Preface
The film "Everyone Knows" is the ingenuity of the famous director Farhati, which is like a delicate family ethics picture, abandoning the gorgeous coat of grand narrative, but from a micro perspective, in-depth exploration of the profundity of "human nature".
In the trivial daily life of the family, it is looking for another meaning of existence, like panning for gold in the fine sand, looking for the true meaning of life.
However, "Everyone Knows" incorporates many contemporary elements, and under the lens of exotic Spain, the director's personal narrative identity seems to be de-identified and becomes an intervener in an alien scene.
This treatment allows the film narrative to unfold in a more objective environment, as if it is a mirror, reflecting the true face of modern life.
However, its flaws are equally obvious, although the jumping narrative brings visual shock to the audience, it buries countless hidden dangers in the narrative thread.
1. The plot narrative is intermittent
In the narrative of the movie "Everyone Knows", the life trajectories of the three protagonists are like three meandering rivers, flowing in different regions and times, but they converge at one point due to the weaving of fate.
Laura, the daughter of the Spanish estate owner, grew up in sunshine and laughter since she was a child, and has a deep love for her childhood sweetheart, Paco.
However, the trick of fate prevented the lovers from joining hands in the palace of marriage.
As the years passed, Laura went to Argentina, married Alessandro, became the mistress of his company, had a pair of children, and lived a seemingly happy life.
However, the first contradiction of the narrative, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, stirs up layers of ripples.
Laura's sister is about to enter the palace of marriage, and Paco, as one of the guests, once again steps into Laura's life.
The old lovers reunited, and their hearts fluctuated, but before they could tell each other's past, they were interrupted by a sudden kidnapping incident.
Laura's daughter goes missing, and the burial of this plot is like planting a time bomb in a calm narrative.
The festive atmosphere of the wedding was swept away by an unexpected storm, and the laughter and laughter of the guests came to an abrupt end.
The reversal of the plot, while visually impactful, also makes one question its rationality, as if it were a choreographed soap opera rather than a portrayal of real life.
Paco, the owner of the manor, is uninhibited on the outside, but on the inside he hides a deep affection for Laura.
In the corner of the church, the traces of their initials are engraved like a love vow forgotten by time, contrasting with the dilapidated surroundings, making one wonder what prevents them from crossing that invisible boundary.
The wedding in the church was a public trial for Laura, and deep down, her feelings for Paco had not really been let go.
The disappearance of her daughter, the pain of pulling her abruptly back to reality from the anxiety of her old love, is an emotional turning point.
However, what made her even more desperate was that the surrounding villagers did not lend a hand, but discussed the ransom issue, and Laura's crying was like an indictment of this indifference.
In the film, the director cleverly avoided the routine of suspense dramas and focused on family ethics and human nature.
Although Laura's daughter is eventually redeemed, family relationships have quietly changed, and trust has been replaced by suspicion, which is the norm of life.
The film's plot jumps, like a flame beating emotionally on the audience, both shocking and questioning.
The fact that Laura's daughter's biological father is Paco weighs on everyone's heart like a heavy stone.
Paco's rescue may be selfish, but it is also out of the instinct of fatherly love.
Laura's departure is a tacit acquiescence to this absurd experience and a declaration of disillusionment with a harmonious family.
The secrets of the family gradually come to the surface, and everyone exposes their inferior side because of trivial matters, and this arrangement of the aesthetic plot is in essence a profound reflection on contemporary family life.
The film's narrative is extremely ambiguous and uncertain, and the plot oscillates between the real and the unreal, which is typical of postmodern aesthetics.
This fragmented aesthetic is the main way in which today's audiences pay attention to images, and this narrative fragmentation is especially evident in the film "Everyone Knows".
2. The narrative of nothingness
In the film "Everyone Knows", director Asghar Farhati skillfully combines traditional family ethics drama with postmodern aesthetic narrative techniques to create a movie-watching experience that is both familiar and unfamiliar.
Although the plot in the film revolves around trivial matters of family ethics, its narrative is significantly different from that of traditional bubble dramas.
Traditional bubble dramas often pursue the logic and integrity of the storyline, forming a closed story loop from the beginning to the end of the narrative.
"Everyone Knows" breaks this narrative mode, and the director uses a lot of foreshadowing and hints, so that the storyline presents a form of interpolation, which makes the film have a strong sense of jumping and spatial coexistence.
This kind of abstract narrative logic dilutes the logic of spatial thinking, allowing the audience to interpret the plot according to the needs of their own inner emotions.
Laura in the film, her image is set in an emotional tone and is destined to be sacrificed.
From the blissful life of childhood to the loss of a lover in adulthood, to the later ethical entanglements with her husband and children, her stories do not judge moral issues, but focus on the contemporaneity of the narrative plot.
Laura and Paco, two protagonists who didn't originally intersect, intersect through a wedding, and this arrangement seems ingenious and meaningful.
The wedding serves as an introduction that ignites the story between Laura and Paco, and is also a testimony to their love.
They are childhood sweethearts and have their own daughters, but they lack a wedding witness.
The church, as the venue of the wedding, also becomes a foreshadowing of the daughter's abduction and a contradiction in the whole plot, and Laura leaves with her husband after her daughter's redemption, a narrative that seems plausible under the aesthetics of postmodernity.
Paco's redemption of Laura's daughter should have been a noble quality of creation, but in the film, through the testimony of the church and the discussion of the villagers, it is revealed that Paco is the biological father of his daughter, thus removing the aura of heroism and returning to the natural principle of ethics.
At the end of the film, Laura did not thank her daughter's biological father, and her husband did not ask, but chose to leave silently.
This jumpy plot setting, although absurd in reality, becomes a critique of family trust in the nihilistic narrative of postmodern aesthetics.
The characterization in the film is permeated with a strong nihilism, against heroism and the sublime, and this lack of rebellion is a critique of the dark side of current society.
Through this narrative, "Everyone Knows" not only shows the complexity of family ethics, but also reflects the fragility and uncertainty of relationships between people in contemporary society.
The film's nihilistic narrative, although it challenges the audience's receptive habits, also provides a new perspective that allows us to think more deeply about family, love, and human nature.
3. Lack of innovation
Under the influence of postmodern aesthetic culture, film narrative is challenged to jump out of tradition in order to conform to the aesthetic logic of "contemporaneity".
As a typical postmodern film, the narrative strategy of "Everyone Knows" provides us with some revelations.
First of all, the film cleverly shapes the grand narrative in terms of narrative, and at the same time cleverly turns the logic between the protagonists into nothingness.
This ambiguous narrative technique makes each narrative full of aesthetic logic.
When secrets and scandals become known, they are no longer private, but go to trial in public.
This narrative breaks the logical narrative in the traditional script and provides the audience with a new way of thinking.
Secondly, through the intervention of voiceover, the film turns the lens to an emotional narrative expression, making the narrative logic appear more ethereal and an ambiguous aesthetic.
The advantage of this approach is that it strengthens the philosophical expression of the film, and at the same time, it also requires the audience to accept the narrative logic according to their own viewing experience.
However, this anti-rational narrative logic does not always correspond to the aesthetic logic of the audience in reality, therefore, we need a new way of expression.
In the context of modernity, it is necessary not only to follow the traditional rational and logical narrative to present a complete text story to the audience, but also to take into account the audience's aesthetics under the influence of big data and the Internet.
In order to meet the aesthetic needs of modern audiences, filmmaking should be innovative in narrative plots and shooting methods.
In addition to the typical camera techniques, there should be planned cuts and additions to the main and secondary lines of the text.
In this way, it can not only ensure the complete narrative logic, but also conform to the laws of film production, and arouse the audience's visual perception experience during viewing.
epilogue
The movie "Everyone Knows" is positioned as a suspense film, but after watching it, I always feel that it is more like a family ethics film.
The emphasis on the content of the narrative, the bias in the narrative mode, and the slightly bloody plot really seem a bit mediocre and there are not too many highlights.
The source of the information in this article - the movie "Everyone Knows".