When I was a child, I often heard that love is boundless, but I didn't understand what it meant. Now that I have grown up, I still don’t know what love is, let alone whether great love exists.
If you think about it carefully, it is difficult to judge whether love is big or not, but love is indeed very vast. For example, in Cannes this year, with the explosion of Asian film reputation, the Asian region has become extremely united and excited, and there is no distinction between my country, Japan and South Korea, especially the people of our country. We are even happier than Japan when "The Thief Family" won the Palme d'Or , as if Hirokazu Kore-eda is of Chinese nationality.
▲ "The Thief Family" and "Burning" both shined in Cannes
This kind of love without boundaries should be called resonance in popular terms. The resonant point is the race. They are all relatives with yellow skin. I am also happy when you win the award. This resonance also occurs in "Midsummer".
"midsummer"
Лето
"Midsummer" and China have actually built a connection somewhere.
The point of resonance is that Russia and China are both big socialist countries with the same strict collectivized life and the same cult of leader personality. Another resonance point is the rock music that was popular in the two countries in the 1970s and 1980s .
▲ Facing Xiao Cui, this lesbian cannot extricate herself
Not to mention whether the godfather of Chinese rock is Cui Jian, his appearance at that time really influenced the Chinese youth of that era, and "Midsummer" tells the story of another old Cui, the godfather of Soviet rock, Viktor Tsoi . The magic is that he is a Korean-Soviet , which also confirms a truth, music knows no borders.
▲ Viktor Tsoi
The Soviet youth who lived under the Iron Curtain had no time to consider whether the historical facts had collapsed and whether the economy was strong or not. Their only belief might be the rock music that swept the capital world.
▲Moscow's Red Square Rock and Roll Festival, 1991
The Western rock music that secretly flowed into Leningrad University in the early 1960s quickly fascinated these rebellious youths. Even under the pressure of the government, they still have channels to buy tapes and CDs, or listen to Western radio stations with enthusiasm.
The unprecedented excitement induced a large number of rock bands in the Soviet Union, from the early learning and imitation to the later independent creation, to the later formation of the unique Soviet style of "playing and singing rock" poetry, followed by the rise of rock clubs.
▲Cui's early formation of the band "Galin and Hyperbola" performed at the Leningrad Rock Club, reality (left) and stills (right)
The story of "Midsummer" began at The Leningrad Rock Club , the largest rock club in the former Soviet Union in the 1980s. It was like a dream field, and all the bands that performed there became legends.
On the club stage, Zoopark's lead singer Mike was singing, but the audience in the audience could only play the rhythm by moving their hands and shaking their legs, not to mention the banner slogan. to the ground.
▲Young people who are ready to move, stills
The political atmosphere that blows on the face makes the audience mistakenly think that this is a film about politics, but in fact the director just tells the truth about what happened, whether it is the absurd regulation in the club, or the middle-aged man on the train scolding young people for violating the law. Mainstream ideology, singing the enemy's songs, and strict censorship of lyrics before debut are all real and well-documented experiences.
So what the director once said "there is no political discussion" is absolutely correct, and all his intentions are in the subtitle at the end of the film "I dedicate this film to the one I love" .
▲ Stills
Abandoning political discussions, leaving only a utopia wrapped in rock music with a strong sense of resonance, these young people huddled together in the turbulent air to keep warm, revelled in crowded collective apartments, stripped drunkenly on the beach, and let themselves sing freely.” I'm a slacker, mom, mom." Victor Choi's playful lyrics ignited the summer and set the stage for fame.
▲Mike's hot singing by the sea, stills
The online annotation of "Midsummer" is a music biopic, but I don't think so. It does not magnify Victor Choi personally, but focuses on recording the free state of these young people and their strong love for music.
Including the three main characters Victor Choi, Mike and his wife Natasha, their scenes are not much different, and the same is true emotionally, especially Mike's emotional line, as Victor's Bole and guide, Faced with the inner struggle when his wife confesses that she wants to kiss someone else, and the desolate scene of standing in the rain to make room for her beloved wife to fulfill her wish, life is still going on, pretending that nothing has happened, these plays hit the heart.
▲The Lonely Man, stills
Perhaps because the director has a wealth of drama experience, he has set a role that can directly dialogue with the audience . This type of role often appears in dramas. Because it can freely shuttle in and out of the play, it has the function of narration and annotation. , and at the same time appear throughout. Therefore, in a few paragraphs of the film showing his exquisite imagination, he asked everyone to watch a MV in the play, and finally raised a placard to signal the end.
▲Walking around in and out of the play, telling the audience that "nothing happened"
The director added animated graffiti to the picture. Although the actors involved were not of good music quality, the joyful pictures with emotional echoes on their faces were full of fun.
▲Imagination and creativity fly together, stills
These few scenes almost became the highlight of the film. The director borrowed this method to protest politics, but told them that "none of this happened". Those in power who had been teased and humiliated should all hate the director very much, but they had nothing to do with it. Get started.
▲Imagination and creativity fly together, stills
After the imagination, there are countless tributes , like the previous video tributes to Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", Loud Reeds' "Perfect Day" and Iggy Pop's "The Passenger".
▲ Tribute to the stalk, stills
The director even added a pseudo-documentary segment of pure tribute: the actors fiddled with their shapes, and then added manual post-production to complete classic album covers, such as Billy Joel, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, T-Rex, etc. .
To put it bluntly, rock music is their youth, so this movie doesn't care about politics at all, it carries the feelings of a generation . Of course, the Russian authorities do not recognize the word of feelings. In July last year, director Kirill Serebrennikov was arrested in St. Petersburg on charges of fraud and embezzlement, and has been under house arrest since August 23. Restrict freedom of movement. At that time, "Midsummer" was still in post-production and production, while he was rehearsing "Nureyev," a ballet about homosexuality.
▲ Director Kirill Serebrennikov is naughty in prison
In the eyes of those in power, he was a repeat offender, and he was credited with writing plays, operas and films that criticized the church and satirized the corruption of the state. He is accused of embezzling at least 68 million rubles ($1.15 million) of state funds for art projects. The public generally believes that the reasons for the accusation are quite weak, and they all know that this is an act of suppressing freedom of speech.
▲Cannes Film Festival, "Midsummer" actors use famous brands to support the director
Kirill's accident echoes the real-life fate of the characters in the film. Victor Choi died in a car accident in 1990, and Mike died of illness in 1991.
The appearance of the date of birth and the time of death of the last characters in the film is particularly moving. It is like the director's love confession, full of sensibility. At the Cannes Film Festival, the producer of "Midsummer" said that Kirill's original intention was to express pure love and freedom .
Talk about politics? vulgar. "Midsummer" does not reveal any social black history or political declaration, but some are just the infinite emotion and nostalgia for that period of time. Rock music may be just entertainment for the general public, but for the Russian people, it is love, peace, and freedom. They live by it, vent their dissatisfaction with reality, and resist the repression of nature.
The fall of "The Last Hero" Victor Choi has hit countless fans. People refused to admit his untimely death. Some people even grieved to the point of suicide. There were rumors in the streets and alleys that "Cui is not dead. He just went out and rooted." Smoke." words. When the director finally borrowed Mike's mouth to say "go out for a cigarette", should the audience cry or laugh?
It’s time to laugh, although Victor Choi has passed away, his free will has been inherited by countless people. The craziest rock festival in Moscow’s Red Square in 1991 was the best testimony to free will.
▲Like a concert of a revolutionary movement, the government dispatched tanks to suppress it, 1991
The awakening of a generation represents the advancement of the times. At this moment, everyone is a hero.
Looking back, we can still see the bonfires piled up with waste wood on the midsummer night, accompanied by strings and singing, naked carnival partners. At this time, we have already bid farewell to our pedantic souls and sailed to the other side of freedom that we have never seen before. .
— End —
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