This year's Oscar "Best Foreign Language Film" top five, in addition to the hit "Parasite", there is also a relatively unpopular Polish film -
The Eucharist (Corpus Christi, 2019)
Polish poster of the Corpus Christi
Of course, "unpopular" is relative, it is a big hit in its own Poland, receiving as many as 15 nominations for this year's Polish Film Awards!
In addition, IMDb is currently 7.7, Douban 7.6, rotten tomatoes 96% fresh, word of mouth can be seen.
After watching it, many people said that they liked this film more. In any case, you should not miss this masterpiece. The period of the film famine is worth brushing up.
Listening to the name, this seems to be a very religious film, but it is not. It tells a very popular and dramatic story.
The protagonist of the story, Daniel, is a troubled teenager who is involved in bullying, smoking cigarettes, and has a long history in the juvenile detention center, but at the same time he has a vision for the priesthood and hopes to enter the seminary.
In a phrase on the Internet, it's: "Although I smoke cigarettes and fights, I'm a good boy."
The priest of the juvenile detention center told him, "Each of us is a priest of Christ."
Daniel was convinced of this, and his devotion, simplicity, and the obedient energy in his bones formed a sense of mixing and matching that seemed to be contradictory but contrasted strongly.
When he was sent to work in a small town far from the juvenile detention center, by chance, he was given a priest's robe.
Originally, he may have just wanted to give those who looked down on him a taste of being punched in the face, but he did not expect that after seeing him pull out his robe, people's attitudes changed 180 degrees.
When you tell your first lie, it means making up for it with countless lies.
In this way, "Pastor" Daniel "went with the flow" and met with the parish priest to hear the confessions of the people. He tasted a little bit of sweetness and felt respected and needed. What he didn't know was that the challenge had only just begun.
The priest of the parish asked him to help and replace him as a priest for a few days. Daniel panicked and felt the pressure he had never felt before, but at this time he had no way out, so he had to harden his scalp.
This robe, while serving as a symbol of power and status, also became a prop for him to disguise and deceive. He began to "hold the Buddha's feet temporarily," trying not to be timid during Mass, and even secretly searched his phone for steps in prayer in front of the believers who came to repentance.
The story takes place here, which is actually a very dark and humorous plot setting:
A small who usually looks like a hanger is suddenly entrusted with a heavy responsibility. As for himself, although he was afraid of messing up and exposing the horse's feet, he still did not change his impetuous and hedonistic nature.
For the audience, the biggest contradiction of the plot is when Daniel's lies are exposed.
With such doubts, the film further throws another new mystery to the audience, and also makes Daniel really fall into some kind of dilemma.
In front of the town's church, a small photo board with pictures of six young people posted on it, surrounded by blooming flowers. Whenever people pass by here, they are always infected by a certain atmosphere of sadness and solemnity.
It turned out that six young people in their youth had lost their lives in a car accident. This is the tragedy of the whole town, and it is also the wounds of the residents that are difficult to heal.
Another victim of the accident, the driver of another car that collided with it, was seen as the "murderer" of the incident.
Not only was he unable to be buried in the town's cemetery, nor could he enter the spiritual hall to be mourned, but even his only wife was spurned and insulted by everyone.
However, as Daniel learned more about the town and gradually pieced together the truth behind the incident through the memories of different people, it turned out that it was not as the residents imagined.
The truth is cruel and hurtful. But how can concealing the truth not be another kind of harm?
By this time, the contradictions in the whole story have focused not only on Daniel's "fake priest" but more on the misunderstood and obscured truth.
On the one hand, there is doubt about whether to reveal one's true identity, and on the other hand, there is a desire to respect the faith and restore the facts in the heart.
The whole story also evolves from the initial "identity dilemma" to the "moral dilemma" that is difficult to choose, and Daniel's heart is also undergoing a difficult test.
Poland is a very religious country, the territory is full of large and small churches, 95% of the population is Catholic, and going to church every week to do Mass is an important part of the life of most Polish people.
Because of this, this kind of "pretending to be a priest" often occurs in Poland. Moreover, some of these "fake and real" counterfeits are quite similar, and they have not been recognized for several years.
Screenshot of news headlines from 2014
While counterfeiters will be severely punished, it is not something to be hyped about for the church itself. After all, in these religious countries, religion is somehow equated with power.
Therefore, once it is discovered that anyone can impersonate a clergy to deceive believers, the authority of the church will be seriously threatened, and the faith that believers have always been devout will face collapse.
In this film, Daniel's impersonating pastor is one such character.
Although he did not know enough about professional knowledge, with his simple interpretation of the doctrine, the unreliable advice when accepting confession, and the relaxed and exciting atmosphere that was rare when doing Mass, he was even confused and recognized by everyone.
However, when he truly discovered the unexpected truth, his fake identity and the impulse of his heart to be a priest formed a fierce struggle.
The confusion of facts not only casts a suspenseful layer on Daniel's goals, but also exposes his own heart to his unquestionable faith.
As Daniel kept running for the truth and trying to do something, he found it difficult.
On the one hand, the local mayor, who represented the credibility and power of the government, repeatedly warned Daniel not to overstep his position;
Ms. Lidia, who works at the church, maintains order and stability in the local church, while her son is one of the six young people who lost their lives, and in grief she refuses to reconcile and has a deep grudge with the wife of the so-called "murderer".
The whole town, on the surface, looks calm and peaceful, but inside it is surging with dark tides. Multiple forces are entangled with each other and influence each other. Is it easy to untie the knots in the hearts of the residents?
Among them, in addition to Daniel, the "outsider" can see clearly, another girl who knows the truth, Eliza (also the daughter of Ms. Lydia), although she hopes that her mother can reconcile with the past as soon as possible, but is subject to her mother's strict discipline and avoids revealing her mother's scars again, so she has to choose silence.
To some extent, the huge tearing of social values caused by the car accident in the film is a microcosm of polish society as a whole.
In an interview, the director said that the prototype of the car accident was actually the Polish presidential plane crash that shocked the world in 2010.
In April 2010, the Ty-154 plane of Polish President Lech Aleksander Kaczyński crashed in Smolensk, Russia, including the president's wife, many senior Polish government officials, parliamentarians and military generals, along with eight crew members, all 96 passengers were killed.
Part of the wreckage of the crash of the Ty-154 plane (Source Wikipedia)
The disaster sparked fear and trauma throughout Poland, and conspiracy theories about the accident were endless.
The whole of Polish society was quickly divided into two factions. One faction sees this as some kind of political conspiracy, trying to decipher certain signs and religious allegories from it; the other sees it as a helpless tragedy.
The film adapts this true event and places it in this fictionalized town, while using a series of social news such as "fake priest" to make people deeply question their beliefs in living with them day and night.
If everything is "God's arrangement", then in the face of pain, do you choose to ignore the truth and accept it with hatred, or do you dare to question and seek reconciliation?
A certain redemption arranged at the end of the film is not only a kind of consolation for the families of both victims, but also the salvation of the protagonist Daniel himself.
Finally the seventh victim was buried in the parish cemetery
Forgiving others is not the goal, letting go of oneself is liberation. At this time, the faith that supports them comes not so much from the gods as from the sincerity and kindness of the people around them.
Daniel's "false" evokes the town's quest for "truth," and his gaze goes from hesitation at first to firmness at the end. Pain is his medal, and the metamorphosis brought about by this experience is crowning his misfortune.
The title of the film, "Corpus Christi", the English name "Corpus Christi", has two meanings -
The first floor refers to the Catholic liturgical festival "Corpus Christi";
Another meaning refers to the "body of Christ", which is commonly used in Catholicism to describe the holy Church.
The body is an important symbol in the film. Jesus sacrificed His own body and chose to crucify His flesh. And the priests of the Church are seen as clergy with the same divinity, who are also receiving confessions from mortals in their own flesh.
Daniel in the film, at the final farewell Mass, takes off the priest's robe, revealing a body full of tattoos and scars.
Perhaps what he wants to tell everyone is that although faith is important, it is often these mortal bodies that suffer from all kinds of imperfections and misfortunes.
People who bear deep sins may understand pain better and feel the meaning of forgiveness better.
Bartosz Bielenia, a young actor who plays Daniel, shows amazing explosiveness in the film, sometimes fierce and cunning, sometimes hollow and slow, sometimes affectionate and solemn. His performance is undoubtedly the core of the entire film.
Daniel, who had just come out of the juvenile detention center, had a fierce and confused expression after snorting
The film's director, Jan Komasa, is an excellent young Polish director. The first self-written and self-directed short film, Nice to See You (2004), won the third prize of the Film Foundation in the cornerstone section of the 57th Cannes Film Festival. He was 23 years old.
Jan Comasa has not produced many feature films so far, but each one has a good quality. He is very good at stimulating the performance potential of young actors, and he pays attention to issues related to social reality.
Polish director Jan Komasa
In 2011, his self-written and self-directed debut feature film, Suicide Room (Suicide Room), was shortlisted for the Teddy Bear Award at the 61st Berlin Film Festival.
Poster of "Suicide Room"
The film tells the tragic story of a teenager with a wealthy family but an extremely empty inner world, who suffers emotional setbacks in real life and becomes addicted to virtual networks.
Maybe you once saw a seductive GIF of a handsome teenager licking his lips somewhere, but it was actually from this film.
That's it
Through the combination of live-action and three-dimensional animation, the overall style of the film is bold and avant-garde. The dynamic electronic soundtrack also gives the film a certain wild, restless temperament.
At the same time, the film also shows the contrast between the personal world and family life, satirizing the parents who occupy a lot of time due to work or private affairs, snubbing their children and neglecting to accompany them.
The teenagers in the film, faced with the lack of family affection, the incomprehension of the crowd, and the malice conveyed by the people around them, eventually went to the brink of collapse.
Three years later, the director directed a historical war film, Blood Warsaw (City 44, 2014). The scenes of the film are extremely grand, and through smooth audiovisual scheduling, the helplessness and misery of people during the war are reproduced.
The film is set in the Polish War during World War II, and the protagonist of the story is a rebel group of young boys and girls who have just come of age. As soon as they entered the adult world, they witnessed the horrors of war, the destruction of their homes, and the horrors of death.
Blood Warsaw poster
It's probably one of the very few films I've seen that shows the bloody violence of war scenes head-on. The bodies blown up by bombs, the "rain of flesh and blood" falling from the sky, and the "mountain of corpses" piled up by the people who were killed... Several times I needed to pause for a moment to catch my breath before I could continue watching.
Wreckage everywhere
At the same time, the director also uses many techniques and genre narrative techniques to show the complexity and cruelty of war scenes.
For example, the use of horror and cult elements makes the battlefield become a hell-like existence on earth;
The first-person perspective gives the impression of being "immersed";
The use of upgraded shots and the love of young people on the battlefield make this movie a little romantic.
First-person view of the battlefield shooting
This latest "Corpus Christi" is the director's first Oscar nomination, and it is also his creation of a focus on realistic themes. Previously, his films have swept the nominations of major awards in Poland many times, and this film led the 22nd Polish Film Golden Eagle Awards with 15 nominations.
The director and lead of Corpus Christi are on the Oscars red carpet this year
Poland is a country rich in masters and masterpieces.
Even if you haven't learned much about Polish cinema, you've probably heard well-known names like Krzysztof Kieslowski, Roman Polanski or Andrzej Wajda.
Historically, Poland has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 12 times, the first being Knife in the Water (1962) by Polanski at the 36th Oscars in 1964, but ultimately losing to Fellini's Eight and a Half (81/2, 1963).
Polanski's "Knife in the Water" represented Poland for the first time in the Oscar for the best foreign language film top five
At the 87th Academy Awards in 2015, the Polish film Ida (2013) won Poland's first best foreign language film in history.
"Sister Ida" not only won the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars that year, but also received a nomination for Best Cinematography
It is worth mentioning that Pawel Pawlikowski, the director of "Sister Ida", was once again nominated for the 91st Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film last year with "Cold War" (2018).
Pavlikovsky, who won an Oscar for "Sister Ida"
Since the beginning of the 21st century, in addition to "Cold War", Polish films that have been nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film include In Darkness (2011) and Katyn (2007).
The former is directed by the famous Polish female director and a regular visitor to the three major European film festivals, Agnieszka Holland; the latter is directed by the Polish master Andrei Vajda.
Interested friends may also wish to take a look.
Left: Darkness Fills the Way; Right: The Katyn Massacre
Polish cinema is adept at digging up material from history and real life. Local directors combine the cultural, religious and social realities of their home countries to create films that can be found in resonance by global audiences, which is indeed an important direction to guide realism.
Although the story of "Corpus Christi" is embedded in a large religious context, the choice between truth and lies, the topic of faith and salvation, which is actually discussed, can inspire the audience to think no matter when, wherever and in what culture.