Generally speaking of comedy, few people will associate with war, because war brings people all unhappy impressions, but the war movie "Tiger's Mouth" screened in 1966 today is a complete comedy, the biggest merit of this film is that it does not reflect the cruelty of war, in humor, the horror and horror of war are diluted, positive, optimistic and kind, such as the sunshine, has become a legend that is still difficult to surpass in the comedy industry.
This film will make you tired of watching it, and it will make people remember France from now on , a country that is not only romantic but also humorous!
It was an easy-to-understand comedy, with a variety of jokes, the number of shots in the film reached 1400, while the number of shots in an ordinary French comedy at that time was only about 700, coupled with the bright-paced editing, which ensured the entertainment of the film to the greatest extent possible - in the history of Chinese translation and production, this one definitely has a place. Even in the history of world cinema, this one can be selected as one of the top hundreds of masterpieces.
It tells the story of a British plane shot down by the Germans during World War II, and a team of royal pilots on board was forced to land on the French border occupied by Germany at that time, and they divided their troops into several ways, and met the commander Rameau and the painter Buwei , with the continuous help of the French people, successfully escaped from the German occupation zone.
Starring Louis de Finés, who is recognized as a master of French comedy (playing the band conductor Stanislas in the play), "Tiger's Mouth" is his most famous one.
He plays the little old man of the band conductor who is very cute and has a bad temper and can easily jump like a thunderbolt - exaggerated expressions and actions, coupled with his strange appearance, he uses his superb acting skills to create a classic character! Anyway, as soon as he shows up, I want to laugh!
The scene, where Phines conducts the band training, is said to have been filmed at the real Paris Opera. The rehearsed piece is the famous French musician Berlioz's "Rakozzi March", which is magnificent and matches stanislas's exaggerated aura.
It is worth noting that the footage of Phines conducting the rehearsal of the orchestra appeared for 5 minutes. According to senior symphony orchestra personnel, his way of conducting the orchestra and even his demeanor, one move and one style, are no different from real professional conductors! It seems that he is not an actor, but really a conductor.
This is not surprising, because Finnes himself was a pianist for ten years before becoming an actor, and he was familiar with the knowledge of music theory, and he was of course very successful in his profession, completely without flaws.
The orchestra conductor played by Phineas is full of drama, and this short old man has an extremely rich facial expression, as if every cell is dancing.
He spoke particularly quickly—French was particularly fast and his lips were broken. Even Shang Hua, a first-class dubbing master in China, seems to be unable to control his expression and figure out the tone and thoughts of his performance, so it is very impressive.
At that time, the translation quality and dubbing quality of Shanghai Translation Studio were not generally high, and Shang Hua, who dubbed Phineas, had a distinctive voice, although he was fifty or sixty years old like Phineas, but his voice was still loud and strong, without any sense of old age and weakness.
His biggest feature is that he can reflect a witty and humorous emotion in the character through language, and Mr. Conductor in "Tiger's Mouth" is an old man full of childlike humor. So we hear a voice with a dragging cavity and a tail note, a soothing and even a little lazy tone, which is a perfect match for Phineas's performance, interesting and natural, and very highly discerning.
I remember all of Mr. Conductor's lines very well, including the one he said angrily to two of his men, "No! Mr! You're talking again sir! Don't get distracted, you really love to chew your tongue! ”
As soon as I read these lines, I immediately fell into the memory, and the picture of the time can immediately come to mind - this is the power of the classic.
The German major who suddenly broke into the opera house interrupted the rehearsal of the conductor, who repeatedly failed to capture the British pilot, and after several three-pronged competitions, finally let the pilots escape.
But at that time, after listening to the major announce the search warrant, Shang Hua used a unique rich tone of voice, a gambling voice, a clean spit, and a clear manner to express mr. Commander's inner dissatisfaction:
- Hear that? Okay, then that's it. Threatened by the barrel of a gun, today's rehearsal lasted only twelve minutes, and just like that, the evening performance was enough to see. go...... Go for this stick!
I really like this cute little old man who uses gestures to express his emotions every time - this person is great! His stocky figure and explosive hilarious performance style, I think there is no deliberate embellishment and arrangement, all the laughs come from the real in life, very charming.
The golden song "Mandarin Duck Tea" in the film has laid the relaxed tone of the film at the beginning, and the afterglow is still lingering.
"Mandarin duck tea, mandarin duck teaa, I love you, you love me." Audiences familiar with this translation and production can't help but sing this sentence when they see it, and then they see the misty Turkish bath in front of them, where a pair of little old men are humming and dangling while humming, and the comedy effect is full of comedic effect.
Mackintosh hid in a cupboard and was discovered by the German officer, who later disguised himself as Mackintosh and hid in it and captured Mr. Commander. These few seconds of footage are not only a joke, but also a divine stroke for the director to portray the character into the bone.
I will always remember these immortal voices:
"Mr. Mackintosh, I have good news for you!" —— (Mr. Conductor outside the cabinet)
"I've got good news for you too" - (Major in the cupboard)
"Hey hey hey hey... Ah-ah-"(Mr. Conductor turned from a triumphant laugh to an exclamation, and then fell down)
"Ah, I'm sick..." (Mr. Conductor covered his heart with a sad face)
"No, you're not sick, where is he?" - (Major's Finger Harp)
"Oh, this is the harp." ——(Mr. Conductor pretends to be stupid)
"What About the English?!" - (The Major is angry)
"Oh, there are Englishmen here?" ——(Mr. Conductor looked around and continued to pretend to be stupid)
The two lines of the painter, the commander and the Royal Pilot of the British Army are intertwined and separated, and the whole is dense and stylish. The comedic baggage is cleverly set and sophisticated—never seen such a harmonious, interesting Anglo-French relationship. Although there are some costume shots, it does not affect the look and feel at all.
Many comedy movies follow the path of "Tiger's Mouth", but there is only cheap anger and low-level fun, and the result is only its shadow, which is difficult to surpass its height.
Today's filmmakers only think about how to entertain and be funny, this movie is actually entertainment and funny, but they are a serious, solemn acting - as far as the effect of imitating this film is concerned, if there is no spiritual height, it is a gourd painting scoop, which is rare in its charm.
What is spiritual height?
For example, when he was rowing away in the sewers of the opera house, Mr. Conductor threw away his hair cover and baton - which means that he threw away his original noble status, and from then on he will be a commoner, thrown into the wartime resistance army! It's a classic scene, and in the context of that era, the film is particularly significant!
It should be noted that Mr. Conductor is working in Paris under German rule, and he belongs to the ordinary people's secret life, or is busy with his livelihood, but taking this escape road means that as long as the Germans are still there, he basically bid farewell to his career and his job is gone. This is an artistic expression that is thought-provoking and reflects the brutal side of war.
When the group of four arrived at the Lyon railway station that had been agreed with Julia and Peter, the train had already left, and the Germans followed them into the station and interrogated everyone, so that the crowd was in a hurry, and they were in the procession to deliver the parcels to escape the German pursuit.
The footage of four people carrying sacks pretending to be postmen is simply very interesting - without showing anyone's faces, just four silhouettes carrying sacks can make the audience understand that this is the protagonists acting.
In this way, they evaded the inspection, drove a mail truck, and blatantly went to the agreed small town - Mosot.
Before we get to the town, the mail truck is broken on the road, and this halfway scene tells us that after escaping from the opera house, the film's narrative focus gradually shifts to two Frenchmen - the air bag painter and the old child conductor.
What the director really wanted to portray was not the earliest and most numerous British pilots; not the Germans of the occupiers; not the great beauty Julia or the nuns, but these two Frenchmen. The rest of the scenes are all about complementing the two of them. After all, it's a French film.
In an era when there were no special effects to speak of, the only way movies could attract audiences was through plot and acting. Phineas's comedic performance is passionate and complements Bourville's easy-going slowness, which is vividly expressed in Tiger's Mouth. There is also the contrast between the identities of these two people (the contrast between the upper class and the working class), including one tall and one short, and the setting of these two characters is so classic that almost all Germans and Britons have become chicken ribs.
If you want to appreciate the fundamental difference between French humor and British humor and American humor, it may be most appropriate to watch this comedy film - most French comedies can not be elegant, but "Tiger's Mouth" is an exception, it shows the French film taste from the side - light and calm.
The plot shown at the Universal Hotel reflects the essence of the film: the film can only be viewed from the perspective of a war comedy, not from a purely militaristic point of view.
You see, The Commander and the Painter were wondering in the black room, when suddenly there was a great light, and a room full of Germans appeared, but rest assured, it was just a false alarm, and this group of German soldiers was celebrating the general's birthday with joy, and it was not terrible at all.
The Germans actually played riding stools in circles together at the general's birthday party, so festive that they could laugh people to death. It's not too cute.
This tells the audience very clearly that it is a comedy, not a French "war film". It satirizes war, not simply "German devils."
The setting where Mr. Conductor and the painter sleep in a bed is interesting— the screen is filled with faces of foreigners, but it feels particularly intimate, and the way, tone, and rhythm of their communication are familiar to the audience.
This is due to the dubbing predecessors of the Shanghai Film Translation Studio, who have made localization improvements to this film, coupled with excellent translation, the taste comes out - the whole movie is boring, so that the audience is always attracted by the plot.
Although the film is about war, it is still a comedy: there are no dead people, no painful scenes, the whole film is full of hope and longing, and the spirit of revolutionary optimism.
You hear the painter say: War is not so bad! It's so deafening! Yes, he once wanted to return to Paris to live an ordinary life, and found love, friendship, and the strength of life in the war. This is the art of comedy, the Sense of Humor and Romanticism of the French – how contagious it is to love someone in the run!
Mr. Conductor's humor wanders between words and actions, inadvertently making a warm "dessert after dinner" - seriously, every time you see this place, people feel hungry.
The headless general's cake, Mr. Commander broke off his arm, dipped it in cream, and ate it for the German officer, while muttering in his mouth: Delicious, this general can eat, this general is delicious... I can't help but be so stoic that I'm just writing about it now, and I can't help but tilt the corners of my mouth.
The plot logic is not important to them, the key can be a laugh, which is a bit like the Chaplin film, but it is much more subtle and casual than it.
All films depicting war, regardless of genre, have an obvious label, and that is anti-war. This movie is no exception, although the two words funny run through the whole film, but the anti-war two words are also obvious!
In order to stop the annoying purring of The German officers, Mr. Commander learned to call in the middle of the night, and then whistled, which was really warm - the French have a cute heartless and lungless spirit, so they can ridicule the humiliating history of defeat and surrender in this way, and make such a film, which is completely different from the Chinese war film.
When Mr. Conductor rides on the painter's neck, that's all that a comedy can do, and all the memories associated with it are happy, and you remember not only the funny plot and the dialogue itself, but also how you laughed at the time.
When the Gestapo captain raised an eyebrow and said to both of them, "One shot kills you, one shot kills you."
These two people, who are equally timid and cowardly, but who can also become extremely brave for the sake of principles and ideals, although they are frightened and their steel helmets are shaking, they are still witty and vain, not revealing any secrets: "Let us think... It was like 1941..."
They become an interface to the laughing nerve, a happy switch.
There are big bugs in the story of "Tiger's Mouth Escape", and some plots cannot withstand the scrutiny of the audience, after all, in the heavily guarded German occupation area, it is simply a fantasy, in fact, it is a lively anti-German drama.
But just think about it, this film does not want to express the cruelty of war - it just wants to soothe people's hearts in the form of drama and satirize the meaninglessness of war. In this way, we forgive its deliberateness.
Let's end with the glider victory escape picture -
"No, yes, yes... The wind blew us back... You see... Damn the wind! ”
The whole "Tiger's Mouth Escape" is very enjoyable to watch, especially the smile at the end, which is difficult to forget. It's hard to say where the film ends at the climax, because there's always been a comedic effect from start to finish. According to the understanding of our people, the story must have a climax and then an end, which can only be said to be the part where everyone boards the glider, which is both the climax and the end.
The story, of course, needs to be reunited. There are no bloody and cruel scenes in the play, but everyone can finally feel that war is not fun.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > this is a French classic from 1966, but unfortunately In China at that time - we can't learn the unique humor of the French, and use comedy to erase the trauma of people in World War II. </h1>