French literary hero Victor Hugo's novel "The Smiley Man", written in 1866-1868 and published in 1869, is about a 10-year-old boy abandoned on the shore by human traffickers in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and the little boy was rescued by a well-wisher and found that his face was knifed by human traffickers, so that he could only smile for the rest of his life, and the little boy's name was Gwenpran.
I heard the story of "The Smiley Man" a lot when I was a child, and I always thought it was a clown, until I grew up to really understand that every character in this work was so compassionate, and at the same time reflected the ugliness and meanness of the feudal aristocratic society at that time.
The charm of words is wonderful, and the image is to transform words into a more direct medium to present the story to the public in a more direct way. In 1928, the heyday of silent films, German avant-garde director Paul Lenny brought this work to audiences around the world for the first time in the form of black and white silent films, and the actor Conrad Waiter who played Gwenpland in the film successfully created the role of the smiley man, after nearly a hundred years, people talk about clowns, the first thing that comes to mind is Conrad Waite, who is the first generation of clowns, the originator of clowns.
<h1>01 The methods of human traffickers have been so disgusting and heinous from ancient times to the present</h1>
There was a time when there were many child beggars in the streets and alleys who were tortured by human traffickers to beg in the streets, and these evil traffickers "processed" the abducted children in order to earn more money, and the little boy of "The Smiley Man" Gwen Puran was originally a descendant of the noble dukes, and the king at that time, in order to consolidate his power and was at the mercy of the courtiers, trapped the duke in a puppet called "Iron Lady", and then ruthlessly sold his only son to the traffickers, because the king knew, Every child who falls into this group of traffickers will not have a good life.
When Gwenplain was abandoned by the peddlers on the snowy shore, he wrapped his small body tightly in clothes, revealing only a pair of large eyes, looking at him so healthy, did the traffickers not do anything to him? Unfortunately, the sad man is destined to have only a tragic road, fortunately found in the snow of the little baby girl, Gwynplain believes that this baby girl is his "witness" to rebirth, this baby girl will become his lifelong concern in the future.
The savior is the jianghu entertainer Yu Sus, who discovers that Gwynplain has been knifed in the face by human traffickers and becomes a person who can only laugh forever, Yuss raised Gwynplain and the blind girl Varti, and Gwynplain also became a popular clown, he survived by the role of "Smiley Man", and the blind girl Ti was the only driving force for him to survive.
The queen knew the identity of Gwen Puran and wanted to use him to consolidate her position, but Gwenplain's appearance suffered ridicule and dissatisfaction from everyone, even if he was dressed in aristocratic clothes, it was difficult for him to hide his inferiority and pain, and he longed to find someone who could not smile when he saw his face.
The appearance of the young lady gave Gwynplain hope, but in fact this is the most cruel torture, and finally Gwynplain chose to return to the blind woman Ti and Yussus, only they can give him warmth and love, but unfortunately, Ty was seriously ill at the time, and the end of the film did not explain whether Ty was dead or not.
The debauched Lady terrified Gwenplain
<h1>02 The Joker always laughs only in front of people, and his tears are considered absurd</h1>
The identity of the clown is treated unfairly in all major fields, people will represent the clown as a villain, ugly, funny and hypocritical, and none of the labels on the clown are positive, but the appearance of the clown is to make a laugh, which is a contradictory individual.
"The Smiley Man" uses such a role to nakedly provide the social atmosphere and ugly aristocratic faces of the time, because of the special face of the smiley face, even the lowest people in society think that they are higher than him, because they know that they can laugh, curse, and speak evilly in front of this clown who will only smile at himself, and sadly he has become the object of people's venting.
When Gwenplain's eyes were red with tears, he knew that his heart was so sad, this kind of pain was incomprehensible to others, and only the blind girl Ti could know the wound in his heart, why Ti? Because she was a blind girl, a girl who could never see his compassionate smile, as Gwenplain said, "I want to find someone who sees me not smiling".
A pair of miserable people
His smiling face, his heart does not smile, no matter what he does, what he hopes, what he thinks, as soon as he looks up, the audience will see him laughing wildly. - - Hugo,"The Man with the Smiley Face"
<h1>03 The ruling class is the embodiment of the devil, and they are the ugliest clowns</h1>
In 1688, the "Glorious Revolution" broke out in Britain, the bourgeoisie and the feudal aristocracy reached a compromise, formally established the constitutional monarchy, and embarked on the capitalist road, and the story background of "The Smiley Man" is that after the British bourgeois revolution, the original ruling class was divided into new aristocrats and old aristocrats, and the new nobles and the emerging bourgeoisie united to rebel against the feudal dynasty. Whether it is the old aristocracy, the new aristocracy or the bourgeoisie, in order to consolidate their position and obtain the greatest benefits, they have all the power and money in their hands, resulting in the people at the bottom of society living in a deep and fierce situation.
>>>> [Popular Science] About constitutional monarchy, also known as "limited monarchy"
Constitutional monarchy It is a form of political organization in capitalist society, which refers to the monarchy of capitalist countries where the rights of the monarchy are constrained and restricted by the constitution. In this form of government, the monarch is nominally the hereditary head of state, in a position of rule but not in rule, the center of national power is in parliament, and the current British royal family is the best example, in addition to the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain are constitutional monarchies.
"The Smiley Man" Gwenplain was used by the queen at the time, when his identity surfaced, the queen asked him to marry the baroness to consolidate his position, in the parliament, Gwenplain appeared as a knight, he used this opportunity to state the suffering of the people in the parliament, and as a result, he was ridiculed and insulted by the members of the House of Representatives and the nobles, who pointed at his "smile" and laughed.
The ugliness of the court is evident in this group of boiling nobles, and the life of Gwenplain has become so caused by the royal family fighting and court crimes in childhood, and it is ridiculous that it is also because this evil will return the adult Gwenplain to the royal family, and all the changes are caused by the conspiracy of the supreme ruler of the royal family, and the intrigues, deceit, and corruption and degeneration in it appear to be simple and precious such as the blind girl Ti and Yuss, so Gwenplain is clear after seeing the ugliness of their class, Decides to go back to live a miserable life with Ti and Yusuth, but unfortunately the blind girl Ti thinks that Gwynplain will not come back, and her memories become ill, and eventually dies.
The film does not use too many shots to express the cruel methods of the exploitation stage of the original work to the people at the bottom, but from the torture prop of "The Iron Lady", it can be imagined that the court evil is so sinister.
Gwenplain's father is trapped alive inside the doll's props until he dies.
In fact, as the online commentary said: the reason for the failure of China's Penghu Reform Law is that the bourgeoisie and the peasant class are too weak, in fact, the imperial power class thinks the same, consolidate its absolute authority, do not think that the British royal family is more enlightened than the emperor of our Qing Dynasty, compared to them more cruel.
<h1>04 End</h1>
I have not read the original work of "The Smiley Man", but the charm of the text, the careful reading of word by word, will give us a better understanding of the deep meaning of the whole story, especially the passage where Gwenpran fights for the interests of the suffering people in parliament and scolds the corruption of the court.
The silent film "The Smiley Man" focuses on the performance of the actors, which is the charm of the film, and I was deeply moved by the actor Conrad Waiter played by Gwinplan, and also marveled at the beauty and acting skills of the actress Mary Philbin, who played the blind woman.
It's a lot of fun to be able to watch an old movie that's almost a hundred years old, and it's more suitable for my taste than the current color movies with full of stunt effects and bright colors.
-END-
@MovieCatwoman hopes to bring you more different movie worlds, pay attention to me, and discuss and share the charm of film and television together