Dozens of villagers in the isolated village of Inorata were deceived by the marquise and still worked for her under the rule of the tenant farm system. As one of them, the kind-hearted Lazaro was even blissfully affected by others. The villager's envoy, the life of the village came to light after the kidnapping case written and directed by the Marquise's son, Takready, was brought to light by the police. Just as the villagers went out of the village to seek a new life, Lazaro stumbled and fell off the cliff and crossed the cliff to meet someone he once knew decades later. While Lazaro rescued the deceived villagers with his pure heart, he was heartbroken by the deception of his former "brother" Takredi. In the end, Lazaro tried to get Takredi's money back from the bank and was misunderstood as a robber and beaten to death by the crowd.
On the surface, what the film wants to tell seems to be the abandonment and destruction of the kindness and conscience represented by Lazaro in modern society. What is staged is a story of a modern Jesus Lazaro redeeming mankind by sacrificing himself to awaken the conscience. From the perspective of director and screenwriter Aliche Rohrwacher, the film attempts to convey a critique of modern society and to show pure human concern. However, what is unsatisfactory is that the film's portrayal of characters from different classes falls into symbolization. The protagonist Lazaro, a symbol of purity that does not change with the times, actually represents the deprivation of politics, sociology, and history to promote purity The idea of a liberal intellectual of religious humanities.
The countryside under slavery - the strong eat the weak
The first half of the film mainly shows the village life under slavery. As a member of the exploited by the marquise, Lazaro is also oppressed by other villagers, and his marginalized state is obvious. Through the words of the Marquise "I exploit them, and they exploit the weaker, this is a food chain that can never be stopped", it can be seen that the bottom-level villagers and the feudal nobles/capitalists share the logic of the law of the jungle and fight each other, and such Logic is actually the "justifiable" excuse that capitalists seek to rationalize their own exploitation of the bottom . The idyllic beauty of the countryside, in harmony with the rough and ignorant villagers, contrasted with the lavish and lustful life of the virtuous marquise and her cunning and flattering agents. It is worth noting that the cynical appearance of the Marquise's son, Takready, seems to be implicitly critical of what he has done to his mother, with "she is an exploiter, a bastard, she treats you like a pig and a dog, we need to work together to defeat. The kidnapping case that came from him, when Takready dared not cut his finger and put blood on it and let Lazaro replace it, shows that this is nothing but a childish and selfish game of Takready, and the expression behind it is It is Tuckready's weakness and plausible hypocrisy that it is difficult to give up his own interests. Regardless of whether it was the squeeze of the villagers or the messenger of Takredi, Lazaro, as the bottom of the bottom, had no complaints from beginning to end as if he had stayed out of the matter, helping everyone around him indiscriminately.
Industrial Modernity——The Elegy of "Saint" and "Wolf"
The arrival of the police uncovers the marquise's shocking deception. When the police guide the farmers out of the village to start a new life, the film further depicts the timidity and ignorance of the villagers who are afraid of crossing the two-fingered shallows. On the way to the modern society, through the mouth of the villager Antonia, he told a story of a "sage" and a "wolf":
"An old wolf was driven out of the wolf pack because of his old age. He was very hungry, so he ran to the house of humans and ate those chickens and ducks. Humans tried to kill him, but he didn't have the courage, so he was on duty day and night and set up a Many traps, humans hate this wolf and think he is fierce and strong, but what they don't know is that this is just an old and weak wolf. Later, the story of the old wolf came to the ears of a saint who had The ability to communicate with animals, people respected him, obeyed him, so people went to the saint, the saint accepted the people's request - a request for peace talks with the wolf, so he set off to find the wolf, the saint traveled all the way, he went Ah go, and winter is coming, the saint is exhausted, he is cold and hungry, but still can't find the wolf, what he doesn't know is that the wolf is hungry too, and he has been following the saint for a long time, Finally one day, the saint fell, he fell on the snow, and the wolf finally appeared. The wolf slowly approached him while baring his teeth. Just as the wolf was about to eat him, the wolf suddenly smelled a A smell, something he'd never smelled, stopped him, and he sniffed again, what was it? The smell of a good man."
Wolf Sniff Lazaro, who fell off a cliff due to a fever, chose to leave, and Lazaro woke up at the end of the story. Obviously, the "sage" of the story refers to the kind and pure "good man" Lazaro , who has traveled through time and space to the village of Inorata decades later. He came to the ruined Marquis castle, helped the thieves who lied as movers, and led them to the city. He saw the recruitment of workers by the former agent of the Marchioness, reflecting the same constant exploitation as slavery in a wage system. Later, he met Antonia, the only villager who cared about him. In the dissatisfaction of Antonia's husband's "here again, you know all the poor people in the world, right?" Antonia asked them to bow down and take in Lazaro, Antony. The difference between Ya and other villagers shows that she is actually a disciple of the "Saint" Jesus Lazaro with the same "divineness", rather than the ordinary people at the bottom. She took Lazaro and her husband to work as a deceiver for a living. The irony is that the once ignorant bottom is now cunningly exploiting the goodwill of self-righteous middle-class women, while the doubts of Lazaro, who do not know the truth, arouse Antonia's conscience was disturbed. Afterwards, a lame dog brought Lazaro to Takredi's side, and the once mighty noble boy had fallen into despair. When Takredi used a pan instead of the moon to relive the "Wolf Howl" in the moonlight with Lazaro, another protagonist of the story of "Saint" and "Wolf" also emerged: "Weak Wolf", together with the waning full moon in the film, double refers to the declining feudal aristocracy in the modern industrial society.
Lazzaro's death - the fading of happiness?
Lazaro and Antonia's family, who were invited to lunch at Tacready's house, prepared expensive snacks, but found that they had been deceived when they arrived. Antonia was not angry at being cheated, but agreed to Tacready's wife's request. Dim Sum request. When Antonia was puzzled by the fall of the Tuckready family, Tuckready's wife blamed the bank for their fall, which actually became an excuse for them to be lazy. Lazaro, who was about to return home, discovered the music of the church, but at Antonia's insistence, they came to the church but were driven away. At this time, the music followed them, and surrounded the Antonia family who was pushing the broken car. Just as they were talking and laughing and discussing returning to the village of Inorata, Lazaro left a sad note to the moonlight. tears. At the end of the film, Lazaro went to the bank to try to get back Tacready's things, which was misunderstood as a robber who was beaten to death by everyone. The lone wolf who witnessed all this silently walked away and fled the city.
It can be seen that Lazaro, who was born at the bottom, embraced everyone with a pure and kind heart from beginning to end, which contrasted with Antonia, who was also born at the bottom, for his kindness and understanding towards Takredi. In the face of unsustainable life, they are still positive and optimistic, accompanied by music. On the surface, this highlights the powerful healing power of Lazaro as a symbol of purity, but what actually implies is that the director should have kindness and selfless dedication to the people at the bottom, forgive exploitation, and achieve a potential demand for class reconciliation . Lazaro seems to save all mankind indiscriminately with his super-class "big love", but in fact only the Antonia family is "saved" by him. Tacready's rejection is inadvertently deconstructing the film A kind of "sympathy" between "sage" and "wolf".
The ignorant and ignorant people who were rescued from slavery have turned into cunning swindlers in modern society, which is exactly the same as the film the Marquise said for her own interests: "Human beings are like animals, and giving freedom means Give them the ability to realize that they were once slaves, so they are immersed in suffering, and now they are suffering, but they do not know the truth.” The sounding words share the same logic – modernity makes people change worse. Obviously, what the film ultimately criticizes is modernity itself, showing that modernity destroys the conscience of everyone, but this criticism paradoxically points to the intention of returning to the ignorant era of slavery. A happy Lazaro, even in a state of being oppressed and exploited without knowing it, this kind of submissive happiness actually lacks any subjectivity and self-awareness. There is no doubt that the truth, the good and the beautiful can touch and comfort people’s hearts. In the face of the real problems of refugees and immigrants, bankrupt people and homeless people in contemporary European society, this kind of liberal intellectual-style pure humanistic concern stripped of historical complexity can help. Bring us true happiness?
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