"Every mask is the true face of life, gorgeous and sad".
"Goodbye to Heaven" focuses on the social situation in France after world war I, showing the fate of two different characters who have suffered from war pain and made a lot of money in a visual lens language.
The film explores the complexity of human nature by depicting the physical and psychological devastation of humanity caused by the cruel act of war. The film has always conformed to the narrative characteristics of the French war theme, taking the special character and perspective as the starting point, paying attention to the situational encounters of ordinary characters in daily life, starting from small details, and exploring the differences in human nature.
In the film "Goodbye to Heaven", director Albert Dupont Thiel uses a kind of French romantic reproduction, with flashbacks and interpolations of narrative strategies, slowly telling several complex characters in the film, with two interrelated crimes as the narrative structure.
It profoundly criticizes the stubborn diseases of post-war French society, on the one hand, some profiteers bribe and monopolize to make war wealth, and on the other hand, the soldiers who once fought for the country have been displaced and gradually forgotten, revealing the corrupt social situation in France at that time, and also showing the precious side of human nature in distress.
Unlike the spectacle special effects, large-scale productions, and high-concept films that Hollywood in the United States is good at, French films emphasize a small narrative under the influence of a kind of micro-knowledge, and explore the special psychology of the characters in a special story context.
For example, in the American anti-war film "Hacksaw Ridge", the director shows the tragic and bloody pictures of the war very grandly, mainly emphasizing american-style individual heroism, while the French film "Goodbye to Heaven" narrows the visual portrayal of the war scene, mainly through the destruction of the individual body and mind by war to reflect on the meaning of war, which is a kind of insinuation narrative strategy.
Although the film explores the physical and mental devastation of war on the low-level characters, the director associates the pain of war with the contradictions between father and son in a family, and if war is regarded as a chaotic and heroic concept, then joining the war for individuals is actually a manifestation of rebellion.
Because his father Marcel denied Edward's artistic talent, the estrangement between Edward and his father deepened step by step, it can be said that his future rebellion was an expansion of the patriarchal rebellion, and finally the father and son met and reconciled, but the ending that should have been embraced was that Edward jumped from the upper floor to end everything, which is a release and liberation that cannot be expressed in words.
This blending of the collective disasters of the times and the suffering of individuals has greatly deepened the suffering brought by the "big times" to the people at the bottom.
The essence of war movies is to reproduce the cruelty of war through the screen, thus guiding mankind to stay away from war and cherish peace. The director uses metaphors at the beginning of the film to use a long shot of nearly three minutes to truly show the tragic nature of the war, and the uneven land hit by shells is like the torn French society after the war, full of festering wounds, difficult to heal, lost and confused.
Corruption and war wealth pervaded the entire French society, those who had fought hard for the country fell into the streets, and even the martyrs who died heroically on the battlefield were gradually forgotten and became the objects of some profiteers.
The male protagonists Edward and Albert are the survivors of this war, Edward lost his jaw in the war to save Albert, relying on a gorgeous mask to cover his flaws, he regards money as dung, and only revels in his painting creation;
Albert was timid and afraid of things, but he helped Edward out of the shadow of war, showing the greatness of human nature, and the moral concept embodied in this low-level little person declared the mainstream values of society to a certain extent.
The typical villain in the film, Lieutenant Pratael, for his own selfish interests, does not hesitate to sacrifice his soldiers, provokes the war at the end of the war, and then dramatically becomes the son-in-law of the Gu family, relying on the resources of the Perigau family to extract huge wealth from the war.
The film uses Pratayle's personal actions to reflect the problems in the real society of France from the "small, small points", and there is a satirical description in the film:
Prater jumped from the car to the cemetery, step by step on the tombstone of every soldier who had passed away, the death of the soldier brought honor and wealth to these inhuman people, even if they died, they did not get the respect they deserved, and they had to be used by these people to gain benefits, and finally Pratel's death was also deserved, and it also conformed to the narrative characteristics of genre films.
The film climaxes with Edward's carnival party at the Lutetia Hotel, where Edward satirizes the rulers of society in an entertaining way, and he sentences the people who start the war in a symbolic form as a judge, but how many of the men and women in gorgeous costumes present understand the true meaning of this act, which may be the silent cry of his heart.
As a high-profile film that perfectly integrates artistic and commercial values, the story of the film is not only very attractive, but also gorgeously produced, and the portrayal of human nature is very profound, and the film uses flashbacks and interludes to narrate the narrative, and the contradictions and conflicts are advanced layer by layer, which is very fascinating.
Secondly, the music in the film is also a highlight, which plays a very important role in shaping the emotions of the characters and highlighting the theme, especially at the end, Edward's father and son look at each other on the roof, and the soothing rhythm of the music is highly integrated with the delicate feelings of the characters, so that the inner emotional world of the characters is vividly expressed.
Edward finally got his father's approval, the relationship between father and son was finally reconciled, and with the rhythm of the music, he flew like a bird from the balcony to the pure land he longed for.