"There's nothing wrong with being strong." "Memory is unbelievable."
Catherine Deneuve and Juliet Binoche, the two major French drama bones, the mother is also an actor in the play, which vividly interprets the domineering and fragile starlight.
■ Catherine Deneuve plays the mother Fabiena
As Kore-eda's first "foreign language film", the discussion about the dissatisfaction of the water and soil also revolves around it. Some Douban netizens gave a comment to God: "It's like drinking a miso soup with a coffee cup."
■ Juliet Binoche plays the daughter Lumière
As the opening film of the Venice Film Festival and the shortlisted film of the main competition unit, "The Truth" appeared in the "Official Recommendation - Essence of the Film Festival" section of the 23rd Shanghai Film Festival. When they talk in French in the movie about the parents, although it is contrary to the harmony, there is a French humor presented in turn; when Kore-eda uses a large rocker arm to shoot the distant view of the courtyard from near and far, the leaves on the branches have been shaken off, and the film has come to an end. As an audience, it seems to have tasted a "delicious" autumn finale.
■ A vista view of the courtyard at the end of the film
Let's start with the plot, and spoilers are provided below.
"It's a mansion, but behind it is a prison." Lumière, the screenwriter's daughter, returned to her mother, Fabiena, with her husband Hank and daughter Amy.
■ The daughter returned to her homeland with her small family
The purpose of her return this time was simple: her mother's memoir as a famous actor, "The Truth", was about to be published, and she wanted to "check" whether the book called Truth was true. After a few words of greeting, he began to politely ask "why didn't you send me the book in advance", and the relationship between the two was not like mother and daughter, but like a pair of friends who had been born and tried their best to hide it.
Living up to expectations, the water in the book is comparable to irresponsible "non-fiction writing". The most disappointing thing is that the mother did not mention her friend who died young, nor did she mention luke, an assistant who had been with her for many years and paid quietly, which made everyone around her feel quite cold.
■ Fabiena
However, Fabiena never admits mistakes. "You can't understand what the actor thinks." "I'd rather be a bad mother, a bad friend, but also a great actress." Acting is Fabiena's life, and she also acts all the time.
Next, the family goes to the set – Fabiana plays her daughter who has grown old, while Manon, an actor who resembles her former friend Sarah, plays an eternally young mother. Sarah and Sarah's death are a common knot between mother and daughter, and Fabiena is afraid of its vivid aura and dare not act with it. Lumière loved the kind aunt more than her mother, and resented her mother's deception, which caused her to seek death. Why did Sarah die? Why did the mother do this? This is the "truth" that the film is about to slowly uncover.
■ The young actors who co-starred resembled their former friend Sarah
It is worth mentioning that the "play-in-play" on the set is a very interesting science fiction work, and some people even say that "Memories of My Mother" is better than the main body. The original author is Liu Yukun, the translator of "Three-Body", Hugo Award and Nebula Award winner, who has adapted it into the short film "Beautiful Dreamer", which has won many awards in science fiction and short film festivals.
A terminally ill mother with only two "Earth years" of life decides to travel space at nearly the speed of light, using the "theory of relativity" to deceive time and watch her child grow up. However, the daughter of the time traveler only sees her mother once every 7 years, and when her life is coming to an end, she says to her mother, whose face has not changed: "You are leaving me again, I feel so lonely." ”
In this "play within a play", the mother Fabiena took the role of her daughter, and also had a deeper understanding of her daughter's feelings in the process of pondering again and again. Therefore, she decided to tell her daughter a "secret": the reason why she wanted to steal the role of her friend by despicable means was because she wanted to play the role in her daughter's favorite book and wanted to "snatch" her daughter back from her friend.
■ The daughter forgave her mother in an instant
Lumie was immediately touched and asked her mother why she had not written this in the book. The mother replied, "I don't know, maybe the next edition will be revised." But more importantly, she took inspiration from her daughter's performance to act and strongly demanded a remake of the final scene.
Is it a play? Lumière didn't know, and couldn't know. Possibly, Fabiena herself didn't know. But the daughter, who continues to be active in the world of light and shadow as a screenwriter, decides to respond in her own way. She sent her daughter out and told Fabiena that she wanted her to go to space, "so you can see me become a successful actor." ”
■ Lumiere's daughter Amy
This is reminiscent of Cai Kangyong's golden sentence in "Strange Story": "That is not forgiveness, that is forgetfulness." "Compared with people who are not related by blood, the love and hate between relatives are more entangled. There is no way to get rid of it, no way to choose, to define the self in the gaps that cannot be perceived - the pursuit of "the truth of housework", the difficulty lies not only in the ambiguity of memory, but also in the complexity of emotions.
In Kore-eda's films, there are too many parents who are not good enough, parents who are confused, parents who are fake and real... We are moved by the cold world, where marginalized people warm up to each other, and in turn, we can see the armored people in Vanity Fair approaching each other like hedgehogs. What both have in common is the need for intimacy, in which the person picks up and drops it, thus overshadowing the real candy color filter.
Of course, "The Truth" is not Kore-eda's masterpiece.
■ Stills from "The Truth"
Douban 7.1 points, IMDb 6.4 points, metacritic 73 points, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, and all movies are not bad compared, but compared with Kore-eda and himself, it is a work of "crane tail". Some people even use the terms "throwing street" and "rolling over" to describe This new work by Kore-eda.
Cultural differences are objectively present, and it is hard to imagine a Frenchman "reading the air" with gushing "French words", the daughter wrapping herself up and pretending not to need the mother's concern, and the mother secretly feeling sorry for the strength of the daughter, which is too careful.
Of course, the film still shows some sharp moments. Fabiena said of Lumière: "She didn't even realize that she left France to avoid me. Lumière asked Fabiena, "Do you love yourself or do you like movies... Just once, let the movie win once. Fabiena replied, "I love the movies I do." ”
These relative "bluntness" are refreshing, but it leaves the audience with greater confusion: Can family members get along only by acting? Can their relationship be maintained by acting? Can a person who sees the truth as boring get along?
At this level, it is Kore-eda who gives too much "blank space" in this movie, giving people the feeling of "too shallow".
Kore-eda said the script for "The Truth" was written in 2003 and was intended to be made into a small stage play. Later, Juliet Binoche, who had always wanted to work with East Asian directors, found Kore-eda and wanted to participate in a film. Kore-eda thought the script was "not regional" and used it to make a movie.
■ Directors and actors
Interestingly, during the 6 months of filming, Hirokazu Kore-eda, who was the director, did not speak French and English, and most of the actors did not speak Japanese, relying on translations and expressions throughout the process. But the film finally "stands," showing the power of art beyond language.
"The Truth" is a very interesting sketch that creates a space for a short break away from the everyday and examine itself. Life is like a drama, are you using "acting" to avoid fierce collisions and inexplicable questions?
Source: Thoughtful