "Fujii Tree Viewing Group"
Please pay attention to the original public account of "Mu Fan" [The Phantom of the Opera ] (ID: gejumeiying1)
View more about Graduation reviews
