Director: Emir Kusturica (Emir Kusturica)
Release year: 1998
Production country/region: France, Germany, Yugoslavia
Film name: Crna macka, beli macor
imdb Number: tt0118843
Also known as: Black cat and white cat Black Cat, White Cat
Watching Yugoslavian director Emir Kusturica's movie "Black Cat and White Cat" is nothing but a treat. It was a film that I turned over accidentally. The award-winning film in 1998, the Venice Silver Lion Award, was filled with comments and awards on the cover of the disc. I couldn't help being moved by it. Judging from the name alone, I don’t know what kind of film it is. I don’t really like cats, but the “magicism” style in the introduction attracted me.
I used to like Marquez and some magical novels in South America for a while. The so-called "magic" in China may be monsters and ghosts, going to heaven and earth, but in the eyes of foreigners, all things or phenomena that go against the convention and go beyond the convention. That is "magic". In this film, the director used a lot of scenes that reflect magicalism, such as pigs eating cars, fat song girls using their ass to pull nails, and the resurrection of the dead. The whole film uses an exaggerated cartoon expression from beginning to end, full of humor and irony, and the images are full of gorgeous colors. While reflecting the happy life of Gypsies, they also make it fairy tale and idealized. But obviously, the director named "black cat and white cat" to illustrate the cycle of fortune in the journey of life, reflecting the duality of life from a state of the world, and perhaps also implying the duality of human nature. However, although there are a few shots of black cats and white cats, they are not very suggestive. The story is actually very simple. It is about young people's marriage and love stories: forced marriage, escape marriage, and union, but the director does not play the cards according to the routine, and uses many characters to connect a ridiculous story. So what appeared in front of us were the retired gang boss, the impoverished gypsy liar, the slain Bulgarian policeman, the fat singer who used his ass to pull the nail, the dwarf sister and the tall man, the grandfather who came back from the dead... Such strange characters are lively and beautiful, but the plot is also so bizarre. The director is ingenious in the arrangement of the scenes. For example, when two people are in love in a sunflower field, the blue sky, yellow flowers, and smiling faces create fun. The boy puts the girl’s underwear on his head; for example, the two swim in the river and drill in the same one. Eating ice cream in the rubber band; for example, the Bulgarian policeman was shot and hung from the car bar, holding an umbrella in his right hand and carrying a bag in his left hand, which is very horror scene arrangement; there are also water poles, and Darden used white geese after climbing up from the cesspit. Wiping and so on, the countless, dazzling. Kusturica truly took the entertainment of the film to its extreme, allowing the audience to enjoy the happiness while also feeling the beautiful variation outside of life, and fully aware of the problems the director wanted to explain.
Speaking of Gypsies, there are many works of art that reflect their lives, such as "Notre Dame", "Carmen", "Caravan", "Hundred Years of Solitude" and so on. They wandered around because of the war. Fortune-telling and smuggling make a living, but although they live a poor life, they are optimistic, enthusiastic, and unrestrained by nature. In "Black Cat and White Cat", we can hardly feel sadness and sadness, except for the old man silently wiped it away during separation. Apart from the touching tears, we can't help but laugh. Perhaps we are used to seeing gypsies driving caravans in the square, but in Yugoslavia, many homeless people settled down and depended on wiping cars and divination. The grandfather of Childe in the film was operated by Dashachang to maintain his family expenses, but later he sold it before his death, hid the money privately, and finally handed it over in order to prevent his bastard son from embezzling his property. Grandson used for marriage. The grandparents and grandchildren of the tavern also have a fixed income. They live a happy life and are full of enthusiasm for people, so that their attitude towards life and love also has their own persistent side. Although Da Dan's sister is a dwarf, she insisted on her opinion that she must marry her dream lover, so she sneaked away at the wedding, and instead achieved two marriages.
The director’s technique is exaggerated and funny, but it shows the life of the Gypsy in detail. A two-hour-long film reveals a lot of information and keeps everyone in a neutral state. No one is absolutely good. No one is absolutely bad, full of laughter and laughter at the same time, we should clap "wonderful" for the director.
September 29
View more about Black Cat, White Cat reviews
