Childhood promises

The Promise of Childhood is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by French writer Romain Gary. He wrote a total of 34 novels, and under his real and pseudonym names, he won the Goncourt Literary Prize twice, and was the first person in French literature. It is worth mentioning that he was also a French diplomat and a combat hero. During World War II, he joined the Air Force of the "Free France" and was awarded the Order of Liberation.

The film begins with a flashback to tell the story, when Roman's wife sees the manuscript of the novel and begins to read, the picture comes to 1924 In Villene, Poland, in the snow, is the childhood Roman; then, it is Nice, France, the beautiful scenery of the Mediterranean, to accompany Roman through a quiet youth; and then, the outbreak of war, Paris, London, and Africa, leaving the footprints of Roman's battle.

Roman can't grow up without mentioning his mother. As Roman said, "My love for other people is no better than my love for my mother." "This film is not so much a autobiography of Roman as an ode to love—the mother's strong love for her son and the son's return for his mother's love. From beginning to end, the love in the picture is warm, tense, gentle and lasting.

There is a scene in Wielna, Poland, where the cabin is seized by the police after a neighbor falsely accuses her mother of a women's hat business of smuggling, and the mother confronts everyone and declares: "You see, he is my son, and he will become a French ambassador, a writer, a knight of the Legion of Honor, and even a general." It drew a burst of laughter. Young Roman will never forget this moment, which was his greatest humiliation, he escaped, dropped things, hid in the dark room, hit the wall with his head... If Roman thought that this laughter was a mockery of him, but his mother really aimed at it, to train him, to learn etiquette, to learn to dance, to learn to shoot, to specialize in literature after abandoning music and painting, "you will definitely become another Tolstoy, another Hugo." "I want you to be famous when you're alive." Although "my mother's expectations of me began to make me shudder", at a time when my mother was frustrated by the bankruptcy of the fashion store, "I vowed to use my strength to win the applause of the world, I wanted to make her sacrifice reward, and I fought for this goal all my life". This is the promise Roman made to his mother in childhood.

The mother is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who was nominated for the César Film Award for Best Actress in France, a powerful character, strong, brave, self-respecting, persistent, she leads her son and tenaciously leads to the goal. The mother taught her son that "a soldier cannot be disgraced"; that there are only three things in the world worth fighting for—woman, glory, and France; that if you take off your shoes in front of a woman, remember to move gracefully; that the son publishes a short story in the newspaper, which the mother lets the whole town know; and in the midst of the battle, warns the son that "you must continue to write, so that you will find more easily solace in the soul." The mother was also a staunch patriot who wanted her son to assassinate Hitler; after France was occupied by Germany, she encouraged her son to go to England and join the resistance. And his son Roman, although he has also been dissatisfied with his mother, for example, he once roared: "Can you stay away from me, leave me alone, I am suffocating." His mother came to visit him in the barracks, and the soldiers laughed, and he was indignant: "No one should hate their mother as much as I do." But fulfilling the promises of his childhood was a powerful driving force for his life. In the time of relaxation, the figure of the mother appears in his mind and urges him to write, the novel "European Education" was written in the interval of the war, and finally published; in the African campaign, when the pilot was blinded by a bomb, as a navigator, he was not afraid, with wounds to guide the aircraft to blow up enemy targets and make them land safely. "I can finally go back to my hometown with my head held high, and my new book brings glory to my mother, and I have made outstanding military achievements myself."

It's a touching film, and it's also a bit sentimental. When Roman returned to his hometown with success, he did not expect that his mother had died three years ago. No wonder he wrote to inform his mother of the publication of the novel, and her mother did not mention a word in her reply. It turned out that before her mother's death, she had written 250 letters day and night, asking friends to wait for her death, one or two times a week, and send them to Roman regularly. Later, Roman said: "I have done everything she asked, but what is the point?" She would never know that I had kept my promise. Yes, the mother did not see Roman's success, but Roman wrote The Promise of Childhood, as his wife said: "This book is the only thing you can do for her." "That's the point. Although the woman who took Roman in her arms and put her heart has become a memory, this memory will accompany the novel created by Roman and will never grow old. (Liu Weixin)