The 2016 German film Tony Erdmann tells a story about the ultimate meaning of life: Are you happy?
Source: Douban Film Review
Are you happy? This is a topic that has been asked by many people, and even spoofed by many people, but when you watch this film, you will find a terrible fact, when you ask yourself whether you are happy or not, you don't even know how to answer, but feel that there is no point in people living.
The heroine Ines is busy with work, seemingly in contact with high society, busy at work every day, not short of money to spend, but in fact has become a slave to work, with no private life to speak of. And when a chance came, my father suddenly visited. The absolute dilemma faced by the heroine is that her father, who has distanced herself due to neglectful relationships, has to spend a painful time with her in her city.
The father has his own rough thoughtfulness, he takes care of his daughter clumsily in his own way, but this untimely thoughtfulness makes the daughter completely collapse, and her perfect life is torn apart by a little bit of reluctance, revealing the ugliness and unbearable inside.
The daughter broke down, and the father realized that he had ruined her life and decided to leave.
Interestingly, this is where the positive film begins.
As the daughters and girlfriends complain about how bad a weekend was, the father suddenly appears, alias "Tony Erdman." He had all sorts of disguised titles, became an eloquent bubble girl, a German ambassador, a business consultant... He wants to be whoever he wants, and he blends into his daughter's circle of life in such a funny, nonsensical way, and in his daughter's heart, he is a person who has nothing but to show off his senseless humor. He was so lonely and bored that he made jokes about the courier, was squeezed out of his daughter's birthday party by his ex-wife, and slept on the lawn like his old dog Willie, full of uneasiness and sadness.
Father and daughter, their opposing identities give their feelings an inevitable collision.
How many characters do we have? How many faces do we have? How many kinds of lives do we have? Do we wander through them every day, switch them frequently, and be complacent about this kind of maneuvering?
Children always appear naked in front of their parents, and then gradually wrap themselves in layers until they are difficult to reach.
The father has always played the role of a guide, trying to get close to his daughter's heart and trying to take her out of a seemingly gorgeous but directionless life. To the accompaniment of her father, the daughter sang at a family gathering with a stranger. She sings:
Success or failure
At least I live by what I believe
Whatever I've been robbed of
Can't take away my dignity
Finally, the ugly long-haired monster appeared, bent down awkwardly, squeezed into the room, wanted to give her a big hug, and left silently and hard. Her funny father, she realized the truth almost the next second after he left the house.
She caught up with the long-haired monster, hesitated, and then firmly and forcefully hugged the silly monster. This embrace, at once, forgives the past and the future.
The film does not have any soundtrack, and the deliberately enhanced ambient sound, "air sound", highlights the noise of the real world. Some sounds that are easily ignored in life are also brought to the audience's ears, making the picture full of tension.
A sense of distance runs through the film, depicted in white, without heavy tones, and stubbornly using standard lenses, the film attempts to get closest to the normal perspective of a third observer.
What is the point of life? Life is to eat three meals a day, to do what you love to do, to cherish the people around you, to have an independent personality, to pursue beauty, to cherish time, and to pray for world peace. Instead of hindsight, going with the flow and futile. Because death follows life itself, it listens to the heart. "If you look forward to the light, you will not be afraid of the darkness."