Are you happy?
How many kinds of life do you have?
How many masks do you have?
Are you still a person?
At the 69th Cannes International Film Festival in 2016, there was such a humble German film that won the works of Seed Players such as Sean Pan, Farhati, Dane Brothers, Dolan and Monge in the main competition unit of the stars, and won the highest score of 3.8 points (out of 4 points) in the history of Cannes, which became the biggest surprise of the festival.
It's Tony Erdmann, directed by German female director Marlen Ade.
▲ "Tony Erdmann" Phoenix TV Movie Station on February 17 at 05:40 / March 14 at 12:25 aired
"Tony Erdman" tells the story of a mischievous father who tries to repair his estranged relationship with his daughter by pretending to be a fictional character named Tony Erdman, while helping her to regain her direction in life.
▲ "Tony Erdmann" is the third feature film of director Marlen Ade, who has been a professional producer and has produced many masterpieces such as "Taboo" and "One Thousand and One Nights"
Looking at the title of the film, Toni Erdmann, the name of the character that his father casually made up, it seems that there is no sense of existence or deep meaning.
But in fact, in German, Erde means "earth", and Erdmann refers to earthlings.
Just by looking at the picture of gold and black hair intertwined in the movie poster, you can't understand what the director is trying to express.
It is not until the audience after watching the movie that the audience will suddenly realize that this is the reconciled hug between the daughter and her father, and it is also an important moment for the daughter to decide to embrace life.
▲Father and daughter in the film
The film's protagonist, Inies, is a strong woman who works for a large consulting firm.
Her father, Winfred, was an "elf quirky" old man who liked to dress up and put on funny dentures to make fun of people, but Inies didn't care about this humor.
▲ German actress Sandra Wheeler played the role of Inies, who was nominated for the German Film Award for Best Actress for "The Sky is Up"
However, Inies's success also means busyness, the daughter can hardly find time to visit her father outside of work, and the rare time for father-daughter reunions is also non-stop.
Father even joked: You come home too little, I have to hire someone to pretend to be you as my daughter.
After a brief reunion, the daughter returns to work, leaving the empty home with only an old dog to accompany her father. But the old man found that the dog that had accompanied him for many years died under the tree, and suddenly felt even more lonely.
So he didn't inform his daughter and flew to where she worked.
Then, the father stayed at his daughter's house, followed her to work, held meetings, and met customers, making a mess of his daughter's orderly work life, and the daughter had to force her father to return to her hometown.
But the father saw that his daughter got up early and returned late every day to prepare the work plan, was choked by the boss, was so busy that she didn't even have time to enjoy life, so he asked: Are you happy now?
Faced with this unanswerable question, the daughter asked her father what was the meaning of being alive? In her opinion, her father was just too lonely because the old dog who had accompanied her for many years died and came to her place to seek comfort.
Father and daughter have no answers to the questions, the daughter still goes to work as usual, quarrels and frictions with her father in the small matters of life, and sends her father away at the agreed deadline, which is the result of the father and daughter getting along day and night, nothing has changed, nothing has been solved.
However, when the daughter watched her father's taxi to the airport on the balcony, she sobbed silently.
This is also one of the plots of the film that touched many viewers, in life, many people obviously have a deep love for their parents in their hearts, but they will unscrupulously show their despicable side to their parents at the same moment, probably convinced that their parents will not leave themselves.
And when the parents are really not around, even if it is only temporary, they will regret their actions.
Family affection is such a contradictory and complicated thing.
I believe that people who study and work hard in society can more or less find their shadow in the daughter of the movie.
As you grow up, you don't like to communicate with your parents more and more, feeling that they don't understand your life anyway, so you hide all the joy, confusion, and bitterness in your heart.
Inies is like this, when he gets along with his father, he finds him bored and hinders the rhythm of his life; but when his father leaves, he will be a little reluctant, feeling that he is quite lonely and needs to be relied on, but he cannot entrust himself to his father.
But Tony Erdman's story is just beginning.
Just when Inies thought he was back to a normal life, at a cocktail party with his friends complaining about disrupting his father's life, a middle-aged man wearing a rock wig hood and dentures in his mouth suddenly hooked up and naturally joined the conversation.
Middle-aged men call themselves Tony Erdmann, who runs trains with his mouth full, is an eloquent bubble girl, a business consultant without business cards, and a German ambassador who is not fluent in English.
The girlfriend is amused and curious about this strange man, but Inies himself knows that this is not his father!
It turned out that he had not left at all, and he had to change his identity to approach his life.
After that, whether Inies was at work or socializing, her father, who was pseudonymous Tony Erdman, would appear next to her.
Inies resisted at first, and gradually she also felt that since Dad wanted to make such a fool of yourself, then I would accompany you to fool around.
But in fact, the father just wants to experience her life with his daughter through this fake identity.
He discovered how his daughter worked supremely, always thinking of maximizing benefits, putting life and enjoyment second, and even abandoning human sophistication.
The father does not understand the daughter who lives herself as a work machine, and issues "Are you still a person?" " questions.
In a company's coal mine acquisition, everyone knew that if the business negotiations were successful, a large number of workers would lose their jobs, but when the father followed his daughter on a field trip to the coal mine, he could not help but feel compassion for the poor workers.
He couldn't help but talk to his daughter and asked her if she could ask her boss not to fire the workers, but the daughter thought that the people who considered these were philanthropists, and the workers were thinking about profits.
A quote from my father encouraging coal miners, "Maintain a sense of humor." He was also ridiculed by his daughter, who thought it was too cruel for them.
On the way back, the daughter complained about her father's innocence, and the more she said it, the more excited she became, and she seemed to want to strengthen her faith with these words.
Although there seems to be endless embarrassment and estrangement between father and daughter, the daughter cannot rest assured that the old father is alone in the city after venting.
She followed her distraught father to a party with his new friends, who encouraged them to sing, so her daughter wrote lyrics and arranged music as if she were self-destructive, venting all the boredom of these days.
Accompanied by his father's piano, Inés did not care about the eyes of others, did not fear embarrassment, hysterically, or rather, shouted and sang, in high notes that seemed to shake the ceiling.
Perhaps even she herself did not realize that she had taken the first step from the beginning of the awkward singing to release herself and embrace life.
The twist of the story also takes place after the daughter throws her own birthday party at home. Originally, Inies also wanted to use this birthday party to make a good relationship with the top management and socialize well.
But when Inies was preparing for the party, the zipper behind his clothes suddenly stuck, and he couldn't go up and down.
The explosion of an event is often due to the accumulation of accumulation and an inconspicuous fuse, and in this movie, the small clothes zipper is the fuse for Inés.
Faced with a zipper that couldn't go up and down and up and down behind his back, Inez suddenly collapsed.
She decided – no clothes on!
Not only is she not wearing clothes herself, but no one else can wear clothes, she wants to turn the birthday party into a naked party! Only people without clothes can attend this party.
Don't want to be completely naked? Don't want to hold back! Don't come if you don't want to.
As a result, the only people who end up attending Inies' birthday party are her boss and a small assistant.
Inies also realized that the only people who really cared about him were these two people, and the others were only lingering on false superficial relationships.
And the work achievements she had wanted to pursue were as illusory as the crowds that felt ridiculous after hearing a nudity party.
At the end of the party, a huge stuffed monster suddenly arrives and leaves Inés's house.
As if realizing something, Inies followed the black stuffed monster all the way to the park, and she shouted loudly, "Daddy! "Hug with the stuffed monsters.
▲This is the poster screen of the movie
The stuffed monster held Inies and chased and played with her on the lawn. At this moment,
This strong woman in the workplace has faded her ability and independence, and has become a little girl who can rely on her father and grow up happily. Feel and enjoy life, its variables, even unbearable.
Before leaving, the father said to his daughter, "The question you asked me before is about the value of life. The problem is... Most of life is often occupied by daily chores, doing this and that, while time is like running water. Life is the same, how can we grasp every moment of life? ”
"Sometimes I think of when you learned to ride a bike when you were a kid, and... The day I found you at the bus stop, unfortunately we were always only hindsight, but we couldn't detect it. ”
Many people think that this movie, like "Adele's Life", brings "life" to life and drama in front of you.
"Tony Erdman" uses many daily details and advances with an elaborate plot, which seems to be plain and bland, but the dramatic tension is getting stronger and stronger in the calm of the wind and waves.
The awkward scenes of empathy with their toes clasped to the ground, the unexpected comedic effects, and the actors' life-like performances all bring the film closer to the audience.
With the protagonist's chagrin and anxiety, you gradually can't tell whether you are watching or have participated in the story.
▲ Sandra Wheeler played a woman's strength in the workplace and the embarrassment in life to the fullest: toe injuries and high heels on the field, a person's dress can not be pulled back and can only use a fork to help...
The film's pictures are mainly close-up and medium-shot, allowing the audience to observe the father and daughter up close from a bystander's point of view, which also seems to hint at the sense of distance between father and daughter.
This refinement, de-characterization of the real, contrary to the stylization deliberately created by many big-name directors in the main competition unit, also makes it shine.
▲ In terms of sound processing, the film does not have any soundtrack, and the plot without dialogue also adopts a deliberately enhanced ambient sound, emphasizing the noise of the real world
If you look at it in a deeper way, the film is actually about not only a father and daughter, but also a collision between two generations of Germans, an idealist and a pragmatist.
As a German generation born after World War II, my father has a simple way of thinking and a strong sense of humanity. They believed that Nazism would not make a comeback, and they focused on humanity and humanity in educating their children, encouraging free choice.
In the words of the director, "These people solve a lot of problems with humor." ”
And the daughter, as a resurgent German generation, the history is far away, people live in the present, a world where Germany dominates the political and economic structure of the European Union, they are full of self-confidence. Coupled with the prevalence of capitalism today, the family-oriented mode of production has long been eliminated, and people seem to have only interests between each other.
The words "enjoyment", "happiness" and "life" are illusory, and "efficiency", "output" and "performance" are real.
Tony Erdman's thematic expression is gentle and doesn't even give a definitive answer to the question that plagues father and daughter. But everyone who has watched the film with their heart will calm down and think, perhaps, re-examine their own lives.
How many kinds of lives do we have? How many masks do we have? Do we wander through it every day, switch roles with ease, and be self-righteous?
Are we committed to our careers every day? Have we already put thick masks on our parents? Have we forgotten our selves who once enjoyed life?
▲ The daughter finally understood her father's humor when he was leaving, and put on her father's false teeth to pretend to be ugly
Everyone comes into this world naked, greets their parents, and then spends their whole life learning how to return to being a naked child.
Through a naked, honest, and equal father-daughter dialogue, Inies regains the long-missing innocence and sense of humor, and Tony Erdman returns to his father, crossing the gap of simple inquiry and dialogue.
Understanding each other and being honest with each other is the only way to cross the gap, even if the ideas are different.
When the mountains of sorrow, joy and bitterness are exhausted, and the willows and flowers are scattered, why not liberate nature, sing a song with style, and be humorous?
Text | Skylar
Edit | Skylar