"You've Never Been Here" was placed in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival even when it was not finished, and it won two awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actor. This film created a precedent for unfinished films to win awards. It can be seen that the film is doomed to success or failure during the shooting process.
Maybe we have all seen the famous European movie "This Killer Is Not Too Cold", in which the love between the uncle and Loli makes us onlookers feel the same way. And "You've Never Been Here" also uses a combination of uncle and loli, but it shoots a completely different image style.
Violence and bloodshed are one of the most important features of "You've Never Been Here". The male protagonist is a retired soldier who has been suffering from traumatic stress disorder. Coupled with the fact that he often witnessed his mother's domestic violence by his father when he was a child, it also established a thrilling and bloody tone for the film.
The male protagonist Joe has been living as a killer since his retirement, and it was not until he received the task of "rescue the kidnapped girl" that he became involved in the whirlpool of conspiracy. This film is completely incomparable to "This Killer Is Not Too Cold" in terms of narrative rhythm, but some details are worth pondering.
1. The meaning of the reciprocal numbers throughout the film. When Joe's mother suffered domestic violence, she would put Joe in the closet to prevent him from seeing domestic violence scenes. The countdown was a reminder to him that it was over, and Joe continued the habit when he was confused later.
2. Joe has a tendency to self-mutilate, and often covers his head with a plastic bag to get a moment of peace. This has something to do with his childhood shadows and his encounters on the battlefield.
3. At the end of the film, in Joe's imagination, people in the restaurant still go their separate ways after committing suicide, and they don't care about Joe's life or death. This also echoes the title of "You've Never Been Here". No matter life or death, it doesn't matter much in the eyes of others. I really want you to be never here.
When his childhood mother suffered domestic violence, he failed to stop her; when her mother was invaded by a murderer, he still failed to save her; when he rescued little Loli, he found that Lolita had already killed her enemy. Joe couldn't stop anything from happening, as if he had never been here.
View more about You Were Never Really Here reviews
