The story happened in just one day. Female college student Ottila bought smuggled imported cigarettes, food, and soap in the school dormitory, and prepared secret luggage for Gabita who was in the same dormitory. Gabita was pregnant, and abortion was illegal in Romania at the time. They found a man named Mr. Bebe to have an abortion privately. A nightmare began. In the cheap hotel that Ottila found after many twists and turns, Mr. Bebe threatened not only money, but also Ottila's body. Ottila, who had no choice, met Mr. Bebe's request and helped Gabita dispose of the fetus's body: she threw him into the trash can. After all the fear and anxiety were over, the two girls sat in the hotel restaurant, silently waiting for their dinner. Not far away, is the hilarious scene of a wedding banquet. And on this day, it was Gabita's full pregnancy, April 3rd, 2nd.
Describing the plot is irrelevant to some good movies, because it sounds lackluster. In fact, this is a very good movie. If you can endure the tremendous depression shown by the movie for two hours, you must be able to understand why the 39-year-old Cristian Mungiu, the director, screenwriter, and producer of the movie can The Golden Palm at the 2007 Cana Film Festival.
Outside,
in the words of director Cristian Mungiu, this is a movie about friendship, responsibility and love. The story stems from the experience and secrecy that we cannot tell others in our lives. Most importantly, it tells a story about abortion. In 1966, the Ceausescu government promulgated a law prohibiting abortion. It was not until the death of Ceausescu in 1989 and the end of the socialist government in Romania that the law was abolished. During this period, about half a million Romanian women died in humiliation because of the safety of secret abortions. For that period of history, abortion not only meant some wrong and sinful moral behavior, but also related to the betrayal and confrontation of the state system.
The barracks-style college dormitories in the film, the indifferent and vigilant hotel janitor, the use of Western goods to replace the private transactions of money, and even the dark color imposed on abortion, are so similar to China in the 1970s and 1980s, and I believe that there have been more versions of similar stories in China. Personal experience arising from the taboos of a certain public system, as well as unpredictable life choices: in order to live better, or for courage and responsibility, we can only go through an unspeakable and unbearable process like Ottila. Because of its secrecy, it cannot even be called a tragedy. It is a hidden wound in the heart. It is a secret swallowed by time. After many years, the stigma fades and it is possible to calmly tell these experiences to others, just like telling other people’s stories. .
In 1987, the eve of political upheaval in Eastern Europe. Today’s Western commentators and audiences are often overly sensitive to political oppression and metaphors when watching movies with this background. However, I believe more in the director’s original intention. He said very clearly in the director’s explanation: "I try to make a film about characters and stories, not about that era. That is not the context and theme of the film. I try Respect and restore the facts as much as possible, instead of focusing on the stereotypes and iconicity of the end of communism. That era was there, in my movies, but they are behind the camera: the crackling exhaust emissions of buses, resembling irons Ordinary Romanian cars, inferior suitcases, walls covered with pages, and some people's habits at the time, such as Kent cigarettes can replace currency in private circulation. Without these backgrounds, we would not be able to understand this movie." The words reminded me of Lou Ye’s "Summer Palace" in the same session of Cana. In my opinion, it is a movie that first aims to describe the "time" rather than the characters and stories. In this case, let the Westerners take Leave political metaphors and propaganda stunts to movies like "The Summer Palace."
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Compared with the weak and slightly selfish Gabita, Ottila represents another kind of woman: strong, courageous, in Chinese words, sentimental and righteous, she is like Gabita's patron saint, bearing all kinds of situations on the verge of collapse, even though she Also helpless and panic. After being assaulted by Mr. Bebe, Gabita rushed into the bathroom naked and scrubbed her body vigorously. After that, she sat motionless in the bathtub. Everyone can feel what kind of pain this means. In the middle of the bus leaving the hotel to go to her boyfriend's house, Ottila shed silent tears from a distance in the camera. It's not that she doesn't resent Gabita. Mr. Bebe's threats are not unrelated to the lies that Gabita had accidentally told before, but this bit of resentment quickly turned into concern for Gabita, because she is the only person who can help Gabita, just like She left the last cigarette to Gabita.
There is a long close-up of the fetal body after an abortion. The fetus more than 4 months old, I saw it very closely. He was wrapped in a white bath towel, palm-sized, slightly humanoid, and covered in blood. Ottila packed him in his schoolbag and rushed out of the hotel. The camera followed her through dark streets and alleys. We could only see Ottila's back shaking in the dark, and heard her swift and suppressed gasps, because of fear. And nervous, Ottila hasn't found a place to discard the fetal body for a long time, and her hair became damp in the mist of winter night. Finally, she stumbled into a residential building and quickly stuffed the schoolbag containing the fetal body into the trash can in the corridor. In the only little light, her silhouette stood quietly in front of the trash can.
Just like this scene, the film is full of this kind of suspense setting of "the mountains and rivers have no way out, the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village". Together, they create a real, extremely depressed and even frightening time and space, and we seem to be able to understand I heard the breathing and heartbeat of Ottila and Gabita. Mr.Bebe assaulted Gabita, always taking Gabita waiting outside the room, no one knew what would happen; Gabita was alone in the hotel, and Ottila, who rushed to attend her boyfriend’s mother’s birthday party halfway through, was always disturbed and beat The phone call to Gabita was accidentally interrupted several times, and the phone call was unanswered; the gloomy tone of the film and Gabita’s weak image seemed to symbolize the coming of a tragedy. We were as anxious as Ottila rushing to the station. At the last minute, he took a long breath to see Gabita who was still alive.
What is unforgettable is the way the film was filmed and the performance of the actors. Cristian Mungiu decided to keep the film in a dark tone and avoid all scenes that look like deliberately organized. In order to achieve a real effect, he boldly adopted some extreme shooting methods: long to the extreme long lens-basically only one lens for each scene; shoulder shooting, no Steadicam, no tripod, and no deliberate The shaking; a lot of voice-overs, characters often speak out of the camera, the audience can not see the face of the speaker at all, all means are used to show the original soul of the film: emotion and reality.
Anamaria Marinca, who plays Ottila, is very impressive. She was just a small Romanian actor who wandered around London. Director Cristian Mungiu did not find an actor playing Ottila until a week before the filming. He flew to London to meet Anamaria in the mood to give it a try. He wrote in the director’s explanation: “I saw her at the airport at night for the first time. I was disappointed because she didn’t look like Ottila at all, but the next day when we tried the show, the change happened incredibly, she became Ottila completely, and I saw my character expressed through her lips Come out. She is so unforgettable, the whole movie can be said to be done on her shoulders. If there is anything in this movie that makes me feel perfect, it is the performance of the actors." Just like Anamaria Marinca's performance , I am convinced that every good actor has an amazing energy and more or less neuroticism that ordinary people have not seen. When the camera turns, they shine and the characters are possessed. They are the perfect lie, the world’s Another of him.
Good movies are pure and complete, and good movies are a whole. The script is good, the director is good, the photography is good, the actors are good, the sound effects are good, the lighting is good, the art is good, and the editing is good. In fact, a good movie makes you invisible to the existence of the director or camera, and you don't feel the existence of individual actors, so the above is only based on a certain background introduction. In fact, we can't say much, we just learn more about the world behind others and appearances, or being moved, or little happiness and sadness, or speechless for a long time.
Movies are hue, Ang Lee said.
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