Akira Kurosawa once said: "It is difficult to comment on Abbas Kiarastami's films in exact words, and you can understand how remarkable he is just by watching him." ”
This is a heartfelt admiration of one film master to another film master. Film directors probably choose two paths, either for business, or for art; for businessmen, the pursuit of economic benefits, for artists, with films to reflect the real and profound life, with a deep humanitarian spirit, to convey the sense of compassion and life philosophy of real life. Iranian director Abbas is such a true artist, a true master of cinema.
Abbas's film "Born and Grow" does not deliberately create an illusion, but truly unveils the original appearance of life. This film can inject people with abundant spiritual nourishment, so that the audience feels like they have been reborn after watching the movie. In my opinion, the greatness of a good film is not to create illusions and show wonders, but to reveal the true original and simple nature of life to the public.
The film tells the story of the father of the director after the 1990 Earthquake in Iran, who is not comfortable with the young actor who has participated in "Where Is My Friend's Home", and takes his son from Tehran to the little boy's hometown to find it. The film uses the calmest and most restrained lens language, showing the poetry and philosophy in the ordinary life of ordinary people.
I used to think that the long shots in Abbas's films were a bit lengthy and slow, but when I revisited "Life and Growth Flow" again, I finally realized that what shone under Abbas's lens was a kind of sympathy for the life and the earth. Whether it is the perspective of the characters, the narrative clues or the expression methods, they all express the director's true reproduction of multi-level real life, as well as the life theme that runs through the whole process: the deceased is gone, the living are healthy, which is the normal state of life.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, the long journey in the eyes of father and son, reflects the torture of the value of life. </h1>
At the beginning of the film, the car is driving on the road, and the window is the disaster area and refugees after the earthquake, and the director leads the audience to calmly gaze at the world around them from the different perspectives of fathers and sons. Without sensationalism or cover-up, what we see is the most primitive catastrophe, and the vitality that the catastrophe cannot extinguish.
(1) My father's trip to the disaster area was itself to find life, and he was worried about the little boy whose life and death were uncertain.
The traffic jam on the road is serious, and the father takes a detour, and from time to time during the journey, he takes out the movie poster and asks the people, do you recognize this little boy, most of the villagers know this child, but they can't say where he is.
In my opinion, in the uncertain question of life and death, the director still focuses on the performance of life. Those who worked in the ruins outside the car window, the grass through the ruins, the old people who bent down and carried the gas canister, the young women who were watering the flowers, the groom who did not forget to wipe his shoes, and the girl who washed the basin by the spring water... They all have many relatives who have passed away, but there is no sadness in their faces, but they are by no means numb.
In front of a house that had not yet completely collapsed, my father met a young man who said that dozens of his relatives had been killed, but the day after the earthquake, he and his bride had a wedding, and the wedding feast was only a few tomatoes. Because he thinks that he doesn't know when he will die, maybe the next earthquake, so he must start a new life as soon as possible and enjoy life.
I think the director is through the eyes of his father, calmly and plainly showing the survivors' lives, and the word death, just from their mouths, even with a little understatement. Through the perspective of the father in the film, there is no pitching but only a heads-up, and the people in front of us, after the earthquake, do not linger on the disaster and complain about themselves, but turn around in a strong life.
(2) The son's trip to the disaster area, in addition to accompanying his father to find the little boy, is more concerned about the World Cup that has not yet ended.
Along the way, the son kept asking questions to his father, nagging about football and talking about the World Cup games in Brazil and Scotland that they had watched in Tehran on the day of the earthquake.
Compared with the father's sad face and little care, the child's world is full of all kinds of questions and trivialities, and it is easy to focus on something that seems inconspicuous to an adult, and a small insect on the side of the road is enough to bring them joy. When the son caught a grasshopper on the side of the road, he happily said that he would teach it to migrate, which means migrating on the prairie.
In his son's eyes, everything encountered on the road was full of novelty. A child got up and slept with his parents just because of mosquitoes at night, and he survived, but his brother died. The son's answer in the film is that when the earthquake comes, it is like a mad dog swooping over, and those who are close will die, and those who are far away will escape. Facing the woman who has lost her daughter, he is relieved that your daughter should be happy at this moment, because she no longer has to do her homework.
No one deliberately teaches the son how to face death, how to comfort the pain of others, but the words spoken from the child's mouth are very decent, and this kind of decency is not in the form of words and sentences, but a decent attitude to life, like the spring water gushing out of the mountain stream, true and natural.
The director uses the most restrained lens language, does not create an illusion for the audience, but unveils the most real side of life. In my opinion, it does not mean that the director is not showing grief, but is controlling the grief. Through this set of seemingly bland plots, it is not so much that we get more information about life, but rather that we can see the attitude of the living person to life calmly.
One of the most touching details in the film is that when my father talked to the young man, the water of the bride upstairs sprinkled on his father, and when he went upstairs to look for his son who was bouncing around, he saw the delicate flowers on the balcony. Just as I usually enter some old and somewhat dilapidated neighborhoods, there are always a few pots of flowers and plants in the windows of those residential buildings, and those flowers and plants may not be as large as the flowers and plants in the garden of other people's villas, but I am always attracted to these few plants, and there is a little fear of the pots falling down, but more, rejoicing in the splendor of life.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, in addition to the clues with doubts, shows not only the search for the living, but also the search for the heart. </h1>
The movie "Born and Grow" abandons the gorgeous appearance, abandons the tedious techniques, and really explores the problems that every life must face. Through Abbas's lens, we see such an inner world - it thinks for the whole human being, exists for the whole world, art for life, does not stick to the ego, and discovers the beauty of life on the way to finding the living.
The clue of this film is very simple, that is, with the little boy's uncertain life and death questions, asking for directions - finding directions - asking people - looking for people, and then asking the same question to everyone: What is the situation in your family, do you know this little boy?
Beyond the clues, there has always been an insoluble question: Since God loves His people, why did some people die and some people live in the great earthquake.
Some of the surviving old people couldn't figure out why God was blessing himself, and some of them didn't believe that there could be such a good thing. Therefore, a living old talent in the film sighed that before the old did not understand the beauty of youth, before death did not know how to thank life, as long as you go to the grave once, or climb out of the grave, you will truly understand the meaning of life, will cherish life more. Just like in ordinary life, when we go to the funeral home once, we will lament the impermanence of life, but soon, the rolling red dust will drown us.
When the father and son arrived in a village, along the way worried about the unfinished World Cup, worried that if they continued to rush, they would probably not be able to see the game, and when they saw that someone was erecting a TV antenna, they were overjoyed, so they asked their father for leave, he wanted to stay in this village to watch the World Cup, let the father go alone to find the little boy, Zhizi Moruo's father, the generous and enlightened father agreed to his son's request.
There is also a wonderful conversation between the father and the young man with the vertical antenna: Father asks, are you still in the mood to watch TV? The young man said that my relatives and friends are dead, and I am very sad, but the living must continue to live! The World Cup is every four years, the earthquake is once every four decades... Such an attitude is not so much despair as it is calmness when living with fate.
Director Abbas is like a journalist, but he always points out no nonsense, as if he is just recording the cruel scene after an earthquake and the tragic life of people after the disaster. But more importantly, the director is not limited to the sadness of the disaster, but clearly shows the optimism and strength of people after the catastrophe. In the face of a sudden natural disaster, in the face of a beautiful life that was lost in an instant, the Iranian people were not intimidated by the disaster, but turned to the reconstruction of their hometown. The film conveys a strong sense of life, positive and strong.
Loved ones and their own lives will eventually pass away, and those who die will never survive, while those who are alive will continue to move forward. The father in the film leaves his son at a friend's house to continue watching the World Cup, and goes on his own to find the little boy. This time, he picked up the children walking on the side of the road and talked to them and listened to their stories. Although the journey of life is destined to be based on loneliness, the scenery on the road can still be shared and experienced with others. Until the end of the film, whether the little boy was found or not, and no answer was given.
In my opinion, it does not matter whether the little boy is found or not, because the search itself is also a part of life that goes on. The search for a living person may only be physical time and space, while the search for a mind will be endless. Re-watching "Life and Growth" is a kind of comfort for the current special period of anti-epidemic, but also a kind of search for self, from finding others and then returning to finding one's own heart.
Because at this moment, what we can do is still very limited, but if we can have more respect for life and humanity, and be more optimistic about life and the future, this may be the practical enlightenment that Abbas wants to convey to us - to maintain respect for life, tenacity, optimism, and bravery are the attitude of life that we should have after the disaster.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, the performance method combines non-professional actors and long shots to present the audience with the most realistic scene</h1>
As the most well-known director in the new wave of Iranian cinema, Abbas's film creation not only carries the exotic cultural style of the Islamic nation, but also has distinct personal characteristics.
With a simple and fresh film style, he cleanses the long-hustle and bustle of the world film world, delicately presents the innocent world of children, and deeply perceives the consciousness of life, so that the long-lost touch returns to the audience's heart.
Abbas's cinematic images are as real as life, not advancing the narrative and developing drama in a fanatical way, but recreating a real scene in a particular combination of states. Abbas is very good at using the style of non-professional actors and long shots to reflect the unpretentious taste of his films with absolute sincerity, confession and loyalty to his own images.
In terms of the selection of actors in this film, most of the actors, including the protagonists, are non-professional actors, and the use of a large number of non-professional actors makes the look and feel of the whole film closer to life. Under the principle of realist aesthetics, Abbas asked the actors to perform in a lifelike way, giving the audience a sense of nature, so as to gain the audience's sense of identity.
In addition, what makes the film more realistic is the director's use of many long shots. The essence of the long lens has a strong sense of realism, and this sense of realism comes from the amount of information that the long lens brings with it that is comparable to time.
"Growth and Flow" tries to reflect the most natural state of time, maintaining the coherence and authenticity of time. The film opens with a fixed long shot of the road toll booth scene lasting 1 minute and 10 seconds, this way of waiting for the protagonist to appear is not deliberately organized and processed, reducing the traces of man-made. When the protagonist drives the child into the tunnel, and the close-up shot of the child falling asleep, it is a fixed long shot of more than one minute, in which the protagonist is shown driving away from the tunnel and embarking on a journey to find people.
In my opinion, the long shots of the film provide enough time and emotional atmosphere for the audience to follow the father and son to discover the meaning of life on the way to find the living. The realism on which the long lens relies is far from just opposing technicalism, but also opposing the escape and distortion of reality, and only by opening up to reality can the philosophy of truth manifest itself in the work.
This film presents a real and believable, the plot is idyllic natural style, and the long shot performance method that is compatible with this style accounts for a large proportion of Abbas's films, and the long shots and the real and fresh style are mutually spawned, making his films exude a strong oriental meaning.
The long shot also plays a role in maintaining the integrity of events in the time flow in this film, that is, respecting the integrity and continuity of the narrative space, and narrowing the distance between the film and life, which is of great significance for the film to reproduce life. While these long shots may feel too slow or even monotonous throughout the film, they also emulate real life on another level —isn't real life so simple, repetitive, and soothing?
We look closely through the long lens of the film, although there are many broken walls in the film, and even shots of mountains and rocks collapsing, but the beauty of the savannah can still be seen everywhere, as if to remind the survivors of the disaster: the earth has not turned its back on the people who have survived the disaster, no matter how deep the pain of losing relatives, no matter how much property has been lost, the vitality of nature has not been reduced.
The long shot at the end of the film can be called a stroke of genius, the car strives to go uphill, once turned off, and then struggled to drive forward after the help of passers-by.
In my opinion, this minute and a half long shot is a summary of the whole movie: our lives are like this car, no matter what the road conditions ahead, no matter what crisis we encounter, we must strive to continue to move forward. This may be the most powerful force of life, we cannot resist natural disasters, but to continue to work hard after disasters is the greatest respect for life. The performance method of this film is simple and simple and almost rough, but it does not affect the release of the inner tenacity of the film, and the delicate display of human nature shows the director's unspoiled humanistic care.
Whether it is to truly present the original appearance of life, or to express a strong sense of life and show the attitude of life that should be, these are the voices of director Abbas from the heart, reflecting the incomparable love of an artistic master for human life. Real life, tenacious state of life, is the problem that the whole human society ponders, no matter what the country, no matter what the culture, no one can escape. The film uses the almost white painting technique of the long lens that lacks a sense of movement, and includes the subtleties of life and the eternal topics about life on the screen, so that we can slowly experience the long-lost emotion and tranquility under the soothing lens language.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
The movie "Life and Growth" is both image and reality, and between the image and reality, what is revealed is Abbas's humanistic vision of paying attention to life, paying attention to reality, full of compassion, and constantly reflecting and questioning life itself.
This documentary-style adventure drama is like a hymn to life, under the simple storyline, the director uses what father and son see and hear on the road, conveying the poetry and invisible power of life, and also allowing the world to see the meaning of life.
Disasters will always pass, suffering will always end, and true eternal life will be hidden on the other side of the soul, in the warmth of the world. When life is once again sleeping in the pain of real life, we can still embrace this warmth, carry hope, and keep our lives flowing like a spring.