In his book The Kingdom of This World, the contemporary Cuban writer Carpentier summed up the connotations of Latin American magic realism:
At the same time, he also believes that this kind of "exaggeration" is not without roots, and the core is still "reality". Magic realism stems from a unique regional culture and primitive beliefs, and also belongs to the long-term common integration of nature and humanistic society.
Because of its unique social background and historical origins, Latin America has experienced wars, invasions, struggles, and struggles, so Latin American culture often carries the shadow of magic realism and black humor.
We can see Latin American literary works such as "Mr. President" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude", writing about human nature with absurdity, writing pain with humor, and writing reality with satire.
In Latin American films, this style also exists. Released in 2014, "Wild Story" received a high score of 8.8 on Douban and was hailed as an Argentine film masterpiece.
Six separate short stories focus on the out-of-control behavior of human beings, from ordinary people in desperate situations, combining a black comedy that combines anger, revenge, reversal, and finally "reunion".
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" > absurd directing style: unexpected plots, bizarre worlds similar to Almodóvar's films</h1>
Every step the director takes in "Wild Story" is unexpected and at the same time reasonable.
The third little story is a bloody case caused by "road rage". On the highway, a well-dressed driver drives a beautiful new car, blocked by the old car in front. He overtook easily, and in order to express his displeasure, he mocked the old car driver. A small overtaking incident actually triggered a retaliatory action that ended at the cost of life.
Two people chased after me, attacked each other, and finally died together. In this remote area where there are no police arrivals, the animality of human beings is aroused, they forget all the laws of civilized society, and they only deal with conflicts according to their own will. The contradictions grew bigger and bigger like snowballs, causing a tragedy of both sides.
Although this ending seems inexplicable, the audience will find that all this is not completely out of touch with reality.
Road rage refers to "anger caused by driving stress and frustration", and Ning Hao's "No Man's Land" in 2013 also involves similar subjects. When a person's nerves are tightened into a string, a little flame may ignite the fire in the heart and make impulsive moves.
"Wild Story" amplifies this impulsive psychology, and the two people who argue seem to win each other, but in the end they lose their lives. The plot is funny and ridiculous, but it can also cause people to think deeply.
The film's director and writer was the originally unknown Damian Szflon, who rose to fame with Wild Tales, and one of the executive producers was the Spanish national treasure director Pedro Almodóvar.
Argentina belongs to the Spanish-speaking Americas, influenced by geographical discoveries, triangular trade and colonial history, the country and Spain have certain cultural ties, but also experienced dictatorship.
Spanish film master Almodóvar
Reflected in the style of the film, Damian Szfron and Almodóvar are adept at constructing a bizarre world, full of depression, heaviness, suspense, exaggeration, but also full of tension, with black humor to remind people.
Having seen many of Almodóvar's films, the audience can find that "Wild Story" does have similar feelings to his works, absurd and interesting, more emotional than rational, full of personality and creativity.
In "The Skin of My Habitat", in order to avenge his daughter, the male protagonist Dr. Robert does not hesitate to reshape the enemy into the appearance of his deceased wife, but gradually falls in love with this person, and this twisted feeling eventually makes him die at gunpoint.
"All About My Mother" is both tragic and tender, when the son of a single mother, Manuela, is in a car accident, and in order to fulfill his last wishes, the mother looks for a husband who once abandoned her. After reacquainting her transgender husband with a serious illness, she chose to reconcile and take care of the innocent pregnant nun, treating the nun's child as a continuation of a new round of life.
Damian Szfron and Almodóvar's films, cloaked in absurd plots, focus on the balance between "the power of human nature and the absence of regrets."
If the shortcomings of human nature prevail, then people often do irreparable wrongs; if the power of human nature prevails, then ordinary people at the bottom can burst out with amazing brilliance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" > absurd law of the jungle: the judgment of civilization and barbarism, the rules of modern society and the rules of rebellion</h1>
In the movie, when the waitress meets the usurer who killed her father, she hesitates to take revenge, and the cook next to her is uneven, kills the enemy for her, and then calmly sits in the police car.
The protagonist of another short story is the demolition engineer, whose car is dragged away for no reason and is under the double pressure of work and family. Faced with the indifferent staff, he angrily used his professional skills to blow up the workstation of the trailer company.
The film's magical realism makes the audience feel new for these extraordinary moves. However, the director actually satirizes the injustices of Argentine society through subversive creations that violate common sense, which is also inseparable from the specific cultural background of Latin America.
Vertical reasons: The complexity of history has made the Argentine people rebel against the "rules"
Scholars generally divide the history of Latin America into three stages, namely the "ancient civilization" before Columbus's voyage to the American continent in 1492, the "modern civilization" from 1492 to the early 20th century, and the "modern civilization" after the 20th century.
Beginning in the second phase, Western civilization relied on strong economic and military might to establish a new order on the American continent. The original indigenous population was discriminated against, and the economic life of the colony had to be subordinated to the economic interests of the suzerainty.
Cocoa beans, a South American cash crop
With the awakening of national consciousness, in the early 19th century, independent movements arose in Latin American countries, challenging the established rules of Western civilization and forming a series of Latin American countries in the modern sense, including Argentina.
However, long-term colonial rule still left an indelible mark on South America, and the "freedom" and "equality" pursued by the people due to imperfect institutions were often just a blank piece of paper. Latin American Civilization concludes:
Therefore, the multiplicity of conflicts and integrations continues, and the Argentine people naturally have a psychological pursuit of "resisting the rules and upholding justice" in the face of oppression, shouting in a primitive rather than rational way.
Under the influence of such historical origins, the absurd behavior logic of the characters has a reasonable explanation. The director magically deals with these contradictions in reality, and leaves a reflection on "civilization" from a "barbaric" perspective.
Horizontal reasons: small to see the big, the life of small people reflects the social shortcomings of Argentina
The law of the jungle is the law of nature's "natural selection, survival of the fittest", and the poster of "Wild Story" has hinted at the theme that the director wants to explore - is there a law of the jungle in modern society?
Judging by the storyline, the answer seems to be yes.
On the one hand, the rich man holds the wealth, so after his son drives a car and knocks down the pregnant woman, he can use money to settle the dispute and spend money to make the gardener in the family suffer. On the other hand, the waitresses who lost their innocent fathers and the honest demolition engineers both represent the people who lack the right to speak, and are suppressed by the law of the jungle of "the weak eat the strong".
The dramatic contrast set by the director reflects his critique of the current state of Argentine society. In the 1970s, Argentina's economy grew rapidly, reaching middle-income levels, and the prospects were bright.
However, due to inefficient government, excessive debt expansion, excessive pressure on public finances, and currency depreciation, Argentina had to fall into the "curse" of the middle-income trap.
At the same time as the country's economy stagnates, the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the lack of social mobility have made the people at the bottom lose confidence, so the balance of "civilization and barbarism" will gradually tilt.
Although "Wild Story" is written about the sadness and joy of small people, the film can see the big in a small way, and the sentient beings of the six small stories are actually the epitome of Argentine society.
In this film, the director contains his reflections on the political, economic and cultural status quo in Argentina, which is the fundamental reason why the film is called "god's work".
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" > absurd reality of life: life is helpless, love is still the ultimate way out</h1>
The six short stories of the film are not related before and after, why did the director choose the "marriage" theme story as the ending? The previous plot twists and turns, which makes people excited, but in the end we see a strange pair of lovers - a big fight, and then hug each other.
This is not the failure of the ending of "Wild Story", but it has a deep meaning.
The bride and groom are sweetly in love at the wedding ceremony, but the bride stumbles upon the fact that a young girl at the wine table is actually the groom's underground lover.
Overwhelmed by resentment, the bride's emotional breakdown directly destroys the wedding scene, picks up a dinner knife, smashes the glass, wrestles with the man's relatives, presents a state of complete irrationality, and "fights" with the groom.
If the audience thinks that this absurd marriage is finally a chicken feather, it is wrong. The groom, whose anger had reached a critical point, suddenly returned to calm, drank wine, ate cake, and invited the bride to dance as if nothing had happened. Confused, the guests quietly exited the scene, while the bride took the groom's hand and the two reconciled on the dance floor.
It starts with the absurd, and ends with the absurd. For the only story that ends with a "reunion", the public's interpretation is divided into two angles: pessimism and optimism.
Pessimists believe that "marriage is the graveyard of love", and their marriage will fall into a strange circle, constantly "loving and killing each other", and will only jump in the future.
Optimists believe that after the bride and groom make mistakes separately, they find that each other is the person they want to work together for a lifetime. Positive emotions about "love" suddenly appeared, blocking other negative thoughts, and quickly dominated the conflict, defusing the storm.
Both views are reasonable, and from the theory of film art aesthetics, the optimist's argument is more convincing. The transition from five absurd tragedies to the last absurd comedy is a sublimation of "Wild Tales" in terms of themes:
Another poster of the director also reveals his attitude. At every door stands the protagonist of each story, some people are guilty, some people are helpless, some people are punished by the law, and some people lose their lives because of impulse.
Only the bride in a crisp white wedding dress stands at the end of the road, pointing to the end of the movie, the bright side of human nature.
Life is always full of helplessness, people laugh and cry, and look forward to a lively revenge plot. However, "life and love" is the spiritual motivation of human beings that distinguishes them from animals, and they will last forever.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="04" > conclusion</h1>
Psychologist Erich Fromm mentions in The Destructive Anatomy of Man: "All human passion, for better or worse, is because he wants to make life meaningful. If he is to be made change, he must be able to find a new path, so that he can mobilize the "passion for the promotion of life", so that he can feel the vitality of life and the integrity of his personality more than before. ”
Produced in a specific Argentine cultural context, "Wild Story" explores the power and shortcomings of human nature, the rules of modern society and the rules of resistance, and is a magic realism film with Latin American characteristics.
The audience experiences an absurd carnival in the film, starting from magic and ending with reality. Until we calm down, the enthusiasm of "whether it is good or bad" drives us to constantly pursue the ultimate value of life and explore where life goes when rationality and sensibility coexist.
Here is Dongfeng Wanqing, a lover of travel, literature and history and music, may you and I all look at the world gently.