Talking about the film "Bad Education", it is said that based on Almodovar's own experience, it took ten years for the story structure alone, involving a series of sensitive elements such as homosexuality, pedophilia, transvestite, religion, etc. , suspense and conspiracy overlap in layers, and the plots are interlocking, there are dramas in the play, and finally, the truth is revealed, but it leaves people with endless sighs.
(Spoilers below)
The movie starts with a huge amount of information, with a blackboard with intricate Spanish writing and uncomfortable stick figures, like a male genitalia climaxing. When the gay youth director Enrique is in a creative bottleneck period, he is visited by his first love, Idonisio, a dissatisfied actor at this time, and brings his novel. The novel chronicles the childhood experiences of Idonisio and Enrique, when they went to a parochial school and fell in love, but Idonisio was raped by the headmaster and fate separated them, leading to Idonisio Ao grew up and went into depravity.
And Enrique finally found out that Idonicio in the novel had died, and his brother Juan, who had ulterior motives, came to him. Enrique pretended not to know, and directed the film adapted from the novel, and let Hu An acted as the starring role, the fog gradually revealed, Juan turned out to be the murderer of his brother Idonisio...
Many people who haven't seen the play may not understand my plot synopsis very well, Almodovar embedded it The technique of the story seems complicated and the story seems bizarre, but it actually makes sense, both unexpected and reasonable.
If you take this film apart, he sets up these three levels of situations.
The first layer is childhood memories, representing innocence tainted. In his childhood, Idonisio was beautiful and well-behaved, and his singing voice was like the sound of nature. He should have been an angel in the church, and he should have been blessed by God. But the headmaster's ugly behavior hurt his perception of truth and teaching. A young, cautious first love with Enrique brings sweetness to his dull and panicky life, but the principal violates him while breaking his promise and expelling Enrique. Unbelievable, the passing of love cast a huge shadow on his childhood life and derailed his growth.
The second layer is the adult Idonicio, representing the ill effects of childhood injuries. Idonisio lost faith and restraint because of the shadow of childhood. He not only distorted his gender and became a transvestite, but also became addicted to drugs and promiscuous. But Idonisio's love for Enrique has always been consistent. He wrote the past into his novel, wrote letters to Enrique with deep love, and dreamed that the novel could be written by him. Director out. Indulgent, depraved, and beyond recognition, he is infatuated with Enrique.
The third layer is the conspiracy of Idonisio's younger brother to pretend to be his elder brother and the truth of killing him, representing the cruel and frightening reality. No one expected that when Idonisio found the principal for revenge, hoping to extort money for sex reassignment surgery, and went to see Enrique, the principal who did not change his nature fell in love with his younger brother Juan. And Juan also hangs out with the principal for money. Because he hates his brother for being a transvestite and a drug addict, he single-handedly planned and let the principal kill his brother. Idonisio's novel finally fell into his hands. He went to see Enrique instead of his brother, acted in movies, and became famous...
Almodovar also studied in a church school when he was a child. His family was poor, and he He is also a transvestite and homosexual. If most of the film is taken from the director's personal life, it can't help but make people feel that his childhood experience is gloomy.
The principal and Juan in the movie are a reflection of that dark human nature.
The principal of a missionary school, who appears to be well-behaved and well-liked on the surface, is actually despicable and sexually perverted, and violates his own students. Letting him stand in front of the altar, preaching and preaching in white clothes is a kind of irony in itself; and Juan's selfishness and cruelty also make people shudder, just as he confessed to Enrique at the end that he has no bottom line, he can Because of his hatred for his brother, he murdered him, and he could also pretend to be famous and sell his body in order to become famous. At the end of the last scene, he also burst into tears, because he played his brother's story and really felt the pain and torture his brother suffered. Stronger than the guilt of killing a brother.
What struck me the most was the character of Idonisio.
Idonisio is a thread that connects the whole story. The title "bad education" refers to what he suffered. The poster of the movie also uses the image of Idonisio's childhood, with a hand on his chest. A little boy standing guardedly. The scene where he sang the song "Moon River" by the river to the sound of the guitar is an afterimage of innocence, so beautiful that it makes people cry, and looking back is heartbreaking. Idonisio is undoubtedly a tragic existence. Although he is annoying as an adult, he is more pitiful, and his infatuation with his first love makes people feel cute. His last words were: "Enrique, I think I succeeded." He thought that he had finally succeeded in blackmailing, and was preparing to quit drugs. He took money to make himself beautiful and meet his old love, but he did not expect to die in a conspiracy.
Even when he grew up with ugly makeup and inferior fake breasts, I could still feel the innocence and splendor in his bones. He was spotless as a child, but the headmaster made him despair of human nature, and he eventually drifted away and his life got out of control. In fact, the simpler a person is, the easier it is to walk into an uncontrolled situation. For love, he chooses to negotiate with the devil, which is enough to show that his naivety eventually buried himself.
I can see some shadows of myself in Idonisio. I used to be naive and stubborn to follow the trend, and it was difficult to accept the ugly reality. Although it was not so exaggerated to lose myself, it did bring a lot to my spirit. troubles.
And Enrique is another kind of more free person we yearn for, and as he himself said, he is a hedonist. He may have loved Idonicio as a child, but it was certainly not as deep as Idonicio. As an adult, he was fascinated by his own art world. Even if he knew that the person in front of him was not Idonisio, he could still entangle with his flesh, test him, and have fun. He is mature, prudent, and selfish, but he will not hurt others. He sympathizes with Idonisio and condemns the ugly, but he is not emotional and will not be swayed by reality.
Time always reveals the truth of life to us step by step, but after all, we must learn to be strong and restrained, get out of the pain, and become a person who moves forward steadily.
In Almodovar's films, the definition of gender is very vague. If you look at his works with tinted glasses, it will be difficult to understand what he is trying to express.
Recently, I have been circulating the Spanish song "Moon River", and I suddenly found some similarities between Almodovar and Wong Kar Wai. The tones of the film are very similar, and the colors are also very rich, with a different kind of passion and charm. Almodóvar also selected the Spanish song "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" that appeared in "In the Mood for Love" in this film episode. Wong Kar-wai filmed the gay film "Happy Birthday" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. , Argentina was a Spanish colony, the language is Spanish, and the culture and style are similar. Maybe I'm overthinking it...
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