He had to make a decision tonight to kill one of them so he could save the others, including himself.
Although the three family members were terrified, they still obeyed Steven's arrangement and did not dare to disobey the divine house.
Of course, Steven couldn't face himself or his family. He held a shotgun, stood in the middle of his family, and rotated in place. He even had to close his eyes, follow the feeling, and pull the trigger in dizziness to complete this life-and-death decision.
This scene can be described as the most terrifying, terrifying, and unacceptable scene design of 2017.
This comes from director Yorgos Lanthimos's new film,
"The Killing of a Sacred Deer," with a very personal vision and story style.
In "Dog Tooth", he expresses sexuality and violence through animal metaphors, pulls high-ranking people down to the primitive desires of animals, amplifies human instincts, and denounces divinity as civilized hypocritical.
In "The Lobster", which caused an uproar, Ogus Lanthimos brought the symbolic reference to animality to the extreme. In the story, in a centralized society, single people will be transformed into animals, under the pressure of survival In the novel, human nature is blatantly shaped into an animal nature that only knows how to bite and kill.
A high degree of political metaphor, a high degree of distrust of human nature, cutting the society, and showing the theme of interpersonal cold and warm, so that Ogus Lanthimos is known as the contemporary Stanley Kubrick.
A good movie will never have only one meaning, and there must be many trivial details outside the theme. The director also leaves blank and space for other interpretations.
So, often the story in the narrative is only superficial.
Symbolic meaning, symbolic use, metaphorical representation, and intertextuality between modern and classical cultures will bring the possibility of multiple interpretations to the film in the arrangement of scenes, soundtracks and story construction.
The first layer of narrative in The Death of the Sacred Deer is eerie, indifferent, and always creates unsettling anxiety.
Steven is a cardiologist at a hospital who has been sober for three years and has an intriguing relationship with a boy named Martin.
He treats Martin like his own son, but at the same time he doesn't want outsiders to think about their relationship, so he always avoids suspicion and keeps a distance in courting.
It turned out that Martin's father had been one of Steven's patients before his death.
Steven took Martin to his home and introduced him to his family.
Immediately, the Steven family fell into an unimaginable nightmare.
Son Bob suddenly couldn't walk on his legs, and began to lose his appetite. His health was deteriorating. Modern medicine and his wife Anna, a psychologist, were powerless.
The narrative of the film takes off in place at this moment!
The initially restrained, calm, and somewhat drowsy story accelerates suddenly, pushing the audience into an unknown horror abyss.
Because it is impossible to guess, because of the unpredictability of the plot, the feeling of bewilderment makes the audience fall into extreme anxiety, and their attention is nailed to the screen.
At this time, Martin found Steven and told in a witchcraft tone that his family would get sick one after another.
The first step was numbness in his legs and he could not walk;
the second step was anorexia and his body became weak;
the last step was blood and tears in his eyes, and at that time, death would take him away.
Steven must make a choice in this three-step development process, killing one of his wife, daughter or son in order to save the rest of the family from the curse.
Steven didn't believe it at first, until his daughter got sick one after another, until his son's eyes bleed and tears, until all means were exhausted, including imprisoning Martin.
But the mysterious power could never be dispelled, and Steven was forced to make a final choice, killing a family member in a Russian roulette-style gamble, which brought this shocking story to an end.
After watching the whole film, you will first be surrounded by unexplainable fears. You need to recover rationally and mobilize subjectivity to dissect the surface of the story. This is the director's intention to challenge the audience's "viewing inertia".
I like to create movies in a way that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable. But you can still enjoy them and start thinking about the meaning of things.
What is "The Death of the Sacred Deer" about?
Uncover the sensational surface of the story, which comes from the play "Iphigenia at Oris" by Euripides, one of the three tragic poets of ancient Greece.
The story tells that the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon, shot a stag to death in the early stage of his attack on Troy. Biqua said that
he was excellent at archery, which annoyed Artemis, the goddess of hunting.
Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, sent a storm and trapped Agamemnon's army at sea. Food was scarce, and the entire army was at stake, which might lead to the collapse of the entire kingdom.
A priest told Agamemnon that he could save his army by sacrificing his eldest daughter Iphigenia.
Knowing everything, Iphigenia was willing to sacrifice her life for the safety of the country.
In the end, Agamemnon gave his daughter, and just before her daughter was killed, she suddenly disappeared and turned into a dead stag under the knife.
Iphigenia is the beginning of the whole story, setting the stage for the tragedies that follow.
After Agamem spent 10 years capturing Troy, he was assassinated by his wife in power, the mother of Iphigenia.
Then, in order to avenge him, his son committed a serious crime of murdering his mother and suffered a lot of hardships from heaven.
In the film "The Death of the Sacred Deer", the construction of the story only intertextualizes the first half of the tragedy, that is, the death process of the Sacred Deer, the cause and effect of the entire sacrifice.
And changed the character setting, modernized the elements of classical drama, and carried out "empathy" and "reset" in combination with the interpersonal relationship in contemporary society.
In the film, the director did not shy away from proving the source of his material.
On the day my son's legs were numb, the portrait on the bed was a painting of a stag.
And the story setting of "tit for tat, constant revenge" also coincides with the storyline of classical dramas.
In the film, Martin designed everything for revenge. It turned out that his father's death was related to Steven's drinking surgery. It is very likely that Steven's surgical error led to the death of Martin's father.
That's why he felt guilty, quit drinking, and took care of Martin.
The large number of crosses in the film also highlights the symbolic use of religious and mythological elements.
Whether it is the classical tragedy or the modern reconstruction of The Death of the Sacred Deer, there are reflections on patriarchy.
Agamemnon is the embodiment of patriarchy.
In the film, Steven clearly bears the shadow of patriarchy, ordering his son to shave his head, and his preference for his daughter allows his wife to satisfy her sexuality in a special way.
But the seemingly strong Steven is actually weak in his heart, hesitating in the face of the obvious curse, unable to make a decision, even escaping the responsibility of being a father, and in the end he can only complete the holy apartment under the condition of covering his own and his family's eyes. .
Establishing patriarchy, and then pushing to it, the whole film presents me the beginning and end of the collapse of power in the second layer of allegory.
But the most exciting thing about "Death of the Sacred Deer" is the ingenious presentation of metaphors from the third layer.
In the middle and end of the film, the focus of the plot is on choosing and being chosen.
Steven is out of focus, and the centerpiece of the film falls on several other family members.
The actions of the daughter and mother on the bed are a symbol of self-sacrifice.
But everyone has selfish desires. They are caught in the tangle of wanting to live for themselves, but not wanting to make it obvious that they want others to make that decision.
Son, began to take the initiative to shave his hair to complete his father's order.
Wife told Steven they could have another one! Means stay with me and kill a child is nothing. When she offered her body again, Steven refused.
Most striking was the daughter's behavior. She is the one with the strongest desire to survive.
The daughter first saw Shenfu, and she wrote an article about Iphigenia in class, which was recognized by the teacher.
The hesitant Steven was so absurd that he hoped that the school's teachers would make a choice for him, and he directly taught: which of the two children is better?
Later, the daughter also found Martin, hoping that, as the god of vengeance, he would elope with her and heal her legs. Martin refused.
She knew that her father preferred her more, but she had to further confirm her position.
She pretended to be willing to sacrifice herself, ran away from home, and wrote an unspeakable letter.
Let me make amends for your sins, father. Kill me right in front of your eyes so you can be sure I'm dead in case fate lets me go at the last minute. Kill me right in front of you so that I may have the ultimate joy of keeping my mother and beloved brother from death.
I can do anything for you, even die for you. Now is the chance to prove it. I love you so much, don't forget this. You gave me life, and only you have the right to take my life. This is right and proper.
You are my God, my master, and I am only a being of your will.
I love you so much, remember this when I lay in the grave and can't say I love you anymore. I love you more than anything in the world.
In fact, this letter does not mention sacrifice at all, but complete obedience to the father, complete love, and unreserved flattery.
Patriarchy, divinity, and human lust are deduced to the highest level in this letter.
After the family fell ill one after another, the "fighting" between mothers, daughters, and sons, and the "fighting and secret struggle" between them were even more shocking, and they felt that the human nature was unpredictable and the family relationship was fragile.
The close-up of the "human heart" in the opening film also represents the consideration of human nature.
The entire "Death of the Sacred Deer" is an allegory of modern humanity wrapped in the cloak of religious classical literature. Even family members, after encountering such difficulties, can only sacrifice their kinship to protect themselves.
In addition to the story and themes, "The Death of the Sacred Deer" also has a very authoritative cinematic schedule. The long-running follow-up shots along the symmetrical hospital corridors that appear in the opening and in the play, together with the ultra-wide-angle shots that run through the entire film, set off a chilling and terrifying atmosphere that makes people sweat.
A large number of wide-angle shots place the characters under the oppression of the ceiling and walls, and the closed composition combined with its unique narrative style highlights the film’s tragic theme of crime and punishment, and the ambiguousness of good and evil.
The repressed world in the camera, the contrasting characters mechanically follow the absurd mythical rules and fall into intrigue, which is chilling.
Not to mention the weird soundtrack, the harsh sound of the bowstring suddenly being pulled out is simply creepy. After repeating the soundtrack repeatedly, the conditioned reflex arouses the unease of the audience, and with the appearance of the soundtrack, fear creeps into their hearts.
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