Introduction: I just want to know if you have your own life here besides work?
The film "Tony Erdmann" is written by German director Marlen Ade, which tells the story of a man who lives with a dog after a divorce, goes to the place where his daughter works after the dog dies, and wants to use his lame German humor - pretending to be Tony Erdmann to make his daughter not always revolve around the work group, but because he disrupts his daughter's fast-paced and high-intensity lifestyle and forcibly enters her life circle, he is dissatisfied with his daughter. Eventually, with the man's almost stubborn efforts, the daughter accepted his humor and companionship.
The film shows the two people's completely different lifestyles, two different values and value pursuits in a straightforward way. The father was free-spirited and didn't like dogma and impermissible disorder, and he often joked about "don't forget his sense of humor" when pretending to be Tony. He is soft and kind at heart, and he is anxious to ask his daughter for help when the workers are laid off because of his humor. Daughter Conradi is a typical epitome of women who are struggling in the workplace in modern society, especially women in the workplace. Shrewd and capable, never showing personal feelings, on call, no life other than work.
In the face of the workers who are about to be laid off, they just say lightly, "Save me the trouble of laying them off." This significant difference comes in part from the different social experiences of the two people, the different social classes they live in, the extent to which they are influenced by the rules of "reason" and value judgments, and the lack of communication between the two people. Such disagreements on the father and daughter of the film have become the main source of contradictions between the two, and jumping out of this relationship, such contradictions and problems seem to have increasingly become an emotional crisis facing people in contemporary society. The father jumped out of his own identity, opened up the "Tony Erdman" approach to his daughter, and entered the "upper" circle of the daughter, which is a manifestation of doubt about his identity in the relationship with his daughter and a new attempt to solve the crisis.
In order to show this precarious father-daughter relationship, and so that the viewer is not affected by personal emotions to think about the two equally and objectively, the film has made a design that matches the camera language and the actors' performances. Among the many shots that frame the relationship between the two people, there are few shots of father and daughter in the same frame, and the two people operate in their own space, like a transparent curtain wall separating the two people. If the narrative has to appear at the same time, it is only a short time, and the two people's eyes have little communication, or one person becomes the background of the other person, which can only be blurred by the shallow depth of field shot. The editing of the two-person dialogue shot is also full of a sense of separation, and most of the front and back shots only appear alone with the father or daughter, which adds external difficulty to the already awkward and unsmooth communication. Actors also rarely have positive angle shots, thereby reducing the psychology of the viewer to bring in to ensure the bystander attitude of the camera and the calm thinking of the viewer.
The performances of the two actors are also very restrained, with no obvious traces of performance. At the peak of the daughter's dissatisfaction, because the father did not wake her up as agreed, resulting in missed work calls, the performance of the two did not "open teeth and dance claws", still separated by a distance, the daughter suppressed the anger and said sarcastic words in a low voice, and the father stood there without scheduling and action, looking at the daughter without a word. The scene was both embarrassing and sad. In addition, when the father plays Tony, he always leans slightly, is questioned by his daughter "Are you going to ruin me", answers "You recognize the wrong person" after a moment of surprise, says like a stranger and pretends to be good friends with passers-by, pushes the door away together, and secretly looks back to observe his daughter's reaction when he leaves, which is extremely delicate. Both people seem to be framed by the rules of their own world, one wants to change the other, one refuses to change, and the confrontation in their hearts is externalized into hugging the chest, taking a deep breath, a gloomy face, patting the other's back when hugging, and so on.
Thus, through the concrete demonstration of the differences and separation between the two, an emotional crisis caused by the collision of values that lack communication and effective communication is about to come out on the screen. It exists in movies, but it also exists in many real families, and even alludes to a growing tendency in developed or developing societies. The father asked his daughter, "Are you happy here?" and "Do you have your own life except for work", but the daughter criticized her back with flashiness. The two values they represent are becoming more and more prominent in an increasingly modern and industrialized society. People become appendages of work, "alienated" by modern civilizations and institutions, and cannot find a fulcrum of balance between work and life, observance and non-compliance. For example, Rousseau's critique of modern civilization :"The progress of science and art has not improved social customs, but on the contrary, it has made people's lives more complicated and made human beings degenerate deeper." The blurring of value judgments, the inability to find the true value of emotions, and the lack of good communication have led to the emotional crisis and even the emergence of skepticism in modern people.
The appearance of "Tony Erdman" in the film seems to have found a new outlet for this crisis. In the relationship between father and daughter, the father gives up his established identity and opens up another person through makeup, performance and other means to break the tension between him and his daughter and find a new identity. So in the society represented by the father and daughter of the two value standards, is it possible to find a new "identity", jump out of the binary opposition of values that is either/or, not for the sake of professionalism and professionalism, it is necessary to sacrifice personality and emotion, nor to maintain enthusiasm and satisfaction can not become a workaholic, but through further study and exploration, to find a pluralistic mode of development, to get rid of the blind denial of the previous position of non-existence, to find the conditions for coexistence and to create new goals together. Just like the way to break the inner volume is to open up new runways. Or, on the basis of the existing foundation, by opening up the situation of self-sufficiency, tolerating different views and values, allowing for different existence. Instead of rejecting dissidents, we seek to be together. Thinking of the Nazi shadow that the Germans could not escape, could Tony Erdmann become an exploration and attempt to solidify the situation?
Tony Erdmann gave her anxious daughter a new direction in life, the result of a new identity resolving an emotional crisis. See if we can find a solution to similar problems from the father and daughter, alleviate the increasingly anxious nerves and emotions that have nowhere to rest, and not be eaten by "rational" rules and articles in a modern society that is increasingly pursuing humanity.