Foreword: Some people joke that there are two extreme phenomena in the works of director Giuseppe Tornadore, either everyone has seen the time trilogy "Cinema Paradiso", "The Pianist of the Sea", "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily", or no one has seen such as "New Paradise Star Scout", "Youguo Station", "Journey to Heaven" and so on.
"New Paradise Scout" is such a little-known movie. But this does not affect its excellence, it has been nominated for the 68th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the 52nd Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Award nomination and the current Jury Special Award. Some say it's one of Tornadore's most underrated films, and it's completely comparable to any classic movie.
Poster for The New Paradise Scout
The story of "New Paradise Scout" takes place in The native Sicily, Italy, directed by Tornadore. After the end of World War II, the male protagonist Joe walked between the villages of Sicily with an old camera, and he claimed that the star scouts were digging up new movie stars, and once selected, they could become famous overnight and become a big star with fame and fortune. This has attracted countless people, but they do not know that the audition show is a lie that Joe has woven from beginning to end.
Joe's lies have been confronted four times during the journey, namely: collision with the reality of World War II, real psychological communication with the small residents, contest with another lie, and entanglement with the love of beautiful girls. What the film shows through these four confrontations is actually people's yearning for beautiful things, although funny or ironic, but the deep meaning is thought-provoking.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the collision of lies and reality: lies cloaked in dreams brought beautiful yearning to the post-war residents, which was the self-hypnosis and rescue of the people</h1>
A person can be very poor, poor, and lowly, but he cannot be without dreams. As long as you dream for a day, as long as the dream exists for a day, you can change your situation. - Oprah
The film begins with Joe driving a battered truck into the town, and the horn on the truck shouts "Rome Universal Set warmly greets you", "Provide a splendid future for both men, women and children", "Overnight fame and day into the gold", instantly overturning the whole town.
Everyone flocked to the scene, from the common people to the upper echelons, from mafia bandits to police inspectors, all attracted by Joe's slogan of "Rome America." Even if you have to pay 1300 LIRa, even if it is only possible, because they need such a hope too much.
Stills from The New Paradise Scout
Why? There is a plot in the film like this:
The male protagonist Joe was washing his face by a river, and suddenly a corpse floated in the river, and Joe screamed in fright. The other residents who were cultivating by the river did not react at all, and even felt disdain for Joe's fuss.
This is Sicily after World War II, life is like a backwater, no goal and no direction. In addition to poverty, the deeper problem is people's numbness to life and confusion about the future.
During World War II, Italy first defected to the Axis and then defected to the Allies, so the rapidly changing national position made the people wonder what tomorrow would be. After the Allies won, Italy was in a very awkward position, although the people's life was very difficult in the environment of victory and defeat. There are also various partisan battles that have left society in chaos, and no one knows what the future holds.
It was in this context that Joe appeared with the Dream of Rome, a sacred presence in the hearts of the Sicilian people, representing high nobility and instantly hitting the hearts of the people.
That's exactly what they need, they need a direction, they need a goal, they need someone to tell them that the future is good and within reach.
From top to bottom, the group of people who have been deceived by the male protagonist seems ridiculous, but this is actually the hypnosis of the townspeople on their own, and no one doubts or wants to doubt. Caught up in the dream of the stars escaping the reality of suffering, it is their rescue of themselves. In this way, the backwater in the heart has vitality, and life seems to have meaning.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, lies and truth: the people tell the truest self in the depths of their hearts to the lens of lies, showing a picture of the lives of small people</h1>
Coming to the camera and listening to Joe's instructions, everyone put their heads on the left and right sides of their heads again, but when Joe asked them to speak their lines, everyone hesitated.
They are not ignorant, they clearly remember the famous dialogues of the famous works. But everyone, after using its beginning, tells their own innermost story.
The girl said "Tomorrow I'm going to kill myself!" My fiancé left me, and I had given him my virginity. ”
The policeman said, "I only became a policeman because my father was a policeman, but I was not willing to be a thing in the pool, and I wanted to go upstream." ”
The bandits said, "Our brothers originally had 7 people, 4 killed in battle, and all parties pursued and killed us, but we were not afraid." ”
The leftover woman said, "I can't marry because I was misunderstood by everyone that I was sleeping with the U.S. military, but I didn't." ”
The hairdresser said, "I was abused by the Germans because I was gay, and I was considered inferior and disgusting." ”
Even the professor, who lost his voice after the war, finally got rid of the burden in his heart and spoke again in front of the camera.
Everyone reveals their hearts in front of the camera, telling the deepest secrets of their hearts.
If you first stepped into the audition tent for the sake of the beautiful vision, the impulse to express yourself in front of the camera overcame the illusion of fame and fortune. This self-analysis shows us a picture of the sentient beings of a small people.
This is their release of the self, and their reconciliation with the self. There are too many burdens in reality, and the fantasy shots give them a window to talk about.
Even if the rational doctor saw through it at a glance and said that Joe was selling illusions, it couldn't be too appropriate. But he still unloaded the disguise of saving lives and helping the injured in front of the male protagonist, and bluntly said that there was no need to rush to save the patient who was bound to die.
The male protagonist takes his fantasy shots to touch one true heart after another and collects one truth after another. The lens of lies and the real heart have caused great irony, making the star dreams of small people look particularly ridiculous, and also making each of them real and plump. Every reality of us, can find their own shadow in this group of small people, re-examine their own pursuit of dreams and self.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, lies and lies: the scam of the aristocratic couple hints at the end of the male protagonist's lie will eventually be punctured, and the dream is the unbearable weight of the lie</h1>
Joe's dream-making journey goes very smoothly in the first half of the film, and just when I thought it was a post-war style show, Tornatore gave us a big reversal.
Joe meets an aristocratic couple, and the beautiful hostess paints Joe a night full of fantasy, with the most ambiguous hints. Joe, who was still clamoring to leave, immediately promised the noblewoman to stay with them for dinner. As a result, Joe woke up to find that he had nothing left.
The encounter of lies and lies, the noblewoman couple is superior. It also hints at the end of Joe's lies.
The noble couple's deception means and the male protagonist's special way. They all give people fantasies first, depict a beautiful future for them, let people sink into them, and then harvest them. The difference is that the fantasy depicted by the aristocratic couple is the evil desire of the human heart, while Joe depicts the people with beautiful dreams, and if there is no mistake, these people may sink into it for the rest of their lives without knowing the truth.
But how can a lie bear the weight of a dream. Joe's lie was eventually debunked by another lie.
The sheriff who once auditioned and now arrested Joe said, "People are willing to tell the truth to the camera, not after handcuffs, but what if the back of the camera is empty?" "Where will people's faith go from here?
The people were open to Joe because they believed in Joe, they believed in Joe's movie dreams, which gave them strength. Dreams hold up their confidence in life.
But Joe's dream is fake, it can't support the weight of the people's dreams, and finally Joe is repulsed by lies and pays the price he deserves.
We pursue beautiful things, dreams are the most precious and powerful of them, and we move forward because of it. But sometimes it is far away, opportunistic lies can bring shortcuts, but it is ultimately virtual, dreams still need us to be down-to-earth to achieve, false lies can not support the weight of dreams.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > four, lies and love: the heroine's pursuit of dreams is embodied as love for the male protagonist, and when the truth comes out, the dream and love are disillusioned together</h1>
A person with career pursuits can make the "dream" higher. Although it was a dream at the beginning, as long as you keep doing it and don't give up easily, your dream can come true. ——Yu Youcheng [Beauty]
The image of the heroine Beiya was not good when she first took the stage. To raise the cost of the audition, she sold her nude. Like a material girl who pursues fame and fortune without folding means.
But she is also the most insistent of all the people who have a movie dream. When Joe first met her, he said she had the potential to be an actress. Even though Joe has said this to many people, only the girl is convinced and puts into action for it.
Bea has been pestering Joe, asking Joe to take her to Rome, and slowly can't tell whether she is pursuing her dream or falling in love with Joe. She helped Joe call the police to beat Joe, and did not hesitate to rush over when she watched Joe being beaten by the group. She waited for Joe for half a year after she was jailed for fraud.
Joe is the embodiment of her dream, even if the back is a lie, the heroine still does not want to wake up and struggle towards the dream.
In the end, Joe is finally touched, but Bea is also crazy, and she lives forever in her own fantasy, where she becomes a star and loves joe.
It seems tragic, but I think it's the best ending for Bea. Everyone chases their dreams, but has to compromise to get back to reality when their dreams break down, including Joe. But Beiya has been working hard for her dreams, and finally lives in her dreams forever, although disillusioned but also beautiful.
Joe tells Beya that she is the only person he loves, and the man finally finds something more precious than money, but he also loses the opportunity to get her forever, and finally Joe says that he will take her away when he has earned enough money. So he drove his little broken car on the road again.
On the way, the footage he had recorded before was once again repeated in his mind, and the sincerity of the people was once again reproduced in this car of lies and fantasies, and Joe's expression was intriguing, as if his conscience was aroused, and as if he was mocking himself.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > five, the revelation of reality</h1>
Joe's dream journey of lies, through the confrontation with reality, truth, lies, and love, finally ended in the truth, and this journey also brought me many inspirations:
First, the power of dreams is great, can give us the motivation to struggle, but also need to make practical efforts, must not be opportunistic.
In life, we often encounter setbacks of one kind or another, and it strikes us at the fear of moving on. Sometimes we can even be lost and unable to find our own value and direction of progress. And the dream is a bright light in this fog, it guides us to the beauty we yearn for, provides us with strength, as long as we unswervingly move towards it, we can finally break through the confusion and find ourselves.
Second, to face yourself truly, to accept your own weakness and admit your weakness, and to reconcile with yourself is the correct posture to face life calmly
We always have expectations of ourselves one way or another, but reality is often far from fantasy. This gap allows us to hide our truest selves. But in fact, reality is the inner strength of ourselves to maintain ourselves in the face of the many temptations of the world. We must learn to accept our inadequate selves and motivate ourselves to do better.
Third, everything created by lies will eventually be destroyed, and we still have to seek the right way to solve the problem
In reality, we will always face all kinds of problems, which cause us to have to make a lot of excuses for ourselves and even lie to solve. This is the easiest and easiest way to do it. But the holes plugged with lies are not really filled after all, and the illusory lies have no power, and they will bring bad consequences. Therefore, it is the right way to seek practical solutions to problems.
Fourth, love should be pure, and should not be mixed with other purposes, otherwise it is easy to be affected by the purpose
Now love in material society seems to have more benefit exchange purposes. Dating and dating first put out a few deposit geometries of the property. Such love, mixed with interests, is too easily disillusioned by interests. Find a person who truly loves, not because of poverty and wealth, such love is more stable.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > postscript</h1>
Compared with the Time Trilogy, this film is the least famous director of Tornatore. The storyline is simple, the narrative technique is old-fashioned, and a large number of long shots are piled up. The film has the shadow of "Cinema Paradiso" in both content and performance, so that few people notice it under the brilliance of the trilogy.
But this film skillfully blends lies, fantasies, and truths, making them produce different sparks and collisions. It satirizes the speculative idea of getting something for nothing but expecting pie from heaven, and at the same time exposes the most real and small psychology in the hearts of small people, which can be said to be a face of the Sicilian people after World War II. At the same time, it also teaches us to strive to achieve our dreams step by step. It is a rich and connotative masterpiece.