Among all Kusturica's works, "Underground Society" is praised by the public as the most outstanding masterpiece. This epic giant, as Kusturica, brought enthusiastic applause, but also brought him severe political criticism. , Kusturica was extremely angry at critics' criticism, and even announced that he would no longer make movies. Fortunately, Kusturica came out of his own words and regained his directorship, but he did stay away from any political issues.
Chronology of works and winning record:
1979 "Do you remember Dolly Bell?" "Golden Lion Award at Venice Film Festival, directorial debut"
1985 "Dad
on a Business Trip" Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or 1989 "Song of the Wanderer" Cannes Film Festival Best Director Award
1993 "Arizona Dream" won the Silver Bear Award in Berlin
In 1995, "Underground Society" Cannes Palme d'Or Award, director was 41 years old.
1998 "Black Cat and White Cat" won the Silver Lion Award in Venice.
2004 "Life is a Miracle" France Caesars Film Festival Best European Film Award
"Underground Society" is one A large-scale historical drama aimed at presenting Yugoslavia’s historical experience from the establishment of a federal state to the disintegration of the country. However, the film’s narrative and video techniques are full of anti-traditional post-modern styles. The whole film is full of carnival atmosphere, the actors are exaggerated, and the plot is wandering between absurdity and joking. It is extremely ironic to historical events and history itself. In the strong magical realism style, collage and collage are used. The parody technique continues to deconstruct history, which is a very classic postmodern movie.
"Underground Society", "Song of the Wanderers" and "Arizona Dream" are known as Kusturica's "post-modern trilogy". Among them, "Underground Society" is the most prominent, in an unexpected way. It presents a 50-year history of the rise and fall of the country: in 1941, during the Second World War, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia rose, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was destroyed due to the invasion of the Axis powers; in 1945, under the support of the Soviet Union, the federal state was re-established; in 1992, nationalism Soaring, the Yugoslav Federation broke up in a civil war and disintegrated.
■The history of the rise and fall of the country with a circus performance
The entire film "Underground Society" is divided into three parts: war, cold war, and war. Although the film intends to present the 50-year history of the rise and fall of the former Yugoslavia, the story mainly falls on the four time points of 1941, 1945, 1961 and 1992, and the plot mainly focuses on Ma Gao, Xiao Hei and Natalie. Among the three characters, Ma Gao and Xiao Hei are anti-fascist Communists, and Natalie is an actress.
During
the Second World War in 1941 , the young Ma Gao and Xiao Hei drove a carriage and led a brass band into the picture with joy. This messy carnival celebration was to celebrate Xiao Hei's official joining of the Communist Party, and the film officially kicked off in this carnival. This celebration also opened the prelude to the history of the Yugoslav Federation until the end.
Ma Gao and Xiao Hei are a pair of good friends, but also a pair of rascals. A parrot said this fact aloud. Ma Gao has a younger brother named Iwan who stutters and works at the zoo. A bombing destroyed the zoo. All the animals that were lucky enough to not die ran out on the street to join this bizarre new era. Ivan rescued Song Ni, a small orangutan, who will witness the madness of this place for the next 50 years.
Xiao Hei has a wife who is pregnant with Liu Jia, but Xiao Hei's thoughts are all on the stage actress Natalie. After the bombing, Xiao Hei did not accompany his wife, but ran to the theater, broke into a stage play in progress, and hijacked Natalie from a group of German officers. Xiaohei was later arrested by the German Nazis. Fortunately, his friend Marko sneaked into the German army and rescued him. Afterwards, Ma Gao hid the seriously injured Xiao Hei, the son Zufan born by Xiao Hei’s wife before his death, Ma Gao’s younger brother Iwan, the young orangutan Song Ni, and other Communist revolutionaries, all in the basement of his home.
1945
This year, when the Second World War ended, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under the Tito regime was established. As Tito's revolutionary partner, Magao became a high-ranking Communist Party official and married the actress Natalie who was obsessed with his friend Xiaohei. While Ma Gao and Natalie were enjoying the glory and wealth, they deceived Xiao Hei and the others, convinced them that the war is not over and they must continue to hide. So Xiao Hei and others kept making weapons underground to fight against the fascists, but the weapons they made were sold abroad by Ma Gao on the ground, earning a lot of money. Time flies in
1961,
Xiao Hei and others have been hiding underground for 20 years, but because the clock there was adjusted to be 6 hours a day, they always thought that only fifteen years had passed. Margo and Natalie live on the ground. Margo not only deceives underground people through various broadcasting methods, but also weaves lies on the ground through various propaganda methods. The high-ranking Ma Gao made up the story of Xiao Hei's heroic sacrifice, erected a bronze statue for Xiao Hei, and planned to shoot Xiao Hei's historical propaganda film "Spring Riding a White Horse" in which Xiao Hei will fight against the German Nazis and rescue Natalie together.
In this year, Xiaohei's son Zufan has grown up and will hold a grand wedding celebration. In order to be able to participate in the wedding, Magao made up a set of stories, pretending that Natalie had been captured by Germany all these years, and now finally escaped, so Magao and Natalie appeared in the basement. Unexpectedly, this noisy wedding finally turned out. The grown-up gorilla Song Ni got into the tank that was just built, opened fire and blasted the basement out of a big hole, and also took the lead to escape from the closed basement. So Ma Gao's brother Iwan chased Song Ni, but ran to Berlin, Germany by mistake from the underground passage extending in all directions. Xiao Hei took his son Zufan to the ground, determined to die with the German Nazis, who had long since disappeared.
Xiao Hei and Zu Fan broke into the filming scene of the movie "Spring Riding a White Horse" by mistake, so the people living in underground lies face the people who are weaving lies on the ground. When Xiao Hei saw the male protagonist who played himself and looked exactly like him, the brainwashing of lies for two decades made him unable to see the weirdness, and he resolutely shot and killed the enemy wearing the German Nazi uniform. . Later, Zu Fan, who was ignorant of water, drowned accidentally, but because he did not see the body, Xiao Hei has been looking for his missing son in the years to come. As for Ma Gao on the other end, in view of the exposure, he simply did not stop and killed the other people in the basement with explosives, and then took Natalie to escape.
1992
Chasing the orangutan Song Ni to Ivan in Berlin, Germany, he has been locked up in the local mental hospital for these years. In the hospital, he is still not discouraged looking for Song Ni everywhere. Finally, he learned from a doctor that the past twenty years of living in the basement were all because of a scam set up by Magao and Natalie, who eventually killed the remaining Communist revolutionaries. The angry Ivan immediately got into the sewer and ran back to Yugoslavia through the underground passage extending in all directions, determined to find his brother Margo to take revenge. On the way back to the country, Ivan heard the news that Yugoslavia no longer exists. When arriving in the former Yugoslavia, the very old Ivan actually met Song Ni, who was also very old, and it seemed that Song Ni had been waiting there all these years.
This year, the former Yugoslavia was full of flames, and various ethnic groups that originally belonged to the same federation fought against each other. The old Xiao Hei turned into an army leader, but he really couldn't see who he was fighting for and who he was fighting for, because all his thoughts were looking for the long-dead son Zufan. As for Ma Gao, who was the same old man in a wheelchair, also happened to appear on the battlefield, speculating as usual, taking Natalie around to resell arms.
Ivan finally found the unscrupulous brother who deceived him. He angrily killed Ma Gao. Before his death, Ma Gao said: War never happened until his younger brother killed his elder brother. Ivan later hanged himself in the church. When the German Nazis occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, Ivan also hanged himself because of despair, but he did not die. After 50 years, he finally died completely. NS. Natalie, who rushed to the scene later, did not end well. She was shot and killed by Xiaohei soldiers, and the bodies of the two were set on fire.
Xiao Hei later learned that the arms dealers killed by his men were Magao and Natalie. Beside the two corpses burning with flames, he felt sad and lonely. He even heard the cry of his son Zufan from the well. Came. Xiao Hei immediately plunged into the well, and just like that, all the dead people were reunited again, sitting around the rich dining table, and continuing to celebrate Zufan's 30-year-old wedding. This is a carnival of great reconciliation, mutual understanding and forgiveness, and then, the ground under their feet suddenly cracked, so they followed the broken land, drifting into the distance in laughter and laughter.
■The catastrophe of political stance
Regarding the political stance in "Underground Society," some critics said that it was a catastrophe without mercy. Of course, there are other critics who put forward different views and defend the work. Generally speaking, ideology is an abstract concept, and the characteristic of postmodern films is open-ended understanding. Therefore, there is a lot of room for discussion about the political stance in the film. In my opinion, "Underground Society" presents three levels of political criticism: the
first level is a critique of the essence of history. In essence, history is absurd and ridiculous, full of the lies of the ruling authorities and the ignorance and ignorance of the people. Selfishness, the history of the former Yugoslavia over the past 50 years is like a jubilant circus performance. Whether it was during the Second World War, the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, or the Civil War, the entire country performed a show in a deserted manner. , Unexpected drama.
The second level is the criticism of the Tito regime. During the Tito regime, the authorities woven one after another, not only deceiving others but also deceiving themselves. The authorities isolated the people in the "basement" through false and distorted ideology and media propaganda. In, the distance between the people and reality is broken with a distorted view of space and time.
The third level is the critique of the war of nationalism, and this part is also the part of director Emil Kusturica that has been most questioned by critics. In the last years of the former Yugoslavia, in order to prevent the disintegration of the federation, the ruler Milosvić did not hesitate to support Serbia in launching a nationalist war to slaughter and exterminate other races. And in the third part of "Underground Society", Magao and Ivan smashed brothers on the battlefield, Xiao Hei led the army only to find the long-dead blood ancestor Fan, Xiao Hei doubled after the death of Magao and Natalie. The loss and the final reunion of the people in the previous dynasties all point to the director's disapproval of the former Yugoslav Federation and the various ethnic groups killing each other in order to fight for independence. This was further interpreted as support and propaganda for the Miloswich regime and racial totalitarianism.
"Underground Society" is a post-modern film with an open interpretation feature. However, the film was produced in a joint venture with the Serbian TV station controlled by Milosvić. This fact inevitably makes viewers aware of the ideology in the film. Have a preset position. Does this film defend Miloswich? Different people have different opinions. At least I personally think that the film does have this color.
■The extraordinary achievement of postmodern film aesthetics
Because of the difference in belief between postmodernist movies and traditional modernist movies, the shooting methods are completely different. Modernist films emphasize the capture of real social issues. They guide the audience into the story of the film through as realistic as possible, and then through the plot guide, instill the hidden views and ideologies into the audience’s mind. . Postmodernist films emphasize the removal of the creator’s attitude and position as much as possible, allowing the audience to think about issues from their own perspectives. When presenting the issues that the film wants to discuss, they also strive to highlight the “false” nature of the film, so that the audience is Question the views of the characters and creators of the film, and then think about their own views on the issue. In other words, modernist movies try to make the audience think that the content is "true", creating a sense of involvement of "I believe", while postmodernist movies try to let the audience know that the content is "fake", forming a kind of "I doubt" alienation feel.
Precisely because the beliefs held by postmodern movies are contrary to modernist movies, many aspects of the shooting methods also show the opposite characteristics. In order to highlight the "truth" of modernism, the tone tends to be serious, the narrative is more coherent, the rhythm is more compact, and the portrayal of characters and events is profound. Even if it is a historical film about the past, the tone is also biased toward clear and realistic, which makes people feel like a place. The illusion in it. On the contrary, in order to highlight the "fake" in postmodern films, the tone is usually absurd, the narrative and rhythm are looser, and the characters and events tend to be superficial and flat. When dealing with history, they often adopt "nostalgic" tones to make the audience obvious. I realize that there is a clear separation between the past in the film and the present I am in.
In "Underground Society", director Emile Kusturica used extremely rich postmodern methods to present the 50-year history of the former Yugoslavia. The film is humorous and absurd, full of time and space breaks, but the audience is close. In the three-hour film, in addition to constant belly laughter, you can also deeply feel the complete and grand historical process of a country, showing the director's skill.
"The nostalgic image texture of
"Underground Society" presents a dim image texture throughout the film, but this is different from the reality of scenes presented by the dark ambient light in "Schindler's List". The dimness of "Underground Society" is not only In specific scenes, but throughout the whole film, it gives people the feeling of watching an outdated movie shot a long time ago, rather than a newly shot movie that reinterprets the past.
The narrative perspective of small history
When dealing with history, postmodern films rarely adopt the omniscient macro perspective like Schindler’s List. Instead, they use the stories of several characters and a small historical perspective to bring out Macro history. The omniscient macroscopic perspective often conveys a strong illusion of "absolute reality", while the small historical perspective is more effective, allowing the audience to question the views of the characters, and then question the authenticity of the macroscopic history. "Underground Society" presents 50 years of national history based on the stories of three characters, Xiaohei, Magao and Natalie.
"Exaggerated and comical performances and subtle narrative rhythms.
In "Underground Society", the three protagonists’ performances are extremely exaggerated, and the film’s depiction and narrative of the three often move towards trivial and irrelevant details. All kinds of animals come and go. This absurd way of expression and images can effectively eliminate the audience's "emotional identification" with characters or events, allowing the audience to always maintain a sense of alienation from the content of the film, and continue to question the positions of the characters in the film and the truth of the event.
"Parody
post-modern films must remind the audience from time to time: "What you see is an artificial creation, which does not equal to reality", and humorous "parody" is one of the techniques often used to remind the audience. In "Underground Society", there are several imitating classic movie clips, such as Xiao Hei and his son Zufan encountered a helicopter attack on the beach. This part is very similar to Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now". The footage of Zufan meeting his newlyweds in the water after drowning is similar to Shang Weiguo's "Atlanta". This method of directly imitating classic works can often produce a humorous effect, reminding the audience that the plot being watched at the moment is strongly dramatic and false. In addition to imitating the bridge sections in the classic works, "Underground Society" also directly uses a large number of real historical documentaries, but also uses the collage technique to put Marco and Natalie into it. In this interlaced presentation of truth and falsity, the audience is not only forced to question the authenticity of the film "Underground Society", but also the so-called historical authenticity in the documentary.
》Play in play
"Reflexivity" can be said to be the most important feature of postmodern movies. It is through more than two narrative frameworks, as well as the breaking and dismantling of narrative frameworks, to make the audience realize that the “truth of facts” depends on what the observer thinks. He stands in his position and realizes that he is also a member of the observer, and he should independently think about the “facts” discussed in the film. And "play in play" is a frequently used construction and deconstruction technique.
In "Underground Society" a total of two play-in-play techniques were used. The first time was in the first part of the film. Xiaohei broke into the stage play that was being performed, and first spoke the corresponding lines along with the stage play. , And then shot at the German officers outside the play from inside the play. For the second time in the second part of the film, Xiao Hei took his son Zu Fan out of the basement and broke into the filming scene of the movie "Spring Riding a White Horse". This time Xiao Hei is facing the same one in the movie from outside the scene. The German officer shot (actually an actor who looked similar and played the German officer).
In the two dramas themselves, the audience saw two historical dramas that were inconsistent with reality. The first drama took place during the Nazi occupation of Germany, and the latter occurred during Tito’s reign. From this, the audience can clearly realize that no matter what At what period did the authorities’ manipulation of history remain unchanged, and history itself is strongly false; further, through the action arrangement of "breaking into the drama", the narrative framework is disintegrated, "truth" and "real" The boundary between “false” is broken, and “out-of-film audiences” like you and me, when they mock or sympathize with the “in-film audience” being fooled, are also clearly aware that they are also alienated as the audience rather than the characters in the play. .
The best part of "Underground Society" is the creation of the concept of "basement" to question the authenticity of history. Xiaohei and others were isolated in the basement for twenty years because of Ma Gao's deception, and were fooled in both time and space dimensions. This distinction between ground/underground and true/false not only satirizes the deception and foolishness of the people under the Tito regime, but also implies that the people are separated from the outside in time and space, which affects the correctness of the subsequent view of history.
In the two in-play incidents in the film, the repetitive element "Xiao Hei shoots German officers" connects the two incidents together. The main character Xiao Hei believed that he was fighting fascism when he shot twice. However, the same person, the same belief, and the same action produced opposite results and meanings. In the first action, the real enemy was in a state of suspended animation because of wearing body armor, but in the second action, the fake enemy was actually killed. The inertial behavior pattern eventually led to tragedy, and the main reason was the long-term isolation and deception under the Magao/Tito regime. When Xiao Hei broke with the external reality, he didn't know that the times had changed. The anti-fascist beliefs of the old age no longer apply to the current situation. After being liberated from the "basement", he still acts in accordance with the long-instilled ideas. It is inevitable to make a big mistake.
(Of course, such an understanding does not necessarily refer to the director's attribution of the later period of national liberation war to the ideological confinement of the people by the Tito regime in the early period, nor does it necessarily refer to the director's critique of the national liberation war and defense of Milosvich. However. , The film has a long narrative gap between 1961 and 1992, when the Tito regime and the Milosvich regime alternated, and it is indeed imaginative.)
"Magic realism style
"Underground Society" full film Like a lively and jubilant circus performance, brass bands and various animals have become the lively elements that repeatedly appear in this crazy celebration, repeatedly highlighting the absurd nature of the former Yugoslav Federation from its establishment to its disintegration. In addition, the magical realism style is also introduced in the film to deepen the irrational color. However, the magical realism part actually conveys the best wishes of the director Emil Kusturica to the Yugoslav Federation. In the film, the most prominent part of the magical realistic style is that Zufan reunited with his newlywed wife in the water after drowning, and Xiao Hei got together with everyone at the wedding banquet after he fell into a well. Despite all the entanglements and killings that lasted for 50 years, everyone has achieved mutual understanding and reconciliation after everything has settled. The ending subtitles "This story will never end..." is also the same as the opening subtitles "Once upon a time." , There is a country..." It forms a perfect contrast.
■Postmodern films are often criticized as "superficial and lacking in-depth forms of mass entertainment", and the aesthetic consciousness of postmodern film collages is even more referred to as "a hodgepodge of patchwork." Indeed, in order to eliminate the subjective position of the creators and maximize the open understanding of many post-modern films, various ambiguous and mixed symbols are widely used, but the result is a sense of chaos that is arbitrarily pieced together, and the purpose is not visible. The irony and absurdity of. However, under the condition of extensive use of postmodern film techniques, "Underground Society" presents a clear and hierarchical critical consciousness, as well as complex emotions for the Yugoslav Federation, and has extraordinary artistic achievements.
Many images in "Underground Society" are pieced together like mosaics, but the deliberately arranged multi-level depth-of-field composition contains rich and true symbolic meaning. For example, in the third part of the film, when Xiao Hei finds out that the arms dealers he ordered to kill are Margo and Natalie, the far view is the battlefield, and the close-up is Xiao Hei chasing Margo and Nata in a burning wheelchair. Li, and when the wheelchair kept spinning around the fallen Christ statue, a white horse and white goose shuttled back and forth in the middle shot. One can clearly see the cruelty of war, the sorrow of brothers and friends, and the absurdity of history itself, and this complex emotion is echoing the helpless nature of the Yugoslav nationalist war. Later, when the bell came from the church, the video was switched to the scene of Ivan hanging on the bell rope. The absurd and sad tone was once again highlighted.
Although the ideology of "Underground Society" inevitably involves the issue of the correctness of political stances, in terms of artistic achievements, "Underground Society" breaks the public's existing cognition of post-modern movies, and not only uses multiple open metastructures as a basis The audience provides space for independent thinking, and it is also rare to convey the creator's own ideology and critical stance. "Underground Society" completely constructs a tragic macro history of a country from its founding to its disintegration through the absurd little historical plot, and the richness and creativity of the techniques used in the film far surpass most other postmodern works. Therefore, it is absolutely well-deserved to call "Underground Society" a classic of post-modern movies.
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