The Grace of the Hedgehog is a French film released in 2009 that has a rating of 8.8 on Douban. It is based on the novel of the same name by the French novelist Myolier Barbery.
The film is about an 11-year-old precocious girl, Baloma, who wants to escape her absurd fate by committing suicide. But before she dies, she wants to make a movie of her own, and while waiting for her death, she discovers the secret of the concierge Renee and meets her new neighbor, Katsuro Ozu, from Japan. The wonderful encounters, mutual attraction and companionship between each other, allowed Baloma to re-understand the meaning of life and death, and changed her attitude towards life.
The film uses a unique children's narrative perspective, multiple metaphors, and contrasts and echoes to inspire us to think about life, death, love and elegance.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, using a unique children's narrative perspective, to pierce the hypocrisy and ugliness of the French upper class, and to discover a truly rich and elegant soul</h1>
The film unfolds slowly through the perspective of 11-year-old rich girl Baroma. Baroma is a precocious girl, she has a sensitive and delicate inner world, her thoughts are deeper than adults, but at the same time she has the frankness and rebelliousness of children, and she loves to play with the camera and wants to make a movie.
On the one hand, the film unfolds through the perspective of Baloma, who has a unique personality, which not only makes the plot appear real and believable, natural and smooth, but also the identity of the rich lady allows her to easily glimpse the hypocrisy, ugliness, emptiness and anxiety of the upper-class characters.
Baroma has long since penetrated the nature of their lives and her own destiny:
I knew for a long time that fate was destined to be trapped in a goldfish tank for the rest of my life. In this world, adults are like flies on glass, bumping around in fish tanks for the rest of their lives.
Baroma despairs of this absurd, meaningless life and decides to commit suicide on her 12th birthday. With such a decision, Baloma was able to see the world she lived in with a bystander's calmness.
Parents invite friends to dinner, and high-ranking guests don't like to put salt in their food. So all the meals prepared by the mother were so light that the other guests snatched the salt bottles at the dinner table. A female guest obviously did not like food, and quietly threw meat under the table to feed the cats, but very attentively said that she liked the food made by the owner.
A man obviously did not understand the difference between Go and chess, but deliberately showed off at the dinner table. Baroma accurately pointed out the difference between the two, but was stopped by his father, who was bent on climbing to a high position.
Although Baroma's mother has a high degree, she is very sensitive and fragile, mentally depressed, easy to lose control of her emotions, she will be surprised by a dream, all day long worried about her mental illness, but never really cared about her daughter. Baloma's sister was even more selfish and arrogant.
On the other hand, Baloma's reclusive and sensitive personality allows her to easily identify Renee, the concierge who resonates with her psychic, and her new neighbor, Ozu Gero.
Baroma pierces the secret of the concierge Renee, who seems to her like a hedgehog, but beneath her ugly and hard exterior, there is a rich and delicate heart. She found that Renee had read many books, had deep and rich thoughts, and had a unique ability to taste tea, movies, food, etc.
Ozu Gero even made Baloma see what is true elegance and gentlemanhood. This elderly wealthy Japanese man treats Renee, the concierge, with the same respect as any other upper class figure. He can perceive Renee's uniqueness and help Herne to shed her spikes and inferiority in a gentle way. He could also perceive Baloma's loneliness and despair, and he did not think that a little girl's idea was immature because of his old age, but respected her like a friend and influenced her!
Through Baloma's perspective, the film allows the audience to see the numb and hypocritical state of life of the French upper class at that time, and also allows us to see the richness and warmth of life, like Renee and Ozu Gelang.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, through multiple metaphors, satirize the superficial brilliance of the upper class, the inner dirtiness, and praise the truly beautiful side of life</h1>
The film uses representative animals such as goldfish, hedgehogs and cats to metaphorically describe different people, allowing the audience to discover the meaning of life and the life they really want in humor, irony and warmth.
1. The goldfish symbolizes a group of numb, hypocritical, blind people.
Goldfish have beautiful colors, swim gracefully, very ornamental, but they can only be trapped in the fish tank for the rest of their lives, and they do not know that there is a magnificent sea outside.
Goldfish are like the group of people who are bright on the surface and are in fact numb to hypocrisy and blind pursuit of status and wealth.
Those people may have lived their whole lives to show others, but they do not understand what they really want, nor do they have the ability to illuminate and be aware of the inner spiritual world. Even if they had, they had been trapped in the goldfish tank for too long and had lost the courage and ability to escape.
2. The hedgehog symbolizes a person who is sharp on the outside and gentle and delicate on the inside.
Although the hedgehog is covered with spikes and disguises itself as indestructible, the hedgehog is a very sensitive and delicate animal, and it can be keenly aware of the end of winter and the arrival of spring.
The ugly and poor Renee is a hedgehog who disguises herself as a grumpy woman, because this image is in line with everyone's prejudice against the concierge. If anyone knew that she was actually a well-read, rich and clean person, then probably no one would hire her.
The hedgehog's disguise is to survive, but also to protect the soft and delicate heart.
3. Cats are pets that wealthy families in France will raise, and through the owner's attitude towards cats, it is a metaphor for everyone's pursuit of life.
The Baroma's cat, called the Constitution and Parliament, has no poetic name and is full of political flavors, revealing the ambitions of Baloma's father.
In addition, when Baroma's mother talked to Renee at the door, she did not let Renee in the door, nor did she let the cat out, and kicked the cat inside with her foot. In the eyes of Baroma's mother, the cat is just a pet, their private property, not a living, emotional being, and she does not let the cat contact with Renee, which also shows possessiveness and class prejudice.
Renee and Ozu's cat are named after the characters in Anna Karenina. Ozu Treats Cats with the Same Respect as Human beings, and he writes a note to Renee: Dear Lady, salute your cat, and salute you.
Renee treats the cat as her friend and companion, holding the cat and reading books every day, spending her most secret and beautiful time. And she takes care of the cat as carefully as a human being, and doesn't even give the cat leftover food.
Everyone's attitude towards cats reflects everyone's attitude towards life and life.
These metaphors are extremely critical and concerned about social reality, and through these distinctive animals and ordinary lives, they trigger the audience's consideration of the value of life, external and internal judgment and choice.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, sublimate the meaning of life, death and love through contrast and echo</h1>
There is no harm without contrast. At the same time, without contrast, we cannot see the essence of people or things. Through multiple sets of contrasts, the film reveals the meaning of life, death and love in depth.
1. Different manifestations of the outside and the inside
The wealthy people in the apartments showed their graceful appearance every day, but they would sneak off their shoes during dinners and privately throw cigarette butts under the foot cushions in the doorway. Peeling back the surface of the gloss, the inside is dirty and unbearable. Renee, the concierge, is the opposite, with a sharp and indifferent surface, watching soap operas every day, but on the inside she is gentle and elegant, likes to read, and is rich in thought.
2. Awareness of good change
The new neighbor, Gero Ozu, invites Renee to her home, and Renee deliberately goes to a new hairstyle in order to attend the appointment. Everyone in the apartment didn't notice the change in Renee. Only the tramp found out at first glance and praised Renee for being very elegant and charming.
Later, Renee went out wearing the clothes sent by Ozu Gelang, and was treated as Ozu Gelang's wife by the rich wife in the apartment. Renee was surprised and said, "She didn't recognize me, she didn't recognize me!" ”
Ozu said, "Because she's never seen you!" ”
Yes, the rich are busy bumping into the fish tank every day, never having the time or mind to get to know a gatekeeper at the bottom, and not noticing the beautiful changes in the people or things around them. But a despised tramp can perceive it all as keenly.
3. Reactions to observation and gaze
Baloma's family, as well as those who came to her house for dinner, were afraid to face Baloma's camera. They were disgusted and angry about it, but it was only because they were afraid that their disguised grace would be recognized under Baroma's lens, exposing the ugliness they had carefully hidden.
In contrast, Ozu and Renee are able to face Baloma's camera calmly. Even under Baroma's lens, Ozu Gorō is very open to invite Renee to dinner. Their elegance is carved into the bones, impeccable, without fear of staring and observing.
4. Reactions to death
Renee was accidentally killed by a car for reminding the homeless not to dance in the middle of the road. Ozu Gelang, who loved Renee the most, did not cry when he saw Thatnny being killed, but took off his coat and gently covered Itnnie.
When Baloma's mother heard that Renee was dead, she asked, "Who is Renee?" When she learned that Renee was Madame Michelle, the concierge, she burst into tears and looked infinitely sad. In fact, her tears were merely habitual and polite, and she did not grieve for the death of a low-level woman.
Through these comparisons, we find that many people just live on the surface of life, desperately showing themselves outward, pretending to be impeccable, but never paying attention to their deep emotional and spiritual needs. Their elegance is so vulnerable, and people like Ozu Andrei know how to enjoy the really good things in life.
In addition to these contrasts, the film also sublimates the theme by echoing back and forth.
1. Twice in the film, Renee speaks of Tolstoy's famous words: "Happy families are all similar, but unfortunate families are different." ”
The first time was when Renee first met Ozu Gero, and when she said it, she acted very cold. At that time, her feelings about this sentence focused on misfortune, the misfortune of being a lonely widow.
The second time was when she read Anna Karenina again after celebrating Ozu's birthday, and this time she laughed and said that the focus of her feelings for this sentence was happiness, that kind of love-like happiness.
Ozu Gero makes Renee cheerful and confident, elegant and calm from the inside out!
2. At the beginning and end of the film, Baloma repeated the phrase about death: "What matters is not death, but what you are doing in the moment of death." ”
At first, Baloma thinks that her fate is one-eyed, desperate, and that death is a relief for her, a rebellion against fate.
But in the end, Ozu's optimism about life and Renee's death allow Baroma to grow and have an epiphany. She re-understood the meaning of life and death. She saw that there were many things in life that were worth remembering, and there were people who were reluctant to leave behind.
"You'll never see the person you love again, and the person you love will never see you again." If that's death, that's what people call tragedy... What matters is not death, but what you do in the moment of death. Renee, what were you doing in the moment of death? You are preparing to love someone! ”
From being bored with life, extreme despair and rebellion against life, to finally nostalgia and epiphany about life, Baloma grew unconsciously, learned to integrate into life, and like Ozu Gero, found ways to get along with the world.
The echoes before and after completed the transformation of Baloma, and also sublimated the theme of the whole film, conveying a positive meaning of life in the process of concern for the loneliness of the human soul and the questioning of the meaning of life.
IV. Conclusion
At first, the desperate and world-weary Baloma finally dispelled the idea of suicide. What makes her willing to keep alive? What is the meaning of life and the value of life?
Those ordinary and boring lives seemed so absurd to Baloma. But each of us lives in triviality and mediocrity, the difference being that some people live hypocritically and anxiously, while others live freely and fully. The difference between the two is what meaning we give to ordinary life.
If you just pursue wealth and status, occupy more resources, and continue to expand outward without paying attention to your inner needs, then you will be like Baroma's family, just living a bright life on the surface, but tired and unbearable on the inside, and it is difficult to feel true happiness.
If it is for love, for interest, for mission, or for faith, they will not be shaken by the external evaluation system, nor will they have to prove anything to the outside world, but will have their own criteria for judging. They are determined and positive, with extraordinary courage to face the trivialities and difficulties of life. Because, they always understand what they live for.
The saddest thing about life is that you know what you want, but you find that there is no way out, there is no way to follow. Therefore, to understand why you live, you must understand what kind of way to live!
At first, Baloma chose to rebel and escape, and she was undoubtedly intelligent, but this intelligence was somewhat pretentious of young people, who despised others and could not live in peace with the world after all.
Renee initially chooses to disguise, compromise with the world's prejudices against her, and then has her own secret space. This kind of life seems to be good, but it is also very tiring to disguise it as annoying.
And Ozu Gero let me see the best way to live: even if I see annoying people and things, I can always understand and tolerate all this, and try to find the beauty in it, use my thoughts and emotions to influence and help others, and complete myself.
To be able to see the ugliness of the world is wisdom, and to be able to discover the beauty of life is wisdom. Only by looking at the world objectively and facing life optimistically can we live a harmonious, gentle and transparent life.